52
Mash Sessions
Selling in
a crisis
Martin Fullard meets Raoul
Monks, founder and CEO of
Flume Sales Training, on Mash
TV to understand the challenges
salespeople are facing
aoul Monks is the
CEO and founder of
Flume Sales
Training and has 20
years’ experience in
media and events.
In normal times,
Flume exists to drive
ROI through
workshops but, as
with everyone else during the
Covid-19 crisis, has adapted
and has taken his events
online. It’s been successful,
too, with some 1,600
delegates joining his first
session.
I spoke to Raoul online, to
learn more about what
salespeople need to be
thinking about during this
crisis. “We have seen huge
changes to the sales
landscape over the last couple
of months, which has
highlighted the importance
and urgency of having the right
sales teams,” he says. “Clients
right now need the right sales
approach. We have adapted
our training programmes to
help the media and events
industry’s sales teams
navigate this incredibly
uncertain time.”
Challenges are aplenty. I
ask Raoul for a summary on
what sales leaders are facing
right now. “The biggest
challenge right now is
uncertainty in the face of so
much change,” he tells me.
“There is a lot of confusion
over what ‘good’ looks like. We
have sales leaders and sales
teams working from home,
which makes motivating
teams much harder, and even
then, they may find that they
have nothing to sell. It’s a
cause for anxiety.”
What are you hearing from
salespeople, and indeed the
marketplace, I ask: “The
biggest question from all sides
is what they should be doing,
what is working, and what is
not working?” he notes.
“Salespeople are accustomed
to what ‘good’ looks like, but
now that definition has
changed. Some are adapting
better than others, maybe due
to their events being later in
the year, for example. People
want to know what others are
doing, what best practice
looks like, and to define it.”
Every sale involves a client,
and Raoul tells me that they
must be front and centre of
your mind during this crisis.
They need help and
reassurance. “The biggest
mistake a salesperson can
make is to look at it from their
perspective and not the
clients’,” he says. “Pivoting to
the client perspective has
never been more important or
urgent. It is tougher than ever
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for a client to say yes. It is
likely your client has had their
marketing budget cut and they
are quite emotional, with the
ego level dropping from
confidence to security as the
risk to making a bad decision
has heightened.
“All your clients are thinking
about now is how they get
through this, and is the
salesperson approaching
them doing it for the right
reasons? The sales
experience is more important
now than ever before.”
Right now, it seems, how
you sell is more important
than what you sell.
To find out how you can get
the most out of your sales
leaders and sales teams,
watch the full interview on
Mash TV’s YouTube channel.
Search for Mash Sessions.