the impact of the pandemic on sales

If you have a B2B sales force, you certainly measure some KPIs such as:

• the number of appointments and/or interactions with the client that are required to sign a deal
• the time between the detection of a deal and its signature
• the number of people and the number of interactions with the customer during the sales process, and to whom you talk of course
• the number of appointments per salesperson per week
• ….

Tuesday, March 3rd I had the opportunity to participate in a Redpoint conference led by Tomasz Tunguz (which I have already written here) with the CEO of  Chorus.ai. They presented the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sales since the beginning of the pandemic and restrictions on travel and face-to-face meetings. And even if the data is based on the US market, it seems useful to me that you also try to analyze with an open mind the changes that have taken place, and potentially adjust the objectives.

Summary of facts

Here is Tomasz’s article that summarizes the session, and below my notes of the session:

Here are some key elements of what Chorus.ai found. Chorus.AI has an Artificial Intelligence that has listened to and analyzed 35 million appointments by phone or video conference (in particular via their integration into Zoom). You can find the data details here.

1. It is 2 times more likely that the buyer team will be accompanied by a member of the customer’s management team. This is especially true during the very first appointment, because its participation drops by 80% from the 2nd. appointment. So make sure that from the 1. appointment your sales representative is at the TOP level (excellent preparation, accompaniment by a pre-sales engineer,…). If possible, they should also be accompanied by its management, depending on your customers. The constant was that when a member of the management team is present, he is actively present (not to waste his time just listening). It also means that the discussions are more direct and result-oriented.
2. The participation of a member of the management team allows a higher success rate!
3. Salespeople can make significantly more contacts and especially prospecting! As most buyers work from home, and are less and less in meetings or travels, their availability has increased, and they answer more on the phone…
4. The number of appointments to sign has increased by about 10%. The good news is that we are more available for RDVs, because we avoid travel time. But if you have a large sales force, and apply the same objectives of number of appointments per salesperson, you may have a decrease in sales…
5. The sales cycle has… doubled… This is probably one of the most important information, because it changes everything… For deals not yet signed: do not throw them in the trash, analyze well the cases that take longer than usual to sign and treat them with the effort they deserve, even if a year ago you might have been right…

Merci aux 44 lecteurs de cet article !