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By salespodder in quirky —

Mobilise Stabilise Strategise

Here’s global accountant PWC. Trumpeting their ‘Three Waves’ of covid-19 response.

I’m reminded of the classic riposte. Along the lines of which business is not mobilising, stabilising or strategising in some post-rona form, hey?

Still, is there anything to take from these ivory tower chin strokings?

Short answer; No.

By way of explanation, here’s their recommended “six key areas” (or is it seven?) of coronavirus enforced focus;

Crisis management, Workforce, Supply chain, Tax and trade, Finance and liquidity, Strategy and brand

I’m not kidding.

How anyone continues to pay the likes of these guys for ‘business advice’ is utterly baffling.

Note too, how any word touching on ‘customers’, whether old or new, or ‘revenue’ is completely absent.

Here’s a trio of selected wisdom;

“Pre-crisis profit targets have been overtaken by events that none of us could reasonably have anticipated, and it is understandable that businesses will miss these targets.”

“Now is the time to protect your growth and profitability by getting a handle on what the market is doing and where it might go.”

“In this stabilization wave, in which companies begin to come to grips with the changes they will have to make to survive, there should always be an eye to the future.”

Shall we try and rescue some semblance of an actionable plan for Sales from these ruins?

In our b2b space, clients are going to be ruthless in cutting contracts.

Unless they supply the public sector, foodstuff makers and traders, or divorce lawyers.

Sadly the vast majority of us are not plying covid-proof lines of business.

Let’s see if we can build on their rubric of ‘three waves’.

With academic rigour unable to be applied, here’s an instant first-run idea.

Redraw Repackage Rebuild

Redraw. The map of all our selling surveils is likely being radically recharted. Is our entire revenue under threat of closure? Where is risk highest? Does scope exist to place customers and prospects into different psychographics? Ones dependent upon whether they see their world as rebounding in a V-shape, or falling off a cliff edge into not just a bumpy U-shape, but devastating prolonged L-shaped graph? Surely a conversation to be had, and had with haste with every single prospective or current buyer.

Repackage. Different times call for different positions. Is what (and how) we sold last year ripe for now? If not, then how must we re-imagine our offerings? And accordingly amend its pitch? Do we even stick with what we had, or twist for not simply a new configuration, but totally new developments?

Rebuild. To shelter from potentially merciless winds. Times they are a-changing. Ever more Op-costs pricing models, cyber meetings and bespoking. New pre-sale routines, evaluation and sign-off procedures, and implementation programs will all emerge. Requiring you wrap yourself and your Sales and delivery around them.

If pubs can pivot to takeaways, with all their growlers, barbecue packs and home deliveries, to make every patron feel truly special and part of something to get behind, then what must you also do and embrace as your new normal?

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jamie@example.com
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