Watch the recording: "Sales and Marketing amid the COVID-19 pandemic"
Comments
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By: @Rodney Molina
I work as a Sales representative at Axxon in Curacao, we provide Fleet tracking & management solutions? You guys got any advice for this market?
Goedemorgen Rodney! I don't know by heart who in this community works in a similar field. Perhaps you can re-ask this question on the community itself tagging the specific topics? I'm sure some of us here can share some of their insights.
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Mike van der Valk said:
Another by: @Christoph Suwelack
Can Pipedrive extend 14 days trial of the Professional Plan to 90 days?
@Diogo Bronze what can we do here?
Hi
I have two accounts with Pipedrive.
SCCS Brewing Solutions and Corbion Ltda.
For the Corbion Ltda. account I would like to try the approach that Matt Heinz suggested. Cold Calling and "Touching base" emails. In the professional plan you have multiple emails and dialing service.
As per this moment I could drop the de SCCS Brewing Solution account and invest this money to upgrade to professional in the Corbion Ltda. account.
But If you can give a trial period of 90 days in the professional plan for the Corbion Ltda account, I would stay with booth accounts running.
Would this be possible??What can you suggest??
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Willvin Gomez
I'm on the real estate industry, any recommendation on the best approach to do nowadays?
@Joseph Valenti any suggestions?
Good morning. I have attempted three responses so far... and all have been pretty bleak. There is no denying that anyone earning commissions on any kind of transaction, including real estate transactions, is going to be facing challenges. That includes me: I sell software to mortgage brokers. But I can offer some constructive comment.
Your previous customers will be very grateful to hear a familiar and respected voice that will present truthful local perspectives.
Retaining (and augmenting!) contact, trust and credibility are critically important right now. If you can possibly do so, demonstrate leadership in the community (at a safe distance!).
If you have the means to record a short video (or better, a series of short videos), and distribute these as links in emails, your previous clients will be glad to have clear, honest, concise, accurate assessments... both good news and bad. If video is not practical, then the same kind of context in a blog or an email-series. One hopes that the conclusions will not be panicked, but sober and honest.
The goal is to make YOUR business the obvious choice when things get better. And they will get better. Do what you can to be well-positioned and credible when that transition begins, knowing that even the transition will take months.
Joseph Valenti, BrokrBindr.com
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Rajit Aggarwal
What can we do for conventional business sales people. who are on the field how can they manage in this crisis. So I would like to have some insights. With huge sales cost we don't want to loose them but we actually want to know what can we get from them to get the best in these times?
Thanks for sharing @Rajit Aggarwal perhaps @Lisa Coyle or @Amit Sarda can share some of their experiences.
The answer to this question is going to depend on which country you're in, what the government policies and stimulus packages are, the industry (essentials vs non-essentials), the ability to sell remotely, the financial health of the company, the outlook of the business in the post-Covid world, etc. among other things.
I wish I had a better answer but these are some of the points to help you think along.
My most prominent client has made it a point to be very transparent about the reality and constantly communicates with the team if anything changes. I would say communication (more listening) and empathy are your biggest drivers in this situation.
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Roger Romero
How can we successfully address the hold from leads/clients/investors in keeping paying/buying?
@Amit Sarda any idea?
These are weird times to commit anything financially. Any 'buyer' (customers/investors/clients) will be wary of committing anything in this market, and the only way to move in the right direction would be to 'sweeten the pot'.
The following are a few ideas:
- Discounts against future purchases (bookstores, cafes, restaurants, etc. offering gift cards)
- Investments at a lower valuation (giving away more equity than you had anticipated)
- Free add-ons/services (higher plans at the price of lower plans)
- Prioritizing customers (booking production space)
- Value delivery model (restaurants switching from dine-in to delivery-only)
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Joe Barnes
We are receiving a growing number of requests from our customers who are struggling to meet the subscription payments.
What are your thoughts on this?@Amit Sarda any insights what your clients are doing?
I asked this question a few days ago about how many businesses are actively considering hibernating until this crisis is over. Perhaps it was too soon to pose that question since more businesses are now realizing that this may last a little longer than they had initially realized.
Many businesses are going to be sitting on their hands until this crisis is over. Since most businesses these days use SaaS applications, they will start questioning how long they can sustain the monthly subscription costs.
With no revenue, it will be difficult for these businesses to absorb these costs. They would ideally want these SaaS providers to delay/reduce/waive off payments until the business starts picking again.
On one hand, these businesses may find individually reaching out to each of these SaaS providers a little tedious, and more importantly a little embarrassing.
This is inspired by a tweet, but I have, for a while, believed that reputations will either be made or destroyed based on how people/companies treated others during this time.
As such, many companies have gone out of their way and proactively adjusted their billing plans for their customers to reflect the effect of this crisis. I believe that customers will remember this in the times to come and be more loyal to the brand.
The dynamics of who gets the benefits of this program will depend on who the SaaS player is and what they do. So each SaaS company will have to decide the best course of action that will benefit their customers.
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Lewis Houghton
Has there been any progress on the Calendar sync integration with Microsoft? The bug sends meeting updates to hundreds of customers (even last year) just because of the activities. Support has blamed Microsoft API but it's not functional.
I'll get back to you on this @Lewis Houghton checking with the team
@Lewis Houghton when we have a moment my colleague @Vincent Jyrwa will get back to you here.
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@Matt Heinz thanks for joining our community here, please feel free to go through the questions up here and share any useful insights you have 🙏
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Jeremy Litow
Matt seems to be suggesting we follow the tenets of the 'Challenger Sale", yes?
@Jeremy Litow thanks for asking. We're having Matt Heinz set up an account with us so het can get back to your question and others here
@Mike van der Valk Yes, The Challenger Sales's focus on reframing problems, teaching and tailoring a value-based message to your prospects applies well here.
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Adarsh Odedra
How do we adapt our approach while decision makers may be vulnerable or less interested ?
@Lisa Coyle any suggestion here?
Lead with empathy. Ask them what they need. Share ideas and best practices from what their peers are doing in this time. Prospects who are ready to engage in a sales conversation will take you there. Those that are not will appreciate your empathy, generosity and grace.
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Mike van der Valk said:
My firm is a mashining tool distributor, so its very hard to sell without the physical contact... What should we do ?
@Tim Berman how do you deal with this in these times?
Here's a blog post I wrote on this a couple weeks ago for a manufacturing client: https://www.heinzmarketing.com/2020/03/replacing-the-magic-of-in-person-sales-meetings-when-youre-forced-to-be-remote/
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Mike van der Valk said:
By: @Colton De Vos
Our company provides IT services that businesses need right now for secure work from home collaboration environments. What are some ways we can connect with prospects without coming across as opportunistic or pushy - genuinely wanting to help other businesses get what they need to keep working.
@Amit Sarda @Boris Tsibelman @Robert Luna do you consults companies in a similar situation?
Hello @Colton De Vos
What I´ve been doing is sending newsletters/emails with tips and recommendations. At the end of the day, I have received answers like: "Thank you very much. Can you help me with X,Y,Z? and also replies like: "Stop bother me, I have more important issues right now!"....So, what I think is that I can not control the reaction of people in other side of the phone. So, I keep doing my best to find the people that want to be helped.
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Mike van der Valk said:
Another by: @Christoph Suwelack
Can Pipedrive extend 14 days trial of the Professional Plan to 90 days?
@Diogo Bronze what can we do here?
@Christoph Suwelack just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about you, just checking out internally what we can do
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This was well done. I too think something positive will be on the other side of this pandemic. Thank you!
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This was so interesting thank you so much for bringing these experts together.
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Daniel Axelbaum said:
This was so interesting thank you so much for bringing these experts together.
@Daniel Axelbaum Great to hear, thanks! Please keep an eye on more upcoming webinars!
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