INSIGHT Dave Sparrow - Blabbermouth Marketing
“By leveraging virtual platforms that are already available, shortening sales cycles and rethinking
operational workflows, businesses can take this challenge and turn it into an opportunity to excel and
stand out from the crowd.” David Sparrow, Director of Blabbermouth Marketing
Evolving your sales strategy
At a time when the world is adapting to Remote Working and staff are working hard to keep their businesses
afloat, Dave Sparrow, Director of Blabbermouth Marketing, offers some advice to evolving your sales strategy
during this unprecedented time
CBM: What can be done to
keep businesses relevant in
these uncertain times?
David Sparrow (DS): While we
all hope that this dies down
sooner rather than later, we can
all agree that it would be unwise
for a business to plan around
hope, and some businesses may
instinctively go into ‘cut-mode’
and shut down any nonessential
spending to maximise
available resources. Instead,
leaders should be taking stock
of the new landscape, as we
don’t know how long the
situation will last, and exploring
how best to adapt marketing
strategies, operations and the
products and services oered,
to weather this storm and
come out the other end, still
swimming.
By leveraging virtual
platforms that are already
available, shortening sales cycles
and rethinking operational
workows, businesses can take
this challenge and turn it into
an opportunity to excel and
stand out from the crowd.
Marketing Strategy
Some decision-makers may
now nd themselves with
more free time compared to
normal, and will be using that
time to research the products
and services that were already
on the ‘shopping list’ before
coronavirus, or possibly nding
new products that will enable
them to return tter, faster and
more agile than before.
Sales automation
With all the extra meetings to
attend and catch-up emails to
write, some are nding that
they have less time available
in the working day to devote
to nurturing prospects. It’s
worth bearing in mind too,
that many businesses will have
routed numbers to mobiles or
voicemail boxes, which means
that digital communication
will become a key method of
communication. Also, some
workforces will get smaller,
so remaining workers will
have to take on more work as
a consequence too. erefore,
automating as much of
your employees’ workows
as possible, by leveraging
a marketing platform like
HubSpot, will help to free-up
time for other projects and
dealing with the ‘day-today’,
while still serving your
prospects. is ensures that any
eects on planned pipelines are
mitigated as much as possible
by keeping prospects engaged
and progressing through your
customer journey.
Education
Now is the time to be thinking
about what those potential
prospects need to know to help
them along your customer
journey and getting that
information in front of them.
Not only that, but this is an
opportunity to stand out from
the competition in your thought
leadership and to say something
that your competitors are
not. While inboxes are being
bombarded with remote
working advice blogs and
special oers, what can you say
that’s dierent? In the coming
months, sta will become
accustomed to remote working,
and when we all return to the
oce again, sta will want to
take what they’ve learnt and
apply that back to their oce
routine. So, integrating any new
technologies, connectivity or
software used currently back
into oce operations will be
critical.
Personalisation
We all like to be valued as
people, rather than statistics
or metrics, which is why a
personally addressed email or
a website that says “Welcome
back Bob!” is going to be far
more welcoming to Bob, than
not being acknowledged at all.
And, if Bob is choosing which
business he is going to buy
from, that friendly greeting
could be the deciding factor
between Bob being a prospect
lost or won. Personalisation
helps businesses give the
impression that they are going
the extra mile and considering
the prospect personally. e
right tools will make your
brand more memorable,
and given how people will
be wanting to foster new
relationships once we’re all back
in the oce, personalising your
correspondence will help your
business stand out from the rest.
Sales Enablement
For the foreseeable future,
businesses need to focus on
identifying the products that
are most suited to selling
remotely, like low CapEx
solutions and products that are
suited to remote teams. Virtual
sales teams need to consider
the entire sales journey and
provide sellers with solutions
that help to achieve that rst
sale remotely. Not only that
but having polished, slick
assets (online presentations,
FAQs, infographics, etc.) will
help lift your corporate image
compared to your competitors,
while they are rushing to cobble
‘something’ together. It’s also
worth considering whether your
business could leverage webinar
platforms for meetings and
28 | Comms Business Magazine | May 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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