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Salespeople, beware. Social distancing might be here to stay.
Selling is not going back to normal, whatever that is. If you are one of the 50 million Americans who make their living in some form of sales, the time has come to face some hard truths. Prospects do not want to be in the same room with you.
“Prospects and customers do not want salespeople in their buildings,” says author Tom Searcy. “Salespeople do not want to travel. This is the new world of selling in place.”
According Searcy, a large account sales expert, we shouldn’t expect anything to return to business as usual, especially not sales. (I first met Searcy when we wrote a book together about Warren Buffett back in 2012. I was a big fan of his first bestseller, Whale Hunting.)
Searcy, the founder of Hunt Big Sales, says those in sales must evolve to this buyer-driven market. The new world we find ourselves in presents many challenges for attracting clients to your business. COVID-19’s long-term impact on daily life remains to be seen, but doctors are already advising us to expect social distancing to stay.
“The United States business-to-business selling model has been reset by the pandemic,” Searcy said, “The circumstances of not traveling and working from home will be the new normal.”
Searcy’s most recent manifesto on the subject is a best-selling e-book co-authored with Carajane Moore titled How To Sell in Place: Closing Deals in the New Normal.
With large companies like Twitter announcing new permanent, company-wide work from home plans, the business world is already seeing major changes.
Searcy says the selling in place model is not just a current hurdle to overcome, but a new environment in which everyone needs to adapt.
Searcy explains that with travel taken out of the process, and on-location selling reduced, salespeople and buyers will now be selling from where they are.
“That means a lot of new skills, measurements and ways of doing business for all business-to-business sales organizations.”
Previously, face-to-face meetings may have been a major component of your sales strategy. When it comes to building trust with your clients, face-to-face interaction is key. The inability to meet with clients presents a gap that can feel like a chasm. But personal connection is just one element of building client trust.
Searcy’s new model shifts personal relationships down the hierarchy. In order to build trust in a client that you cannot meet in person, you’ll need to show you care about their needs, well before you’ve actually landed the sale.
“Expertise is the new first step in trust development rather than personal connection,” Searcy explained.
But not just expertise about your product or service, selling in place requires you to become an expert on your potential clients.
“The second trust step is showing how much you understand specifically about the prospect’s market challenges,” Searcy continued, “The third trust step is your ability to speak to their challenges with your company’s unique solutions.”
In this new model, trust comes less from relationships, and more from your expertise of the client’s needs. By showing the client you’re thinking about them on a personal level, and are bringing solutions to their problems, you can use your expertise to build trust.
So, prospects don’t want to be in the same room with you. Don’t take it personal. Instead learn how to get them into a Zoom room. Salespeople have always been adaptable and resilient. That’s needed now more than ever.
