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Winslows

How to sell in a crisis

 

James Newell, of Clear Sales Message discusses simple strategies that will allow you to adapt your offering, your approach and maximise every opportunity in these uncertain times.

 

At the best of times it can be tough to find your ideal client, when they need you and to put yourself in front of your competitors to be the supplier of choice. Covid-19 has forced many businesses to address not only how they work, but their core offering and clientele.

 

With recession upon us and talk of future spikes and lockdowns, this has already been devastating for many businesses, that said, change brings opportunity and here we’ll explore some simple strategies to help you adapt and get the best from your endeavours in these uncertain times.

 

Adapting your offering

It starts with adapting your offering. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that everything is more fluid than we realise. Adapting your offering is a fundamental shift that can have a fundamental impact on your performance.

 

The pandemic has meant that many clients have less funds available, or there is more scrutiny on how they allocate their spending. With this in mind, it’s possible to adapt your offering to meet these 

 

What’s the bare minimum? 

With such a focus on spend, being clear about your entry level offerings can help you to avoid assumptions that your services are more expensive or more pervasive than they are in reality. Be clear on where your services and charges begin “from” to avoid any confusion.

 

ACTION POINT – Consider being more forthcoming with minimum charges and the smallest legal engagements your firm is willing and able to undertake. Where many firms promote themselves as full service, it can be unclear to clients if smaller things (such as wills or simple T’s & C’s) are covered.

 

Can you sell parts of your offering? 

With reduced funds and a changing landscape, perhaps clients only need certain elements of your offering rather than the whole thing. Consider how you could silo and individually sell the component parts of your offering to appeal to these clients and their needs.

 

ACTION POINT – Consider dismantling each stage of a client engagement

 

Adapting to your audience

Whether or not you are able to adapt your offering, you can certainly adapt to your audience and change how you find them and how you communicate your offering.

 

Adapting to your audience has provided some of the simplest and most efficient benefits to my clients in these times.

 

What’s the trigger point? 

We often know who our ideal clients are, but when do they need you? Focussing on speaking with potential clients at the appropriate moment saves time and maximises your chance of conversion.

 

ACTION POINT – Look at your current caseload and case histories to provide insight. Using wills as the example, life changes such as children or marriage trigger such an event. With that in mind, advertising in wedding magazines would put you in front of potential clients at the moment they may need you.

 

Can you go niche?

In any marketplace, buyers will naturally prefer to work with specialists over generalists, so, is there an opportunity for you to focus on a defined client type or trigger point? Being specific about your niche increases engagement and if you look at historical client records you may have a natural “niche” you have been serving already for some time.

 

ACTION POINT – Adapting your messaging to promote a niche can be advantageous. Could you use a simplified website address to achieve this? For example, would you favour JNLAW.com or DisputeSpecialists.com if you needed help with a dispute?

 

20 more ways to adapt

These concepts were taken from a YouTube video I published in March 2020 entitled “24 ways to adapt to selling in a crisis”. It covers a number of simple, actionable and easy to implement strategies to counter the difficulty many businesses are facing.

What businesses need now more than ever are ideas and strategies on how they can adapt and overcome the challenges they face. 

 

It’s my hope that this article and my YouTube video will give you the ideas and inspiration to make the changes you need to make to not only adapt to this “new normal”, but to thrive.

 

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Sources:

For images and more info on the above concepts:

 

https://34.129.213.185/the-bare-minimum-effect/

https://34.129.213.185/the-parts-effect/

https://34.129.213.185/the-trigger-point/

https://34.129.213.185/the-niche-effect/

 

Youtube video with 24 ways: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plUY2hVNmlQ&feature=youtu.be

 

Author bio and photo:

https://34.129.213.185/james/