The truth is, if sales work were about tactics, anyone could do it. What separates an average salesperson from a great salesperson is their mindset. A great salesperson's mindset allows them to see opportunities no one else can and do what no one else will. The key is to understand people and give them the right to express their emotions.
With the right mindset and a dry pipeline is your chance to experiment and become a stronger salesperson, even during a crisis. Here are the mistakes you need to avoid when your pipeline dries up and how to take advantage of this unusual time.
To make up for the lack of volume, anxious salespeople try to overcompensate with perfect execution. They tell themselves, “Since I don’t have many prospects to work with, every prospect is incredibly important. I have to convert and put more of them and I can’t make any mistakes or upset them.”
The following sales anxiety will eventually kill any lead that is left on the line. During the COVID-19 anxiety people will need more space than they normally do. Also, the situation is forcing people to cut their expenses, so it’s not the best time for trying to make someone to buy from you.
Making prospects stand on their toes by being too much in touch with them or trying to avoid making mistakes or upsetting them demonstrates neediness. No one wants to do business with a needy person, which results in either lost deals or poorly negotiated deals that heavily favor the prospect.
Normally, when you have many deals in the pipeline, you’re in execution mode. Your main concern is following up with prospects and closing deals, not exploring different ways to sell. However, a dry sales pipeline allows you to enter exploration mode because fewer prospects and deals mean more time to experiment and learn.
Don't waste time at work panicking because your pipeline is dry and there is not that much amount of prospects. The COVID-19 outbreak has given us all enough to panic about outside of work: So, use the time you spend selling to level-up your skills.
A good way is to experiment with your cold call scripts and email templates. This is especially true during the current pandemic. Will your subject lines get a better open rate if they mention COVID-19? How should you adapt your scripts to acknowledge to the current world situation? These are questions you need to answer by experimenting and tracking the results.
The second tip is to contact and sell for longer contacts. Try getting them to pay up front instead of monthly. This is especially important during the pandemic because your business needs cash-flow now to prepare for what's coming.
Prospects may resist because they don’t like making these long-term commitments right now. But if you can make them see why it’s of value to them during this crisis, both you and your prospect will win.
When you have the right mindset, you can keep calm during a crisis and keep selling during a downturn. While everyone else is panicking, you’ll be too busy creating your own opportunities to notice a shortage.
That could mean upselling, experimenting on your sales materials, selling longer subscriptions, or doing referral sales. The only limitation is your imagination. However, you can’t be creative with a scarcity mindset. Use abundant thinking to help you identify your advantages and leverage them into new opportunities.
Making the remote-workday as easy as possible, it’s almost necessary to include different tools to support your work in sales. With Blitz, you can save time and resources by adapting the sales commission tool to your everyday use.
Let our metrics help you and put the focus on selling and prospects. Taking tools in practice, it’s easy to save effort and put it into an experiment. By maximizing the productivity of working hours, it’s easy to get the results that are wanted when working remotely.