With so much uncertainty and disruption to life and business as we know it, the management theory is yet to be written on how to pivot in times of a double whammy! – health crisis and economic downturn. Adapting your sales approach requires mirroring your
customers:
Listen
Listen to what customers are saying to you in conversation and on social media about how they are feeling, what they need and desire. Analyse content on tweeter, Instagram, Facebook and other popular social media platforms to ‘read’ the market sentiment. Share their feedback and concerns with the whole organisation as this will help better understand how the business can adapt its product or service and the overall sales approach to help them.
Walk
Walk in your customers’ footsteps – because this is more than empathy, it is showing that we are in this together and they should not feel alone or helpless. Take time to open a conversation you may be having with customers. Show genuine care and interest in how
they are going.
Communicate
Communicate, because this is critical to morale. Don’t only do static meetings. Implement mobile meetings and walking 1:1 meetings; meetings on the treadmill, weeding the garden meetings, cooking dinner meetings; grocery shopping meetings. This creates a shared experience of having to multi-task and work flexibly.
Reflect
Reflect, reward and celebrate – whether you hit or missed a target by reflecting on performance it can help revisit the need to relax goals and do the best we can in the current situation. Find something to celebrate and to laugh. This is not the time to focus on work ethic because these are unprecedented times and some need to help family and friends and these tasks are just as important.
Focus
Focus on value – because in times of crisis we find ourselves reassessing priorities and rethinking value. This is also a time to reflect on the value we bring to the customers.
“Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” – Damon Richars
