Covid -19 Sales University

Living in Brisbane, I would commute to and from work by car listening to audio tapes on business subjects like sales, customer service, negotiating, speaking skills, etc.  Moving back to Japan in 1992, I continued commuting to work and continued to turn my vehicle into a university on wheels.  It is amazing how much you can learn from listening to smart people, with rich experience and fresh ideas.  In those ancient days, we didn’t have YouTube, podcasts or the internet like today.  I used to buy big bulky plastic box collections of audio tapes and play them in the car while commuting or on a Walkman while I was running in the mornings. 

Fast forward to lockdown city and here are all these salespeople sitting around with a swarm of irritants, difficulties, obstacles, disappointments and frustrations enveloping them.  Clients are tucked up at home and not buying.  Companies are having their share prices gutted, whole industries are being vanquished, unemployment levels surge as we go into mental lockdown about purchasing anything.  Where is my commission when I can’t sell anything?  How do I get through the long dog days of nothing to do?

It is amazing.  We have over 950 videos available for free on our YouTube channel, over 800 podcasts on iTunes and over 1700 blogs on LinkedIn and it is all free.  I am not alone.  All the major leaders in the field of sales have tons of free content, because we are all converts to content marketing, where we offer our wares for free believing that you will eventually recognise our worth and be prepared to buy something from us. There are endless books available on all aspects of sales, there are self paced adult learning courses, there are MP3 audio programmes – the list just goes on and on.

In normal times, salespeople are too busy or too lazy to find the time to further educate themselves.  Maybe they got into sales by accident and have never had the concept of investing in themselves to improve their professional abilities, because they don’t see it as a profession.  This is what they do until they find a “real” job.  Full mercy on the buyers who are being served by this miserable excuse for salespeople.  Who wants to buy from someone who is not committed to their profession?  Who wants to buy an undereducated, low motivation, going nowhere loser?

This is the time to start studying.  We need to invest in ourselves to read, listen, plan, create.  We have the time. In our lifetimes, this sales sabbatical will probably only come once. We should make the most of this time to really go back to the basics, to recapture what has been lost, to reimagine how we can better serve our clients.  You can try and work it out by yourself.  Or you can access the knowledge of someone who has already done it and done it much better than you would have ever managed.

Usually, we all scrape by with a “just in time” equivalent amount of knowledge of the industries we sell into.  We don’t really devote enough time to grasping the finer details and deeper complexities of the market.  We pick up intelligence on the market from our clients. We sit there with that face that wants to portray we do know what they are going through and the exigencies they are confronting, as they duke it out with their competitors.  We try to second guess where the market is going even when we have no real clue where the market is today.

We can use this time to really educate ourselves on the market.  Yes, it is stuck in neutral at the moment, because everything has founded on the Covid-19 shoal. However, that situation won’t last forever.  What will be the issues facing our clients when they re-emerge from their respective foxholes, once the bombardment has ceased?  Are we just going to return to the sales profession, as we were before this virus turned the world upside down or are we going to return more learned and more wise than before?

What about our product knowledge?  It would be a rare salesperson who knows their full product line-up in depth and with mastery.  This Is another ‘just in time” job, where we maintain the minimum knowledge we can get away with.  What if we decided to go for the maximum knowledge possible and used this time to get it done?  Now is the time to really learn the full breadth of our line up, so that we can draw on all of the resources we have available to serve our clients.

Covid-19 has driven us home, but we don’t have to allow it to drive us crazy.  We can seize back the initiative and own what we do and how we do it.  Studying our craft, mastering our profession makes a lot of sense.  The riff raff will just idle their time away and go back to polluting the sales world making it harder for the rest of us to gain client trust.  We cannot control what the pond scum do, but we can take command of what we do.  So let’s go do it!

Managing Client Expectations In Lockdown

Working from home is new and difficult for many of us.  Sales, in particular, as a profession is such a human to human, knee to knee, face to face business.  It is always hard work selling to existing clients, but the difficulty becomes much more magnified when dealing with new clients.  This lockdown will not last forever, but this staying at home, remaining isolated, new normal could potentially last much longer.  The wheels of commerce must continue or the entire economy will grind to a halt.  “In business nothing happens until there is a sale”, is an old truth.  And we are the ones to go get that sale happening and the economy moving.

Typically, salespeople often overcommit their back office capacity to deliver.  Salespeople love getting a deal. Discounts are offered up without compunction or need, corners are shaved, outlandish promises are made in order to get the deal done.  In more normal times, the organisational machine can be called upon to deliver what should have never been promised in the first place.  Today though, that may no longer be the case.  Supply chains are fragile.

With many working at people at home or only a skeleton staff at the office, the coordination and communication issues become fraught.  What once would have been easy to fix and to get resources behind, now becomes much harder and takes much longer.  Salespeople sometimes assume an arrogant air, looking down their noses at cost center types.  This hubris is fake, because the back office team actually perform miracles and make good on the false claims peddled by the salespeople.  As we have found in many industries today, although the logistics people are viewed as down at the bottom of the food chain, they are absolutely vital to making the engine run smoothly.

As business dries up, salespeople can be tempted to take any deal, make any commitment, to get some revenue and related commissions coming in.  This is a slippery slope and one best avoided.  Reputations can be lost over the long term, made from decisions based on a short term pain relief perspective.  This crisis won’t last forever. Clients will re-emerge from their home office purgatory and head back to the office. Life will return to some semblance of normality.  How will your reputation fare the bright glare of retrospection of what has happened this year?  If you dudded your client, they won’t be saying, “well, that’s okay, it was lockdown after all”.  They will hold salespeople to the same standards of service and reliability that they have always demanded.

Understanding what new clients need is no simple process, even in the best of times.  We can be sitting with them face to face, getting a full read of their body language their voice tone, their eye line, etc. and still have trouble getting a correct understanding of what they expect.  When they are on screen, the audio isn’t that sharp, and the video quality, though much better than in years past, is still not perfect.  This is particularly the case if multiple people are on the call and the screen gallery shot is the client presented in a tiny square on screen, while you are doing the talking.  It is almost impossible to get an accurate read on how they are responding to your ideas or your suggestions.

You think you have seized upon what they want.  Away you go beavering over the proposal as fast as possible to get things moving again.  Yet when they react to the detail, they are not happy with it.  They have discussed it internally, consulting people you have never met or heard of, cloistered away in the background, as they seek the consensus to move forward. It hasn’t met their expectations or standards. How could that be?  You were sure you were clear on their context, the details of the need and so crafted this magnum opus in response. 

If they didn’t like it, then find out why.  Expect to be shocked that there is a such a gap in understanding.  Keep calm, control your massive salesperson ego.  Don’t mistake the rejection of your carefully crafted proposal as being a rejection of you personally.  They may have said rude things in their response, but they are rejecting the offer, not you.  As the mafia characters say in the Hollywood movies, just before they put a bullet in your head or mash you with a baseball bat, “this is business, it isn’t personal”.  New clients can sometimes be of the same ilk, putting harsh verbal or written responses to your temple and pulling the trigger. 

Also remember “no” is never “no” in sales.  It is just “no” to this offer, at this point in time, in this budget context, with this construction, with this content.  We have to find a way to get to the differences and get to a “yes”.

Selling and getting new business under the Covid-19 viral cloud is no fun.  Everything is harder, sales are fewer, mutual understanding is in short supply.  Make a commitment to never trade your reputation for one deal.  Don’t rage when you feel your professionalism has been unfairly slighted by the new client.  This crisis will pass.  We will come out of our chrysalises, beautiful butterflies, remerging to a post-Covid-19 world.  Our reputations will remain intact and we will be able to brush off the slings and arrows of outraged clients.

Presenting Your Solution On Line In Japan

When we sit down with a client for a face to face meeting there are a number of phases to the time together.  The initial stage is spent catching up over some small talk on what has been happening for them personally.  The conversation is then directed back to business and their current needs. Having heard that, possible solutions are introduced.  The client says they will think about it and get back to you.  Later based on a followup meeting or an email or phone exchange, the decision to move forward or not is relayed to the salesperson.  What about when they are sitting at home and so are we?

With the video conferencing technology available today, we can have a face to screen meeting together and pretty much replicate the usual in-office exchanges.  Japanese apartments and homes are usually very humble for most salespeople and for their clients too, so there can be some reluctance to reveal too many details of your abode to the client. 

The kids are also at home with no school, so trying to have a meeting can be fraught with domestic issues as well.  We have all probably seen Robert Kelly, an expert on Korean politics being interviewed live for the BBC in 2017.  Suddenly his two very young children decide to crash the interview and then the video went viral globally.  How about if you are in the middle of your sales conversation with the client and you have the same thing happen to you?

There are green screen backgrounds available which provide any background you wish rather than having to show the inside of your home.  Or there may be a rather blank background wall where you can set up the laptop.  Make sure wherever you set up, that you can raise the camera level on the laptop to your own eye level. Make sure that we are not looking up at you, which can be very unnerving or at the least distracting.  Use a headset to get the best possible clarity, because the audio the technology allows is often the weakest link in the process.  The clients also understand that only you are privy to what they are saying, which makes the conversation more secure.

If the kids come bursting into the video background like John Wayne leading a 5th Cavalry charge over a sand hill, just apologise and excuse yourself for a minute while you relocate them and then return to the video meeting. Clients will understand and I am sure Robert Kelly wishes he had done that at the time too. 

The video technology allows you to share your screen and show slides and video to the client.  Be careful of this attribute.  The rule for in the room meeting and for the virtual meeting does not change.  Never show the client anything until you have a very clear idea what they want.  In person, flogging the client with your product catalogue or pelting them with a flyer storm is the mark of the rank amateur.  Moving proceeding to the virtual world doesn’t change anything.  Keep the visuals in abeyance until the timing calls for their appearance.

With flyers and catalogues, it is easy to move to the page or select the flyer when in person with the client.  On screen, the slide deck can’t be so easily manipulated, so the process of locating the right information is a bit clumsy.  Don’t hold up physical documents to the camera please – that doesn’t work well and makes you look clownish.  You can always send the client the information by post and then have another meeting where you can reference page numbers or just send the relevant materials related to the conversation you had previously. 

When preparing the slide materials try to make sure you animate the slide deck so that the text lines, photos or videos only appear when you click on the mouse.  Use video sparingly because it is rarely specific enough for your purposes.  We are trying to control how much visual information the client receives at any one point in time. 

A flyer or a brochure has a lot of information and we would use our pen in person and direct the buyers gaze only to those parts of the page, we want to highlight.  We can’t do that in the virtual world but we can still look for ways to control the information flow.  WebEx allows you to move your pointer to any part of the slide, allowing you to highlight a particular piece of information and that is a handy functionality when selling.

Don’t forget that whether in person or virtually we can’t get trapped at detailing the spec.  We have to educate the buyer on the general benefits of your solution and very, very importantly, talk about how these benefits can be applied in their business.  When it comes to the evidence component, demonstrating where this has worked for another firm, this is where a video or audio testimonial would be genius if you can organise one.

The basics of sales don’t change, even if these new mediums for your delivery seem strange and foreign to you.  The tech is here for us to utilise, so we need to study about it, as well as about our product line-up.  Don’t practice on the client.  Do sales presentation rehearsals on line, record them and then ascertain where improvements can be made.  This will also put you in command of the tech rather than the other way around.  You will come across as a professional in every dimension.

What Can You Do In A Crisis When You Can’t Sell?

Getting hold of clients has become very strained.  Normally, we have their work number and their email, but right now they are sitting at home with just their laptop and their mobile phone.  Getting hold of them can be tricky.  I was unlucky the other day.  I wanted to speak with the Vice President and had sent an email along those lines.  Silence at the other end, so I call his company number on his business card. 

The woman who answered the phone sounded like she was there answering the phone, because she was the least important person in the company.  Everyone else more important was sitting safely at home.  I asked to speak to the Vice President. “He isn’t here at the moment”.  “Was he working from home?”.  “Yes”.  “How about the sales manager, is he in the office?”.  “Also working from home”. “Can I have his mobile number?”. “No”. This was followed by an uncomfortable silence, as she was not offering any help to ensure the wheels of commerce could continue to turn.  Now I was using their names, so it was obvious I knew them.  IT didn’t matter. In frustration, I went back to sending more emails.

If you keep up with the latest news, you realise that business is grinding to a halt. Even if you do get hold of the client, there may be no capacity to purchase your solutions at the moment.  In fact, they are laying people off and shutting down production capacity.  So what can you do?  Sending emails is fine, but very hard to convert into business in this environment.  You can’t visit clients, because you and they, are all supposed to be staying at home isolating from the virus.

Cold calling might be possible, if you can get through.  The difficulty of getting hold of decision makers when they are at home goes up dramatically.  A few days ago, they were probably still at the office, but now they are at home following the “soft” guidance from the Government.  Being Japan and everyone knowing what will happen to you, if you don’t do what the bureaucrats say, everyone slips into step and follows the directions.

So existing clients are either hard to contact or uninterested and non-clients look like staying that way for some time to come.  The chance of your manager actually being able to manage you in this crisis is pretty slim.  They usually can’t manage anyone in peacetime, let alone in the wartime we face today.  You are at home with basically very little to do and the days become very long.  Why not use this time to bolster your sales education.

I don’t mean casual listening to podcasts or watching videos.  I mean full on hard core study.  Really look at honing your industry knowledge and particularly your product knowledge.  There are always products in the line up that you are a bit shaky on for details.  Now is the time to get right across the full product line up.

We have a training grid, where we line up the customer names across one axis and the products we supply across the other axis.  The number of intersections is always super revealing.  They are a lot fewer than they should be. We all get shunted into pigeon holes by the buyer and we wind up only talking about a limited range of solutions when we discuss business with them.  Here is the chance to be able to broaden those discussions when things get back to some semblance of normality.

Sales skills is another area that needs work and you can practice by recording your voice or videoing yourself and then playing it back and refining your delivery even further.  We often become Johnny One Note, giving everyone the same basic spiel every time.  All you need is your phone as far as equipment goes.  Here is the chance to really customise what we can say to clients based on different situations and scenarios.

There is an astonishing amount of free education available today.  I know, because I am creating it every week myself and so are a lot of other people.  Having it available and getting busy really studying it are universes apart. The lazy salespeople will be binge watching multi season shows of their favourites, completely wasting their time.  The smarter salespeople will see this current lull as a chance to skill up and be ready to serve clients at a higher standard, when we all get back to business.