4 Tips for B2B Salespeople During Restrictive Measures

The current Covid-19 pandemic and the related measures represent a massive blow to the operational and business activities of most companies. Salespeople from (not only) B2B companies often have to stay home, and many of their deals have slowed down or come to a halt. Despite the undeniable seriousness of the situation, it's clear that once restrictions are lifted, business will pick up again. In the meantime, it's worth focusing on activities that will help drive future business success.

Talk to your (potential) customers

You may not be able to meet in person, but you can still send a message, make a call, or schedule a video meeting. It's probably easier to arrange a short video call today than it was to organize an hour-long meeting before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Think about what you can do for your customers (and non-customers) even in tough times — it very likely won't be about closing a big deal, you may need to be creative, and for some you'll conclude that it's simply not the right time. But there are certainly plenty of companies for which you can do something extra. You can extend payment terms for customers, temporarily offer an additional service or product, or at least wish them well and thank them for their trust. You can ask anyone what would help them right now. You'll strengthen your future relationship and perhaps gain inspiration for a product innovation.

Think about your ideal customer and where to find them

Right now might be the perfect time to think about your ideal customer profile. These are the truly satisfied customers who pay you well and, most importantly, repeatedly for your services or products. What's their profile? What do these ideal customers have in common? What topics resonate with them? How many more can you find in the market, and how will you find them? What do they need right now? When you think about this with a smart tool in hand, you'll surely discover a whole range of new companies to fill your pipeline and start reaching out to.

Work on your content

When was the last time you took your sales presentation and told the story to your boss, colleague, friend, or aunt? I bet that when you do, you'll come up with a few ideas together on how to improve it. This works great in combination with thinking about your ideal customer. When you're clear about what resonates with your best customers, it's not hard to tell that story to others too. Don't stop at the presentation — prepare a great first email for a potential customer, a LinkedIn post, or write an article for the company blog.

Clean up your CRM

Keeping your CRM organized isn't a popular discipline among salespeople. On the other hand, that organization leads to better results. When you have a full pipeline, know the approximate value of every deal, have correct and complete contacts, and know what next step to take with each potential customer, you have a better chance of success. You're mainly doing it for yourself, but your boss probably wants it too, so you'll make them happy. If you feel that data quality in your company CRM is a problem, let us know — we can help.

We're also trying to do something extra for others. Take advantage of our offer of Prospector for free — we believe it can help you not only with the points from this article.