InTents December 2020/January 2021 - 40

business | management

Sales fundamentals
during a crisis
Tips for selling products and services during COVID-19.
by Madeleine MacRae

etermining the best way to sell
and, even more so, how to
effectively and appropriately market
your products and services at a time
of such widespread uncertainty and
deep market disruption can be a
daunting task.
As a leader during this unprecedented
time, you have a lot on your plate. You
have to blend just the right amount
of empathy and optimism. You have
to be innovative without losing hold
of the fundamentals that made you
successful before all of this. You have to
navigate the ever-changing landscape
of operational expectations while
adjusting each day to evolving safety
and sanitization protocols. You have
to be bold and fearless even when you
might be feeling anything but that!
Breaking things down into manageable steps is one of the fastest and easiest ways to avoid feeling overwhelmed
and overloaded in the face of new and
demanding realities.
Sales and marketing during COVID-19
is no exception to this rule, so to support
your journey to surviving through and
thriving beyond this pandemic, here are
ϐive fundamentals of COVID-19 sales
and marketing success.

D
Crisis messaging
The right kind of marketing during a
crisis can create sales opportunities.
Experts suggest three types
of messages:
* Positive-Communicate how you
are helping the larger community.
* Valuable-Develop content
that educates, entertains or
inspires people.
* Empathetic-Make a real
connection by showing your
human side.

Fundamental #1:
Obsess about your ideal clients
Your ideal clients need to be the
unwavering focus of all of your sales and
marketing strategies.
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Every message you craft, every ad you
run, every new process you implement
needs to be rooted in a profound
understanding of where your ideal
clients are in this journey and where
they are going. The more speciϐic you
are about your ideal clients today, the
more authentically your marketing
will resonate with them. Do not shy
away from being ultra-targeted. You are
not trying to serve all people with all
things. You have core clients whom you
are best suited to serve. Cater to those
clients, particularly in your messaging
and communication strategies.
If you have made a major pivot in
your business into fabricating personal
protective equipment, settle on new
ideal clients in that arena. Don't skip
the work of building out the avatar
for them. It's unlikely you will be able
to serve both your core/original and
your new ideal clients with the same
processes, so backwards engineer
your strategy to best attract and serve
those ideal clients without alienating
and risking the loss of your original
ideal clients.
Be mindful of the impact on your
sales team members. They were hired
and trained to work with a speciϐic
demographic in a very speciϐic way, so
don't just command the change and
expect them all to be able to ϐigure
it out on their own. Invest the time
needed into creating the rails for them
to ride upon, so to speak. If you're

dec 2020-jan 2021

11/19/20 4:00 PM

InTents December 2020/January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of InTents December 2020/January 2021