As of June 1st, COVID-19 restrictions in every state have been dramatically updated. More and more businesses are transitioning back to in-person work, and the state of the economy is beginning to change.
Amidst these changes, your business development team needs to take a step back before stepping back up. More than half of workers surveyed by Zoominfo said they’ll be back in the office by June, and a lot has changed since everyone was in the office. You need to make adjustments to the “new normal.”
With so much changing – and at a rate faster than initially anticipated – it’s time to get some outside help to focus on your critical development needs.
1. Audit and Update Your Database
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant effect on staffing. Roles changed, individuals retired early, companies downsized, and overall, there was a shift in who works where doing what. As the dust settles, you need to keep your database up to date with these changes.
Reach out and research to discover who changed roles and moved companies, adjusting your prospect tags to reflect the best contact. You may also need to update personas and target segments based on overall changes in the market. Take nothing for granted – make sure you have accurate, up-to-date data before resetting your outreach.
An outsourced partner like NuGrowth can help you get your database up to speed quickly. Our database audit identifies errors and gaps, and our team works to get your data ready for the market.
2. Understand and Reach the New Market
Markets are always shifting and evolving, but the shifts this year are on a new scale. You must conduct new market research to understand how your target market has changed over the course of the pandemic. You need information on your prospects’ pain points, challenges, and even budgets. There may be new markets that are a better fit or ways to adjust your services to fit evolving needs.
Once you understand how your target market has changed, leverage marketing automation and email marketing to reach prospects with your updated approach. Arm your reps with new content, speaking to identified changes in pain points and opportunities, to reengage contacts as they move forward.
An outsourced business development team can efficiently conduct such in-depth research, allowing you time to adjust your products and services as needed. And, they can provide you with engaging content and targeted email and other marketing campaigns to reengage prospects. With updated market data, your team can hit the ground running to meet next quarter’s goals.
3. Bring in Lead Volume
Over the past year, you’ve likely narrowed your lead focus, growing high-value accounts to keep steady, reliable cash flow. Now that restrictions are lifting, you need to shift to increasing your lead quantity again. As your ideal customer profile has shifted, you need to bring in more variety to determine a new profile.
Look to outsourced business reps to help you do large-scale outreach and lead analysis. An outsourced team can bring in higher lead volume and prime ideal prospects for meetings, building your pipeline faster. With solidly trained reps working on your behalf, you can understand your new prospect profile and bring in the leads you need faster.
4. Retool Outreach
The way people communicated in early 2020 and the way they do now seems decades apart. With Zoom calls and teleconferencing now commonplace, you may see more individuals opting for these methods for sales pitches and demos. McKinsey found that 49% of decision-makers now prefer these remote communications when evaluating suppliers. However, you could also see a swing to the other end, like the 29% of decision-makers who still prefer in-person meetings. The only way to tell which your customers and prospects prefer is to offer it all.
Use outsourced business development reps to try out all these possible communication methods. With an outsourced team working on your behalf, you can quickly determine which prospect profiles prefer which methods and adjust your outreach means and messaging to match.
5. Focus on Your Team
Recognize that your prospects aren’t the only ones in transition – you and your team are also experiencing a significant shift in returning to the office. Identify ways to redefine your culture and address the emotions that come with coming back to in-person work.
Part of that includes re-training your team, especially around how to tackle the new sales environment. Leverage an outsourced partner like NuGrowth to help your team come together and learn tools and tactics to excel in the new sales environment. We provide Sales Mentors to all our highly-trained reps to help them navigate new and evolving environments on your behalf.
6. Leverage Resources
A lot of new information is coming at your business this year. You need to focus your resources appropriately to help you regroup and grow again. Whether it’s leveraging PPP loans to bring in outside development services or adjusting your products and services to meet emerging needs, you must think about how to maximize your efforts.
The team at NuGrowth Solutions can help. With our expertise, we bring a fully operational business development team poised to audit and refresh your database, conduct market research, spearhead lead generation, and make your development pipeline move so you can focus on adapting other areas of your business.
Learn more and get in touch with us at http://nugrowth.com/contact.
Kyle Tillar is VP of Sales for NuGrowth Solutions, working to ensure clients reach their goals and inside sales teams meet objectives. Under Kyle’s leadership, NuGrowth sales teams have generated hundreds of million in pipeline revenue and closed ACV for clients. Leveraging his sales expertise and extensive training, Kyle excels in developing go to market strategies and sales processes to increase KPI’s and results.