What did you do during your Quarantine?
A news flash just revealed over 2.8 Billion people currently live under some form of travel restriction. Here in Iowa, we are not under the same stringent guidelines as New York or California, but most sensible folks are limiting their exposure to others. Working from home, not traveling unless necessary and certainly curtailing all social interactions. Call it what you may, but for the sake of discussion, let’s say we’re quarantined.The readers of this group are still working; most from home and all working diligently to keep business flowing. But, the logistics of working from home creates extra time. For instance, we have no commute, no need to dress for work (some of you may even be reading this while donned in purple sweatpants) and no errands tied to daily work routines. Since our social life is limited to the spousal unit and maybe kiddos, we’re not required to attend networking events, parties, coach soccer practice or wait in line at our favorite restaurants, we’ve got time on our hands.
What will we do with this time?
First things first: If you are one of those blessed with children still living at home, you absolutely must devote some time to them. This event is and will remain a big part of their lives. I can imagine most of them will carry stories of the time everyone stayed home into their adulthood. It’s your job to give them memories of marathon Monopoly games, playing hide and seek in the living room and the time you let them win 200 games of tic-tac-toe in a row. If you don’t have kids in the house, that works too. Give your friends a random call. Plan next year’s adventures with your cousin. Update your social media page. Try to keep things positive.
Got things to do around the house? Great. My wife is relearning all the kitchen gadgets which have been long forgotten in the back of the cabinet. She’s currently working her way through the joys of the electric pressure cooker purchased in 2017 and used twice before placement in the basement. I can’t complain when it means I get beef stew for dinner. My daughter is painting her basement and sending video progress reports. All cool and make great use of the time. While there are plenty of items on your “honey-do” list, let’s focus on your business life.
Creating our own silver lining
Inside of every dark cloud lies a silver lining. For us, the silver lining comes by way of learning something new, improving our skills, developing a new habit or creating a better plan. I know what you’re thinking, so let me make a point. I’m not talking about the power of positive thinking, the magic of thinking big, success principles or any of the 100 ways to improve your life. These are great points but they are well above my paygrade. Instead (and because we’re on the distributor channel), let’s talk about the things that could make you a better distributor.
What could you learn that would:
⦁ Improve your ability to expand your contacts at existing and new accounts?
⦁ Make you more valuable to your customers?
⦁ Endear you to your suppliers?
⦁ Allow you to be more effective when the quarantine is over?
⦁ Position you as a more valuable member of your team?
I hate “one-size-fits-all” hats and I’m not about to create a one-size-fits-all list and claim it works for everyone. I do have some suggestions. Choose a couple that might work for you or invent some of your own.
Get your home workspace in order
We may or may not be working under quarantine for an extended period. Either way, it pays to have a good place to work from home. Despite all the commercials showing a young professional lounging on their couch with their computer on their lap, this doesn’t work. You need a dedicated workspace. It need not be a separate room, a corner of your bedroom, basement or even living room works.
This space should be devoid of clutter and distracting hobby materials. Further, your space should allow you to separate from family and friends who may distract from your workflow. Now is the time to make the necessary adjustments not only for the next week but for the future. Even if you have a great office space back at your facility, there is always a need to do a little work from home. Why not use this as an excuse to fine-tune it?
Improve your LinkedIn profile
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| Credit: Dreamstime |
Get “really good” with videoconferencing
During this quarantine time, videoconferencing is the next best thing to a live sales call. You need to differentiate yourself. Be able to flip from a call to a video in seconds and you will shine. If your company hasn’t already offered the use of a paid service, select one of the free platforms and practice with a co-worker. Learn how to flip from your camera to a PowerPoint presentation, your online store, or a supply partner's website. Another useful skill is the ability to draw pictures on a blank screen.
Referring to our previous comments about your home workspace, make sure the background of your videoconference is not distracting or offensive to others. Remember
the BBC interview where his children interrupted live? Your kid’s Fortnite poster or your dirty laundry piles are not going to impress your professional contacts.Research potential customers online
What can you learn about customers online? Plenty. The internet will tell you about their industry, number of employees and sometimes provide you with contact information.
If you haven’t reached out for your copy of our report, Stalking Customers for Fun and Profit, shoot me an email. It’s yours with my compliments.
Reach out to people at your key supply partners
Hopefully, you are in regular contact with the local sales teams of your key suppliers. If not, this could be a great time to “ping” them (using an old marketing term). Further, now is a great time to reach past the local team and reconnect with key factory people. Product managers, regional sales managers, and those at the corporate level can be powerful tools to get things done. Imagine how much help this could provide when expediting becomes critical once the Coronavirus thing dies down.
Organize information on customers
How do you reference all your customer information? Is it in good form or does it spill from files of handwritten notes, a dozen different reports, and miscellaneous other formats? Now is a great time to get things cleaned up and in order. Pick a format and stick with it. Hint: Post It Notes are not the best answer here.
Clean up emails
My inbox currently has 2,873 messages in it. Some of them were left there to remind me to do something later, others were simply read not properly deleted or filed. That’s high on my list of things to accomplish over quarantine. How about you?
Read a book on tied to our industry
There are dozens of great books on customer relationships, marketing, selling, technology trends and, even, distribution. You may have a couple laying around you haven’t had time to read. Spend a night with an author instead of bingeing the newest season of Ozark. You might even check out my latest book – Plan on Breaking Through: Customer-Based Strategic Planning For Sellers.Learn more about the products you sell
Never quite had the time to learn all you wanted to about some of the new technologies you sell? There are literally millions of worthwhile training videos on YouTube and supplier-based training in other places. If you find something good, consider sharing it with a select group of customers.
Share your expertise
If you’re feeling confident with your own knowledge, make and share your own video. Making your own sharable video lets people know you are the expert. If you have separate business social media accounts, make sure your audience is connected and release the video on those platforms and remind them how to find you.
Take time to understand the value of the solutions you provide
Analyze a few of the solutions recently suggested to customers. How did these impact the customer’s financials? The more you understand the value, the better your opportunity to sell more.
Catch up on reading trade publications and distributor-focused blogs
Visit the websites tied to our industry. There is a treasure-trove of cool ideas. Visit the websites of the publications catering to your best customers, you’ll be surprised by the candor of articles discussing industry bottlenecks and manufacturing issues.
If you haven’t already – check out the close to 300 articles on TheDistributorChannel.com
I hope you are getting the idea. Here are nine more topics:
1. Develop some ideas for training customers
2. Learn about the financial drivers of distribution
3. Reach out to people you have met at distributor association events
4. Begin creating daily lists
5. Create your first voice-over PowerPoint and put it online
6. Analyzer your sales for missed opportunities
7. Clean up your CRM
8. Review open opportunities that might happen soon after the quarantine
9. Develop a list of target accounts by product
A parting thought
Now is the time for all of us to pitch in and help our industry remain strong. Send us an email with a topic you would like to explore. If you want to stretch, write a guest blog and send it our way. You can publish it with all your information or remain anonymous, your choice.
Signing off allow me to say, I am quarantined and 99.9 percent Coronavirus free. They say whiskey helps, right?
Frank Hurttte is the Founding Partner of River Heights Consulting. He combines the battle scars of 28 years of front line "in the trenches" experience with over 13 years of service to knowledge-based distributors and their manufacturer partners.
Email or call today for a free 30-minute consultation!
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