Selling in the time of Covid-19
- Peter Laughter & Tom Batchelder
What does “selling” look like during this coronavirus pandemic—especially if you’re not selling Clorox wipes, facemasks, and medical supplies?
We’ve observed two approaches to sales.
The first is to pretend like there isn’t a pandemic. I (Peter) had set up a networking call with someone in the advisory space; in the first minute of the call, he went right into showcasing his services and highlighting what was special about him. I was blown away by what he failed to say: No acknowledgment that our world had turned upside down, no check-in with me to see how I was doing, no effort to build a relationship.
The second approach is the opposite: To freeze, to be completely passive, and to stop reaching out to others, assuming, “I don’t want to bother, no one wants to hear from me.”
Actually, this time of social distancing might be the right moment to be visible and to reach out to others—the key is to do so in a way that makes a human connection and deepens relationships. It’s important to maintain the discipline of connecting with clients and prospects; now you just have to shift the tone and energy of the conversations.
Here are four concrete tips for selling right now.
1. Focus on existing clients and centers of influence
Invest more in deepening relationships and less in reaching out to new clients. Check in and stay in touch with your clients and Centers of Influence within your network. Be helpful and thoughtful, don’t make any hard asks or pushes, and, most importantly, be human—display your unique personality.
If you have extra bandwidth, sharing content with prospective clients or inviting them to a useful webinar is fine. But stay away from active prospecting unless what you’re offering is even more valuable to their business in this moment than it ever was before.
2. Share content—even content beyond your expertise
Sharing content should be a regular habit for anyone in sales, but now is the time to be even more vigilant around pushing out thoughtful content, whether it’s curating articles on social media, inviting clients to webinars, or even creating your own content. This might be the time to get comfortable with posting a video message, in lieu of face-to-face time.
This is also a good time to push yourself and share content beyond your subject matter expertise, as the personal and professional realms are blending together more than ever right now. People are hungry for content about working from home effectively, focusing on your mental health, collaborating with remote teams, and leading in a crisis. Most of the rules are now out the window, so this is an opportunity to get creative and have a bit of fun in a way that’s still thoughtful and helpful for your network.
3. Take the long view and get disciplined about your client focus
It’s normal to freak out right now and worry about how you’re going to make your numbers for this quarter. But you have to let that go—detach from the urgency what’s happening right now and take the long view. Even if you are taking a hit now, ask: What can you do now to build a pipeline of opportunity that really pays off by 2021?
The beauty of planning long-term is that you realize you have choices. You’re not caught up in reacting to immediate opportunities, so you can plan ahead around which opportunities to pursue—and which to decline. We’ve talked before about coming up with an ideal client profile: the types of clients we enjoy working with and where we do our best work. Now would be a great time to revisit that conversation and ask yourselves: How can we position ourselves optimally to get the ideal clients we want down the line?
The flip side is also true: Are there clients who are difficult to work with and aren’t very profitable? Maybe it’s time to get up the courage to let them go so you can free up resources to use on those who matter the most. It may sound crazy to fire a client during this time, but as my (Peter) friend, Rich Manders, once said, “Firing bad clients is like releasing poison darts at your competitors.”
4. Dust off that important-but-not-urgent to-do list
What is the list of projects that you’ve been putting off forever? It might be really mastering the CRM system you’re using, transferring that old stack of business cards into the CRM, organizing your LinkedIn connections into folders, or writing a blogpost for the first time. Maybe it’s time to actually read that book on communication, influence, or leadership that you’ve bought last year.
There is an old adage of a traveler who sees a farmer furiously trying to saw through a log. The traveler notices that the saw is dull, and he says, “Hey, buddy, you know, you'd probably get through that log faster if you just stopped and sharpened your saw.”
The farmer replies, “I’m too busy, there’s not enough time.”
This current downtime means that we all now, finally, have time to sharpen our saws. Let’s start with honestly assessing if our current tools and processes are effective, and then thinking about how we can sharpen then so that we’re ready to go when things get busy.
Be safe – Be careful – Take care of each other.
Tom Batchelder is the author of Selling180 and passionate about helping smart people sell themselves without selling their souls.
Peter Laughter is the founder and CEO of Spartoi Group and loves helping consultants hit above their weight class.