So, the pipeline slowed down a little bit🙁

You and most other B2B sales teams are experiencing the same symptoms:

• The pipeline velocity has slowed, feels a little like frozen molasses 😒
• Business Development staff normally used to face to face presentations are stuck at home, feeling a little disconnected and alone
• Leads have slowed as companies focus on preserving cash and fewer new projects

Here are 5 things you should do NOW to prepare for the reopening:

1 Inside Sales to train Business Development team

Your most experienced remote workforce is already in your organisation, its your Inside Sales team. They have always worked remotely and know how to have good solid conversation with prospects. Solid prospect will still have needs, they have just deferred their purchases due to Covid-19.
Getting Inside Sales to Train BDMs will sound bizarre to some BDMs, but what you are aiming to do here is to refresh the skills of your BDMs in having open conversations with prospects. Get the head of Inside Sales to run a training session for the BDMs on how to have these conversations and better still, how to record the outcomes of the conversation in your CRM system.

2 Call all Closed Lost Prospects

Whilst you have BDMs not fully utilized have them call all Closed Lost opportunities for the previous 12-18 months and revisit the prospect’s appetite, situation and needs.

Record the outcomes in your CRM and where prospects expect to be back in the market within a reasonable time, create and Opportunity in your CRM system with a closed date out into the future. Make sure the details are adequately recorded in the CRM system so that the data is there when the Opportunity becomes live again.

3 Set KPIs

Set call rate KPIs for BDMs and Inside sales that reflect your new reality. If your BDMs and Inside Sales teams have more time on their hands, use it to cover all previous prospects to check in with the prospect as to how their businesses are tracking, what issue they are having and how you can help the prospects.

4 CRM detail

As your organisation and your prospects organisation’s come out of the Covid-19 lock-down/slowdown, you want to be prepared to optimize your market share. In order to do this, you will need the information obtained from the conversations you have had with previous prospects. Make sure the details of these conversations are recorded accurately and clearly in your CRM system so that you can leverage the information in a new world post lock-down.

5 Motivate the team through sharing

If your team is working from home, they probably don’t get the buzz out of colleagues sharing their success or efforts. You can create this buzz by using any chat software, like Salesforce Chat, Microsoft Teams or something else. Encourage the team to share their experiences, fell part of something collectively and prepare for the post lock-down world.

It won’t be business as usual, but you will have a better business if you act on these 5 things right now.

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Author: Lyle Potgieter, CEO SAAS Know How.com