It's our time to shine

With the government announcing that the lockdown brakes are starting to be released, sales and marketing people should be preparing to play a vital role for businesses and ultimately the country’s economic future.

New Zealand’s return to some sort of normality will be staggered over a period of weeks and months, and the situation in which each individual company finds itself in will be different. There will likely be disruptions within your own company – roles and structures will need to be adjusted, jobs may sadly have to be shed, or may already have been. 

The familiar phrase that has led us through the crisis, ‘We are all in this together’ is something which continues to resonate and should be top of mind when addressing your customers. We are all in a similar position and empathy, space and understanding will go a long way.

As revenue drivers, the pressure is on to assist with the survival of our companies, and the impending recovery phase. Finding the balance is key. It’s important to remember, the last thing we should be doing is selling companies something they don’t need – but strong sales equals strong revenue and cashflow, so it is vital to generate business, and to do this we need to be better at what we do.

Read, watch, develop.

There is a wealth of free and timely information out there.  Use it to figure out what the new world might mean for your business and your customers. Some sites we are enjoying are www.saleshacker.com and www.hubspot.com is publishing weekly trends and business insights.

We’ve put together some thought starters of our own for you to consider in this recovery process. As always, if any of these seem insurmountable or of particular interest, I’m happy to discuss with you – we’re all in this together after all!

• Customers – key areas to cover are whether the needs of your customer base has changed, does your ideal customer profile remain the same or do you need to refine, and is your team very clear on what is expected of them in regard to customer interaction going forward.

• Technology – you’ve heard it before but it really is the key to success. In this tough market, having the right technologies has never been more important. Technology allows us to embrace the potential opportunities ahead with vigour and maximise our output from working remotely. Everyone needs the ability and agility to quickly adjust skills to embrace new technology.

• Lead by example - we need to be respectful of the companies we deal with and work to understand the difficulties they now face, but we shouldn’t be scared to communicate with them. I also strongly believe we have a role to play in spreading the right messages, to create positivity and to remove as much uncertainty as we can.

At the start of the year, our Mood of the Sales Leader survey told us that dealing with competition would be the number one challenge for 2020. We’re barely through the first quarter of the year and this massive curveball has smashed every other concern to the bottom of the pile.

Yes, we still need to find ways to stay ahead of the competition, but more importantly, we need to grow the pie so everyone can eat.