The New Sales Playbook: Thriving in the Post-Pandemic Hybrid Sales Environment
The global landscape of sales is different from what it used to be. In this new era, marked by the aftermath of a pandemic, the post-pandemic hybrid sales environment has emerged, intertwining the virtual with the physical. For sales professionals, the mandate has become clear: adapt to this changed scenario by refining strategies and sharpening specific skill sets to resonate with today’s demands. Unfortunately, as high as 60%, based on our assessment data, salespeople have yet to adapt their skills to a hybrid sales environment.
The Shift to a Hybrid Sales Model Post-Pandemic
Historically, sales thrived on handshakes, face-to-face meetings, and in-person presentations. The pandemic, however, redefined these norms. We witnessed the birth of the hybrid sales model—a synergetic blend of traditional face-to-face sales and remote, digital interactions.
A global crisis, in the form of COVID-19, made this shift unavoidable. Traditional sales interactions faced significant challenges with lockdowns, travel bans, and social distancing norms. However, even as we gradually return to some semblance of normalcy, the hybrid model’s advantages are hard to ignore. It offers unparalleled flexibility, extends reach beyond geographical confines, and can be more time and cost-efficient.
Yet, this evolution isn’t without challenges. The digital shift requires mastering new technologies, guaranteeing effective communication over virtual platforms, and ensuring that client relationships remain robust without the regularity of physical meetings.
Salespeople who still need to adapt and build virtual selling skills are struggling. As I shared in one post, salespeople who have not made virtual selling skills are basically selling naked, like in the story of the emperor’s new close.
The Top Sales Skills for Success in a Post-Pandemic World
Navigating the sales domain in a post-pandemic world demands more than just conventional tactics; it calls for a blend of old-school principles, novel strategies, and an adaptive growth mindset. Here are the most sought-after skills in this hybrid sales era:
Building Business Relationships
Even in a digitized environment, the human-to-human connection remains at the core of the business. The relationships forged with clients go beyond transactions:
Personal Touch in Digital Interactions
It’s not about replacing face-to-face meetings but about replicating their essence in a digital context. This could mean using video calls more often, remembering personal details about clients in your CRM, or even sending a quick note on special occasions.
Leveraging Technology
Tools like CRM software can remind salespeople about follow-ups, ensuring no leads fall through the cracks. In addition, analytic insights can indicate the best times to reach out or offer personalized suggestions to clients. As CRMs add AI functionality, the CRM will recommend actions for sales managers and salespeople.
Value Addition
In the post-pandemic era, relationship-building means being an active partner in a client’s success. This involves understanding their challenges and proactively suggesting solutions—even when there’s no immediate sale involved.
Identifying Goals and Challenges
As I shared in my book, Driving Explosive Growth, human-to-human interactions will become the determining factor for sales teams who reach and surpass their goals and those that miss their sales plan again. More salespeople missed the plan that was achieved in 2022, and we do not expect 2023 to be much different.
Salespeople trained in building business relationships know how to build rapport and know industry trends and everyday struggles their customers have. They have been trained to use discovery and qualifying questions to get below-the-surface discussions with buyers and truly understand the problems to be solved.
Virtual meetings, building rapport, and asking great discovery and qualifying questions are essential for salespeople today. Opportunities they once would see as they walked around prospects’ facilities now must be heard from insightful questions that demonstrate competence and build trust.
Discovery and Qualification
Recognizing potential clients and understanding their needs is an art in some companies and a science in market-leading sales teams. We spend much training and coaching helping salespeople develop strong discovery and qualifying questions today.
Digital Profiling
In a world with extensive digital footprints, salespeople can use social media, company websites, and online reviews to get a preliminary understanding of a lead. Some sales teams are using sales AI tools.
Active Questioning
Instead of generic questions, salespeople should aim for specific queries that uncover needs. For instance, instead of “Do you need a new software solution?“ one might ask, “How are you addressing your current data analytics challenges? “By the nature of your questions, you can demonstrate competence and build trust.
Continuous Learning
Staying updated with market trends and potential client challenges becomes crucial with rapidly changing industry landscapes. Often teams leverage the voice of customer research to understand customer satisfaction and gain insights into any unresolved problems customers have today. Voice of customer research helps identify current challenges your customers and markets are experiencing.
Empathy and Active Listening
In a world bombarded with information, genuine understanding becomes a premium commodity. Unfortunately, too many salespeople ask questions, listen to reply, and do not learn. Active listening is critical to becoming the trusted advisor clients want and need today, and it is a skill that can be learned.
Emotionally Intelligent Responses
Recognizing and acknowledging a client’s emotions or frustrations can create a rapport. For instance, understanding the added stress businesses may have faced during the pandemic and tailoring conversations accordingly.
Feedback Integration
Active listening isn’t just about the present conversation. It’s about integrating feedback from past interactions. If a client mentioned a challenge in a previous conversation, bringing it up in subsequent discussions showcases genuine interest.
Digital Etiquette
On virtual platforms, active listening might involve non-verbal cues such as nodding or using reactions on platforms like Zoom.
Customer Personality Profile
Salespeople today must have solid situational awareness and be able to identify the personality style of their prospects. We teach sales teams how to adapt their presentations based on DISC,
Acting like the CEO of Their Region of Responsibility
The modern salesperson needs to be a strategist, viewing their portfolio with an owner’s lens. Time is one of their significant assets, and current salespeople must be able to allocate time based on opportunity. They must make decisions based on ROI and consider the cost of sales.
Data-driven Decision Making
This involves closely monitoring metrics like lead conversion rates, client feedback scores, and return on investment for particular strategies. They review what customers buy and recommend other products based on what similar customers purchase.
Risk Management
As a CEO would for a company, salespeople should be adept at anticipating challenges—be it potential objections from a client or external market shifts—and crafting contingency plans.
Stakeholder Management
Just as CEOs manage various departments, salespeople must liaise with delivery teams, product managers, or finance departments to ensure seamless client experiences.
Collaboration – Building and Delivering a Business Case
The essence of sales is solving a problem. Crafting a compelling narrative around this can sway decisions. As we assess sales effectiveness, we often find salespeople need to improve or have a low figure-it-out factor. We must upskill salespeople to build and deliver business cases, not just product features and benefits.
Cross-functional Partnerships
Collaborating with technical experts or product teams can lend more credibility to a pitch, especially in B2B sales scenarios.
Storytelling
Data is essential, but stories resonate. Whether it’s a success story of a past client or a hypothetical scenario illustrating the impact of your product/service, weaving a story can make your case more compelling.
Create Customer Champions
When salespeople are skilled in collaboration, the customer feels ownership in the plan and becomes an internal champion. Salespeople who pitch slap their customers lose that critical step of cooperation.
Negotiation and Closing
This phase is where the rubber meets the road. Mastery here dictates success. Unfortunately, our sales effectiveness assessment data shows less than 14% of salespeople have received negotiation training. As we learned in a buyer study, over 75% of professional purchasing agents have been trained in negotiation tactics, which often leads to a mismatch of negotiation skills. If salespeople do not receive negotiation training, they leave money on the table that could have flowed to your profits.
Understanding the Client’s Position
Often, negotiations stall because of unseen constraints on the client’s side. Unearthing these—be it budgetary restrictions, past experiences, or internal processes—can lead to more fruitful discussions.
Win-Win Solutions
Negotiation isn’t about victory but alignment. Instead of hard discounts, offering extended support or training could sweeten the deal for the client without compromising the price.
Professionally Handling Customer Objections and Not Trying to Overcome Them.
Top-producing salespeople know customers’ top objections and are prepared to handle them professionally. Our sales skills training teaches salespeople how to handle objections and not try to overcome them professionally.
Selling Based on Value Delivered, Not Price
In the information age, competing on price is a race to the bottom. The focus needs to shift. As we assess sales effectiveness in teams, we find many sales teams sell based on price and not the value their product or service delivers.
Highlighting Long-term Benefits
A slightly pricier solution might offer benefits that, in the long run, lead to cost savings or greater value for the client.
Building Trust
Often, resistance to higher prices stems from a lack of trust. Regular client testimonials, case studies, or pilot projects can bolster confidence.
Building a Business Case
Top-producing salespeople act as trusted business advisors and know how to build and present business cases to close the sale.
Acting as Consultants Rather Than Sales Reps
Today’s clients are looking for partners in growth, not just vendors. I want you to know that clients wishing to have trusted advisors share insights not found on your company website.
Offering Tailored Solutions
This might involve understanding a client’s industry in-depth, recognizing trends, and offering resonating solutions.
Educative Approach
Sometimes, it’s about educating clients about potential challenges they still need to recognize and showcasing how your product/service can address them.
In essence, the post-pandemic world has upped the ante for salespeople. It’s no longer just selling a product or service; it’s about offering holistic solutions, building genuine relationships, and navigating the nuances of the digital world with finesse.
Conclusion
The future of sales in a post-pandemic world isn’t just about selling—it’s about understanding, adapting, and providing genuine value. As the line between physical and virtual continues to blur, mastering these skills will not only be advantageous but also imperative. The message for sales professionals gearing up for this new era is clear: refine, relearn, and reignite your sales strategy—the future promises for those ready to embrace it.
Do your salespeople have the skills your customers and prospects expect today?
How effective is your sales team today?
How much more effective could your sales team be?
What impact would higher close rates at higher gross margins have on your bottom line?
Let’s go ahead and schedule a call if you’d like answers to questions like the above and to improve your sales effectiveness for today’s customers.