It wasn’t too long ago that we were meeting with clients for coffee at Starbucks or going to in-person networking events, but that has changed. Let’s look at what the future holds. It is time to move forward by rethinking and adapting our sales process and strategy for the future.
It is exciting to report that a number of our clients are already thinking along these lines based on recent conversations we’ve had. We hope what we share will encourage you and give you new insights as you rethink your marketing and sales.
Showing Gratitude
To begin we received an email from a client today that was full of gratitude. It is a client that relies on our CRM to keep his sales team connected. Our client wrote, “Nothing like the Pandemic has made me so grateful that you helped us develop our database. With everyone working from home I can’t even imagine how we’d get things done without the database.” We have always been a company that values gratitude. We believe that gratitude and appreciation should always be a part of the sales process and post-sales customer relationship. Now is the time, more than ever, to show our customers the appreciation they deserve. It only takes a minute or two to reach out to our customers through email or a phone call and tell them “thank you”. A simple thank you will go a long way and it may be what keeps them loyal to you.
Use Video Conferencing to Educate and Train
Zoom (or similar video conferencing platforms) is new to many people, but it is not new for sales professionals. Sales teams use it all the time. Now that a large percentage of the corporate workforce is working remotely, video conferencing has become even more valuable. The challenge is that now that everyone is relying on video conferencing, it is easy to get “zoomed-out”.
Sales professionals will need to rethink how they use zoom. It will become more of a challenge to set up individual calls with prospective leads and customers. Sales professionals need to consider looking at video conferencing in a group format. Here are three ways that sales professionals can take advantage of group video conferencing that benefits everyone:
- Training – Offer online courses (either free or paid). These courses can cover in-depth best practices for products or services.
- Demos – Offer weekly demos of your products or services that give prospective customers the choice to sign up with a time that is convenient for them.
- Roundtable – Set up an invitation-only roundtable of experts or customers to discuss industry topics and strategies.
Group video conferencing helps sales and marketing professionals manage their time better. It also brings unlikely people into a virtual setting to learn and ask questions together.
Be Open to New Sales and Marketing Strategies.
Successful sales and marketing professionals keep an open mind to new strategies. They learn to assess the situation, where it is going and to adapt. One of the areas we have had to adapt is networking. Since in-person networking has been pushed back for the foreseeable future, many networking events, like our Greater Washington Business Roundtable, have adopted a virtual networking model.
The format may be different, but the tone of the events is still the same. Like-minded people gather online to talk, learn, and share. We find that these networking events are where new strategies or a new perspective on older strategies are shared. Sales and marketing professionals need to continue networking online and learn from each other. We cannot adapt to the future alone.
As we embrace the future in this new reality, we would like to hear from you. How are you adapting? Feel free to drop us an email at jonr@cccsolutions.com and let us know.
