Salespeople who are aware of the common actions their target companies take during economic crises always tend to show better sales results.
COVID 19 has changed everything. The COVID effect on the majority of companies is inevitable at this point. Understanding how companies react or even pivot during an economic crisis can be crucial. It will not only help the company stay afloat but also thrive as soon as the crisis is over. Learn how you can make strategic sales decisions by seeing things from a company’s perspective.

There’s no shortage of forces that can negatively impact an economy. In fact, some have such a significant impact that they change the business landscape entirely. No matter if you operate in B2B or B2C, an economic crisis comes with a high level of uncertainty, which in its turn can drastically impact businesses.

There is no doubt, understanding the way companies think or foreseeing the next step during the crisis is an important step toward survival or advantage to compete in your business niche. With all that advantage, you will be able to make better strategic decisions not only to stay afloat but thrive.

The first step companies should take during the crisis is reviewing where they can save money to prepare for a long period of possible market decline. The perfect scenario for each company is having force-major savings at least for the employee salary for upcoming months. If you are caring about your brand reputation, pay special attention to this point. Customers value and respect the brands that were able to save their employee jobs no matter what they went through because of the crisis.

Cuts on revenue mean less cash that could be spent on business growth. It’s a perfect opportunity to review the product pricing you offer. 

During normal market conditions, companies can afford to be less picky or critical of the tools the teams use for business growth. In case of market bad market conditions, companies will be very picky when it comes to cash. To cut in short, the common question will be “Do we really need this right now?”. This will include longer approval periods from decisionmakers.

When it comes to the economic crisis, long sales cycles are inevitable.
No matter what, companies always invest in things that help them decrease their customer churn. From a strategic standpoint, your product messaging and position plays a significant role during this kind of situation.
The closer you can align your offering with potential client’s current goals given the market, the easier it will be for your team to show the value. It is never too early to be prepared for the next pandemic crisis. Preparation is everything. Here are the main actions companies take during an economic crisis:

1. Cutting product production size
2. Cutting capital for expanding operations, paying bonuses  
3. Employee lay-offs and benefit reductions
4. Evaluating products and services to ensure the market demands continue to be met 
5. Readjusting benchmarks and projected growth targets
6. Reduced consumer access

All of these actions don’t happen immediately. However, during the long period of the economic crisis, they come into play. Remember that in such conditions companies always look high and low to save money to overcome the storm. Anyway, it is always very essential to have strategies for each scenario.
Be prepared for bad market conditions even if the current economy is good and continues to go up. Even being prepared for the next economic crisis will keep your team effective during any hard time you face.