Summary: Business today is different, and those who have not adopted pandemic and post-pandemic selling skills are running into a lot of trouble. Some people are determined to wait it out. And while I'd like to think that we can all just return to business as usual when the pandemic is over, I am far from convinced that will be the case. For that reason, I believe the skills that we learn and implement now will be critical to our selling efforts going forward. <br> <br> <br> <br> David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today cohost Chris Templeton and I will be discussing pandemic and post-pandemic selling skills. Welcome Chris.<br> <br> Chris: Hi David. We are living in some interesting times, aren't we? If you had told me at the beginning of this year that we'd be doing a podcast on selling skills for a pandemic, I probably would have said, "David, you're losing it." But here we are. So what are some of the skills that you have in mind?<br> <br> David: Well, it really is crazy. You know, just the idea that for so long, so many salespeople have traditionally counted on in person networking referrals, canvassing, drop-ins, other methods that have historically been done in person. And now a lot of that stuff has been taken away. And I think a lot of people are viewing it like, okay, well I can't wait till we get back to that, and maybe we will and I'm hoping we will. I'm hoping that all those things that were previously available will be available to us again. But if they're not, then the skills that hopefully we've been learning over the course of the past several weeks and months, will come in handy on the other side. And the way that I'm viewing this is that if we can sort of layer in additional skills that will help us to be able to continue to get customers, regardless of whether or not we can be in front of them, we're going to be in much better shape than people who are simply waiting for things to get back to normal. Because the truth of the matter is, we may get back to "normal" in a couple of weeks or a month or so and then we could potentially have it all taken away again. If they decide, okay, well we've got to do social distancing again, then all of that's gone. And I think it will be very difficult for people if they're banking on the fact that things are going to go back to normal. If they don't and they don't develop those skills, I think they're going to be in some real trouble. So essentially what I'm talking about are alternatives to face to face prospecting and figuring out the types of things that we can do, regardless of whether or not we're able to get in front of people.<br> <br> Chris: It is a big order, isn't it, David? The good news is there's so many things that help us with prospecting that doesn't have to be face to face, but still I think having the attitude of "I need to make changes now based on how this could come and go...<br> <br> David: Right.<br> <br> Chris: ...is really the most important thing, isn't it?<br> <br> David: I think so. And so when I look at, okay, what are some of the skills that we need to develop (or hopefully that we have developed,) a lot of them really go to things that people have been doing online for quite some time now, and a lot of things that internet marketers have done to get business, right. And I think I've been fortunate in my sales career, I was never too married to the whole idea of having to be face to face, to sell to someone. I was always comfortable with the idea of being able to sell to someone on the phone. I was always comfortable with different aspects of being able to communicate, whether it's through email or whatever and through social media or messaging and all these different types of things. So for me it hasn't been disastrous in terms of being able to continue moving forward, but for people who have really only ever done face to face selling, this has been really challenging.
