Let us first understand the meaning of the 2 most crucial words to better understand the topic:

Pandemic is a spread of a disease, that affects the world & has past the stage of anticipated growth. It is a situation of global crisis impacting morbidity and mortality, short term & long term economic shocks, individual behavioral changes etc.

Selling is just an art of effectively communicating your product or service to a customer/prospect, at a price. For B2B sales, we need to achieve the same through- 

- Market segmentation

- Defining the target audience

- Build rapport & trust through market intelligence

- Provide a customized & valuable solution

While this explanation captures the crux of selling in a nutshell, there is not “A Size that Fits All”. Hence we need to be Proactive, Informative & Innovative. 

Being in sales, the market is our playground, hence being constantly informed about your business, your potential client’s business, their competition & what impacts them all gives you the edge. 

Be Proactive: By empathizing with your Potential customer about their Challenges.

This stage requires a lot of homework, because only if you have done a detailed study on the target audience, would you be able to resonate with their challenges, showing that you are here to overcome them. 

Be Informative: Sharing insights to help them overcome these challenges. 

This stage would require you to “Tell about your Features & Sell your Benefits”. In addition to this you will need few case studies and reference to showcase capability & build confidence. Being transparent here is indeed your Golden ticket!!! 

Be Innovative:  Ultimately prepare a tailor-made solution at a mutually agreed price.

This stage is all about gathering each & every detail to customize a solution, keeping mind the current market challenges, and value you bring through the solution.

While during a pandemic like COVID 19 many factors are beyond our control, there are still a few crucial ones within our control. Such as- 

1. Staying Connected: Whether it’s a simple good morning message or text to check on your client’s families’ well-being, an email/phone call  could do the magic.

2. Staying Hopeful: Negativity and hopelessness typically sets in by over thinking the outcome, hence would be a major road block in opportunity creation.

3. Self-Discounting of the Opportunity: While the market is disrupted, make note that every discussion could be capitalized depending on the persuasion & conviction, with the right solution offering

4. Maintain Faith & Respect: In desperate times, we must not succumb to pressure; resulting in over commitment & under delivering. 

While we are taking all the necessary precautions to stay away from the novel corona virus, we must remember that this pandemic is a great opportunity for a sales person to look at business problems in a unique manner and assist their potential clients in their own capacity. Every challenge brings with it its own set of opportunities.

Abaan Almeida – National Sales head