The One Question You Need to Answer Now (A Sales Challenge)

Here’s a short and simple thought for you to contemplate this week.

You thought you knew the answer to this question.Your company may have trained you on this. You may have thought the answer was obvious.

But that was before this pandemic forced us into a hurried change in how, where, and why we do business.

Likely, most business models or the way businesses function, will be altered forever—servicing clients remotely, distributed workforce, more online options—so, now and in the near future, the question we should all be asking ourselves it,

How are You Relevant to Your Customers’ Business Right Now?

• Has our relevance changed? 
• Has our relevance been sidelined? 
• What do our clients need from us now and going forward?
• What else do we have to offer to help them now?
• How are we going to be relevant going forward?

It’s not a rhetorical question. It’s important that we know! I want to know!

I’m asking myself the same thing right now too. Some clients are ramping up their team’s skills and development investments and some are putting those projects on hold. We started “sales training beyond the sales team” skills sessions last year and “creating organizational gravity”—which we know will be key to our clients’ businesses improving their relevance. But what else?

How do I stay relevant or bring my pivot to the market so that my business thrives as it helps others’ thrive?

In the early days of this crisis, we (should have) changed our sales messaging to reflect an empathetic understanding of what our clients’ challenges are. But what’s next?

After normal business assumes a new shape, or even a long term temporary one, what could that look like for our business relationships?

Here’s Our Challenge

This week, I’m going to schedule 3 to 4 conversations with existing clients—not about when or how we’ll do business together in the future, but about how I can be relevant to them going forward.

I recognize some clients may not have those answers for me right now, but it will open up the opportunity to discuss possibilities without the pressure of a proposal on the table.

Will you take me up on this challenge in your business?

Tell me how your conversations go!