Sales will change, again!

Just thinking....Here I sit for the second time in 20 years thinking about how radically Sales will change due to COVID-19. The last time I really thought about it was post 9/11.

On 9/11 things changed for Sales everywhere. The cold call in NYC was finished! Gone were the days of riding elevators and seeing 5-10 clients in the same building. You now had an appointment to get in the door and then check into security and ride to your floor only after they verified your appointment! Are you kidding me?! Do you know why I am here?! The wandering days were done. Stairway doors locked once through them without chance of return. Unless maybe you waited for someone with a passcard. Yes, that was the start of sales people trying find a way around the new system, the new reality for sales. It didn't take long before were adopted new techniques and we were back in business making those calls, wandering around to a point.

Everybody has an opinion on cold calling and the way I see it is, "whatever works for you in your industry ". I learned to sell using various techniques. I have been to hundreds of seminars and trainings. I have taught various methods, but I love to "hunt"! I call it banging!

A couple weeks back when I started in this business, my first sales manager (Chuck, a great guy) told me "you should know what comes out of every dock door within your territory!" In those days I was in the freight business, because we were looked at as the nuisance and uncouth reminders of the necessary evil of the business world. People thought all we did was truck freight! Now they realize Supply Chain is so much more than they ever thought it was. We knew what a 'landed cost' was before the colleges were teaching classes and starting majors in Supply Chain. I am sorry I digress, this is about the New Reality in Sales, Post Covid-19.

So, how are things going to change? Let's think of some of the possibilities that will become reality. Short term - you ain't getting in any door! The virus will change reception areas, again! The Gate Keeper will evolve into tighter security, buzz you in, stay away from the Log Book -that might evolve into something new, but that's another post. Every building will be a fortress with security built in at the door! Just how far ot goes is yet to come but we can all imagine the possibilities, the virus will change everything.

The Cold Call and my Banging will come to an end!! Not! No way! We will figure it out, we always do. It just takes time and some creativity. We will learn from experience and war stories that will become our blue print to succeed. There will be a run on new seminars preaching the "COLD CALL is dead! Use our technique to increase your sales." Everyone has an opinion on "banging" and it runs from approval to disdain. Every industry is a bit different for sales I am sure, but we are the change agents, we know how to adapt. We go from the board room and the C-Suite to the dock door on the same day. So what works for me might not work for your industry. You probably can't drive around back and jump up on a dock in a suit no less and start asking questions or wander around and get something out of it!! I can and will still try.

So to our latest nemesis, COVID-19. You won't beat us! We will adapt! We will get around you, past you and all the havoc that you have wrought around the world. We will work smarter and harder. I am sure our process will be more difficult, as if things weren't tough enough! There will be a cottage industry on "How to sell in the post COVID-19 era". There will be new obstacles to entry ( Buildings, Bulldogs and Security) but we will overcome. There will always be a way to Bang! I will still not pass a dock door without knowing what moves in or out and who is doing it. I will still go out banging! You are nothing but a virus that will force us all to adapt, create and conquer! We will beat you and we will overcome!

Be Safe, Be Well to all!