Opinion
Closed Won
Raoul Monks, founder and
director of Flume Sales
Training, leads the charge for
sales excellence in the global
events industry
The Covid-19 crisis has fundamentally
changed the way our clients behave,
as well as sending shockwaves through
sales teams across the events industry.
The early signs suggest that these
changes will be long lasting, if not
permanent. Client expectations will be
very different, and salespeople will need
to adapt. To succeed in a post-outbreak
world, sales excellence needs to be
redefined.
What has changed?
Audience behaviour has been radically
disrupted. Who they are, the messages
that they will and will not respond
to, and the platforms with which they
engage look very different today than it
did a few months ago.
This means that much of the
established thinking around how best
to reach them is being called into
question by both clients and sales
teams. This uncertainty is causing
clients to re-evaluate their traditional
decision-making criteria. According to
recent research conducted by Avionos, a
third of buyers say they will need more
quality, and more accurate information
about what they are buying.
Financial and structural challenges
are also changing the decision-making
process. Clients are worried about their
own security, making them risk averse
and frightened of making mistakes.
What were routine decisions are now
being scrutinised, with any spend
having to be signed off at a much higher
level. All of this means that sellers need
to identify and collaborate with those
brave and tenacious stakeholders who
are equipped with a watertight internal
business case.
These changes are making traditional
sales approaches ineffective and,
unfortunately, research suggests
that rather than changing, most
salespeople are simply doubling down
on pre-outbreak tactics. It is simply not
working. Research from Econsultancy
shows that sales emails have increased
by 23 per cent but response rates have
dropped by 27 per cent, while the
average number of deals decreased by 23
per cent in March. Sales is getting much
harder.
What does the future hold for event
salespeople?
The early signs suggest that clients are
likely to keep doing things differently.
According to Econsultancy, 82 per cent
“Covid-19 crisis
has fundamentally
changed the way our
clients behave”
say that they have changed the way they
work in ways that they can use postoutbreak.
This has raised the bar for
salespeople, and it looks likely that that
bar will stay high.
We have known for some time that
the experience which salespeople
offer has a greater impact on buyers’
decision-making than brand, price, or
even product. However, pre-outbreak
conditions meant that average or even
weak salespeople could get by. That
will not be the case post-outbreak.
The experience that salespeople offer
has become more important than ever
before, and sales excellence now needs
to be redefined.
Flume Sales Training has committed to
leading the charge on helping the industry
redefine sales excellence for a changed
world. They are running three summits
and further breakout sessions to explore
the latest research, behaviours and
viewpoints of buyers, event experts, and
sales professionals to help redefine the sales
experience that clients will demand.
To find out more and to register for the
summits, visit: flumetraining.com/futuresales-lab/
“Clients are worried about their own security, making them
risk averse and frightened of making mistakes”
June — 47