Managing A Sales Team In Covid-19 Lockdown

Farmers and hunters in your sales team represent a type of harmony in peacetime.  But Covid-19 has us all on a war footing and that balance needs to be looked at.  Isolation of sales staff at home allows farmers to hibernate.  There is nothing happening and they just sit around in their pyjamas, going through the motions, waiting it out, expecting the clouds to pass and the sun to emerge.  Of course, they expect to be paid their base salary, despite the tumultuous times. 

Hunters come into their own, because they understand what it means to be proactive, to shake the tree and make things happen.  We can’t just ignore them though, leaving them to their own devices and concentrate on the farmers.  Everyone needs to be managed in their own way.  This is the point – a lot more hands on management is needed, a lot more checking in and checking up, needs to be occupying the sales manager’s  daily activities.

Time management, scheduling regular meetings, frequent reporting sessions become the higher priority items.  If there is a big enough list of To Dos on everyone’s calendar for the day, then things will happen.  The start of the week needs to set the strategy for the week.  Who will be doing what, what will be the reporting frequency, how will Key Activity Indicators be tracked – all need to be clear and confirmed with everyone.

The daily cadence of contact between the sale’s manager and the team needs to be set.  Some of these will be group on-line huddles at the start and the end of the day.  Other contact will be one-on-one.  This means the amount of manager communication time with the team goes through the roof.  If you are a player-manager, that will complicate life quite a bit.  Your own selling time is substantially diminished, because you need to be driving the team sales process more than in peacetime.  That is one of the costs of doing business in lockdown and the adjustment needs to be factored in.

Clients are in lockdown too, so the playing field is level.  If your rivals are not as well organised as you are, then there is a golden opportunity to steal a march on them.  Even if buyers are not buying, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be engaged in sales conversations.  Often buyers are operating from a scarcity mind set that blinds them to opportunity. 

Their needs have changed and they may not be aware of that.  You may have multiple solutions, some of which can be activated right now for the client, but they didn’t know that about you.  We often get into very linear conversations with our clients. We can have trouble getting them to look at the full range of what we can do for them.  They have put us into a very narrow box of possibilities. This might be the chance for the sales manager to direct the team to rectify that mighty wrong.

When leading farmers, this is the time to make sure they are getting in touch with existing clients and finding out if there are things from your line-up of solutions, which may be of assistance in this particular set of Covid-19 circumstances.  They need daily client contact goals and these need to be checked up on at the end of each day.

For your hunters, this is the time to make sure they go hard to contact the non-clients.  The chances are high that your competitors are sitting around at home in their pyjamas doing very little.  The gate keepers may not be able to block your hunters making contact with decision makers, because the bosses are either at the office or at home and are undefended.  This needs a strategy session with the hunters, to determine what the approach will be for each case and then getting busy executing that strategy.  The sale’s manager needs to keep requiring daily reports on their progress – who has been contacted, how many could be spoken with, what was the reaction, etc.  All of this is valuable data has to be fed into further refinement of the strategy.

There is a lot more micro managing needed in business war time and sale’s managers need to make that adjustment, if they want to see any selling being done.  Nothing is easy or simple, but so what.  Time to get busy leading.

Free Live On Line Stress Management Sessions

On a separate note, we are running public Live On Line Stress Management classes, which will be free to all attendees on April 16th (Japanese) and 17th (English).  We are also offering the same thing as an in-house programme, delivered Live On Line for our existing clients and for prospective clients.  This allows us to help our clients and our community.

The registration process for these free stress management sessions is being offered on our website, so please go to this specific page: http://bit.ly/dale_stress_e

Selling From Your Home Office

Normally we lob up to meet the buyer in their office meeting room.  With the buyer and ourselves now working from home, we have to switch gears on how we interact.  Usually there are a number of people on the buying side for us to meet and there is no reason why we can’t meet them all on-line.  The technology today can handle multiple people in the same virtual meeting.  We should encourage everyone to attend because we want as many on the decision making side to hear our presentation as possible.

It gets a bit tricky though, because other key decision makers are not online in the meeting and we are at the mercy of our champions, to be able to sell our message in the on-line environment.  That means we cannot rely on just the virtual meeting to do the selling for us and we need additional documents to be distributed to everyone involved.  It also means that the entire process slows down because the buyer team may not be confortable or adept at working on-line.

Normally we don’t want the buyer looking at our materials while we are talking during the meeting.  We want them focused on us and what we are saying and this is the same situation.  Don’t use the technology to go into a slide show with your commentary, until you know what they want.  The temptation is to hammer the buyer with as much information as possible during the meeting.  It makes no sense when we are face to face, so the virtual environment doesn’t make a virtue of this approach either.  Ask good questions, wait for answers and don’t feel pressure in the on-line environment to have to keep doing all the talking.  Sometimes there is a delay in the audio and the silence can make us uncomfortable.  Ask your question and then relax and wait for them to answer.  They may be thinking what they want to say.  Don’t cut them off when they are talking or interrupt them on-line, as the technology doesn’t handle this well.  Actually we shouldn’t be doing it in face to face meetings either, but it creates real dissonance when we are all on-line.

In a face to face meeting we can easily go to the relevant materials quickly but on-line there is a bit of potential fumbling around, to get to the right place.  You can bring up the slide deck on-line. The slide you want may be in the middle of the document and so you have to spend some time finding it. Just take your time and don’t feel any pressure for speed.  Just excuse yourself and ask for a minute so you can bring it up.  Buyers understand this is an on-line environment and don’t expect the same fluency from you that you would normally demonstrate with your materials in a face to face meeting.

Because of the impersonal nature of the on-line exchange, make sure to check for understanding with the buyers.  The audio isn’t always reliable, so it makes sense to allow for that and from time to time summarise what you were saying and check that this was clear.  Also, don’t feel pressure to do all the work.  Remember the ratio of buyer to seller should be 80/20 speaking time, so let them do most of the talking. 

They may be flat and operating in a monotone when they are on-line, but we shouldn’t mirror that approach.  Use your energy to add credibility and belief to what you are saying, just as you would in a face to face meeting.  Just be careful about speaking too quickly, because the technology can be unforgiving in these circumstances.  You may need to pace yourself a little more than normal.  Bring your passion though, don’t let that slip.

Remember, for most on-line technology, the person who is speaking becomes full screen.  Get your laptop camera to be at eye height, so the buyers are not getting a great view of your nostrils.  Also make sure you have plenty of light on you in the room.  At home this may require some rearranging of the environment.  You may also have some issues with the background when in shot.  Most of the cameras have quite a wide shot, so a lot of stuff gets picked up on screen.  Go on line by yourself and check how you look and the room looks, before you do anything on-line with buyers.  Some technology allows you to create a virtual background so that the family chaos is not visible.

The secret is to practice before you go on-line.  You may be very comfortable in face to face meetings, but that skill doesn’t necessarily transfer to a virtual sales meeting.  Check your skills handling the technology, the lighting, the arrangements etc., and you can record yourself to see how you come across.  It is a bit like starting our sales careers over again, but this is a different medium and we need to master it.

Free LIVE On Line Stress Management Sessions

On a separate note, we are running public LIVE On Line Stress Management classes, which will be free to all attendees on April 16th (Japanese) and 17th (English).  We are also offering the same thing as an in-house programme, delivered LIVE On Line for our existing clients and for prospective clients.  This allows us to help our clients and our community.

The registration process for these free stress management sessions is being offered on our website, so please go to this specific page: http://bit.ly/dale_stress_e

Selling To Clients On-Line In These Covid-19 Times

Covid-19 might actually be good for sales.  It might short circuit some of the dumb things salespeople do, when meeting face to face with buyers.  With clients reluctant to hold business meetings because of their fears of the contagion from Covid-19, we need to connect to buyers through either phone calls or video calls.  With more people working from home, it might be easier to get hold of buyers than normal.  They are bound to be in less meetings and will have ample time on their hands because few buyers in Japan yet know how to work properly from home.  A lot of people will have not much to do everyday, but avoid colleagues and the other virus bearing individuals.

Cold calling can make a great comeback.  There are bound to be companies you wish to make customers, but have never been able to pull it off because you couldn’t connect with the decision-maker.  That buyer is now home alone and undefended.  Their stalwart junior office lady who normally answers the phone and swiftly and efficiently dispatches you to the badlands of contact oblivion, isn’t in the office, because she is working from home.  Or she may be valiantly defending the office from salespeople like you, but her boss is at home.  Either way, the drawbridge has been lowered, so time to start cold calling.

Don’t make the call empty handed.  Think of something that you can offer the buyer during these straitened times.  It might be on-line industry training or joint advertising or some free services.  When you make your cold call, it will be to the company general number.  You won’t have the decision maker’s direct number, in fact, you probably won’t even have their name.  The person taking the call needs a strong reason from you to pass your number to the buyer or to transfer you to them.

They may not be in a position to do anything at the moment when you do make contact, but you have achieved a contact with the decision maker.  Hopefully you now have their name, email address or maybe even their mobile number.  You might have been able to get them to set up the industry training or some means to engage their team further.

If they are an existing customer, then certainly product training would be a good way for their marooned staff stuck at home, to while away the time.  In this case you will have the decision maker’s name and you may get hold of them at the office because everything is a bit slower at the moment and they are more likely to be available.  They know that their workforce are not skilled yet at working from home and that they are not being particularly productive.  If you can front up with something that will make the buyer’s team more effective, you will get a good hearing.  They will appreciate your initiative and your great customer service.  By the way, do you want your competitor calling them making their own offer and you are just sitting around moaning about the business downturn and taking no action?

The client company is still likely a buyer of products rather than services at the moment.  So if you are in that category, it is a good time to call the buyer.  They have time to talk to you, to be asked about what they need both now and will need post-Covid-19.  Don’t bombard them with the on-line version of your catalogue.  It makes no sense in the face to face world, until you know what they want.  Reproducing the same dopey behaviour on-line is no help.  Ask questions first, uncover need and then and only then, introduce your solutions.  By focusing on the future it releases the buyer’s mind from the worries of the present and allows them the freedom to focus on the next steps.  If they are working from home you may find they are happy to speak with you, as they may have been feeling isolated.  There is always a silver lining to every cloud, so let’s find the silver lining.

Free Live On Line Stress Management Sessions

On a separate note, we are running public Live On Line Stress Management classes, which will be free to all attendees on March 19 (English) and 24th (Japanese) and April 16th (Japanese) and 17th (English).  We are also offering the same thing as an in-house programme, delivered Live On Line for our existing clients and for prospective clients.  This allows us to help our clients and our community.

The registration process for these free stress management sessions is being offered on our website, so please go to this specific page: http://bit.ly/dale_stress_e

Covid-19 Is Truncating Your Sales Activities, Therefore….

First the agreed purchases were postponed.  Then the events were cancelled.  Next the sales calls were canned.  Buyers are in lock down, many are at home working from there.  The economic fallout from the virus is weaving its way into the fabric of the economy, starting with the small and medium enterprises. It won’t stop there because this is a global phenomenon like the Lehman Shock.  All the little fish around the world stop spending, because they are trying to preserve cash and commerce grinds to a halt.  Big fish are not immune, because they depend on the little fish to open their wallets and buy their stuff.  The effect is not as immediate as for small companies, but as the damage to small companies adds up, the big guys begin to feel the heat and they stop spending too.  Ring a bell with you?  Is this going to be a re-run of 1929?

Supermarkets and convenience stores are doing well, because people want toilet paper, face masks, alcohol hand cleansers and daily food needs.  These suppliers are doing well too, because there is increased demand.  However, do you want to go to a department store, eat out at a restaurant, invest in your business, buy an insurance policy, shares, a new car, a holiday, jewellery, clothes, shoes, movie tickets, etc. right now?  Maybe not. 

For B2B commerce, the buyers are not interested in seeing you and are refusing face to face meetings.  They are not in a positive mood, because everyone can see we are either already in a recession or are about to enter one, so mentally, it is time for contraction not expansion.  How do you sell to people who are not able to buy, because of a mega event like Covid-19?

Not every single company is out of the game.  Some have strong cash reserves and will weather the storm.  Others are in industries, where there is demand and they are generating cash.  We all need the very basics - electricity, water, food, etc,. We cannot know each company’s individual financial circumstances looking in from the outside, so this cannot be a presumption game, about who we think are okay and who we think can’t buy.  We need to contact them all.

This gets tricky, because unless you have their mobile numbers, it will be hard to reach people who are working from home.  The good news is there will be no gate keepers blocking your call to the decision maker.  This is actually a golden opportunity to get hold of people you normally cannot speak with so easily.  In Japan, though the higher up the totem pole, the less information on their business cards. 

I was reminded of this the other day.  I had been coaching a very senior executive at a large domestic automaker for his speech at the car show in Geneva.  He made huge progress and was A Game ready when we finished.  Then I read in the newspapers that the Geneva show has been cancelled because of Covid-19.  I think I will drop him a note about it, but find no email address on his card.  Certainly no mobile number either. 

So there are limitations to this strategy, but it is still a good one where you can get their mobile numbers.  You still have their email addresses, so try and ask for their mobiles so you can talk to them.  Some will agree and others won’t, but you have plenty of spare time on your hands so why not try.  Also, try to come bearing gifts.  Is there something you can do for the client?  Maybe some product training for the client’s team, delivered remotely, while things are slow?  Maybe work up a strategic plan for them, for thinking about their business post-crisis. Maybe you provide some credit payment plans to alleviate the pain of having to give up cash?

Start brainstorming what is possible rather than only considering what isn’t possible.  Get a plan together and then work the plan.  That is how we do it in sales, so let’s all get to work.

We are a training company, so there is not much training being held because people are worried about the virus.  We are running public Live On Line Stress Management classes, which will be free to all attendees on March 19 (English) and 24th (Japanese) and April 16th (Japanese) and 17th (English).  We are also offering the same thing as an in-house programme, delivered Live On Line for our existing clients and for prospective clients.  This allows us to help our clients and our community.  It is also giving our trainers something positive to do, when we can’t deliver normal classes.  It gives our salespeople something positive to do, when they are having a hard time getting anyone to buy training at the moment.  This is what we are doing, how about you?  What are you capable of doing?

The registration process for these free stress management sessions is being offered on our website, so please go to this specific page: http://bit.ly/dale_stress_e

Unprofessional Professional Salespeople

Salespeople in their forties, who have been selling their whole careers are professional salespeople.  They are not Johnny Come Latelys who found themselves washed up on the shore of the sales profession or people who wandered through the wrong door and found themselves in a sales job.  They have been in the game for decades and have acquired vast experience.  Or so you would assume but Japan always has a surprise or two up its sleeve.

My wife contacted a very large multi national insurance company here to buy some cancer insurance.  The company rep was coming around on the weekend to get me to sign the dotted line for my component of the policy.  Being a sales guy myself, I am always nice to fellow salespeople and treat them well.  The policy was wrapped up and the documents duly signed and completed when they bridged into a cross sell.

We had now moved away from their insurance range of products to an annuity product.  It wasn’t announced as such but I quickly realised what it was because we used to sell these when I was at the Shinsei retail bank.  Actually they are a good idea for Japan because the Government pension scheme will collapse in the future when there are not enough young people paying in, to support the retirees taking the money out. 

Being a best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery you can imagine my interest in seeing how these seasoned Japanese insurance sales guys were going to conduct the sales process with me.  The brochure was immediately produced and we were walked through the details.  Dollar cost averaging got a lot of attention and there were graphs and tables to support the idea.  There was even a quiz with three amounts to choose from representing how much we thought the dollar cost averaging investment approach would produce based around a fluctuating graph of investment fund performance.

I chose the largest return amount and was immediately congratulated as being only the second person he had even met who got the answer correct.  Terrific!  However, while sitting there, I was beginning to wonder when these two characters would start quizzing me on my investment and financial goals, the structure of the family unit, current allocations etc.  Nope, not a question about any of that.  Just a long pitch on this product and the returns parameters we could expect at the end of ten years.  Actually, Japan has a such a low interest environment, the number proffered at the end of ten years was a peanut.

I took hold of the brochure at the end of the pitch and started reading through it.  They said their company was the fund manager, but what I found was it was a fund of fund structure. That is fine, nothing wrong with that, but what was the composition of these various funds they had selected.  Not a word about that.  I also found the bit about the fees, that the funds charged, including the tail.  I asked about these fees and it was instantly obvious neither of them had ever looked at that section of the brochure.  How could that be?

These are professionals in sales who don’t know their own product and don’t ask any questions.  I would not qualify them as “professional” despite the many years they have been in sales.  How can you expect to sell a sophisticated annuity product to a client, if you have no idea what their timelines are for retirement, what is the nature of their inheritance tax planning regime, their goals for investing? 

This is Japan.  Salespeople here are woefully under trained.  You may have a sales force here and assume that “professional” salespeople in their forties, who

have been in sales all their careers have a clue.  You would be wrong.