It is an undeniable fact that COVID 19 impacted the Economy in forms and stages, as the world at large never thought it would, and definitely not as fast as it did. In the last few weeks, the landscape of business has changed in fundamental ways globally, the breadth and depth of which we can’t yet fully comprehend.
While some businesses are faced with withdrawal in consumer behaviour others are forced to close down. This has left an impact on the day to day business activities causing averagely the establishment of new ideas and proposals to probably sign off or presently place on hold. The number of closed-won deals has dropped. Globally, Weekly average deals dropped by 17% in the first week of March, and fell by 23% by the last week of March, as against global averages earlier this year.
Presently, businesses are willing to be engaged and are seeking interaction with consumers hence the reason online transactions have been a short term Messiah for Business Owners. The mandate of the lockdown has kept a lot of marketers at home. Still, in a way, marketers have an opportunity to engage a few interested customers.
And because our media and marketing agency works with companies in major sectors, we are already starting to see how it is impacting marketing. From a conversion rate standpoint, there were more drops in most industries. Even the financial sector, which had big booms in traffic, significantly dropped in conversions.
The pandemic’s economic challenges are unprecedented, it’s a threat to the sales and marketing unit cannot be overemphasized. COVID-19 has hit sales functions hardest.
Sales Teams have been significantly more active but consumers are less engaged or concerned with sales content. Then, this leads us to the question;
What will it take to navigate this crisis, now that our traditional sales and marketing assumptions have been rendered irrelevant?
As the impact of COVID-19 continues to unfold, brands and agencies need to keep a close eye on the changing consumer behaviours and impacts on individual industries to ask the right questions, ensure they are prepared for any outcome and find new opportunities.
Marketers will have to do what they have always done best – adapt to the new normal that is evolving. Staying on top of the latest trends, watching the data for insight, and understanding new consumer behaviours will be key in driving successful marketing strategies moving forward.
Because people are working remotely and limiting their travelling, the time consumers spend online is increasing. Marketers will, therefore, need to start advertising more on social media and on digital platforms.
An important thing that sales and marketing teams will need to keep in mind is that since people will be more active on social media and online platforms while in self-isolation, the pressure to create more digital content will be extremely high. Business will need to ensure that they create a lot of high-quality content to stay relevant during this pandemic.
Another approach to keep Marketing and Sales Performance active is to engage customers more on their concerns and suggestions and also build on past relationships. Adapt and transform into the new
challenges where your solutions are particularly relevant. With this, it is certain that the Marketing and Sales Performances wouldn’t go into extinction but rather come out stronger after times like this.