Selling During the Crisis - Tips and Ideas for SMEs in the UAE

Over the weekend, there was a closed-door webinar on Selling During the Crisis. There were some excellent questions raised, and the discussions and insights shared were much appreciated. Below is a summary of some of the ideas discussed, I hope you find them useful.

1) Everybody is wondering what to do during this crisis. We’re all going through a completely new experience, and we’re facing challenges that many of us have never faced before. How do I sell and what strategies I can use with companies that doesn’t have the budget right now?

Never forget: The principles of selling stay the same: 

Understand the need

Communicate value 

Follow a defined process

I have the budget for whatever I see value in. I may sell my car, but I’ll pay my house rent. I won’t buy more shoes or a new laptop, but I’ll get my dog or cat the best food. 

Answer this question: Scale of 1-5, IN THE MIND OF YOUR CUSTOMER - complete luxury or complete necessity? We did a research (available at www.kaizen.ae/survey) and there was a definite correlation between how businesses are doing and the average answers to that scale. The businesses that were doing well scored higher, and those struggling scored much lower.

Now, a question to you and your business: what 3 things can you do to get closer to a ‘5’?

Jim Rohn: “You get paid for the value you bring to the marketplace. If you don’t bring much value, you don’t make much money.” 

2) The biggest challenge we’re facing right now with regards to our prospective clients is that their budgets are either significantly reduced or cut completely. How do you stay tactful to the current world situation while still driving product value and closing deals?

So you definitely need to keep the situation in mind. At the same time, you need to be focused. 

One thing that we’ve seen work really well in client businesses is make the sale as easy as possible. Whether that means very easy payment terms, or supporting in a way to get financing arranged, or - in some cases - taking a share of the project instead of payment. 

Work to your strengths as an entrepreneur: be innovative! Be bold. Be driven! 

3) As business managers or owners , how do you make sure sales targets are managed during this time while understanding that everyone is potentially taking a hit? Any recommendations that might work better in our current environment?

I’ve heard a lot of people complain about missed targets, but - honestly - What are these budgets based on? Sales forecast or $$ needed to cover costs? 

Also, when were these targets made? If times and situations are changing so drastically, shouldn’t targets change too??

Make data driven decisions. Visit www.kaizen.ae/survey to get the report on the research that we did. It’s been brilliant, you’ll get some great insights from there. We’ve seen multiple clients go from verge of massive layoffs to enjoying a very profitable month, while their competitors are struggling.

4) How do you stay tactful to the current world situation while still driving product value and closing deals? Do you think we should give discounts/incentives/or any other sales tactic? 

This is a very case-by-case question. One core thing to keep in mind is that discounts are a slippery slope. It’s tempting to cut 40% and close the deal, but you will unlikely to ever make up that 40% from this customer ever agin. Make a decision that you’re happy to keep post-crisis. If you aren’t happy to keep it, think carefully about how you proceed.

5) For sales and business development teams that are used to boots-on-the-ground closings, what tips do you have as they migrate to video conferencing meetings and virtual handshakes? What are the common problems businesses encounter when transitioning to remote work?

Peter Senge: “The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization's ability to learn faster than the competition”.

Don’t make the excuse of changing situation as the reason for things not working. If that’s the issue, everyone has the same. Whoever figures it out first is the winner.

Transitioning to remote work is full of issues, no doubt. If you have a good team, you’ll see them step up. If you don’t, you won’t see much improvement. 

9% of businesses said they were doing better since the crisis began (www.kaizen.ae/survey) - most of our clients are in this space. One of the major factors? Culture. They’ve worked on the culture for years! 

I’ll give an example: one of the clients I’m working with now is an extremely senior government official. He has often had a challenge to get his team to engage. When this whole crisis started, he was really concerned. The outcome: this Ministry, and his team, are outperforming every other team, and even outperforming themselves!! They are FLYING right now! 

6) Diversification probably is key to staying on course! What are the attractive sectors that are doing well and what multiple sales strategies can one apply to sustain the business? For e.g. if you are in health sector can you sell in the food sector? 

Even skyscrapers are built to sway with the wind. If you insist on being rigid and fixed, you will break.

We looked for a statistical leaning in the data (www.kaizen.ae/survey) and we found one consistent response: no relation between industry and performance. The data showed that almost every industry that participated had some who were doing better than expected or no change (23% total), as well as some in making a recoverable or irrecoverable loss (38%).

So it’s not about the industry, but if you’d like to make some moves: Can you diversify? Yes. 

Is it the best idea? Debatable. If a construction company suddenly goes into F&B, or car leasing going into cosmetics, that’s a question mark.

Make moves, but be true to your vision and your brand. Else, you lose credibility.