There are endless articles about what we should stop doing, as sales and marketing professionals, as a result of COVID-19. I think a lot of this is good advice.
But the problem I have is that we shouldn’t stop these things just because of the current crisis. We should stop these because they represent bad practice. They are programs and things that we have been doing that target the wrong customers, that waste their time, that do not create value with/for the customer, that are more focused on our goals/efficiency than the customer. We should stop things that are manipulative, focused on our goals, not the customers.’
Reflect on what you have been reading and hearing for years, if not decades.
- We have to be customer focused.
- We are more impactful if we create value with the customer, and in every interaction.
- We should focus on our ICP, the customers we can most help and who want our help.
- and on and on and on……
These have filled hundreds of books, articles, webcasts, etc., and have done so for years and decades. Consultants, service providers, vendors make billions from saying this over and over. Our customers have been telling us what they most value, the help they need, and how we best serve them.
In the results produced, rather not produced, by our teams, we see a continued decline in results and performance. Yet rather than assessing what we should be doing, or rethinking how to be most effective and impactful, we mindlessly focus on volume and velocity—just do more of what we’ve always done, faster. Or worse, we look at how we can manipulate the technology and tools to enable us to inflict more on our customers/prospects–all in our self interest and not to create value with the customer.
There is plenty that we should stop doing. But we shouldn’t stop doing it because of the current COVID 19 crisis, we should stop doing these things because they represent bad practice.
It’s fascinating and heartwarming to see how, suddenly, people and communities are banding together to do the right things for our customers, communities, people. We can only move forward, together, acting in our own shared interests and caring for each other.
But isn’t that what we should have been doing before this crisis?
And isn’t that what we should be doing on an ongoing practice–COVID 19 or otherwise.
Afterword: I hope my comments in these and related posts are not construed as being insensitive to what everyone is going through at this time. No one will be untouched by this.
Everyday, one sees countless examples of the goodness of human beings. We see how people are banding together to help each other, knowing the only way we go forward is by working together, not in our own self interests.
It is stunning to see how crises, this and others, bring us together doing what is right.
My only argument is, why does it take a crisis, a pandemic, for us to do what we know is right? My hope and prayer, is that we remember these lessons and how much we accomplish together, as we move forward in different times.
