March 25, 2020 - C-Suite Network™

Now, more than ever, we need to keep our growth engines running. Sales must maintain activity levels. Marketing must keep the digital lights on. This is not the time to slow down or stop.

This past week I’ve talked with many leaders that are facing hard choices. I’ve seen some companies make the first cuts in sales and marketing. I understand there are hard choices to be made in this season. There may be some fat you can trim that should have been done months ago. But overall, I want to challenge business leaders: keep your growth engines running.

Fortunately, it seems like the Small Business Administration is committed to keeping the American economic engine running. Low-interest loans with favorable terms are available for leaders that have the guts to keep moving forward.

We have to keep the growth engines running.

This crisis will pass. When it does, companies that kept their growth engines running will be ready to help. Companies that shut down their engines will scramble to get going again. Many of them will not have the resources to get restarted.

Your Revenue Growth Engine is the sum total of your sales and marketing efforts. Together, these activities drive the lifeblood of your business: revenue.

Three Reasons To Keep Your Growth Engine Running

1. You Don’t Know When The Rebound Will Happen

Have you ever tried to time the stock market? That never works well for anyone. And even if you could time the market and get back in at the bottom, sales doesn’t work like that. In order to be there at the bottom, you have to be there. If you don’t have a sales team, you won’t be there and you’ll miss out on the rebound.

2. It’s Easier To Sustain Momentum Than Start Again From Zero

Your growth engine is more like a freight train than a race car. You can’t just go from a dead stop to 80 miles per hour. Revenue comes from relationships. Relationships are built and sustained over time. If you sideline your sales team, you can’t sustain relationships. If you turn off your digital marketing, you erode trust. Right now, we need to maintain momentum.

You might think you can restart when everyone comes out of their bunkers. The problem is that your revenue engine is like a freight train. It might take more resources to restart from a dead stop than it will to keep the train in motion. If you are able to restart from a dead stop, you might not be able to get in motion as fast as your competitors who kept their engines running.

3. It’s Our Patriotic Duty

Our government leadership has said that they prefer to help businesses keep people employed rather than pay out unemployment. It appears they are willing to help us weather this storm so we can come out strong. Why are they willing to help? If every business shutters their sales team and closed its digital doors, our economy will be in even worse shape, causing even more misery. We need to keep the engine running.

The Mindset of a Farmer

In sales, we talk about hunters and farmers. Hunting is fun because you see immediate results. If you have an opportunity to help someone right now, bag the deal.

Guess what? For the most part, we are farmers in this season.

What do farmers do? They cultivate the soil, plant seeds, and maintain their equipment.

Plant Seeds

Right now we are planting seeds. No farmer would expect a harvest immediately. This comes in time. Any farmer that doesn’t plan seeds right now is living in fantasy land if they think they can harvest a crop in six months. Sales and marketing plant seeds by being present, communicating consistently, and sharing helpful ideas.

Cultivate The Ground

Farmers till the soil. It’s hard, unrewarding work. However, for seeds to grow and bear fruit, this work needs to be done. Sales cultivates relationships by staying in touch with prospects and clients, empathizing, and offering to help. Marketing cultivates the ground by sharing helpful ideas that build trust.

Maintain Your Equipment

Farmers use the winter to maintain their equipment. Tractors are serviced and cleaned. Implements are prepared for the rigors of the next season. Sales need to take this time to sharpen their sales skills. Marketing needs to take this time to maintain an online presence. Harvest will come and the companies that take this season to maintain their equipment will be ready.

What Should We Do?

Here are some ideas to keep your growth engine running.

Sales: Maintain Activity Levels

Sales must remain active. While things were going well, you may have managed yourself or your sales team based on hunting metrics: sales results. During this season of planting and cultivating, you may need to grow, manage, and reward your team based on top-of-funnel activity. You might adjust your comp plan temporarily to reward reps based on calls, social touches, sequences launched, and periodic business reviews.

Train your reps. Invest in your team during the offseason so they can hit the field ready to win.

Marketing: Keep The Digital Lights On

Marketing must keep communicating. When you stop communicating, you cease to engage in the digital world. Right now while we are working from home, we are undeniably in a digital world. For years, marketing experts have been urging us to build and maintain a vibrant online presence because our buyers are digitally-enabled and socially-empowered. How true is this now?

Does your message need to change in the short term? Yes. (Some ideas here: Outcomes Clients Want During a Crisis: How To Shift Your Sales and Marketing Message In the Short Term.) But you must keep communicating and stay digitally engaged.

This season for marketing to plant, cultivate, and maintain the equipment. Keep communicating by sharing ideas on your blog and social media. Take this downtime to improve the website and refresh your sales collateral. Have you put off investment in marketing automation and sales enablement? Now is a good time to get this infrastructure in place.

Keep Your Growth Engine Running

Some companies will stop their engines right now. Salespeople will be laid off. Marketing will come to a grinding halt. This will be done in an attempt to survive and preserve salaries for core employees. Here’s the challenge with this mindset: if you don’t have a growth engine you won’t have a company.

I implore you: find a way to keep your growth engine running. I realize hard choices need to be made in this season. However, the companies that shut down their growth engine will have a really hard time in the aftermath.

Companies that dig in, plant seeds, cultivate the ground, and maintain their equipment will be there to reap the harvest.

Enjoying working from home? It’s nice not having to deal with people interrupting you, isn’t it? Your productivity is soaring. You have more time with the people you love. Best of all, no need to deal with office politics.

It sounds like you’re an introvert. Like me.

But while sitting happily ensconced at home, our extrovert colleagues are doing what comes naturally: reaching out, touching base, supporting people. They’re not being mercenary (well may a couple of them are). Extroverts GET energy from interacting with other people. Their well-being depends on staying connected. We introverts aren’t shy (a common misperception). It’s just that interacting with people saps our energy. So, we avoid it.

But using social distancing as a reason (that sounds better than excuse doesn’t it) to disconnect puts you at a competitive disadvantage. Crises situations can cause people to revise their impressions of others. This gives you the opportunity to show you’re an even more outstanding team player. Embed in your colleagues’ and seniors’ minds that when the chips are down, you take the initiative to improve the situation.

Here’s a simple, five-step process you can do to improve relationships despite social distancing:

Make a List. Who do you need to keep in touch with? Create a spreadsheet of the people you interacted with regularly in your workplace. (Here’s a spreadsheet you can download.) Then add the people who you might have seen or spoken with once in a while. Do you know a couple of junior people who could use some mentoring? Add them. Aim for 25 to 50 names in total. Make a column where you can enter the date of the last time you were in touch and fill it is as best you remember.
Add Value. Figure out how you can help each person. Add a column to your spreadsheet that briefly describes this. Possibilities include providing ideas for a project, support for a problem, or mentorship. If you’re not sure, ask about it in your first contact. It may be as simple as camaraderie for someone who lives alone.
Set a Goal. Decide the frequency with which you want to be in touch. In most cases, I recommend once a week. But for a senior colleague, you may choose every two weeks or less. You may feel you’re bothering people by contacting them so often. But think how nice it feels when you get a text message from someone who wants to know how you’re doing. It’s nice to have someone thinking about you, isn’t it?
Calendar Time. Schedule 15, 30, or even 60 minutes in your calendar each day to focus on connecting with people. Keep it like you would a meeting with your boss or most important client.
Phone, Text, Email. Each day, get in touch with five to ten people. Now there might be people on your list you deal with on a regular basis for work matters. Great! Remember to periodically ask about their well-being and that of their family and loved ones. When you ask, “how are things?” give the person time to really respond. Ask a follow-up question. Then you can get onto business. For people you aren’t in touch with frequently, it doesn’t have to be long. On the phone say, “Hi, thought I’d see how you’re doing.” A one or two-line text or email is fine. Don’t worry if they don’t respond. The person will be grateful for your consideration. Even for someone who (secretly) dislikes you, he’ll probably like that you express concern.

Remember family members and friends. Include them among your 25-50. If you haven’t been good about staying in touch with your parents or siblings, now you have a reason to do so. This is the time to get in touch with that long-lost school chum or college buddy. Everybody has COVID-19 in common, so you won’t be at a loss for a conversation starter. Think of the fun you’ll have blowing the person’s mind that you remembered and tracked him down.

With restaurants and bars closed, where can you meet friends or family members who don’t live with you? Google Hangouts is an excellent tool for having a virtual get together. Last night I had a virtual drink with my friend and we talked for two hours like we’ve done almost every Tuesday night for the last year and a half. Truthfully it wasn’t as good as having our favorite bartender periodically join our conversation, but we still had a good time.

Get a group together. Theme the event. If you’re a whiskey fan, start a tasting club. Whiskey Advocate will explain how. I’ve heard that several women in my community gather once a week on Hangouts to chat while knitting and crocheting.

Starved for sports like Jason Gay? Maybe those fantasy leagues aren’t so crazy after all. Check out my article on using common interests to build relationships.

From time-to-time, examine your list and revise it. Not every relationship is going to flower. That’s okay. There are lots of great people to add to your list. Even after social distancing ends, keep this up. Relationships are the lifeblood of your career. Keep them flowing…

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