3 Business Survival Tips for the New Normal

Imagine being dropped off in the middle of a jungle with no idea where you are. It sounds like an episode of Man vs. Wild.

This scenario is what many businesses have experienced in the past 12 months due to the pandemic. There’s much uncertainty about the future, and it’s only natural to hunker down and play it safe. 

After all, things will all be back to normal in a few months, right?

Nobody can predict what the future will look like, but you can plan for every likely scenario based on trends you’re observing. For example, we see significant shifts in customer behavior where the home has become the hub of all daily activities including, working, learning, shopping, and playing.

By empathizing and adapting to the shifts in buyer behavior, you’ll be in a better position to thrive in the new normal. To help you get started on your journey, here are a few tips you can start implementing today:

Engage Customers to Build a Good Shelter

One of the essential rules of surviving in the wild is to build a shelter to protect yourself from the elements. An adequate cover is equivalent to your relationship with your customer base.

With customer loyalty up for grabs these days, it’s crucial that you start implementing a customer engagement strategy to build loyalty right away. It’s not enough to “check-in” on customers anymore.

I’ve worked with companies whose only touchpoint with customers came from finance who was sending invoices. I’ve also seen low-value communications from account managers to say “hello” and see how things were going.

A tip for engaging your customers is to segment your accounts based on NPS survey results. This method of identifying promoters, neutrals, and detractors will help you prioritize and tailor your outreach. 

If you have a list of promoters who give you a 9 or 10, they are excellent candidates for a case study or testimonial. Before you ask for one, I’d recommend sending them a gift or doing something nice for them first.

For neutrals, you have to assume that they are at risk of switching to another vendor since they are indifferent. Therefore, you have to learn on a case-by-case basis to see what would build more loyalty.

For detractors, you’ll want a member of your executive team to call, listen, and act. This touchpoint can go a long way in walking them off the ledge of the cliff. 

Expand Digital Capabilities to Make Hunting More Efficient 

To survive, you have to learn how to hunt more efficiently. If you’re relying on cold calling to raise awareness, you may catch a worm here and there, but you’re eventually going to starve. 

Becoming more efficient at raising awareness means you’re achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort—or expense.

Digital capabilities will help you get better results from your sales efforts. By expanding your abilities, you’re scaling your communications and opening up other online channels, including:

• Organic search
• Paid search
• Organic social
• Paid social
• Email marketing
• Print marketing
• Affiliate marketing

If you and your leadership team have already acknowledged you need to step up your digital game, it helps to know where you’re at and where you need to go. A simple framework is to use a competency model to help you identify the gaps between your current and future state. 

As you dig a little deeper into the level of digital competency, you’ll likely find many competitors who are more advanced than your organization. You can see how far ahead competitors are by using tools like Spyfu or SEMrush to get a ballpark of the volume of traffic they get on their websites.

The amount of traffic typically means more awareness in the marketplace and more leads they are generating. If you’re playing catchup, time is of the essence. The longer you take to building your digital capabilities, the further ahead they’ll get.

Adopt the Inbound Sales Methodology to Hunt More Effectively

Effectiveness at hunting for new customers means you’re successful at producing desired results. If you’re relying on cold calling without activating other communication channels, you’re not going to be very successful at winning new business.

Although it’s ideal to have the systems in place to generate inbound leads for your sales team, you sometimes have to do what you can with what you have. As you’re building your online presence, you can have your sales reps hunt more effectively by aligning the selling process with the way today’s buyers buy.

That’s what the Inbound Sales Methodology does for you.

According to HubSpot, Inbound sales is a personalized, helpful, modern sales methodology that adapts the sales process to the buyer journey. On the other hand, outbound sales tactics try to engage potential buyers who may or may not be interested in your products.

To get you started with Inbound Sales, here are a few resources:

• What is Inbound Marketing?
• Inbound Sales: How to Sell the Way Prospects Buy
• HubSpot Inbound Sales Course

It’s a Jungle Out There

Survival in the wild comes down to making sound decisions, planning, and making use of anything you can find. In today’s complex and uncertain business environment, you have to take a similar approach to keep your doors open. 

Although a return to normalcy is in sight, shifts in customer behavior are moving towards digital experiences to make purchases. By expanding your digital capabilities, engaging your customers, and adopting the Inbound Sales Methodology, you’ll be in a better position to thrive in the new normal.

Time is essential, so you have to learn and act quickly to avoid falling prey to more potent competitors. If you need help accelerating your digital transformation journey, we’re happy to guide you through the uncertainty.