Covid-Era Selling won’t be with us forever, but it is here for a while. What do I mean by this phrase and how should we prepare? This post explores some key considerations.
Last week I participated in the inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Professional Sales. It was a very positive session that explored why Sales should be a priority for government, especially as the economy seeks to recover post-pandemic and with Brexit looming on the horizon. I met some fantastic people – MPs, Sales experts and academics all committed to furthering our profession. Some of the discussion topics have stimulated ideas for future posts so watch this space!
The first part of our discussion focussed on Covid-era selling. To give the context: 79% of SMEs have identified urgent skills gaps in their workforce during Covid-19, according to research by Goldman Sachs. The shift from selling in person to online selling via a Zoom call or similar, has highlighted the need for sales organisations to sharpen their skills and embrace digitisation.
As we mourn the temporary restrictions on face to face selling it is worth considering how to manage this transition.
The Boundaries Have Changed…
In a formal face to face setting you have complete control over how much of yourself you reveal. Your appearance and words are your main “tells”. Chameleon salespeople can flex and change their styles like the wind. However, on a video call your customer or prospect has a window into your life like never before. They can see your taste in decor, meet the family pet, be interrupted by your children, say hello to your partner…you get the idea.
Chameleon salespeople should be a little intimidated by this. The authentic salesperson should not. For this new setting is in many ways more authentic and allows for the establishing of solid relationships built on transparency. I’ve found that conversations have been generally more relaxed and active listening has improved. Oddly, early trust or rather belief seems to have heightened too, maybe more of us are leaving cynicism at the virtual door.
…but the Foundations have not.
Important point this. Although we are now operating with new boundaries, the fundamentals of successful selling have not changed. Skills need to be the prime focus for businesses who want their sales teams to thrive. It is easy to get distracted by talk of change but much remains the same. Sales people still exist to deliver help and great outcomes for their customers. Arguably, our customers now need help more than ever as they adjust to the impacts of the pandemic on their organisations.
To do this we must be determined and focussed on developing the skills of our teams; helping them to question, listen, guide and coach. Showing them the importance of their craft and encouraging them to be curious and creative.
Professional “covid-era selling” is going to be crucial for the UK’s economic recovery from this pandemic and there is a real danger that too much talk of change will have the opposite effect. It would be easy to introduce gimmickry into the sales process or dilute value through quick win tactics. We don’t all need to start pushing products or services though a plethora of social platforms. We don’t need to spend hours and hours thinking about how we project the perfect image of ourselves and our surroundings through the lens of Skype.
Instead, we need to focus on skills.
What Skills Though?
I would say the same skills that have always been important to a sales person. For example, how to manage a sales process or how to ask questions to develop true understanding. Alternatively, how to deliver high quality key account management – vital if helping a customer re-assess their strategy. How to present, how to construct a useful proposal document, how to create consensus in a decision making unit, the list is endless. The point is that none of these required skills have changed since we’ve been working alongside Covid-19, only the medium of delivery.
It is that change in medium which represents the greatest risk. Time can be wasted on training people how to use Teams or re-working tried and tested sales practices under the belief that the fundamentals of sales have changed. They haven’t. Their importance has though. Especially Inside Sales skills as the C-Level decision makers that we need to access are harder to reach in their living rooms than their offices (as an aside, how many of you out there wish you had recorded more mobile numbers in your prospect database?).
Give people the space to be creative and they will be. They will adapt to new technologies, come up with exciting ways of interacting with customers or sharing knowledge. However, if we don’t give them the skills they won’t flourish and neither will business at large. To rise to the challenge of covid-era selling and helping the economy recover, businesses need to focus on giving their Sales and Marketing people access to the skills needed to professionally promote and sell.
Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash
