Specialty Fabrics Review October 2020 - 50

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BUSINESS

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 five fundamentals
of COVID-19 sales and marketing success.

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.
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 specific 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 specific demographic in a very specific way, so don't just command the change and expect
them all to be able to figure it out on their own. Invest the time needed into creating the rails
for them to ride upon, so to speak. If you're finding yourself strapped for time, don't abandon
this step; rather, leverage a consultant or a colleague to help in building out these processes.
Without them, your approach to your new ideal clients will suffer and your pivot will lose
some of its potential punch.
FUNDAMENTAL #2-BE A BEACON OF POSITIVITY AND HOPE
If your out-of-office response shines a bright spotlight on what the local authorities are
preventing you from being able to do, turn that disempowering message off. Stop telling your
customers what you cannot do or what's restricting or limiting their access to your business.
Recognize that your clients are living through the COVID-19 restrictions alongside you and
they are well aware that many businesses cannot conduct business as normal. What they want

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Specialty Fabrics Review October 2020

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