COVID’s Lasting Effect on Selling

“The times they are a-changin’” … Bob Dylan

The arrival of COVID 19 has had far-reaching impacts on every aspect of our personal lives. Flash forward to 2022 and in many areas, this is certainly true of Boise where I live, folks have pretty much decided to move on with their normal everyday activities.

I think that we have come to accept the fact that, while it may never go away, we might as well come to terms with living with it. Be careful but, with vaccinations, you will probably at least live through it if you do get it. Call it the 12 month flu season.

While our personal lives have returned to some degree of normalcy, business (and selling) has been changed forever. Companies who may have been opposed to remote working were forced into accepting it as a necessary evil in order to keep their doors open.

Now that things are opening back up, businesses have decided that either …

This remote thing can actually work or …
We need to get back into the office or …
We can do a hybrid model with x days remote and x days in the office or …
Depending on your responsibilities, you might be one or the other

So, what does this mean for sellers?

Even prior to COVID, I’ve read quite a few articles that have suggested that today’s buyers would rather chew off an arm than to have to meet with a salesperson. Now that they are working from home, in their underwear, they have a solid excuse that will not require the loss of an appendage.

Sellers also confirm that customers just don’t want to see them in-person anymore at the office or otherwise. I don’t doubt that. I might also suggest that we have played a part in conditioning our buyers into adopting this behavior. Please stay with me.

When I started selling, it was rare to use the phone other than to schedule an appointment. Even with the phone, most aspects of sales were done in-person at the front desk. Next came mobile phones and we were all over that. Convenient!

Now … we are too lazy to get off our asses and go out the door, too lazy to pick up the phone and why should we because … we have email! If that doesn’t work, how about text and social messaging? Our customers recognize this and, guess what, they like it too.

Sure, there will always be cases where meeting in-person is not practical unless we drive for hours or get on an airplane. Are you going to do that for a $2,000 sale? How about a $200,000 sale? For $200g, I might be packing my bags.

Still, thanks to technology, we do have options like Zoom. My background is in the sign industry and if I can throw some drawings up on the screen and review those with the client … that could work. In-person is better, but it beats email. While I would prefer to see the client during this process, cameras are optional. Sound is not.

Some clients are going to remain adverse to anything but email, or so I am told. I would suggest that you will need to control that narrative by explaining to them, up-front, that meeting in-person (in some fashion) is a necessary part of the process and this is why doing so is in the best interest of both parties. And … they agree to it. Problem solved.

My experience has shown that, unless there is a damn good reason not to meet … few of these opportunities will ever convert and you are going to be bled dry trying to catch up with these folks. Ghosted. They are almost always cattle calls. Regardless, you have deprived yourself of just about any opportunity of building a relationship.

Therefore, and this is a decision that you will need to make for yourself and on a case-by-case basis, are these kinds of deals even worth pursuing? While there will always be valid exceptions to any rule, I’m ok with saying “thanks but no thanks”.

We never had the option of virtual meetings in my day. Technology is wonderful, but only if you can leverage it to your advantage as opposed to using it as a crutch. Hell, maybe you like the convenience of email more than you like securing sales.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!