Then, for many, it all turned grey in the blink of an eye. COVID-19 has come and not only put doubt in our collective future success, it seems that even the mightiest of titans with deep resources are going to struggle. Industry by industry, big and small are facing a true unknown. So where does that leave us?
This is our current situation. It’s easy to see and feel the fear and apprehension. Great leaders across industries are struggling with what to do next.
Thankfully, signs of coming back to a ‘new normal’ are starting to show and the reality of how we can bring our companies back to what we once had is dawning. However, there are some challenges, as shown in a survey recently performed by McKinsey & Company. Over 60% of companies worldwide are decreasing their marketing budget.
The new normal:
- Acceptance of our new reality by assessing our current state and what a modified definition of success would look like. There is no easy way back to what we had.
- Understanding the scarred psychology of buyers and the fear around the new economy we are all entering.
- Having agility to adapt and change everything in your company from products, services, management, staffing, customer management, to technology and operations.
- Playing the long game: creating short term, achievable successes to build upon that will lead to medium-term and long-term stability.
- Reaching out to your contacts that helped you build your business and discussing the “Circle of life;” how collaboratively we all need to help by matchmaking wins.
It will take more insights than listed above, some already learned and some yet to discover, to achieve revenue growth starting today and into the future. The US and the World is recovering from a deep wound and the time it will take to heal is a big unknown. Some believe we are going to see a V-shaped recovery and will be back to normal, and even better than before, quickly, whereas others believe we are in for the long haul and it will take years, maybe decades, to come back to our previous prosperity.
Regardless of your thoughts on how we will recover, now is not the time to consider wild hail-Mary options or to go into a frightened deep hibernation but rather create an actionable structured plan that can provide foundational building blocks to support your company’s future.
Facing the reality of your marketing sales will help you determine how much change needs to happen. If your sales folks have been going by their usual routine and life is normal, great, not much change is needed, but if they are struggling and every customer lead is a blank abyss of uncertainty, new tactics are in order. While sales are challenging in a normal business environment, trying to sell into a black hole of fear and doubt will require courage and creative methods and possibly rethinking of what product or service you are selling.
As with all things in business, after you have a great product or service, it’s all about finding who would be interested (target market), getting the right words, images and videos in front of them (messaging) and selling your heart out (sales).
When approaching the above:
- Your target audience has changed. The world is thinking of needs and less of wants.
- Change your messaging to show that your offering is a need.
- Digging deep and getting creative to help your buyers remove the fear of spending.
- Happiness conquers fear – show them what their world would be like with you in it and how happy they would be.
- Here at Altus we like to talk about the “Art and Science of Sales”. This is never truer than now. The old world was more about who you know (people buy people), and the new world is all a numbers game.
- There is no doubt the new renaissance of “sales by the numbers” was growing industries, and that will not go away, but it will be more important than ever that you personally reach out to your relationships and understand their feelings as a fellow human being in our new world.
While thinking about what was discussed here, if you are a leader in your company, your first job will be to help your team understand the new world and ask them to help participate in figuring out this unknown. Through your strength you will have to convey “we will get through this together.” With the possibility of Great Depression-level 25%+ unemployment on the horizon, every member of your team is motivated to find success. With a scared economy that will dictate more conservative buying habits, it will be important to bring your humanity and creativity to finding winning deals. As with most companies, Sales and Marketing are the lifeblood and your people just need to know they are its heart.
As Henry V realized the daunting challenge he and his men faced, he needed a way to convey how he felt and why he believed they would win the day. He needed to step beyond his own fears and find the words and the way to let his men know there would be victory tomorrow:
This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother…..Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. – Henry V
Altus Alliance is a Consulting Partner Organization with a team of gifted men and women who are ready and able to stand with you to solve these complex times ahead. There is trial and error and then there is the time-tested wisdom and intellectual property of Altus’s 15+ years in helping over 250 companies become masters of sales and marketing. We invite you to learn more about how we would like to help your company emerge from the COVID-19 crisis better, faster and more successful than ever.