You had everything figured out. Your goals for 2020 were set, your sales playbook was locked in, and you’d even trained the team and got them operating smoothly.
And then everything changed overnight. Your original plan is out the window, you’re in remote-work-only mode, and you’re left figuring out how to adapt to salvage your sales numbers.
For most of our customers, adapting to the times has also meant revisiting how to best use Vainu as a part of the sales process. In this post, we’ve gathered our best practices for using Vainu in these crazy times.
Stay in touch with your existing customer base
First things first: it’s easier to keep a customer than land a new one. For those working with existing clients, be sure to monitor the accounts for any significant changes that would affect your customer relationship negatively.
In addition to traditional growth signals (expansion, hiring) used for eyeing sales opportunities, we recommend setting up Vainu alerts for the following:
- Layoffs
- Earnings releases
- New financial statements
- Changes in management
- Signals mentioning keywords such as ‘COVID-19’
If you do see your customers struggling, reach out to see how you could help them through the rough times, and ensure the customer relationship continues for years to come.
Redefine your ideal customer profile
As during any period of economic downturn, some businesses are affected more than others. Therefore it’s safe to assume that some of your potential customers were also affected more, while others may even be thriving. This means that your definition of an ideal customer is in need of an update.
It’s a good idea to review your ideal customer profile (ICP) regularly anyway, but even more so now. To do so, download five lists from your CRM:
- Companies you’ve opened new deals with in the past weeks
- Companies where you’ve seen a new inbound lead
- Companies that have moved forward in the sales pipeline
- New customers
- Existing customers that purchased more from you
With these lists, try to identify common themes amongst the companies: industry, size, financial stability (financial statements are a great source for analyzing this), and more unique traits such as technologies used, recent changes, and so on.
If you have a larger customer base, Vainu Analyzer is a great tool for analysis. Upload the lists into Vainu to get a quick and visual breakdown of the key data points.
We do this analysis daily, and we recommend you do, too—things will be in flux, as are the circumstances, and so being able to respond quickly is crucial.
With the whole team working remotely, having a solid data foundation is key to proper reporting and forecasting in your CRM. Use Vainu’s syncing capabilities to make sure you have all the company information you need up to date without any hassle.
Test new target groups, double down on what works
Once you’ve updated your ICP, focus sales efforts on the companies that fit the bill. However, if your ICP is too scoped or you’re short on prospects, this would be the time to test new ideas out.
Jump into Vainu’s prospecting platform to go through the filters and come up with new target group ideas. Are certain growth signals more valuable than before? Could you get more specific with financial filters?
While these will certainly vary depending on your business, here are some industries you may see success with:
- eCommerce consultancies
- Software vendors for online conversions: chatbots, optimization tools etc.
- Financial services and software providers
- Cloud service professionals
- Anyone facilitating remote work: software, hardware, consultancies etc.
- Industry-specific vendors, such as recruiting companies focused on healthcare
Not only will testing lead to more prospective customers and potential deals, it’ll also give you more data to continue updating your ICP. And when you find a type of customer actively interested in your services right now, double down and make yourself known to everyone in that same situation.
Be prepared for your meetings
In uncertain times, every meeting counts. Before reaching out and interacting with your customers and prospects, make sure you’re prepared: aware of how they’re doing, and ready to be relevant and helpful.
From Vainu, check the company profiles in the platform or directly in the CRM to get a 360 degree view of the company. Be sure to go through the recent changes and financial details at minimum, but also any other piece of information that would be helpful.
Keep calm and carry on
According to our survey on B2B sales during these unprecedented times, 29% said they were planning to double down on their time invested in sales activity. We recommend the same—not panicking, but rather continuing with a systematic, data-driven approach to sales, only updating goals and KPIs if truly necessary.
At Vainu, we aim to do our part to help. If you have any questions on how to best use our platform in the current setup, please do not hesitate to contact support through the chat, or your customer success contact directly.
