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.

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?

It's critical to have a financial lead and infrastructure that supports the size, goals, and challenges your business is facing.  Controller? Bookkeeper? Accounting Manager? Financial Analyst? CFO? What’s the difference? Should you hire internally or outsource externally? Full-time? Part-time?

To answer these questions, and because all organizations have different financial needs, it’s important to understand the differences among roles and match them to the needs of your business, currently, and in the future. Broadly speaking, financial roles can be separated into two simple categories: backward and forward looking.

With most of the world still on lockdown, 2020 events cancelled and business travel at a near standstill, we are nearing unprecedented levels of video chats, webinars and podcasts.

There’s been a lot of debate around what’s differentiating companies that are faring well during the pandemic versus those that are struggling. Obviously products, offerings and the ability to pivot, if needed, play an important role in a company’s success, but commercial activities are critical too. We asked a few industry sales leaders to share what they’re doing to drive their teams’ success right now. Here’s what they’re up to:

If you’re flummoxed by how to sell or market through COVID-19, you’re not alone. That said, it doesn’t mean we should stop trying to figure it out. As with any major disruption, “business as usual” is likely to result in tone deaf outreach. I find that companies are in 1 of 3 modes right now.

If you’re on the hunt for additional profit, your current product portfolio may hold more treasure than you realize. Whether it’s identifying new buyer segments, increasing margins, identifying areas to leverage technology or identifying products primed for divesting, there may be a number of spots marked with an X on your product map. Here are 4 ways to optimize your current product portfolio:

In the past 60 days I’ve spoken at events in Edinburgh, Denver, Mexico City, London, Bucharest. Lisbon and Los Angeles. As with every conference, the days are filled with networking opportunities and endless vendor pitches for new products and services. So how to cut through the clutter? 

After leaving a recent major industry event, I had multiple conversations with attendees who marveled at the number of vendors and foot traffic in the exhibit hall but then confided that, off the floor and away from the bustle, they really couldn’t differentiate them. One attendee summarized it well, “Even after listening to the pitches, I walked away unable to really tell what they could do and unable to tell how they were different from the five other vendors that seemed like them.”