Negosentro | Trade, Sales and Covid-19. How to protect your business? | While most of us stay at home and do not go out without masks and gloves due to the coronavirus that has swept the world, business owners are wondering if there is a way how they can continue the activities of their businesses and not stop sales without harming their employees nor clients.
Of course, the suspension of sales is fraught with disastrous consequences – an empty funnel will very quickly put your business out of action. But then what to do?
There is only one solution: to adapt the sales process itself to the changed conditions.
This article will look at options for how you can sell and make money even during a pandemic.
1. Accept the fact that the process is going to be hard and long
It doesn’t matter what you do and what you offer to the market – the minds of people are now largely occupied only by news about the coronavirus. Now, during these hard times, your marketing and promotional messages are at the bottom of your prospect’s list of priorities. All your efforts can fail, and if you don’t do anything, you can expect just failure.
2. Your client is the protagonist, and you play the role of his assistant
It is clear that saving your business is now playing a major role for you, but paradoxically, your main task is to make your client the main character. He is your top priority. In the role of his assistant, your company should help him achieve his stated goals, and this, in turn, will help you achieve your goals.
3. Think About Sales Perspective
Can you be patient and look to the future with hope? Or are you blinded by short-term goals and already on the verge of despair?
The third recommendation is to focus on a long-term approach, work for the future. You may be tempted to compromise on some points – but if it goes against your company’s values, you don’t have to agree to it.
4. Adjust your annual sales targets, calculate resources.
Most companies in Australia will have no growth in this period. Of course, this does not apply to those who have sufficient cash reserves. If your business is among the industries most affected by the pandemic (tourism, hospitality, event management), it is possible that revenue will decline by at least 50%. For other companies, revenues are expected to decline at least 10-30%. This should be taken into account when adjusting the annual financial indicators.
Revise your income statement – this will likely require defining strategic cost reduction levels to reflect falling revenues.
Also, make sure to collect all debts. Debt recovery from Brisbane can help you with this. It is important that you know what money and resources you have at your disposal.
5. Strengthen affiliate marketing
If you don’t have partnerships (formal or informal), it’s time to start one. And if you haven’t contacted your partner for a long time, it’s time to renew contact with him. It’s important to understand that if your brand is recognisable, then affiliate marketing is another selling opportunity that you can find with cold outreach. And to some extent, the more referral partners you have, the more sales opportunities you create.
6. Develop an iterative content plan to support sales
It will involve a multi-layered process that you must continually “improve” over time. For example:
-start by posting tips on how to behave and what to do during a pandemic on your blog. The purpose of creating such material is to share with the audience what they are interested in right now;
-launch a virtual event that provides answers to frequently asked questions. You need to be sure that all the key questions and problems of your audience are known to you, and you can give a clear and balanced answer to them;
-create a landing page or a special section on the COVID-19 website. Place there all the content on this topic, published earlier, and add new ones; etc.
7. Take a break
If you don’t take a break from time to time, you run the risk of burnout. Of course, you need to work hard to keep your business going during a pandemic, but not 100 hours a week.
You will quickly drain your strength, and your work will bring less and less return. In addition, a tired person is prone to make mistakes, and they can completely negate all your achieved results.
Conclusion
You need to look for recommendations and best practices constantly and on all possible resources. You can come across a good idea anywhere. Read more, watch the speeches of business coaches, subscribe to thematic blogs. Perhaps right now you will have time to study everything that you previously put off for later.
Remember, a business can survive only if its management motivates their employees to act with empathy for their customers, work for the future, and focus on quality service.
Mike is an Australian business consulting specialist. He’s working with companies that outsource their IT maintenance. He often writes about technology, business and marketing and is a regular contributor on several websites.
