When the going gets tough, the tough get going... working harder and focused on meeting their challenges. The tough ones in our business are those who can convince cautious customers to buy in an exceptionally challenging economic environment.
What’s your sales strategy for 2021? The global pandemic has wreaked havoc in every business sector and will likely dominate the economy going into next year. And the upcoming presidential election is sure to add more uncertainty. What better time to build a 2021 sales strategy that focuses on delivering business value?
In pre-pandemic days, sales and marketing efforts focused on enhancing the customer’s total experience (e.g., brand assurance, strategic growth, ESG, responsiveness, and future enablement). But COVID-19 has flipped this paradigm, at least in the short term, as buyers keep retreating to more basic considerations.
In the economic downturn of 2008, Philip Lay, Todd Hewlin, and Geoffrey Moore wrote a thought leadership piece for Harvard Business Review (HBR) entitled, “In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers.” I give them credit for setting off a chain reaction that we now know as “Selling Insight.”
This guest post from Leslie Ye, Senior Executive Communications Strategist at HubSpot, contends that not every sale is a good sale. There are times when it’s best to hit the brakes before sealing the deal and assess whether this customer is right for your offering and able to implement it for maximum value.