With Corona determining our daily life, many business leaders are struggling with day to day challenges. One of the most critical business activities, is keeping revenue flow going. Data from the last 61.000 tested sales people by Objective Management Group found that only 41% of sales people were capable of working remotely! This means that most sales people will probably have issues during this Corona challenge, to grow the revenue which they are responsible for. Having to work from home and trying to talk with customers and prospects will be challenging and will result in reduced performance. And this, at a time when the company needs sales most!
So, what to do to stabilize sales and survive Covid-19?
As a sales leader:
First: work on change of mindset! Be aware that society is changing rapidly and we need to adapt. A different way of conducting business is here to stay.
Keep close contact with your sales force on a daily basis. Our experience shows that this regular contact impacts motivation, productivity and resourceful thinking significantly.
Have regular online sales meetings which should not last longer than 90 minutes. Apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams or Cisco Webex offer very functional and effective solutions.
Your online sales meetings should contain 3 important ingredients: information sharing, pipeline review and training. Include also a virtual coffee corner. People enjoy this.
Hold people accountable for the responsibilities they have. Sales teams need to realise that in order to survive they need to adapt to a different way of work!
Internal sales or customer service departments are becoming more and more an important source of pro-active revenue generation. When these valuable co-worker shift from reactive to pro-active actions they boost revenue growth.
Use science to jumpstart your sales team and surf on the best tool to help you in this is available! That’s the OMG sales effectiveness and Improvement Analysis tool. Just click here to find out more.
As a sales person
Be aware that your way of work today will change dramatically in the coming months/years. Most probably these changes will be for the better.
Make your mindset more adaptable to change. Remember the words of Charles Darwin: change is a fact!
Setup a strategic plan to deal with a dynamic market. Put on your strategic spectacles and anticipate, act and check.
Check your CRM. Is everything in there what you need to cater to your customers in the most professional way?
Set realistic targets for your pipeline and its stages. This includes prospecting, closing, customer retention.
Offer help, development and moral support. Your customer is also going through something they have not experienced before!
Build and intensify your relationship with customers and prospects.
Avoid excuse making. This usually lead to reduced performance. Look at what you need to do to develop yourself and anticipate change.
Want to know more? Please contact me @+31642713033 or e-mail me.