Post Pandemic Sales

Without sales there is no business, simple and square.?So anyone who wants to run a business needs to have basic selling skills. This is something I learned over many years of working in different types of businesses.?

I have also learned that selling is a process. Many may say it is a tough process. Looking at numbers might put this into perspective. As a rule of thumb, this is what takes to make one sale:

??576 Telemarketing presentations

??72 Qualified Prospects

??18 First contacts

??6 Demos

??3 Proposals

??Everything for a single sale

I do not know the accuracy of these numbers or if they are logical to demonstrate the difficulty that I always experienced in the sales process.But I can say that after the pandemic, and with the appearance of new businesses that must adapt to new technologies and economic realities, the way to structure a sale will change dramatically.

First of all, products and services have changed a lot and have become more technical or more complex to the level that the experience in selling is something that only helps the salesperson to be comfortable with a sales process, but not to be successful with the outcome that is the closing. For Example put a traditional salesperson to sell Life insurance policies versus selling??CRM platforms, most likely in the second one it would be ineffective unless you have significant training on the product, and so we could go into comparisons all day.

So what is happening?

What happens is that 2.0 salespersons began to grow, who are trained in generically with tools and techniques in sales, but not specifically in a product. In addition, they must be strongly trained in the use of new technologies and forms of virtual communication, as well as constantly practice to be comfortable communicating and conducting sales meetings through different communication platforms, such as Zoom, Meet, Skype, Gotomeeting, etc. etc.

For this reason, a trend began today in which, particularly in technology companies, but is spreading to other areas, when hiring sales personnel they do not look for the best seller in a particular area, but rather they look for candidates with knowledge and general skills in sales and new technologies with the ability to learn, adapt, tolerate frustrations.

In the words of my colleague, the Professor, and Instructor in Sales and Co-director of the Sales Research Laboratory of Florida International University, Rafael Soltero Venegas, in summary, “It's all about getting comfortable with the uncomfortable”

Professor Agustin A. Cohen, MBA