MarketStar Blog

There is a reason that the Centers for Disease Control calls COVID-19 a novel coronavirus. We have never seen a virus like this one before, nor have we seen a global pandemic this severe in more than a century. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting all of us, especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and your SMB customers need your help more than ever. The challenge is finding the best way to help them through these unusual times.

As many companies struggle to stay afloat during the COVID-19 crisis, it’s not surprising that sales are down in a range of industries. Even as states begin to reopen certain segments of their economies, much remains uncertain. Understandably, many sales professionals are unsure how to keep selling during and after this crisis. 

A global pandemic, a recession, or any other widespread crisis is not the time for a business-as-usual sales approach. Instead, it’s a chance to take stock of your challenges and opportunities, and reset your sales strategy to address the situation at hand.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are often ignored because of the small contract size and the difficulty of shifting an organization’s sales strategy to meet SMB needs. Unfortunately, if your organization is one of those that are ignoring the SMB market, you might be losing out on a serious amount of money.

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing people to spend much more time at home, many are taking the opportunity to get caught up on their reading list. In stressful, uncertain times, picking up a new book or two can be entertaining and even calming. For your sales team, this could even become a time of learning and self-improvement.

Sales and marketing teams always struggle to penetrate and sell to enterprise decision-makers. Since the traditional methods of cold calling and carpet bombing rarely work in B2B marketing, reliance on account-based marketing (ABM) is increasing every day. Different companies use different tactics and channels to execute and measure ABM. Further, a standard ABM strategy may not work for all since the requirements are not the same. 

When selling technology to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), you have to put yourself in the position of the entrepreneur or small business owner. While doing so, it’s crucial to remember that SMB sales are different from enterprise sales not just because they have smaller budgets, but because their needs and approach to technology are very different.

Whereas enterprise sales tend to be larger contracts, there are many more potential SMB sales. There are 30.7 million small businesses in the United States, and they are hungry for the latest technology.

Agility is the key to sales success, so when a pandemic hits, you have to be prepared to change the way your sales team operates. Because of the global COVID-19 crisis, most businesses have closed their offices and are encouraging people to work from home, including their sales teams. Maybe it’s time to consider how you are going to restructure your insides sales and prepare to manage your work-from-home sales team.

The coronavirus pandemic has sent shockwaves across the country, grinding our economy to a standstill and forcing many employees to work from home. In these unprecedented times, establishing a new routine with your sales team can feel challenging. But rest assured: They need your leadership right now. 

Although this crisis has put many industries on hold, others are still as busy as they were before it, in some cases, more busy. In the midst of all this stress and confusion, your team may very well be expected to keep making sales calls, focusing on Customer Success, and hitting their numbers. If that’s the case, then they are likely craving clear, confident guidance to help establish some sense of normalcy—and inspire them to keep up the great work. 

Here, we explore five ways to empower your sales team from home:

For every big customer you land, there are dozens of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) out there that are looking for products exactly like yours. However, most enterprise companies ignore SMB sales, assuming that SMBs are too difficult to sell to and too expensive given the size of their typical contract. 

If you are among those who are overlooking SMB sales, then you are ignoring an untapped market that is hungry for technology.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world has had to change the way it conducts business virtually overnight. Shelter-in-place orders have been issued in states across the U.S., and businesses are encouraging their people to work from home. This is the time when your Customer Success team really needs to step up to reassure customers and keep the revenue coming in.

If you don’t already have a Customer Success team in place, then you should seriously consider creating one. Unlike customer support, which is reactive following a sale, the Customer Success team is proactive, working with customers to understand their business needs and help them to achieve their business goals.