“When it’s raining, sell umbrellas” — Unknown author
Covid-19 has brought a storm upon the business world. Life as we knew it got turned upside down and consumer behavior, supply chains and office structures went with it.
As it becomes clear that the present situation is the new status-quo, the sympathetic approach of “waiting out the pandemic” grows less and less feasible. It’s the equivalent of waiting for the rain to pass, rather than just buying an umbrella.
We’re in it for the long haul and pretending that life will return to business as usual is becoming riskier by the minute. You read that right. Waiting it out is a risk at this point. There are no real predictions about when or if strategies that have worked in the past will start working again.
The good news is that even in the strangest of times, customers need products and services. Keeping your business running is just a matter of adapting to new needs.
Here’s how to start adapting your Sales, Marketing, Management & Leadership to the new normal.
Keep your sales pipeline on
It’s of the utmost importance that your company keeps your sales pipeline healthy. The sales pipeline (a defined snapshot that shows where prospective buyers are, from prospecting to the closing negotiations) needs to be maintained and adjusted carefully. As a company, you need to ensure your customer base is as solid as possible and ready to be impacted by the prolongation of this pandemic. Make a detailed assessment of every aspect of your sales process to identify points of failure, from your supply chain to your customer base.
Once identified, the best strategy to combat these potentially catastrophic scenarios is to mitigate their effects before they even occur. Now is the time to get solid agreements with your suppliers, be prepared to target different markets, and digitize your products and operations whenever possible. If you can sell and market your products through a digital process, you’ll be significantly harder to disrupt.
Pivot your marketing
Nearly every industry is being forced to adapt. As an extreme example, look at the strategy being employed by T-Shirt manufacturers. They switched from mass shirt production to becoming the largest mask manufacturing companies on the market. They still saw a demand for the service they provide, it just took some abstraction.
Likewise, most video-conferencing platforms were originally intended for professional users to use for business calls. When the need for video calling services increased during the pandemic, they opened up their marketing. It’s not just for business meetings anymore, now it’s also for keeping up with friends. Now they are used for happy hour, birthday parties, and even weddings!
Ask yourself:
- What does my company do well? In other words, what are our core competencies?
- What demographic does my company speak to? What are their needs?
- How can we adapt our core competencies to new needs?
Management & Leadership Shifts
As a leader, your company will organize around you. The industry leaders that fight through with optimism and resourcefulness will come out the other side of this, hopefully even better off than before. The attitudes you take will shape the mindset of your employees and customers. Stay flexible in your thinking.
- Productivity looks different now. With most employees working from home, there will be some necessary shifts. This does not mean productivity has to go down, but it may mean that it happens during different times of the day
- The best office managers may not be the best remote managers. Consider temporary reconfigurations of teams. Identify core talents that managers on a remote team should have in your industry and find key players who will lead remote teams well.
- Adapt with confidence, not fear. Be strategic! It’s natural to feel overwhelmed, but leaders must present cohesive plans in order to provide their team with the stability and confidence to shift gears. Do your research and know your numbers before making any bold moves.
Ready to find new opportunities to adapt? I’M NOT MAD AT YOU consulting will make your Sales, Marketing, Management & Leadership teams better.