The recent coronavirus pandemic is on every business leader’s mind, with Marketing and Sales teams struggling to cope with the new normal where “meeting” clients virtually is a given and attending events online is the theme of the moment.
The COVID-19 scare has led to the cancellation of major tech events around the world while on the other hand several businesses and industries are being forced to bear the brunt of long lockdowns and stoppage of production and other crucial business activities.
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Tech companies are doing their bit, with many waiving fees and license restrictions, in order to enable more sales teams to attend virtual client meetings with ease in order to close deals.
While sales and marketing is coping with the current economic uncertainty, it is also a good time to question whether (or how) the face of technology sales will change in the post—pandemic world.
Sell Anywhere, Anytime, Using online Tools
Tech startups and tech companies with distributed teams are already in tune with the idea of running product demos and having sales conversations online. Zoom has been a go-to choice for several teams in the recent past, for those teams and salespeople now moving toward a virtual sales strategy it’s just a matter of getting used-to. With more plugins and product enhancements on offer, online meeting tools allow users to have video conversations that if done right can ensure a fruitful outcome.
Gone will be the days where sales will ask prospects for a good time to chat over coffee! Now is the time to chat over coffee online and dovetail sales messages accordingly.
The Importance of CRMs, CDPs – On the Rise
Sales and marketing have both realized the crucial importance in integrating customer data or sales conversation updates into one single platform, for the benefit of the rest of the team. How else will bigger teams stay on the same page and manage automated campaigns, without knowing what prospect is at what stage of the buying journey, without a centralized CRM or CDP?
For teams who didn’t give enough importance to this until now, this will change. There will be better and more optimized use of all-in-one integrated platforms to ensure better outcomes with the use of automation – something not every sales team might have done if they were still physically going to an office!
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Being a Friend, not a Seller with Goals on their mind
Several leading industry experts have often spoken about the importance of having sales people be more like friends and partners to their prospects. People don’t like being sold to after all. It is crucial to identify what need a product can serve for a client or prospect before engaging in a conversation – it is then important to dovetail every sales conversation to that end.
Long drawn sales strategies with elaborate PPTs will have to give way to a simple, easy-to-understand sales conversation that is well presented online via a video tool if possible to extract the most impact. Everything in sales will change to having a genuine and more personalized conversation as opposed to sending collaterals to those who seem to be interested in your product.
COVID-19 and the recent coronavirus pandemic will change how businesses run. It will transform how sales people function given the changing needs of customers and prospects.
Are you ready to sell in a post-pandemic world?