Back in April we published a blog with our top tips for selling and marketing in a pandemic. Seven months later, with COVID surging again around the world, we’re doubling down on our previous advice.

It’s tougher than ever to land new clients, whether you’re in a services business, a technology business, or you do a little of both. The truth is, when there’s massive disruption from external forces (in this case a virus that just keeps on kicking), it becomes more challenging to get buyers to adopt new ways of doing things, or working with untested (at least by themselves) technology and/or services.

Well, here we are; Q4 2020. When staff first started to work from home in Q1 (depending on where you are in the world), it’s unlikely many of us imagined we’d still be managing an almost entirely remote staff today.

Late last week Christina Blacken (Founder of The NewQuo.com) kindly shared with me a paper she’d authored titled “Change the Status Quo Through Your Narrative Intelligence”. What’s “narrative intelligence”? Blacken writes “it is the ability to leverage the psychological power of story to change behavior and inspire action.”

If you’ve spent any time in the marketing research or marketing performance sector (where I still spend a good chunk of my consulting hours), storytelling is paramount to delivering truly meaningful insights. Yet management teams seem to largely rely on traditional leadership practices, or as Blacken notes in her paper, those driven by “fear driven narratives around money, success, identity and leadership.”

With so much uncertainty surrounding us (pandemics, elections, trade wars…even murder hornets), it’s easy to get caught up in what feels like day to day survival and forego annual planning. That said, when it feels impossible to plan for the future it becomes even more important to ensure you have guiding objectives and strategies linking the company’s future to the present day.

If you’ve made it this far into 2020 and you’re still standing, chances are you have at least a dozen different examples of pivots you’ve made to both your personal and professional plans. Twenty-twenty has, if nothing else, kept us on our toes. One of the most common questions we’re asked is what differentiates companies that turn this 2020 plot twist into profit versus those who don’t. The answer isn’t something these companies do but instead, something these companies have. It’s something every leader should focus on: mental agility.

Cash Flow from Operations (“CFO”), found on the Cash Flow Statement, can be a powerful number to analyze the historical performance of a business. It can also provide valuable insights for future decision making, especially when combined with other financial data and used in various financial ratio calculations.

The pandemic has revealed more fissures than we’d like to count including a major gap between the sales haves and have-nots. In the early stages of the shutdown, new business opportunities all but disappeared. The most resilient companies were those already clued into the importance of relationship based, personalized sales and service experiences. The good news is, it’s not too late to learn this important lesson. Whether you’re a newbie to the world of personalized sales or you’re ready to leverage personalization through your entire customer lifecycle, here are three ways to drive better connection.

With nearly record levels of unemployment globally and an ultra-competitive business marketplace, a strong personal brand can you set you, or your company, apart. Unfortunately, for many, a personal brand is often perceived as something only ownable by industry luminaries, or only worth focusing on once a certain career level has been achieved. So, what to do if you’ve under invested in the creation of it?

We’re doing a lot of scenario planning these days for risk adverse firms that are looking to scale in a business climate that is still experiencing volatility and uncertainty. Although we’re seeing increased hiring for mid-level roles, often times C-level roles (even those desperately needed) go unfilled due to overhead cost concerns.

Despite advice to the contrary, most organizations rely heavily on in person events to drive sales activity, which has left many adrift in a sea of cancelled events and online event pivots. How do sales teams, accustomed to in person sales, network and drive lead generation in an event with no opportunity to interact with prospective buyers face to face?