Selling During COVID-19: 3 New Rules for Sales Calls | Sales Strategies

Over the next four weeks, we will be sharing special content that’s specific to the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, we will be exploring strategies that you can implement as sellers and sales leaders in order to: 1. Position yourself well for recovery 2. Take advantage of what you can during this crisis. 

Empathy Messaging

It’s absolutely critical that you continue to make sales calls. You just need to reorient your messaging in a way that leads with empathy. Don’t open sales calls with any indication that you’re just trying to sell something to someone. You want to lead with a message that highlights that you care about them and that you’re here to serve in this marketplace. For example, ask them:

– How they’re doing
– What their business practices are
– How they’re managing to practice social distancing if their facilities are open
– How they’re selling their products and services today

Profitability Messaging

Messaging that underscores profitability is another critical type of messaging right now as you talk to your clients and prospects. Tell them that you’re here in service, you’re operating, you have capacity, and you’ll help them be profitable through this time.

Everybody—whether they’re just maintaining a base line of business or succeeding and growing through this crisis—are looking for ways to be more profitable. And if your product or solution has measurable and tangible benefits around profitability, this will be the message you will want to lead with. Show them how in today’s environment you can make them more profitable. Prove it to them by using calculators or case studies. 

Finding Success During This Crisis

Many of our clients are finding huge success in capturing additional business from their customers during this time. Even if those orders are down, we’re selling multiple products and services to the same customer. In doing so, we’re saving more money for those customers by consolidating vendors.

Thus, those aforementioned strategies will help you communicate more effectively with customers during this COVID-19 crisis. It will either result in new business for you today or position you well to get that business in the future.