Articol de: Elena Badea, Managing Partner, Valoria Business Solutions
From the discussions we have with the managers of the companies that we offer marketing consulting services in Valoria, most of them are already working, together with their teams, on the recovery plans in the post-COVID economy.
Positive and negative scenarios are prepared, needs and purchasing behaviors are analyzed, products and services are adapted, new marketing plans are elaborated. Despite the unexpected dose, sales and marketing teams make forecasts, talk to current customers, recalibrate budgets and change the marketing mix. What is the goal? It is increasing favorability, improving conversion rates, and ensuring profitability.
The success formula for 2020: Evolution. Learning. Transformation.
What are the actions that make the difference in this context? Beyond the experience and competence of the sales and marketing specialists, the situation generated by the impact of COVID-19 has many variables and unknowns. Therefore, in addition to the plans and scenarios prepared by the managers, the essential elements for success are given by the ability to observe the new tendencies and the agility in adapting to them. For this process, a few elements are essential and that is why I have addressed them in this article.
1. Use social media to talk to current customers
Communicating with clients is essential both in times of stability and in times of volatility. Social media offers important tools to maintain this communication, with only one condition – focusing on the customer and not on exposing the benefits, offers, and promotions. This is why, now more than ever, companies need to get out of egocentric communication and open dialogue with their customers.
The economic significance of the gift, from interest to altruism
Even if you have not done so before, it is good to create all kinds of contexts in which clients tell you what this period is like for them, what their challenges and needs are, what expectations they have from their business partners, what measures have been taken to adapt, etc. Non-selling, sustained and empathetic communication feeds positive emotions and puts us in the good, long-term memory of our customers.
2. Discovering new opportunities amid adversity
This is not a simple or easy thing from at least two points of view:
The marketing and sales teams are made up of people who also have reactions of panic, upset, sadness or concern at the health crisis generated by this coronavirus. So their ability to discover opportunities is affected by their mental and emotional state.
Many companies have procedures that require systematic information to „see” where an opportunity arises, but especially to approve „accessing” it.
Clear values lead to clear decisions
The winners will be those marketing and sales teams with enough ancestry to change everything on the go, from companies open to change, testing and agility. Decisions are now made not only based on figures, but also the basis of vision, experience, and intuition.
3. Observe the new buying behaviors
Demand crises, as it is, turn into financial crises through the blockage they create in the economy. But even when they stay home or are technically unemployed people consume essential products and services, having preferences for their search, selection and purchase channels. Social distance has „forced” large categories of consumers who have so far preferred to buy offline now and also in the online environment.
On the other hand, many companies were forced by the new context to find solutions for partial or total digitization of the purchasing process. What to do? The simplest and most effective thing is to monitor the competition, the actions of the top companies from different industries, in general, and the materials that the big consulting companies publish. All of this must be supplemented with data from their interactions with customers and from observing their behaviors.
