Although the country is in the process of opening back up, many businesses continue to encourage their employees to work from home and are expecting a second wave of COVID-​19 illnesses. Salespeople cannot go back to business-​as-​usual selling yet. According to Raul Perdigao Silva, writing for Sales 3.0 Conference, 63% of sales and marketing professionals don’t think the sales crisis will end for another four to six months. Here’s how you should format your sales outreach to prospects until this is all over.

Get Used to Virtual Sales

Face-​to-​face sales meetings won’t be back in full swing until the world is sure that the pandemic is over. No one wants to risk getting sick over a sale, so your sales outreach needs to be virtual for the foreseeable future. Even before the pandemic hit, in-​person sales were only the third most popular method of communication consumers preferred when talking with sales reps. According to SalesFuel’s Selling to SMBs study, the top two ways consumers preferred to be contacted be sales reps are email and phone calls. And, obviously, now, most of your prospects would prefer their face-​to-​face contact with you to be over video chat.

Highlight Your Offerings as Essential

Even though everyone is being more cautious about how they’re spending their money, they still have needs. If your products or services fulfill those needs, they are essential. Make sure your sales outreach reflects that.

Show Empathy

No matter how much a prospect may need your product or service to fulfill their current needs, it may be beyond their power to make a purchase at this time. If their budgets are frozen, there is nothing that can be done other than plan for the future. Be empathetic. Show the client that you understand the situation they’re in. Then, set a time for they think they’ll be in a better buying position and can expect to hear from you again.