How Covid-19 Changes Sales and Selling

by Cheryl Powers

Everything has changed except the way your salespeople sell, and that's a big problem.

Listen, I love salespeople. I love sales leaders. I love the profession of sales. So don't take this the wrong way because this is coming from a place of real caring.

Your salespeople are missing a golden opportunity.

Salespeople should be doing everything they can to connect with prospects and customers, build trust, forge relationships, and stand out as a valuable and valued trusted adviser.

In a good economy, sales weaknesses can cost a salesperson lost revenue and commissions. But in a Coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemic economy, the cost of sales weaknesses are total business failures, lost jobs, negative shareholder equity, and bankruptcies.

What's happening instead?

Fight, Flight, Freeze, Appease

Your salespeople are scared. And when people are scared, they revert to their instincts and tend to forget their training. There are four distinct trauma responses to fear: fight, flight, freeze, appease.

If your salespeople tend to feel angry or frustrated when they are afraid, they will likely have a fight response.

If your salespeople tend to feel nervous or intimidated when they are afraid, they will likely have a flight response.

If your salespeople tend to feel anxious or apprehensive when they are afraid, they will likely have a freeze response.

If your salespeople tend to feel discouraged or unnerved when they are afraid, they will likely have an appease response.

It's not uncommon for people to switch between responses as this is how they learned to cope with past traumatic situations.

In this series of articles, I will show you what these trauma responses can look like in selling situations and provide a path for helping your salespeople through it.

My goal is to help CEOs, leaders, and salespeople meet the challenging needs of this new economy with heart, soul, and data.

Today, I'll begin with the fight response to trauma.

The Fighter

John has been successful in the past and has good selling skills and competencies but he has been reluctant to work on his sales weaknesses (Sales DNA) because he didn't think they were real. And his sales manager has let it slide because, even though John loses a lot of deals, his overall sales revenue was strong during the good economy. Besides, his sales manager had deals of his own to close and underperformers to rescue.

To look at his pipeline, you might think that John was set for a great year. But if you speak with his Sales VP and the CFO, what you find is that, although John sells more than most of his colleagues, his pipeline accuracy is only 68%, meaning that the CFO discounts John's pipeline by 32% each month when forecasting revenue. It's a terrible workaround I see many business owners and CFOs use because their salespeople have little idea when or why deals will close. It's not a sustainable practice in the new sales economy and you must fix this today. That's a different conversation so reach out if you want help ensuring your forecasts are accurate.

Pressure to Perform

Let's discuss one of many "opportunities" John has listed as a late-stage closeable deal in his pipeline that hasn't moved forward.

John has been working with a new prospect on a potentially large deal since January. Things were going along well and the contract was scheduled for signing in April with a delivery timeline beginning in May. Despite reaching out by phone and email weekly since March 13th, John hadn't heard back from either the CEO or the VP of Manufacturing except for a terse email telling him to back off and let them regroup.

After that email, John's fight response kicked in and he turned up the gas on his contacts, some days calling and leaving three voice mails per day for the CEO and VP.

John has been a top performer in his role for four years. He has been the number one or number two salesperson by revenue for the past three years.

Since March though, he has closed only one deal, which was a reorder from a client he inherited when he took over the territory.

He hasn't added any new opportunities to the pipeline since mid-March, and none of his deals have changed stages.

He typically travels and meets his prospects and customers in the field so being stuck at home has activated his desire to "go get something done." This new remote way of working plays into his fear and activates his sales weaknesses. 

Past Success Does Not Ensure Future Results

This new remote way of working plays into his fear and activates his sales weaknesses.

John has been successful in the past and has good selling skills and competencies but he has been reluctant to work on his sales weaknesses because he didn't believe they were accurate. And his sales manager has let it slide because, even though he lost a lot, his overall sales revenue was strong during the good economy.

But in the new economy, John is not able to connect with his prospects and customers. He's making lots of calls, sending lots of emails, and has had few actual meetings.

He is stuck in a cycle of blaming the economy, blaming the lockdown, and blaming his company. And while conditions exist that make selling more difficult right now, John's sales weaknesses present the most compelling challenge for his sales success in the new normal.

Addressing Sales Weaknesses in the Fighter

In a good economy, sales weaknesses can cost a salesperson lost revenue and commissions. But in a Coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemic economy, the cost of sales weaknesses are total business failures, lost jobs, negative shareholder equity, and bankruptcies.

Talk about fight or flight, all the sales skills in the world fly straight out the window when confronted by a salesperson's fears. It all becomes a jumbled mess of swirling theory mixed with adrenaline and emotion.

Here are John's biggest sales weaknesses:

• He makes assumptions instead of asking why
• Self-limiting beliefs - he believes his products are too expensive and that it's harder to sell in his industry and against his competition
• He tends to become emotional on sales calls when things don't go as planned or when he feels the prospect is throwing him a curveball.
• He tends to blame the customer or the price for not getting an order.
• He sells a lot but tends to cut the price to close the deal.

I haven't listened to his voice mails yet, but in reviewing his call recordings, I am helping him and his Sales VP see that he is pushing too hard, talking too fast, scheduling self-serving short check-ins instead of helpful, value-delivering meetings, and saying amazingly stupid things -- because he is scared.

 Here's how it has played out in his emails.

John's email subject lines are relics of tired old sales tactics focus on the needs of the salesperson rather than the needs of the relationship. No wonder the prospect balked.

• Moving forward as planned
• Moving forward as agreed
• Still moving forward?
• Haven't heard back on this?
• Should I close your file?

Clearly, when John is activated and coming from his fight response, he tends to think about what he is losing rather than how he can help his prospect win.

I haven't listened to his voice mails yet, but in reviewing his call recordings, I am helping him and his Sales VP see that he is pushing too hard, talking too fast, scheduling self-serving short check-ins instead of helpful, value-delivering meetings, and saying amazingly stupid things -- because he is scared.

Remember, your prospects and customers are also experiencing the trauma of coronavirus and Covid-19 so you must be able to see and understand your knee-jerk, reactive trauma responses and fix them so you can tune into the emotions and realities of the people you serve.

You and your salespeople must work patiently and effectively to build trust, establish deep rapport and build relationships that allow you to become a trusted advisor, qualify an opportunity fully and become the value your prospects and customers need most.

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