8 Ways to Make Your B2B Sales Team Pandemic Proof

A few years ago, at the Imaging Industries “Executive Connection Summit”, I recall another speaker saying that 41% of millennials preferred digital communication over live communication. As a B2B sales coach and owner of a Digital Marketing Agency, that stat rung my bell.

When COVID 19 hit in March 2020, that 41% preference for digital communication zoomed to virtually 100% in just days. This time it wasn’t millennials, it was the pandemic driving the way we sell.

In this article, I will share what 8 shifts Business Owners & Sales & Marketing Leaders can make to survive and thrive in today’s pandemic.

My suggestions have been shaped by my experience as VP of Sales at a $30 Million MSP, over 1,000 paid speaking events and the opportunity to strategize with North America’s most recognized Imaging Dealers & Managed Service Providers since the pandemic hit.

I applaud the courage of our clients who trusted our direction to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors who continue to lose ground in a remote selling landscape.

Here are 8 ways to make your sales team pandemic proof and grow your top and bottom line.

1.    Recruit a New Sales Profile

Start looking for different skills than in the past. Today’s B2B seller needs to be proficient on email and social media to establish new contacts and generate sales leads. Even the phone is becoming tougher to access key decision makers now working remotely. To find the sales talent you need in a virtual setting, start asking questions like; “How big is your social network of business contacts?”, “How many videos have you posted in the last 30 days?”. I believe the digital DNA of tomorrows sales superstar will include a slightly different skillset than in the past and your job postings and interviews need to ensure you’re hiring that talent you need to win today. 

2.    Move Sales Spend to Marketing

Margin pressure was challenging the high cost of sales long before the pandemic. Today, we see more and more resellers rethink their customer acquisition costs and shift their spend from traditional “Feet-On-The-Street” to a digital marketing budget. A strong digital marketing program can immediately give your brand a BIGGER voice in your market to create awareness and boost consideration rates. A well executed digital communication strategy will touch more potential buyers than a human ever could before, during and after the pandemic is over.

3.    Update Your Sales Activity Mix

Have your sales activity targets shifted yet? Do they include critical engagement activities like using LinkedIn? To me, a sales team MUST be proficient on LinkedIn to sell in a pandemic and beyond. Yet so few B2B sales activity targets include newer social engagement activities. As an example, I suggest reps post or share content 3 -5 times per week and add no less than 30 new contacts every week as well. With 120 new contacts per month and quality content for your reps to share on LinkedIn, it’s only a matter of time before the fish start biting again.

4.    Get Active on LinkedIn

Over 2,000 B2B sales reps have completed my 30-Day LinkedIn Bootcamp since the pandemic started. I describe LinkedIn as a huge Chamber of Commerce meeting with everybody you’d ever want to meet there, but you have to look and act right to be effective. It starts with having a professional profile and then all you need is good content to post. There’s an art to making digital connections, creating digital relationships and then being able convert those digital communications to offline conversations and sales opportunities. If you’re a sales leader, take a look at each of your reps’ profiles and their activity over the last 30 days. You’ll know pretty quickly if your sales team is leveraging the #1 sales tool you need to use in a pandemic. And it’s FREE.

5.    Get Social

Your company’s social media channels have become the voice of your business. To current customers, future customers, employees, and the people you hope apply to join your sales team. Take a look at each of your company’s social channels and see how up to date your social front is. Are you still saying Seasons Greetings? Don’t laugh, you know it happens! I’ve learned through trial and error   that social media is an art and a science. You need to be educational and not promotional in a pandemic. To measure your social content, look at the engagement measured in likes, comments, and shares over the last 30 days. You’ll notice that people respond better to posts about how you’re helping the community or recognizing your people than those that brag how great your offerings are. I tell our clients the less you sell on social media, the more you will sell on social media.

6.    Strengthen Your Website

Think of your website like a magnet. The stronger the magnet, the more people will be draw to your website. At a minimum, you need to make sure your website has been properly optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And once you get people to your website, does your website have the basic pandemic necessities for what marketers’ call “conversion”? A fancy word for your websites ability to convert your website visitors into sales leads. Popular conversion strategies include a chat bot, offering content offers or a webinar viewing in exchange for the visitors contact information. Have a look at your website and see how many different ways your website visitors can engage you beyond the “Contact Us” page.

7.    Unleash the Power of Video

If a picture says a thousand words, what does a video say? A million? Like it or not, the pandemic turned all of us into “video sellers”. We’ve all been forced to replace in person meetings with screen sharing video technology. But who is training your reps how to appear on camera? The wrong attire or a less than professional background speaks louder than anything you could possibly say. When the pandemic hit, the imaging industries largest OEM hired us to coach their national salesforce on how to shoot “Selfie Sales Videos” including technical tips and simple talk track templates of what to say on camera. The training gave the reps the confidence they needed to create zero budget, meaningful short videos that act as lures on social media for what they sell. Take a look at your rep’s digital DNA and see if they’re using video or not.

8.    Call Higher

I believe targeting the business leader(s) of an organization is the only way to prospect in a pandemic. We’re finding that mid level managers are afraid to make the decisions, budgets are tight and unless it’s a senior level initiative, you’re likely spinning your wheels.

Find out what your reps are doing by asking them to copy you in on some of their prospecting emails to see how high they’re setting their sights!

If you’ve been around long enough you know adversity creates opportunity.

You also know that there are three types of people.

• Those who watch what is happening
• Those that make things happen
• Those that ask what happened?

Which one are you?

Connect with me here on LinkedIn for more Sales & Marketing thoughts, ideas and inspiration to sell to WIN!