The pandemic exposed serious gaps in many businesses and their sales operations, and Sales Trend 1 from the 12 Sales Trends Report for 2021 looks at what can be done to be better prepared for future shocks. An adaptive sales system is key, and scenario planning once only in the realm of high-risk industries and projects will start becoming mainstream.
In 2020, the COVID pandemic rattled many businesses and their sales teams to their core, and it broke some. For many it exposed an incomplete, even flimsy, sales infrastructure and short term leadership mentality that meant they couldn’t withstand major shocks to the system, with many finding their sales revenues dropping significantly or drying up completely in their primary markets.
Poor CRM data quality leading to ineffective client communications, sales forecasts and pipelines limited to known markets and current supply arrangements, poorly skilled sales teams found wanting when it came to prospecting, leaders who couldn’t coach or lead, no plan B or C to pivot towards to find new markets and revenue streams, and a faux customer centric sentiment were just some of the fault lines exposed during COVID.
COVID has kicked everyone out of their comfort zone. Emerging from the challenges of 2020 and taking us into 2021 will be the adoption of scenario planning and sales systems to secure our futures and better protect us from future shocks. So, what do we need to stop, start, and keep doing in 2021 when it comes to rebuilding our sales effectiveness to withstand shocks?
Stop
The risk of being risk averse: The interesting paradox called “the risk of being risk averse” is the risk of not adapting, of avoiding innovation and new initiatives. The risk of trying to carry on as usual, or simply trying to sit things out, avoiding crucial measures to change the course of the organisation when the rest of the world clearly is experiencing a significant shift will be seen as one of the biggest challenges to an organisation’s viability in times of rapid change and turmoil.
Treating sales excellence as a training exercise: Most business leaders still focus on trying to fix sales issues with training when training is only the last 10%. Those businesses who have adopted a sales systems approach pre COVID to address their sales challenges have already found their sales operations can handle crises and recover much quicker than those who don’t. We all need education but training alone is not the only answer.
Start
Optimising Decision Making through Scenario Planning: Once only used in high risk projects, Scenario Planning is going mainstream. This trend is seeing organisations incorporating scenario planning into their strategy and business planning activities. With many having been caught short, they do not want to be in that position again, so at least for the foreseeable future while the impact of COVID is fresh on our minds scenario planning will be in the agenda for 2021. What does this mean for sales teams and leaders? It means doing more analysis work and planning on market segmentation, buyer-seller and supply chain analysis, COSA (cost of sales activity), sales force (re)structures and sales process redesigns, redefining of company purposes and value propositions, as well as looking at their entire customer centric intentions and values. There will definitely be a Plan B and Plan C in place.
Integrating all elements into a sales system: There are just so many moving parts to manage and coordinate in a sales operation what with social selling, pipeline, dash boards, technology, customer experience, NPS, planning, KPIs, purpose, L&D and so on, that arranging your Sales Operations, where everything can be accounted for, coordinated and managed as a system, will be on the agenda in 2021. No more flying blind or ‘she’ll be right mate’. It’s about building, leading, and managing robust sales systems that can withstand changes -including major shocks-, and adapt accordingly. If you operate with an adaptive sales system, no matter what the situation is or what’s changing, you have all the working parts in play and in view, and this allows you to shift and adapt more effectively and efficiently to the new scenario – see contingency Plans B & C.
Engaging the whole business in ‘How we sell around here’: The world has fundamentally changed, and with it, sales. Many people now operate in client facing roles and have a part to play in the attraction and retention of clients thus creating and affecting customer success. 2021 will see the walls, silos and barriers come down when it comes to how teams and individuals engage with and support the customer journey.
Continue
The adoption of new technology to stay in touch with teams and clients: Most businesses had a pretty steep technology adoption curve on 2020. Don’t let it go to waste. Keep them active and keep yourself and your team using them to connect with each other, clients, and prospect. Remote selling has a place in the sales cycle, and it provides important benefits to the lifestyle of many people and the environment.
Adjusting: 2020 made us all adjust forcefully. Now that the effort has been made, keep the momentum going and adjust to whatever the new normal requires to make it better for your team, your business and you community. In the rebuild, keep exploring what is the right balance for each of your team in terms of working from home and working from the office, getting all together for team meetings each fortnight or do it weekly over Zoom, etc.
Adopting a Sales System Approach to your sales operations will not keep you from being affected by changes, shifts and shock, but it will accelerate the speed of recovery.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
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12 Sales Trends for 2021 – The Rebuild
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