It’s inevitable that sooner or later, our prospects and clients will go through a time of crisis. Whether that crisis is negative, such as a downturn in their own businesses, or positive, as in a lot of demand and not enough personnel or supplies to deliver, the salespeople who are prepared to be a solution are the ones who will get the business.
But few salespeople take the time to plan a ‘crisis campaign’ so they can be ready to step in and be a strategic solution provider to their prospects.
Why?
Salespeople are busy, and few take the time to think ahead to where their prospects and clients will be in a few months or years. However, if a salesperson or sales team can sit down and share the likely challenges they think their prospects will face in the coming months, they’ll be able to do the work today to prepare for better success tomorrow.
We interviewed Robert Chesler, a sales leader in the dairy commodities industry. During COVID-19, his customers experienced a lot of crisis as their supply chains and demand fluctuated tremendously. They were able to better serve their prospects and
If we can be top-of mind when our clients are going through a period of crisis or challenge with a custom-built campaign for the challenges our prospects find themselves facing, we’ll be better positioned to be their vendor of choice for our products or services.
T – Trigger: Without a trigger, we won’t know when to bring this crisis campaign into play. Robert advises to think about establishing a ‘crisis campaign’ long before it’s needed and to establish benchmarks in your prospect’s industry such as spikes in material costs, hiring challenges, or even seasonal cycles so that you’ll know when to activate your campaign.
Sit down with your team and map out what those benchmarks might be for your prospects in the coming year so you can begin preparing today.
R – Repeatable: If salespeople are taking the time to consider what challenges their prospects may be facing soon, few of them will take the time today to prepare for it. Instead of frantically reaching out when a crisis does occur with our prospects, Robert advises salespeople to map out their crisis campaign in a CRM system that has notes and allows salespeople to flag accounts that have urgent needs.
I – Improvable: To ensure your crisis campaign is producing results, it’s important to track how many prospects are taking action on the links, reports, tools and resources that you’re sending out in your campaign. If you’re sending the materials you’ve developed to help your prospects and customers navigate through a challenging time, keep track of how many of them take action on setting appointments, open reports, using a free/reduced cost trial, or engage in the resources you’re sending along.
The data you gather will be critical in ensuring you’ve built your crisis campaign for the right crisis!
M – Measurable: Robert advises there are two ways to measure the effect of a crisis campaign: Who’s looking at the information in the campaign and who’s taking action on the information. This means looking at the number of prospects you’re sending the campaign to, combined with those signing up for fresh information, and who out of those groups converts into clients.
By having crisis campaigns ready for both bull AND bear markets, we can ensure we’re ready to serve our clients in ways our competitors won’t be able to compete with.