There is a lot of good that can come from bad, just like every situation gives you a set of both – pros and cons. If you look at history, even some of the world’s worst moments have helped open up a pathway to better transformation and change. Past endemics like the Spanish Flu revolutionized healthcare, for instance, while events like the two World Wars paved the way for neutral world organizations that are tasked with trying to maintain world peace.
So what are some of the good things that the Covid-19 pandemic will help Sales with?
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Tightened Budgets vs Optimized Operational Costs
In several recent episodes of the SalesStar podcast, where we spoke to leading technology sales professionals about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on sales as a function – the underlying thought on how business will change post-Covid-19 and how sales and marketing teams may not need to meet with clients and prospects anymore was evident. While many spoke about saying goodbye to the concept of the handshake, another important observation was the way several leaders echoed their thoughts on how field sales teams and executive-level leaders who usually jet set for business conferences and events will now end up saving a large chunk of operational costs and expenses because of everything moving to a more virtual model.
Imagine the benefits this can open up for businesses as a whole. Reduced travel costs and optimized expenses and spend management will help companies focus on better investments and opportunities. Diverting funds towards product enhancements, better research, upskilling of the taskforce are some of the ways that the business can also double their ROI within a shorter timeframe.
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Revamped Prospect Needs
Several technology sales and marketing teams are using this time to foster better business relationships even if an actual sales will happen much later (given that several companies have frozen sales and marketing budgets because of the Covid-19 pandemic and it’s economic impact).
While certain industries or a few lucky teams have managed to still expand, continue with their hiring needs AND snag a sale or two despite the downturn, what is important for the majority of tech sales teams to keep in mind is that prospect needs in B2B and tech have now changed and are still changing as the effects of the pandemic grow. Where there wasn’t a huge need for collaborative tools, communication platforms and in the case of sales – remote call support technologies in the recent past, now is the time where there is an increased surge in demand for these technologies, for instance.
Understanding these revamped prospect needs that will continue for the next couple of months will also change how tech sales teams identify their ICP, model their sales outreach and strategy and approach prospects and clients. Because the virus has changed how people live and work, this has in a way led to the creation of new markets and opportunities that are still to be understood – creating a blank canvas for sales teams to draw on.
Read More: Coronavirus Pandemic And An Increase In Cloud Services
Tech product developers and SaaS platform leaders on the other hand now have to cope with this change by ensuring their offerings cater to these new demands, while sales teams change what they sell and how they sell. New opportunities and new markets are always a benefit during an economic crisis.
For instance, knowing that there are more remote teams and remote projects being worked on also signifies heightened internet usage and collaboration online which will lead to more adoption and demand for cloud computing, digital processing and similar other technologies and support systems.
While Covid-19 keeps everyone at home, it is a matter of time before new innovations are brought on to help the world deal with the effects and the changes across industries, leading to new opportunities for sales and marketing teams in tech as well. Even if a sales rep tried to sell something to a prospect about 6 months ago, given that the prospect’s core needs have changed over these last few weeks would mean that sales can now identify this as a new opportunity and start from scratch.
Read More: SalesTechStar Interview With Tony Velleca, CEO At CyberProof Inc.
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Changing Rules (and the Changing Role!) for Sales
There have been several studies and statistics over the years about how a certain percentage of prospects prefer an email over a cold call, while certain others prefer a direct cold call over an email. Given the various modes via which technology sales and marketing teams can now approach their target audience, a set of unspoken rules were established over a period of time among which the most notable were – be where your prospect is, personalize your content and messaging, understand your buyer’s stage in the journey and dovetail your sales cadence accordingly. All of these unspoken standards and rules laid down the foundation for the industry in a way.
With the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic growing on industries even as they now struggle to reopen and resume operations to pre-Covid-19 levels, the rules in marketing and sales are changing too. Sales can now serve prospects in a new way.
Sales is now all about understanding what a prospect could be going through during these challenging times and then finding a way to deliver a solution that can help them on the personal front and solve their problem when it comes to business and work. Sales and marketing will now be more about coordinating virtual chat sessions to discuss new product innovations and new needs for them to take back to the product team, possibly. The role of B2B and tech sales is now turning into the role of an advisor, as customers and prospects too change their outlook in time of uncertainty and open up to what others have to say, because everyone needs a new idea and way of functioning.
While the basics may stay the same, the role and rules for sales is undergoing a slow shift, in a good way. While a cold call may not be the right thing to do if one were to assume that prospects are largely (still) at-home, new ways of initiating conversations will be the norm because the priority will be more on establishing good business relationships (that have a higher chance of lasting years) as opposed to plain selling.