3 Predictions About Sales In A Post-COVID World

These days, when a new pattern disruption comes along, we can count the minutes before a self-described thought leader proclaims a “new normal.”

(Trust me, do a Google News search on the term “new normal” and see what you get.)

I call B.S.

Make no mistake; there is nothing “normal” about what we are going through right now.

In fact, this is about as far from normal as many of us will experience in our lifetime.

(Anthony Iannarino wrote a fantastic and compelling article about this concept. Read it!)

We are learning how to live (and to sell) in constrained environments.

We are temporarily changing our lifestyles for the greater good.

That said, there is redefinition in the trade winds.

That includes the sales world.

If you make a living as a sales professional, then your world will not look the same on the other side of this abnormal reality.

Future Normal #1: Welcome to the “Zero Moment of Sales”

In 2005, Proctor & Gamble coined the marketing term, “Moments of Truth.” A clever way of understanding consumer behavior (first moment – interacting and choosing a product; second moment – using and assessing a product; third moment – feedback and reaction to the product).

In 2015, Google added to the concept with “Zero Moment of Truth.” This is the first moment of recognition of a product, typically in an online experience. (Think back to when you first learned about Apple’s AirPods, for example.)

In many sales industries, the sales presentation officially begins (or has been seen to begin) with that first face-to-face meeting. Yes, there may have been some online or telephone interaction, but that was nothing more than a set-up to the main event.

While some industries have long since made the jump to virtual selling, it could not be called the (sorry about this) “new normal.”

Until now.

Going forward, we will see the first, virtual encounter as THE sales main event. Sales organizations everywhere are shifting their entire presentation to an online platform, and they are doing so in real time. It’s actually a fascinating experiment to watch unfold in front of our eyes.As an example, watch this commercial for Ford Motors.

That doesn’t mean that face-to-face is dead. But I believe that the face-to-face encounter will be a SECOND main event. Moreover, the heavy lifting will already be done by that point.

Sales leaders would be wise to ask this question: what lasts?

When the world settles in to its post-COVID normal, what are we doing now that we will carry forward into the future?

Future Normal #2: The Salesperson as Chief Sorter-Outer

Google “cars for sale” and you’ll be rewarded with 2.8 billion results in less than a second.

Google “cars for sale Los Angeles” and you’re down to 116 million results.

Change that to “Ford cars for sale Los Angeles” and we’re down to 56 million.

Narrow that to Ford Fiesta for sale Los Angeles and we plummet to 4.1 million.

Ok, this is taking too long. Google “2018, white ford fiesta SE, FWD, Keyless entry, certified pre-owned, for sale Los Angeles” and you’ll only have to sort through 515,000 web pages.

Your prospect is well-armed. In fact, they are too well-armed.

Suppose I’ve got a rat in my attic. So, I arm myself with a rat trap. And a can of mace. And a hammer. And bow-and-arrow. And a Persian cat. And a voodoo doll. And a very attractive stuffed rat-slash-grenade. And arsenic. And a neighbor named Dieter who likes to blow stuff up in his back yard.

But an expert would tell you that what you really need is figure out where the access point is located. How does the rat get into your attic in the first place?  You just think, “Waste the rat and the problem is solved.” An exterminator – a true expert – will act as the chief sorter-outer. He or she will listen to what you think you need and then direct you to the right solution.

In the pre-Internet days, salespeople had a lock on the most valuable commodity available: information. Consumers had no choice but to consult with the keeper of the facts and data.

These days, information is ubiquitous. If I want to buy a new home I can learn about the floorplans, the builder, the community, the price (payment, terms, etc.), the history of the land, the micro-climate, the political voting patterns of the area, the walking distance to the nearest Waffle House… You get the picture.

Information is not the problem. TOO MUCH information is definitely the problem.

My wife and I recently bought a dog in a completely virtual transaction. We found the trainer/seller through an online search. We looked at all the different dogs for sale. We identified the specific dog we were looking for. We selected that dog and wrote, “We’re interested in BlackJack. What do we do next?”

The trainer/seller responded by saying, “Hold on – not yet. Can you please fill out this questionnaire so that we can learn more about you, your home, your history, etc.?”  (We’ll go ahead and call that the discovery process, as formal as it may have been.)

Turns out we did not want BlackJack. He wasn’t a good fit for our lifestyle and the trainer/seller told us so.

Instead, we got Brody! (Great dog, by the way.)

This was the salesperson as Chief Sorter-Outer.

The practice of overfeeding on information is growing exponentially. The Chief Sorter-Outer will bear the responsibility of applying the right solution to the real problem.

Future Normal #3: The Icon of Sales is on Life-Support

If you do a Google image search with the words, “Making the Sale,” you’ll get this.

What do you see? A COVID-19 nightmare. People are (get ready to hit that panic button on the corner of your desk)…SHAKING HANDS!!!

Oh, the humanity. Cue R.E.M.!

A handshake? Have you lost your mind? Think of the consequences. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

The handshake is the living image of a sales transaction. It defines Sales 101. And it is on life-support.

The handshake might not be dead (only mostly dead), but it is most certainly lying in a gutter in a third-world country, buzzards circling above.

What takes the place of the handshake? No one knows. But here are some candidates:

“The Head Nod”

“The Elbow Bump”

“The Foot Tap”

“The Air Five”

Or maybe just the good old-fashioned wave.

Good news for salespeople/germaphobes: you now have socially-acceptable excuse for NOT shaking the hand of a prospect. (You’ve waited your entire lives for this moment!)

So my fellow sales thinkers. What say you? What other predictions would you care to offer about sales in a post-COVID world?