Selling in a Time of Corona – S1E3 – Sales in Lockdown

Creative intro

(Historic video):         1929…the financial house of cards collapses and the overinflated stock market plunges into a Great Depression, a financial panic grips the world. For the majority, it means the interminable line outside factory gates, desperately hoping for a job that rarely comes. It means hunger and the march of the unemployed in the nation's capital. With acute domestic problems, America would now isolate herself more than ever from the international scene. It started in America, but practically overnight an economic blizzard swept the world. In Japan, France, Britain, always the unemployed, the soup kitchens, the grinding poverty and the despair.

Elliot Epstein - intro: So, someone ate a bat apparently and the world turned upside down. Hi, I'm Elliot Epstein. And I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life coaching, consulting, training, and speaking about all facets of sales development, pitching, presentations, negotiation, the C-suite sales calls and all of the various components in the sales cycle in between. And now we find ourselves in a world that's very foreign. Welcome to Selling in a Time of Corona.

Elliot Epstein:             That opening clip was from the archives reporting on the Great Depression in 1929. We should be mindful that many people right now have also either been stood down or lost their jobs. And if you're listening, this is not the Great Depression and whilst the world may indeed be different, it will still have opportunity for you. In this episode. I want to discuss the issue of salespeople getting down or dispirited, especially when the only face to face contact you're likely to have is with your dog.

When you're isolated or in a lockdown, it’s natural for people who thrive on client contact to feel out of sorts, out of kilter, or at some level quite stressed. After coaching over 5,000 people who have roles in sales, presales, sales management, as well as entrepreneurs, CEOs, and start-up founders, let me share the core stress behaviours for different types of people and a few ways to overcome them.

Firstly, let's take Mr. & Ms. Ego Head, and I don't mean that in a pejorative way. You love being the centre of attention, giving presentations, feeding off the live buzz in the room. You're used to picking up on the clients clues and body language, and you like telling stories. You typically speak 3000 words in a 30 minute presentation. And if you do that a few times a week, that's around 10,000 words a week, not coming out of your golden mouth. If you're working from home, and the only thing you've said all day is, “Sweetie, please don't wipe Vegemite all over the cat”, you're probably going to get a bit antsy.

The core stress behaviours you might exhibit are blaming yourself for any failure or lack of progress. Being highly self-critical, feeling completely out of whack or desperate, which is no good for any of your clients or colleagues. My recommendations? Keep presenting, master the video conference, put out video blogs or posts on LinkedIn. Make sure you still have a voice out there. And secondly, be kind to yourself. Remember Goodwill Hunting? “It's not your fault. Did you hear me? It's not your fault.”

The second sales personality type is the Sociable Relationship Seller. You love the coffees, the catchups. And now they are all shut off and you can't even talk about the football because there isn't any. You're also probably one of those people that really looks after clients, expedites magical delivery workarounds, like David Copperfield on steroids and you know the system backwards. And now you're stuck online having Friday afternoon drinks in your own kitchen, holding up a glass of wine to the screen, as if that replicates the feeling you have been connected. The only benefit is laughing about Bethany's revolting choice of art on her walls and catching a glimpse of Jason's bong on his bedside table. So, it's disconnecting and stressful.

My recommendations? Group approval is big for you. So initiate projects that require lots of group interaction, it could be new user groups, new groups of colleagues working on different ideas, even reviewing the roles you each play in the team. Maybe it's even time to shake up who looks after different accounts. So, you have some new friends to talk with and get to know. Keep your sociability moving as best you can.

Next is Mr and Ms. Process or Strategy Junkie. You love the CRM more than a Chief Medical Officer loves a scary face at a press conference.       You are analytical, love the sales process and enjoy getting into the detail, plotting your next moves with a specific product line for particular clients. You may also be in presales. The biggest stress factor for you is that you become paralyzed by being disconnected. You may not be able to put all your evidence-based arguments on the table like you normally could on a Monday morning sales meeting. You may become irritated and impatient because you sent a 40-page email to everyone outlining a strategy, an account plan, and no one's read it. And they're not focused enough on a video conference.

My recommendation? Stick to a process regardless of what is going on around you. Now, admittedly, that process may be different now, but you need structure to stay sane. Don't let others drag you away from your tasks, for which you will have multiple lists. And keep strategizing, even if it can't be executed right now, it will help keep you in a good place.

Finally, the 1 Minute Man, which is no reflection on his virility, because it could equally be a woman. You love making decisions in a minute, driving deals, closing, crunching or whatever else you call it in your company. Now the stress builds up because the pace may have changed. What you thought was a done deal now has a cough and a fever and won’t happen till next quarter at best. You may even find yourself becoming more dismissive than a Vegan at a Bunning’s sausage sizzle.

My recommendation? Keep making as many decisions as you can, as often as you can. Try and recognize that a lot of people are going through some very difficult times right now, and you can't control their feelings, but you can listen to them. And by a sheer fluke of irony, listening harder and with intent gives you back that control. So whoever you are in sales, we have enough lockdowns already. Don't lock your own personality down as well.

Stay safe, stay positive. Your ears are safe. Before recording, I dipped the microphone in hand sanitizer. Take care of yourselves…until next time.