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While this is a great question to ask yourself anytime, it is especially relevant now as you wait and wait for the COVID-19 crisis to pass. Even during “normal” times, who doesn’t get sidetracked or distracted in this giant game of Whack-a-Mole called Sales? The goal is to make certain you are staying on track and making the most of your selling day. After all of the planning and preparation that goes into effective time management, the rubber eventually meets the road and a plan is engaged. The task that you choose to work on needs to be the best fit for that particular moment in order to achieve efficiency and productivity. So, when life got derailed by COVID-19, asking yourself this question was still apropos. The only thing that changed were the answers...and the sudden lack of urgency that usually motivates a rep to complete a task and move on to the next one. Gone are the calls with clients, voicemail attempts regarding new opportunities, and interaction with others in the …

Put yourself in the shoes of your customers for a second. Where you think they want to be once the re—starting gun goes off and the business world to start spinning again? Now is the time to get out ahead of that conversation and talk to your customers about how you can help. Trust us, your clients are going to want to get up and running again as fast as possible. There is certain to be an adjustment period, but the need to get the cash register ringing with sales again will be urgent. •        What marketing will they do? •        What will their message be? •        Do they know about your full capabilities? Too often, we are called in at the “quote stage of the job.” That’s where we are valued for our prices only. Moving up the food chain to the “design stage of the job” requires providing ideas and solutions and that’s where this week’s sales tip will bring you. Talking now about their upcoming needs makes you a part of the conversation and puts you in the drivers seat for …

Recognizing that businesses will need to rebuild post-COVID, and time and funding will be at a premium, thINK announced that thINK Ahead 2020 will shift from an in-person event to a LIVE, one-of-a-kind, dynamic, virtual learning event taking place on September 2, 2020. READ MORE   …

With COVID-19 creating a time of uncertainty and fear, the following can only be applied if and only if you’ve first reached out to clients with empathy. Ask if everyone is OK and establish if now is a good time to talk business by asking targeted questions to identify needs. Only then can the following be applied. How can you help motivate clients to listen to your message and act upon your advice, especially in a time of crisis? It can be hard in times of turmoil to focus on your goals. In a crisis our objectives can seem even more unreachable and perhaps no longer even relevant. So how can you help your clients re-evaluate their business objectives, identify new more realistic goals, and motivate them to meet those goals in a chaotic time? Ask them this one question. “What do you want to avoid?” It can be a powerful question and the first step to set up a new kind of partnership in this surreal environment. Now more than ever, people need connection and the ability to talk about …

In every problem, there is an opportunity.   It’s been interesting to watch how businesses have reacted to this crisis. While the majority have come to a complete standstill, Amazon and Walmart are said to be hiring half a million new employees just to handle this tsunami of orders they been hit with because of the virus as people are buying more goods and services online than ever.   If you are being, “Sales-curious,” you will notice the emergence of companies who flourish and grow in times like these. Some restaurants, for example, are doing a banner takeout and delivery business. Others have shifted from sit down to “take and bake” whereby people come and pick up meals to cook themselves. And then there are the companies who provide debt servicing. Their message has started to populate email inboxes.   The New York Times is offering their online subscription for free. Read it every day. The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper dedicated exclusively to business, covers trends that can …