Reaching out to Prospects and Clients During Changing Times
The last two to three months have been among the most challenging in recent memory for many businesses. The travel, hospitality, conference and petroleum sectors have taken major hits. Supply chains have been disrupted and lockdowns have resulted in the temporary (hopefully) closure of many businesses. Home offices have surged forward in number and importance. One area of business activity that has been significantly impacted by the latter trend has been sales and marketing. The relative isolation of home offices has made it much more difficult for sales personnel to interact with prospects and marketing efforts have had to adapt to the new reality of minimal face-to-face contact. In addition, the uncertainty and revenue shortfalls being experienced by many businesses has interrupted normal business decision and project development cycles. Everyone seems to be spending a lot more time online and Zoom has become our best friend.
What does this mean from a sales and marketing perspective? It means decision makers are often harder to get hold of and when you do get hold of them you may find that your sales pitch falls flat because everything seems to be in a holding pattern. On the other hand, people are sitting in front of their computers, they are often bored and feel the need for person-to-person contact. This situation presents the marketer with an opportunity! In these circumstances, individuals are more likely to engage in conversation and discuss their interests including future projects and plans. It is the ideal time to engage with both clients and prospects to build meaningful and effective relationships. Reaching out to clients & prospects using targeted social media techniques supplemented with more traditional outreach methods can be a highly effective means of building your sales pipeline in these times. Particularly so in industries with traditionally long sales cycles. The benefits of these techniques go beyond the current crisis as the trend toward more decentralized home office environments is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future. If you would like to know more about this topic, please feel free to contact us.
Contact Information
Terry Butler
President
Reliance Business Development LLC
Apex, NC
1-919-740-0317
terry.butler@reliancebusdev.com