Everyone has a plan until they get hit.

By Nick Wealthall

World heavy weight champ Joe Lois could have been describing doing business in 2020.

Although it doesn’t feel like a punch… more of a constant pummelling, from all directions. With hammers. 

Whatever your plans were for this year I sincerely doubt they involved trying to grow during a global pandemic.

It’s a really challenging time - full of uncertainty - but more than that, the virus has changed our working world, certainly in the medium term and probably forever.

The need to work and perform remotely, and also to influence and make sales remotely is now critical if you want to succeed and grow.

No longer can we just ‘muddle through’ this period. 

It’s a case of adapt or die. 

The good news is the old phrase ‘never let a crisis go to waste’ exists for a reason; times are tough, but with it comes new opportunities for you and your business. Indeed most of the big companies you know today were founded during recessions.

So what separates those that prosper from those that struggle? 

They adapt to the new world faster and better than others in their sector.

But how? 

3 things you can do right now:

1) Build your business as a trusted advisor, not as an extractor 

Great selling and business building is broadly about understanding your clients, their needs, and solving their problems.

More so now than ever, they’ll be feeling just as much uncertainty as you and could be facing commercial adversity, so building trust is key.

The question should not be ‘how can you extract business from them?’, but rather ‘how can you help them?’, and secondarily, ‘how can you deliver more value than everyone else?’. 

Because your clients need more help than ever, you have a chance to move beyond a surface-level relationship by achieving ‘deep rapport’ and becoming invested in solving their problem with them.

This attitude can deliver sales and deals for you now, but more importantly, you will build relationships that will pay off for you a hundred times over beyond this crisis.

2) Give your clients and prospects quality resources that help them up front and for free.

You and your company have an opportunity to be a source of help, guidance and trusted advice to your market, both for your existing clients and new prospects. 

Aim to deliver them your best possible advice for free. You can get them help through blog posts, videos, webinars or 1:1 calls. 

A super effective strategy is to hold a free webinar on the biggest issue your clients are facing right now. 

Give them your best guidance for 30-60 minutes on the call, take their questions and then make a ‘soft ask’ for 1:1 calls with anyone who would ‘like more help’. 

This way of setting up consultations, whilst helping your prospects and clients for free, is a great way to develop a relationship that will also potentially generate revenue.

3) Master the most effective influence tool you have right now - video calls

There is a staircase of influence that governs how we can effectively communicate with our clients and convert them into sales. 

The most effective way, the top of the ‘staircase’, is a 1:1 meeting across the table from them. Right now, this option has been removed. 

The closest equivalent we have is a 1:1 video call. 

By now you may well be very familiar with video calls (even weary of them), but it's not enough just to use them, you and your team need to master them as a medium to get more business. Don't assume your video calls are being done well - they're probably not.

It’s important to try to move your clients up this staircase of influence – getting them off email/instant messenger and beyond phone calls, so we can actually see each other. Your conversion rate from video calls compared to phone calls can be more than double. 

To achieve this, you and your team need to invest time in mastering video calls - don’t assume this will come naturally. 

Make sure you’ve practiced, recorded calls and (..ugh) watched yourself back to improve. 

And treat your appearance and presentation as you would in the flesh - put time and money into a good camera, lighting and audio set-up - it all counts if your goal is successful influencing. 

I hope these tips help and energise you to push ahead with growth this year, despite the disruption. 

Of course we’ve only had time to scratch the surface of what’s possible. If you’d like more help to get you and your team motivated and focussed to thrive in the face of these challenges, and the tactical help you need to master remote working, then we’ve created a remote session for you:

‘How to achieve peak performance in 2020'

Among the benefits you will get from the session are:

 + A changed mindset to engage with this difficult market and rise to the challenge it presents, so your team are motivated to get business remotely

  + An understanding of how to create long-term relationships by building a greater level of trust with new and existing clients, so they deliver you revenue for years to come.

 + Mastery of video calls, not only on a practical level, but to influence your clients and prospects to convert business.

If this sounds useful, the next step is to get in touch to discuss how we can tailor our courses specifically to your business challenges and help you make the most of 2020.

Contact: [email protected] [email protected]