Within every crisis lies the demise of some and the making of others. Within every crisis also lies a myriad of opportunities.
Those first movers who gain an early advantage will realise the opportunities first in the new normal and make it harder for the competition to match.
So when it comes to the making or breaking of businesses, especially during a crisis, having a clear purpose, an adaptive sales strategy, effective sales processes and proactive, agile sales teams are key. This means that our businesses need to read and quickly adapt to the changes in market dynamics then pivot, if need be, to work and sell into viable market segments. It also means we may need to look at making changes to our sales processes and sales teams and how we sell and engage with customers and buyers across B2B and B2C. It may even mean we change our business from B2B to B2C, or vice versa, or adopt both.
The Right Navigation – Develop Adaptive Sales & Go-to-market Strategies
While it should be standard any time, smart businesses are assessing their viability in their current markets and whether they need to switch or stay, and how they need to operate moving forward. B2B companies cannot expect to achieve the historical returns from their current customer base and product mix which is why having an open mindset and agility to develop and adapt to new growth strategies is essential. Some sectors are slowing down, others are speeding up and new ones emerging, so businesses may need to identify and prioritise viable markets, customer segments and opportunities to pursue for business and sales growth.
An adaptive sales strategy is about quickly identifying specific growth pockets, looking at what customers are buying, and how they are buying now, what new markets are emerging and how old markets are reinventing themselves. First movers will take market share and likely have an early advantage that their competitors will find difficult to match. So hoping everything will ‘go back to normal’ isn’t on the cards anymore.
Which is why we must make time to do sales strategy and sales market segmentation analysis to set up the right sales navigation plan for our businesses as the quickest way to turn any business around is to get our client facing people proactively engaging with real customers in viable markets talking about real opportunities for all the right reasons. This is what drives sales growth and keeps the economy alive.
Once viable markets opportunities are identified, sales and marketing teams must adapt quickly eliminating unnecessary internal bureaucratic requirements and kit our sales teams up to sell better.
Having a Digital-Remote Buying-Selling Processes & Go-to-market Models
The new normal in go-to-market models is emphasising the importance of a combined digital and remote buying and selling processes, especially now in B2B and complex B2C sales.
As we have written about recently, we are seeing a shift away from in-person in-field sales as the main stay of B2B and complex B2C sales, to a hybrid, mostly remote selling approach with selected in-person meetings as required. This hybrid approach to selling is likely to become permanent. So field sales teams need to quickly adapt and learn how to sell remotely.
Along with an explosion of B2B e-commerce, we are also seeing Inside Sales Teams increasing in number and effort with more online support via live chat, video, website and phone. Effective live chats and e-commerce web resources are rated very valuable by customers which strengthens customer bonds through strong digital channels. And customers expect a digital experience to be of high quality. This means we need to revisit our customers’ buying journey and our sales journey and sales processes to make sure that our businesses are digitally equipped to do e-commerce well including self-serve sales, and that our sales teams are equipped to sell remotely moving forward making sure all their systems, tools and capabilities are appropriate. So we may need to redesign our sales processes i.e. direct channels (including Key Accounts and inside sales reps) and indirect channels (via distributors, 3rd parties & ecommerce players) and map sales teams’ new roles, territories they serve and KPIs.
Further considerations
Other key factors for consideration include tailored pricing strategies and agile product innovation which means adapting prices to suit customer needs; changes in Sales Forecasting – we really need to have our finger on the daily sales pulse seeing how patterns shift quickly and adapt i.e. dashboards that can show microgeography, customer segments shifting demands, etc. -; strong emphasis on online trade shows, digital offerings, structured customer relationship management system, e-campaigns, monitoring who switches to e-commerce buying channels, measuring micro conversions.
A last word: Many loyal dependable customers may be struggling during the crisis so we need to ask what can we offer to help them all the while looking at how we stay in business, too.
Welcome to the new normal where agility, adaption, collaboration, cooperation, innovation, discipline, partnerships, loyalty and purpose are key to our future sales success.
Please, contact us on 03 9533 0000 or contact@barrett.com.au if you’d like to discuss how we can help your business adapt to the new normal.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
Resources
You can quickly assess your sales operation with our free tool
We created a short course, ‘Rapid Sales Recovery’, to address some of the business and sales issues brought about by the pandemic. You can read about it here.
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