Exiting the Corona pandemic will be a challenging job for most businesses. Markets are economizing and cash constraints are putting pressure on investments and growth. Many business leaders are dealing with these developments at the moment.
Don’t get discouraged. There are solutions to survive.
We talk daily with business leaders and guess what? Some leaders find ways to stabilize and even grow during the pandemic. Is it just because they are in markets not affected by the events? Sometimes yes. But often it has to do with mindset and vision.
Example:
A sales team. The primary responsibility of any sales team is to generate revenue. Preferably with a good margin. A professional salesperson should also be able to handle market situations. In good times and in challenging times.
During the pandemic we have been talking and especially listening to managers who deal with business and markets. The general feedback we get is, that most salespeople are at home, not able to sell.
In the age where we have the best technologies available to be in contact with each other, this should not happen. The reality is that it happens much more that we might expect. Why does this happen? Here is the answer: because most salespeople don’t know how to connect with the market effectively and efficiently using modern technology and their mindset is not up to doing so.
The result is loss of revenue and often even customers because there are salespeople out there who can use technology, sell value and are able to work remotely in a successful way. And they take business away from those who cannot make change and sell by using modern means of communication!
What do managers need to do?
First have a plan to maintain revenue and growth
Be regularly in contact with your remote sales team
Have weekly sales meetings with meaningful content
Develop your people and influence their mindset to get out of their comfort zone
Hold people accountable for what they are supposed to do: generating revenue
Do not accept excuses. Ask for their solutions on how to approach the market non-traditionally
Introduce technological tools and help salespeople to learn how to use them. Help them also to overcome resistance to change and adapt to a fast-changing world.
As a manager, your people will be looking to you for support. Your behaviour affects their behaviour!
So, what do we learn from this? Strong leadership goes together with empathy, accountability, courage and embracing of change.
Want to know more? Let’s have a chat. Or call me at +31 (0) 6427 13033
Check here for some interesting statistics.
Check here for more data regarding sales people working from home.
