How to stay pro-active during lockdown

In the midst of a pandemic and all of the challenges your prospects and customers may be facing you may be feeling it’s inappropriate to be actively making your traditional sales calls.

It’s right to be cautious as you do not want to lose trust or respect from your audience, customers and prospects for being insensitive. However, there are several ways to remain pro-active, effective and efficient during lockdown and here are my 8 top tips:

1. Keep in touch with customers and prospects
• Show that you genuinely care by not trying to win sales. Uniquely, we are all experiencing Covid-19 together so it’s a great opportunity to touch base, be a friendly face/ear, listen to their situation and add value where possible via insight, connections, ideas, etc. Being there when it counts will strengthen your relationships for the future.
• Cleanse and update – now is a great time to cleanse and update your database/CRM to ensure it is current, up to date, streamlined and effective.
• Market Research – Some of your clients and prospects may be willing to participate in a survey to give you insight into your brand perceptions, service, quality, etc. or establish insights and opinions on the future market demand.

2. Research new leads
• Use this time to research new leads or markets.

3. Social media
• It may not be relevant to put out ‘sales’ messages but you can still grow your followers and engage your audience with quality content. When things get back to ‘normal’ you want your brand to be the ‘go to’ brand because it’s recognisable and trusted.
• Connect and follow customers and prospects and be ready to engage.
• Utilise Twitter Hours, LinkedIn and Facebook groups. Be brave, message contacts, join discussions and comment where you would previously have not had time or known what to say. We have more in common now than ever!

4. Review processes and procedures
• Take the time to run through your sales and enquiry systems and processes to ensure they are effective and efficient.

5. Review/rewrite
• Review and rewrite your sales and marketing plan to reflect the situation and what will need to be done to recoup losses.
• Plan for your business’s re-emergence and share your plan with your audience in advance to reassure them and demonstrate your adaptability.

6. Diversify
• I am so proud that within the events, hospitality and travel industry my colleagues have been able to respond to this crisis by diversifying. Venues have transformed into hospitals, hotels into hostels for the homeless, restaurants are delivering hot meals to the vulnerable. Look at your skills and services and consider how they could serve other purposes.

7. Upskill
• So many online up-skilling tools are available right now, for skills such as sales and marketing, blogging, vlogging, negotiating, presentation skills, proposal writing, customer retention and social media. Up-skill while you have time to learn and practise.

8. Collaborate
• Join forces with associate partners to create new solutions, to enable you to up-sell and/or cross-sell. You might create additional products or services or come up with more holistic and comprehensive packages of products or services to fit your customer’s needs.

We hope our tips are helpful, let us know your feedback by emailing Hello@Hello-Hospitality.co.uk or tweet @hospitality_kc

Written by Kathryn Clarke, owner of Hello Hospitality www.hello-hospitality.co.uk