This is part 1 of a three part blog focusing on growing revenue during the Covid 19 pandemic and aftermath.  New sales will be slow as organizations review their cost allocations based on the new environment and new budgets. I am posting three short blog on how to grow revenue in this environment and ensure that you are part of the new budget.

Part 1 -What to do with current clients

Part 2- How to close outstanding business

Part 3- Future opportunity growth

 

Talking to my clients, I have noticed two things:

  1. The sales team’s workload is slow
  2. The operations teams are busy

 

Start by identifying any clients with signed contracts but are not utilizing them. If you let this happen, you are setting yourself back twice, once by not leveraging your current buy and second by having to wait longer for the next purchase.  The best use of the sales team’s time is working with existing clients to identify ongoing needs to work on together. Custom Ink moved from customizing swag for organizations into creating facemasks.  A great example on leveraging current assets to drive revenue opportunities.  A few examples on how other organizations can leverage internal assets:

 

Media Organization:

Look at converting advertising spends into content creation or data services. In advertising, you have three constants, fresh content for advertising, insights into customers, and collateral for sales. Can the advertising campaign dollars be converted to surveys for the client? A survey is a neutral touch point, plus develops insights into their customer’s situation. If your organization has content services, try converting ad spend into creating testimonials from their current clientele or white paper services. The need to grow revenue will not stop, the go-to-market tactics may change, but the tools are the same to achieve growth.

 

Event Organizers:

Arguably, the hardest hit organizations are event organizers. Right now, they have an opportunity to find meaningful ways to drive revenue all year as opposed to a short time around the show. I was working with my clients to help 100%opitcal drive year-round engagement to help their exhibitors gain leads and provide education. The revenue from the new platform compliments the show. They are now converting exhibitor sales into digital sales to help offset the canceled shows. For the exhibitors, the need to deliver education to the market and leads to their sales teams has not changed. Either event organizers will find a way to address this, or someone else will.

 

Staffing Firms:

Staffing firms and HR can use this time to improve their hiring practices along with evaluating their criteria. Spend time getting a deeper understanding of the corporate culture and work on questions to ask to help streamline the relationship. It is an excellent time for organizations to work with their recruiters to evaluate the talent the organizations hired. With 20% unemployment, the market will be ripe again with candidates and positions. Spending time finding who are the best candidates and how to improve hiring practices is a great way to ensure they are poised to find the best candidates first.

 

Revenue generation and ongoing operational efficiencies are always a need. Instead of waiting for the business to return to normal, utilize current contracts to drive this value now.