The Corona shift; from sell first to serve first

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

The last few weeks has left many business owners flummoxed, and for good reason. While the exact effect of the coronavirus on the global economy is unknown, it is clear that it poses a tremendous risk.

As of Wednesday, March 24^th, 2020, all non-essential businesses in Ontario have been closed down for the next two weeks, and this has sent business owners into a frenzy. During times of uncertainty, desperation becomes common, and this is why you have seen a rush of ads, sponsored ads, and posts from business owners pulling out all stops to ensure that their business stays afloat.

According to Centre for American Progress, in 2003, the SARS epidemic shaved 0.5% to 1% of China’s growth that year and cost the global economy about $40 billion (or 0.1% of global GDP).

“The outbreak is the world’s most pressing uncertainty.” Kristalina Georgieva (International Monetary Fund Managing Director)

This is the time for many business owners to get out of crisis mode and get into creative mode. Believe it or not, no one actually buys your services or products. What people buy is a solution to a problem. This is why it is important to turn your brand into a service. Think to yourself, “How is what I am doing going to solve someone’s immediate problem, especially during this time?”

Think about your least favourite person to talk to. It is probably someone who monopolizes every conversation. If they are braggers, this makes speaking with them intolerable. Just like you don’t like receiving jargon riddle sales emails, or talking to a self-absorbed blabber, buyers don’t like reading or listening to salespeople talk in length about their product or service. You think that it is informative and interesting. Prospects perceive it as unnecessary, and irrelevant.

So! What do you do? How do you promote your service or product without selling it?

Start by focusing on developing relationships with people. Focus on the conversation; take the time to learn your potential clients. People are bullshit detectors, and they know when someone is trying to sell them. Every email you write, voicemail you leave, demonstration you give, and phone meeting you have in the next few weeks should place focus squarely on your client.

The approach. Building long-term relations by providing information, trends and ideas to your clients without necessarily pushing for the sale. By doing this, people will start to see you as a trusted resource. It is about turning selling into helping. Selling may bring you a customer today but helping will retain customers for life. Stop creating content that sells. Start genuinely helping others.

The more you focus on understanding the community’s problems, the more they will trust that you are the one they should continue working with. Time to start shifting from sell first to serve first.

The more you focus on understanding their problems, the more they will trust that you are the one they should be working with.