If eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of all of your items, just carry those twenty percent. Henry Kissinger
Every business owner, sales guy, retailers, small business owners, large enterprises in each part of the world is busy either drawing up strategies or picking up the remains from this carnage.
In India, its a long battle ahead, looking at the COVID numbers but there are those green sprouts of revival in the economy, at least that’s what our media tells us.
Unfortunately, I have seen it all in my own company — business shutdown, job losses, salary cuts, and corona infections.
I run an outsourcing firm that employs women from rural India and it pains my heart to see that some of them might have to lose their livelihoods today.
There is a difference between being “emotional” and “using emotions” to fuel up a charge against the enemy.
Sales, is the cure, said Mark Cuban
..and I can’t agree any further with him.
Boost your sales numbers, boost your business, your local economy, create jobs, and eventually, bring in some amount of happiness.
My top sales revival strategies for post-COVID
#1. Over-deliver to your existing customers
When times are good, we take those small little liberties with our good paying customers, cut some corners in delivery but the stakes are so high that neither of the party wants to get rid of the relationship.
During duress, your strong bonds will help you not only make the customer sticky but open up doors for more business.
Some of our long term customers are wanting price cuts on existing contracts, which is fairly understandable, but as a good negotiator, I always ask for more business or more referrals in return for price cuts.
It’s working.
We have been introduced to new connections and additional projects that were stalled pre-March.
Always ask!
#2. Everyone is in sales from now on
I stopped short of writing “increase your marketing budgets”. Well, when team members around me are getting laid off, an increase in marketing budget sounds terrifying.
I have asked my sales and operations team to pitch in for marketing — talk to local suppliers, open up local yellow pages, and just start making 15 calls each day.
The message is until we revive, everyone is a sales guy.
The best clients will be the ones that need quick leads like collections agencies, insurance and loan aggregators, agri-tech , logistics companies that badly need cost-effective outsourcing companies like us.
It’s like a war room, watching operations guys making sales calls and closing them!
If you are in a services business, find out solutions that will directly impact your customer’s top line. You will be back in business very quickly.
It’s like
Very Vaynerchuk writing why he is fearless in business.
#3 Reach out to multiple decision-makers
Most of our deals are B2B hence we have to deal with either a CTO, CFO or a vendor manager.
It makes sense to adopt a carpet-bombing approach by reaching out to multiple decision-makers above and below the power line with the same message.
It creates a sense of urgency because of our sales copies that talk of pain mixed with emotion.
E.g. we need your business to create more jobs for women. This is an opportunity for you to do your bit — we are surely the best cost-effective call center around.
The CFO is bound to put pressure on the vendor manager if he/she hasn’t responded to the email yet.
And if the CEO has read it, he/she is going to check with CFO and the vendor manager. It’s sort of viral loop within your target organization.
I had written some more lead generation strategies during this lockdown at bpokarma.com
#4. Hustle as if it’s your last day at work
Sometimes you have to put all your business school knowledge, strategies, and frameworks aside and just hustle as if your life depended on it.
Like Jeffrey Gitomer says when everything fails, try kicking your own a#$
Increase the amplitude of your efforts, 3X the no.of cold calls, emails, reach outs, referrals.
Yet, there is no guarantee that it will all work but it is any day better than your “usual performance”.
Great achievements have been recorded when we humans are tested with adversity.
Extraordinary times need extraordinary efforts.
#5. Juice out your old and dead leads
This is the time to go back to the forgotten leads and dead contacts.
There is always a “yes” hidden behind a “no”.
They wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work with you then, but unless you ask them today, the answer will always be a no.
As salespeople, we are to be always asking.
So find those old leads, reach out to them and simply pop the question — can we work together now? Is there a project that we can help you with?
We don’t use sophisticated CRM or automation to stay in touch with our customers but old school works.
In closing, go for ..
- existing customers and referrals
- bring everyone to sales
- increase your reach
- increase your hustle
- reach out to old and dead leads
More such stories at karmaworks.co