Some interesting facts about what CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) are doing in terms of running a business.
Just be aware that research is dated 30th March and a lot has happened in the world since then. We had only been in one week of self-isolation, here in the UK we are now on our third week.
74% of CFOs are looking at moving all their employees to remote permanently. I'm writing this blog on 8th April, could that now be 100%?
The Current State of Sales and Marketing
Unfortunately, events and conferences are being postponed, cancelled and moved to “digital”. The months of March, April, May and June and September, October and November are pivotal times for sales and marketing to create pipeline. This March, April, May and June 2020, will mean there is little or no demand generation / lead generation for companies to start their year. It sounds like the whole of this year could be a wipe out for conferences. Even if it isn't as business leaders we need to plan for the worse.
Cold calling? Nobody is going to take cold calls when they are working from homes and the offices are empty. People are concerned for their jobs, the last thing they want is a cold call.
Email? I’ve just received an email from a company I have no idea who they are telling me they are thinking of me.
Advertising? I’m not sure images of an amazing world is something I will connect with right now. This article describes the collapse of advertising, reading my Sunday newspaper, you can see that the the paper is thinner as the adverts fall off and the advert opportunity falls off.
And let’s be honest we didn’t care about your products and services before Covid19, we certainly don’t care now.
This leaves a gap in pipeline generation, so how do we fill that gap?
Humans are clever people, we will find ways around this and find a "new normal".
How do you sell and market in a Covid19 World?
The feedback we are getting from senior leaders is social selling.
People are not looking for a master class that nobody will ever use when they come off the webinar, they want a methodology that will get into the sales team DNA.
As a CEO of a company said to me yesterday, "we need mindset change and habit change". His view is that selling through social is the "new normal". He also told me that in the future, our business will change. There will be more working from home, less conferences, less travel. People know they don't need to fly and have a face-to-face meeting.
This CEO wants to invest in his people now, so that his company can survive the crisis, they have the time now to make the changes. He wants to invest, so they come out of this crisis stronger, with the skills your team and people need to know. Rather than trying to retrofit the skills once the floodgates open and we move into the "new normal".
Social selling will enable you to sell in the current climate at lower cost, building relationships online.
We are in strange times, it feels that things are going to get worse, before they get better. I wish all of you good health, stay safe, as we work through this together.
If you want to chat sometime about the "new normal" then contact me here
In addition, CFOS are managing cash closely and reluctant to take on more debt even as they tap lines of credit. Sales leaders are also testing lower-cost sales models, according to Gartner. Metrics such as seller activities, productivity, and customer engagement are being tracked to inform future budget cuts. To date, only 8% of sales leaders are considering shifting traditional outside and field sales to virtual positions permanently.
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