Sales After COVID: 11 Tips From Top Tech Leaders

Sales has always been challenging work, but the coronavirus pandemic has taken those challenges to a whole new level. Budgets are tight, planning is difficult, and many businesses have had to transform their operations overnight.

In a recent webinar, Scott Olrich, chief operations officer for DocuSign, talked about these challenges with Doug Camplejohn, executive vice president and general manager - Sales Cloud at Salesforce, and Ryan Azus, chief revenue officer of Zoom. Lynne Zaledonis, senior vice president of Product Marketing for Salesforce, moderated.

We're recapping their insights and sharing best practices to help you navigate the new normal of sales during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

1. Remote is the new normal

One major change sales reps need to navigate in a hurry is the shift to remote sales. "We've been thrust into this new world of selling where the norm is doing online meetings, and this is not going to go away," Olrich said.

"As reps, before we think about jumping on a plane, we need to think about how we build a relationship, how we build credibility with our customers. A lot of sellers defined themselves on those big meetings. Now we've got to be great without them. This is a major shift for sellers."

Azus agreed. "The pandemic and the prevalence of work-from-home arrangements creates new challenges for customers and therefore for all of our sales teams, especially at the enterprise level. You're not doing customer dinners, you're not out on the golf course. That's not necessarily bad, it's just different."

Tools such as DocuSign are key to selling through the pandemic. "Those who rely on face-to-face selling and building relationships have to adjust to leveraging technology and tools such as online meetings, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and electronic agreements," Azus said.

"People ask me all the time, when is it going to return to normal?" Camplejohn said. "This is it. This is the new normal. I think we'll get back to some level of physical events, but there's going to be a hybrid in almost everything going forward, whether it's conferences or executive briefings or customer meetings. And I think it's for the better. I think people want to work that way and it's faster and more efficient."

DocuSign is helping businesses close more deals remotely. Image source: Author

2. Listening and empathy are key

The presenters agreed listening and empathy are key to selling in the age of COVID-19. "Sellers have had to become better listeners and questioners," Azus said. "They also need to have greater compassion and empathy in their sales."

"When the crisis started, we went through several phases," said Camplejohn.

"First, let's make sure everybody's safe. Then, let's adapt to this new normal of working remotely. Now, customers are focusing on how to return to growth. Customers want you to be empathetic, to be on this journey with them. Customers are going to work with companies they trust, and that could be eroded very quickly if you're not working with them as this empathetic partner."

Olrich agrees. "I think it's important in this time of uncertainty not to pretend that you have the answer to exactly what the future holds for that customer. I think that would come across as inauthentic. I think it's important to build hypotheses with the customer, to try to co-create what they think the potential future will be, and then insert your product and offering into that potential scenario."

3. Productivity may actually be better

Many organizations have found they're working more efficiently and productively with tools such as Zoom.

"Many reps are surprisingly finding they're more productive," Azus said.

"They are missing out on conversations with colleagues in the hallways, but we are seeing a few advantages. First, when you remove location as an issue, it's way easier to get subject matter experts to join in meetings. And we've noticed that we're getting higher level participants to attend virtual executive briefings. It's easier for them to jump in, and to jump out if they need to."

Olrich also sees customers moving through the sales process with a new sense of urgency. "I think buyers are looking for speed and expertise," he said.

"They want to know how you are going to help them right now during the recovery, and more importantly, how you're going to help them succeed in the new normal. They're also looking for transparency. If you're positioned as a key product, they'll make decisions very quickly, but they want to understand what relationship they're getting into."

"There's some optimism in this for sellers," Zaledonis noted. "If you're that trusted advisor and you have a solution that's going to help solve their problems during these times of crisis, they're eager to engage in that to get back to growth."

Olrich agreed. "If your customers believe you're essential for the transformation of where their company needs to go, you can actually see sales accelerating."

Remotely better? Technology such as Zoom is revolutionizing the meeting experience. Image source: Author

4. Buyer expectations have changed

Camplejohn sees customers approaching sales on their own terms. "Customers are bringing their business-to-consumer (B2C) expectations to the business-to-business (B2B) world. They want to transact on their terms and we need to meet them there."

"We're in a time of deep uncertainty, which is really paralyzing buyers," Olrich said. "They're refocusing their corporate priorities on things they believe are essential. That's been a huge shift over the past couple of quarters."

As a result, Olrich said, there are more eyes on every sale. "You're seeing more people in the decision-making process because budgets are shrinking and getting scrutinized like never before, not just within a department but across companies."

Companies that meet these changing expectations can build stronger relationships and enhance customer satisfaction.

5. Your sales process needs to adapt

So, how can sales professionals change their approach to adapt to life with coronavirus? 

"We need to find ways to enhance client meetings, not just replicate what we do face to face, but really make a better experience for the buyer and seller," Camplejohn said. "When television first came out, they were just reading radio scripts in front of a screen for a while. As fantastic as Zoom is, I think we're still in the early days of figuring out how to leverage this medium."

"You have to look at what were previously live processes and change them for the virtual world," Azus said. "If you run a large conference, you need to transform it for remote attendance."

Azus noted that Okta's marketing conference, Octane, tripled attendance and generated record leads when it went virtual. "We're doing the same with Zoomtopia, our user conference in October, and we expect great results."

"As difficult as this time is," Camplejohn said, "I think we'll look back at this as a period of great innovation and change. So don't think about replicating the things that you did before digitally; think about what you can do differently in this digital environment."

Companies are changing sales processes and even products to adapt. Image source: Author

6. Forget "always be closing"

Selling during COVID-19 requires adjusting your sales strategy. "I think the old model of Glengarry Glenn Ross, 'always be closing,' was already on its way out before COVID," said Camplejohn.

"The new mantra is 'always be helping.' And it comes back to empathy. You have to be flexible with your customers today, whether they need flexibility on contract terms or payment terms."

For Olrich, helping starts with asking the right questions. "Ask the customer, what does buying look like in your organization today? Don't just try to guess. I think you've got to give the buyer confidence that you're part of the solution and you can make an impact now."

Helping may also mean adapting your products. "There's so much that's changing so quickly, sellers need to be able to change the products they're selling or how they're selling them," Camplejohn said.

"For example, one of our customers, McAfee, turned on a dime during COVID and came up with a brand-new, work-from-home security product. Literally in days, the company had taken a portion of its sales team and used our high-velocity sales product to automate a lot of the actions to get them out there. Those kinds of things were not possible to do at scale before."

7. Sales is a system, not a channel

"The big trend, which was dramatically accelerated by COVID, is that sales will be a channel, not the channel," Camplejohn said.

"The enlightened sales leader of the future will understand the need to bring ease and speed to their customers by coordinating all the core channels across digital, across direct sales, and they're going to have to incent those channels to drive coordination." That ease and speed will mean putting more of the sales process in your customers' hands.

"In the old world of sales, we thought all of the digital aspects were left to other people, and that's not the case anymore."

"You have to allow customers to educate themselves on your website. You have to digitally enable field-facing reps to use the tools that inside sales reps have been using for years. We need to look at sales as more of a system than a channel. The people who will succeed in the next era will be optimizing the whole system."

Meetings and live events will have a hybrid component going forward. Image source: Author

8. Teamwork has changed

"I think it's also important to focus on our own people," said Azus. "Typical inside sales teams are used to yelling over cubes and being able to share ideas and best practices. They've really had to adjust to leverage tools like chat to make sure they're staying connected."

Part of teamwork and collaboration is fun, too. "You've got to bring everybody together and make them feel part of the team, and we also have to have fun," Azus added.

"You can't do a social off-site, but that doesn't mean you can't have a scavenger hunt, a magician, a sommelier, not for an everyday meeting, but for high-touch events."

Zaledonis agreed. "As sales leaders, we think so much about all the steps in the sales process, making sure they're digital, but there are so many other aspects of the sales motion -- onboarding your reps, pipeline meetings, coaching 101s. You have to make sure you're not neglecting those parts of the virtual selling motion."

DocuSign is helping clients reenvision success in the pandemic. Image source: Author

9. Success is a moving target

"I'm seeing an increased need for customers to understand how other customers have successfully adapted their business in the COVID environment and how they're succeeding," said Olrich.

"Case studies from a year ago aren't going to be nearly as valuable as being able to say, here's a financial services customer, and here's how they've adapted during the pandemic and are setting themselves up for the recovery."

To help their customers through the crisis, DocuSign is sharing success stories on the web. "We recently launched a COVID resource page on our website with all the use cases we're hearing from customers or that we're helping them implement in their companies," Olrich said.

"And it's not just for customers; we're using it to train our sales reps, helping them sell through the customer lens."

Olrich also sees a greater need to tie customer success to return on investment (ROI).

"We're seeing a shift in customer success orientation to not just being about customer adoption, but how we drive ROI for a company and how we can substantiate that ROI with a key executive sponsor. You need to have a clear understanding of what success means for that company now, not a year ago, because the world has changed."

10. Data and technology are key

"Businesses have to get more confidence and predictability around their revenue," Camplejohn said.

"There's so much that got turned upside down, all of our charts went all over the place for a few months. Some organizations are dealing with a resized sales team, so how do you look at territories, what markets should you go into, where's the real size of prize? We need to bring a lot more data to bear to make those decisions."

A powerful CRM such as Salesforce can help your company digitally transform its sales efforts for the pandemic and beyond.

"We're all now suddenly running these virtual sales organizations, so how do you do that effectively? I think a lot of what was ad hoc before has to be more documented and automated in terms of sales playbooks," Camplejohn said.

Camplejohn said that organizations should look for a CRM that "feels like an Ironman suit with a heads-up display that gives reps these superpowers to be that empathetic, trusted advisor at scale."

Salesforce is helping clients digitally transform their sales processes to meet changing needs. Image source: Author

11. The glass is half full

Azus says that even at Zoom, COVID-19 has uncovered new potential for virtual meetings.

"I think there's an advantage in being able to get higher-level people attending sales meetings, even if they disappear at some point. It's easier than if they had to get on a plane and fly out, or meet in their office where they're more likely to be interrupted. Half the time, you're just looking for that connection, the person you may need to reach back out to in the sales cycle or follow up as a sponsor, or even thank for the business. So I think you're better off even if you don't have them for the whole time."

Zoom has also found that virtual meetings have made internal processes such as hiring and training easier.

"For many candidates, we would have them come on board and do a stand and deliver, and if we had an executive we wanted there, the scheduling was so difficult, there was so much friction. When we went remote, the process was actually better, and we're hiring a ton of folks."

Azus also encourages business leaders to adapt their processes for remote experiences.

"We had a typical sales boot camp where our reps would come on-site, and we've really adjusted that. We're doing what we call insights, 15- to 20-minute sessions every day or two with time for high-quality questions and answers. They're very specific and topical, and with the frequency we've been able to increase the volume of training many times over."

Embrace the new normal

"All of us are clearly trying to sell through, and more importantly, live through, what is arguably the biggest human challenge and economic disruption of our times as sellers," Olrich said. "But at the same time, I've been so amazed at how quickly sellers and buyers have adapted."

COVID-19 has had a major impact on small businesses, changing the way we sell, work, and collaborate. Mixed in with the challenges, there are some changes for the good. Businesses that embrace the changes can enhance customer relations and keep sales moving through the crisis and beyond.