CHOOSING YOUR DIRECTION

Choosing YOUR direction: the "art of sales" craft during a crisis. Practicing SERVANT LEADERSHIP to your industry.

In my continuing format of a conversational style presentation, I would like to offer a few thoughts and ideas related to sales craft during a crisis. I have decided to exclude my traditional graphs, pictures and general illustrations, in order to focus on a direct message. Be a servant leader. Weather you are a 1099, W-2, independent, sales manager, director or otherwise; these principles can be applied. At every level, the key in crisis is to become a true LEADER. Many great individuals have quoted on this concept over the years.

While this is written from the view of leading multiple medical sales and services teams, I believe it can be applied to any sales leader during a crisis.

Peter Drucker famously said: "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things."

A manager’s success is no longer about winning trophies, awards or plaudits, but about their ability to enable their teams to thrive.

Empowering and supporting your team in a time of crisis will help make your salespeople emerge more resilient than ever.

The world of sales can be rewarding. Although estimates offer us an initial negative view, stating that nearly 90% of the effort is wasted, the rewards that accompany servant leadership can be fulfilling.

What happens when the unexpected occurs? What happens when a crisis arrives?

“The ordinary focus on what they’re getting. The extraordinary think about who they’re becoming.” – Unknown

The Types of Crisis You Need to Plan For

As a sales manager, there are numerous types of crises that can come your way. They can also hit you and your team at any moment, often without a warning, forcing you to deal with stress and emotional pressure—both your own and your team members’.

Let’s look at some examples.

A Huge Deal Can Fall Through

The beauty of having a well-defined, resilient sales process is that it enables you to forecast sales, predict revenue and allocate resources throughout the process.

However, this process isn’t flawless, and deals can turn unsuccessful. Prospects go through changes you can’t impact, and they lose the need for your offering or their ability to purchase it.

A Massive Client Can Churn

Just like the example above, a significant churn means there’s a gap in forecast revenue and a potentially massive impact on the company as a whole.

Not only that; losing a recurring stream of revenue puts additional load on your sales team because they want to make up for the lost revenue.

A Key Team Member Might Leave Due to Resignation, Dismissal or Illness

This can happen for many reasons, from job-related reasons like resignation or dismissal to personal issues such as illness.

The less apparent outcome of a team member leaving is the weight your sales team might feel in order to replace that loss. Furthermore, if your team member decided to leave for another job, the rest of the team could be questioning their own future within your company, too.

Budget or Funding Can Be Slashed

Budget cuts will see morale toppling like dominoes. Apart from the obvious impacts on hiring and travel costs, training and sales collateral will be affected.

If you’ve set expectations and targets based on a well-trained team and the training budget is taken away from you, you're in trouble.

Measuring the value sales teams create for the customer is one of the keys to winning more deals. Once your budget gets reduced, you can no longer create helpful resources or collateral for your team to use as leverage in their sales conversations.

A Series of Targets Can Be Missed

Your sales team has a job of dealing with objections, push backs and challenges every single day. They have to deal with a lot of uncertain conditions and unforeseeable circumstances. When things go wrong, they have to deal with anxiety and responsibility of not hitting their targets—and they will need you to ease that burden for them.

You then have to defend the sales numbers in front of the company leadership. When the predicted revenue isn't coming in, it's a particularly grueling task.

Most salespeople are optimistic, but when significant sales targets are missed, optimism won’t be enough to convince your superiors.

A Disciplinary Issue Can Occur

Misconduct in the workplace can happen anytime. Conduct issues can vary from poor time management and insubordination to serious misconduct that might include illegal activity.

Whenever disciplinary issues occur, it takes an emotional toll not only on you as the one that works on the disciplinary procedure and the person involved, but your entire sales team, too.

A GLOBAL CRISIS

Many crises are completely out of your control, but a global crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic is so far-reaching that it can leave you feeling completely powerless.

In fact, almost all the crises listed above could occur during a global crisis, that has both health and financial implications.

Although you often can’t prepare for a specific global crisis, protecting yourself against common business crises is a step can leave you well prepared for the business-related impacts.

The Best Way to Immediately Respond to a Crisis

1. Be transparent but don’t vent

When the crisis hits your sales team, don’t try to keep the crisis to yourself. Worse still, don’t just share information sparsely and deceive your team members by trying to stage manage a situation. Stick to reality.

At the same time, you don’t want to exaggerate and stir up unnecessary panic.

The best thing you can do?

Be open and transparent about what’s going on with your team.

As you’ve seen in the examples above, the implications of a crisis can vary from mild to severe. There’s a huge chance it will impact your team's workload, workflow, productivity, and morale. You might feel more comfortable keeping the details to yourself or limiting it to senior staff only, but it’s imperative that everyone stays informed along the way.

You can make this process painless by making sure all the information your team will need is in one place and accessible to everyone. Accurate use of good CRM processes can make information sharing direct and simple.

With an increase in stress and pressure your team will feel, it’s important you encourage them to share their thoughts. This will allow you to help them prioritize and allocate their time and resources. It’s your job as a sales leader to ensure you’re available for any concerns that arise.

Clear communication and open dialogue are the key foundation for successful sales crisis management.

2. Seek ideas from your team

The next step from ensuring everyone on your team can freely access the information they need to understand and deal with a sales crisis is to empower them to contribute to the solution.

Everyone on your sales team is unique. You’ve hired them because they brought a unique mix of traits, qualities, and skills to the team.

They also bring a history of experience in their past roles unique to just them. Asking for input from each member of your team is likely to bring up ideas you'd otherwise never have thought of.

Engaged and recognized employees often work harder and their companies report high performance and ROI compared to those with lower employee engagement.

Make a special effort to include your team in the process of powering through this crisis and ask them for ideas, thoughts and feedback. Get them involved on the path to the solution. This will not only make them feel more confident as they will gain more control over the situation, but it will strengthen the team and interpersonal relationships between its members.

What to Do While the Crisis is Unfolding:

3. Empathize with your team

INSPIRE your team!

In the crisis, you might impulsively want to simply give orders to your team. They may even want you to do that as it could help them deal with uncertainties and concerns of the crisis.

However, that’s not the best thing you could do. Instead, take the time to talk to them and hear out the worries they might be having. Are they concerned about their job’s future? Their performance? The future of the company? Something else? Make an effort to acknowledge their thoughts and emotions, as well as to answer any questions they might be having—honestly.

You might not be bringing them the best news, but it will make it a whole lot easier if they know you understand what they are going through and proactively look for a remedy.

Secondly, if one of your team members is at fault—the source of the crisis—do not blame them. Show a united front during the crisis. If you need to take corrective actions like training, wait until things are back to normal and address any necessary steps.

As Leonard Saffir, the author of “Power Public Relations: How to Get PR to Work for You”, said:

"In crisis management, be quick with the facts, slow with the blame."

Finally, think of the health and well being of your team. When everyone is operating in panic mode, it’s easy to forget to pause and check how they're doing, not simply as salespeople, but as human beings. There’s a chance they won't reach out to you for help on their own.

Instead, ensure you get one-on-one face time with each team member. Take this time to check if they have an issue dealing with the crisis and offer them resources and even professional help if they need it. This will not only help you avoid burnout, mental health problems and a drop in performance but also build up a layer of trust that maybe wasn’t there prior to the crisis.

4. Focus on what you can control, not what you can’t

I wrote an article for LinkedIn a year ago, which may also be helpful: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/get-quicker-ooda-patrick-j-pj-abbott/

If the crisis is of a sales-only nature, like a failed deal, a churned customer, or a series of missed targets, resist the urge to put pressure on your team to chase every deal out there regardless of how qualified the prospect is. This will make it harder for them to successfully sell, and their motivation might plummet even more.

Instead, support them in taking a step back to clean their sales pipeline. This is an ideal time for them to look at strong customer relationships as opportunities to up sell, follow up with unresponsive qualified leads, and source new ones.

If there is a wider company crisis going on and its outcome is out of your control, take this time to focus on actions that are in your full control.

In case the sales activities are ongoing regardless of the crisis, take the time to connect with your teams and their schedules, prospects, and pipelines. However, if selling is on pause, it’s a perfect opportunity to focus on training your team.

It's also crucial to take the time to provide post-training reinforcement—especially now that you have time for it. Companies with a training retention plan have 31% more sales reps reach quota than the industry average and a 10% higher year-over-year increase in corporate revenue.

What to Do Once the Crisis Has Passed:

5. Address what has happened

The crisis is over. Maybe a team member left the company. Changes have occurred that may be long-term or even permanent. It’s time to give your team the closure they need.

First, take the time to recap what has happened, the actions you took, and the aftermath. Just like earlier, your team will likely have questions about the events that took place. If you had to dismiss a team member, they might question their job’s safety. If your budget was cut in half, they will wonder about its impact on their role and training. Leave no questions unanswered.

Secondly, your team went through a roller coaster of emotions and responses in the crisis. Now is the time to thank them for being patient, as well as for their honesty as they worked through the crisis and dealt with uncertainties.

Finally, if any team member stood out and went above and beyond their call of duty—like taking over some of the team’s tasks to give you more mental space to handle the crisis—make sure they know you've noticed. 

6. Refocus on goals, projects and company values

A sales crisis may leave your team drained and uninspired to tackle their tasks once everything is back to normal. To prevent this spilling into the coming weeks and months, here are some ideas to inject energy into the team:

·       Celebrate recent small wins one-on-one, and recent big wins as a team

·       Morning and afternoon stand-ups to check in with everyone and address any setbacks or even rough days

·       Ensure there’s enough time for each action in their schedule and allow time for rest and recharging

Then, it’s time to set new goals and targets based on the aftermath of the crisis. Since the crisis may have had an impact on the size of your team, it’s key to set goals accordingly. Use the SMART approach and make the bigger goals achievable by setting smaller targets—your sales reps will be extra appreciative when you do so!

S.M.A.R.T. is simple, logical and easy to remember:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-framed

ALWAYS, remember to schedule recurring blocks of time in your calendar to provide your team with not only feedback, training, and support, but also to recognize their efforts and achievements and positively reinforce their hard work.

The Key to Handling a Sales Crisis

Crises are stressful.

Ultimately, it will always come down to how much you can focus on things you can impact, and let go of those you can’t. The stress will inevitably spill from you to the team—and vice versa—so it’s imperative to keep openly communicating as a team and to bring as many heads together as possible to work towards a solution.

Each crisis, big or small, will make you more prepared for the next one. When crisis hits, remember to:

·       Provide full support to your team and have one-to-one meetings with each sales rep

·       Do what you do best: strengthen your team's pipelines and help them upgrade and reinforce their skills

·       Take the time to recap, refresh the team’s energy, and set new goals

When you handle the crisis by allowing your team—and yourself—to be fully honest and open, you will come out of it as a better connected, empowered team ready to tackle anything that comes your way. The coronavirus pandemic is likely to have an impact on you as a medical sales representative. If you sell products and services that treat or test for COVID-19, you might see an uptick in sales. Likewise, sales volume could drop if the medical services your products support are declining because of the current situation. . 

Whether business is trending up or down, this isn’t a time for medical device reps, pharmaceutical sales reps, biotechnology reps or anyone else selling in the life sciences to be passive. People remember what others do in times of crisis. You want to be remembered for the right reasons. This means understanding the priorities in your accounts and acting accordingly.

Know Customers’ Priorities During the Coronavirus Threat

High Priorities:

·       Keeping themselves, their staff, and families healthy

·       Caring for patients

·       Keeping patients safe from unnecessary exposure and cross-contamination

·       Containing the spread of COVID-19 and influenza

·       Minimizing or avoiding any unnecessary exposure to themselves and their staff

·       Maintaining the functionality and economic integrity of their practices

 Low Priorities:

 ·       Anything that doesn’t support activities in the High Priorities list such as…

·       Seeing sales reps who don’t impact anything in the High Priorities list

Unnecessary Exposure from Medical Sales Representatives IS NOT Welcome During the COVID-19 Crisis

HCPs already have increased risk for coronavirus by virtue of close contact with patients. They manage the risk with precautionary measures as much as possible. They also seek to reduce personal and patient exposure by limiting contact with non-essential personnel. This may include refusing access to sales reps whose services are not currently needed.

Doctors and other HCPs know that those who have contact with more people are at higher risk. Medical sales reps go from hospital to hospital, clinic to clinic, not to mention the incidental exposure of just being out in public. HCPs can’t avoid their patients, but they can avoid you and will if you’re not part of an immediate and urgent solution. This is true for ANY client in any industry.

Lose the Handshake

Shaking hands is a custom. Normally, it’s regarded as polite and welcoming. I’ve always believed that whether to shake or not should be left up to the customer. However, during a pandemic, handshaking and any other unnecessary physical contact should be avoided whenever possible.

When I suggest to medical salespeople not to offer their hand first, some fear offending the customer. The reality is that many healthcare professionals prefer to avoid physical contact for their own sake and that of their patients. Just offering a hand almost forces them to shake so as not be perceived as rude. Some doctors and their staff find this stereotypical salesperson act annoying.

The best way to handle the handshake issue is not to shake. Period. HCPs and almost anyone who has access to any news source is familiar with the recommendation to avoid unnecessary contact. At the very least, leave the desire to shake hands up to the customer. If they don’t offer their hand first, you don’t offer yours. Even if they offer their hand first, you still have a choice whether to shake or not. You can shake and accept the risk (hopefully washing your hands thoroughly after the encounter), or a better choice might be to nod your head in almost a quick bow and say something like, “My apologies, but I’m around a lot of people and just trying to reduce everyone’s exposure. Please don’t be offended (said with a big smile).” Almost everyone will understand and appreciate your awareness.

Be Relevant or Don’t Sell

 We have used a simple process within our medical sales team know as CPPP:

• Identify the CHALLENGES
• Identify the PITFALLS
• Identify opportunity for increased practice PROFITABILITY
• Identify the most obvious opportunities and options for enhanced PATIENT care

This is not the time to blindly call on accounts with an attitude of business as usual. Any in-person sales calls should be based on relevant or urgent needs that cannot be addressed through other means of communication. In short, if an in-person visit isn’t requested, authorized, or in some way necessary, don’t go!

Many hospitals and HCPs will be burdened to the max during this crisis. Yes, they still require account management to ensure they have what they need, but they don’t need another body taking up space to catch or spread the virus. If you feel an onsite visit is necessary, get permission first.

 Account stakeholders, who normally open their doors to salespeople, might not be accessible. This is not the time for them to consider new products, services and treatment option, unless…

 …there is a compelling reason to do so.

What is a compelling reason?

A compelling reason is something that impacts their treatment efforts in a desirable way that is relevant to their current situation. For example, if you offer a product or service that can reduce HCP risk exposure, that’s relevant. If you offer something to address a pressing problem or need related to their ability to care for patients, that’s relevant. If you have something that can significantly reduce the financial impact of treating patients during this crisis, it’s relevant.

Salespeople are more likely to be welcome during this time if they bring solutions that are needed now. Anything else can and should wait. This doesn’t mean avoiding your accounts. By all means, stay in touch! Just don’t distract them from their primary job – caring for patients.

What Medical Sales Representative SHOULD Do During the Coronavirus Pandemic

·       Communicate with accounts: send emails, make phone calls, use SMS messaging if you normally communicate with customers that way. Let accounts know you’re there and you care. Make sure you’re meeting routine expectations.

·       Make sure your accounts have sufficient inventory of what they buy from you if there is higher usage during the pandemic. Be proactive by checking with them regularly to help them stay ahead of the need.

·       Look for ways to assist providers, patients, practices and institutions in relevant ways, such as by sharing a risk-reduction strategy other accounts are employing during the crisis they may not know about.

·       Call ahead, message or email customers to ask permission before dropping by

·       Contact competitive accounts and offer to be their Plan B to back-up their current suppliers

·       Be kind and patient. Recognize that people in your accounts are under pressure. Don’t take it personally if they’re not as friendly or attentive as in the past.

·       When you’re in the clinical environment, demonstrate good hand hygiene by washing hands frequently and using hand sanitizer. Medical professionals notice!

·       Accounts may post a policy banning unscheduled sales reps during this time. If so, respect it. Again, if you have a product, service, training or other information that can help them during this traveling time, by all means call or message to let them know.

·       Use any downtime to strengthen or alter your sales plan for every account moving forward. In times of change, you must change.

What Medical Sales Representative SHOULD AVOID During the Coronavirus Pandemic 

·       Avoid visiting accounts without permission. This is not a time to randomly drop off brochures. If an account requests written information or documents, ask if you can send a .pdf file or electronic version.

·       Avoid unnecessary follow-up at this time. Unless a product/service you discussed previously is relevant and urgent in helping your accounts to address present needs, defer your follow-up calls for a later time.

·       For your accounts that are on the front line of dealing with coronavirus patients, don’t assume that no news is good news. Don’t make them hunt you down. Check on them regularly, even if only by email to key personnel.

·       Avoid physical contact with everyone unless they initiate it or request it. Even then, avoid if possible by saying you’re observing recommended universal precautions to keep everyone safe.

·       Don’t linger. When you visit an account, get in, address business, get out. This is not the time for small talk or “non-business” related conversation.

·       When communicating with accounts, don’t waste customer time by being unprepared or unclear. Failure to be specific and to the point could make a lasting poor impression.

During a Crisis, You Show Your Accounts Who You Are

Disappoint or anger a customer during a crisis, and they’re unlikely to forget it. However, make them feel that you have their back no matter what by going above and beyond what’s expected and they’re likely to remember that.

You may have heard that with crisis comes opportunity. The novel coronavirus pandemic presents medical sales representatives with an opportunity to be their best and make a positive impact towards patient care. The world might not know how you contributed, but your accounts will, and you will. You’ve done your job well. That’s all that really matters.

Let’s Review 

 5 tips how to increase sales in tough times:

 #1 TALK TO MORE CUSTOMERS. Yes, activity does matter. ...

 ·       Do you homework with market research, client research: BE EFFICIENT

·       Use this time to make a call or send a quick message: BE RESPECTFUL

·       Document your efforts and use THIS as your call plan and follow up

#2 TALK TO THE RIGHT CUSTOMERS. Where do you get the ease of sales and where are you attractive? ...

 ·       Do not try to fit the square peg into the round hole

·       From your research and the general situation, take time to present relevant product, services and most of all SOLUTIONS.

 #3 BE RELEVANT TO THE CUSTOMER (CPPP). Make sure you put enough focus on managing your pipeline since sales are bound to take longer to convert, and more might evaporate. BE A RESOURCE.

 #4 BECOME PROFICIENT. Proactively use downtime time to study your offerings, and the potential fit for solution offerings.

 #5 STAY CONNECTED. Use industry information, potential changes, mentors, associations, and credible information sources that can eventually be leveraged in your opportunities to present solutions.

It's GO TIME! This is YOUR opportunity to separate YOURSELF from the competition. I wish you all the best. Be safe and be a SERVANT.