How Will You Communicate in a Crisis?
Crisis Marketing is effectively communicating and pivoting your sales strategies, during times of crisis, to THRIVE instead of just survive.
Smart Sales & Marketing Strategies During Times of Crisis
Sales & Revenue Opportunities
Nothing happens until a sale is made but how do you keep sales and revenue going, during times of crisis?
- Opportunity comes out of adversity, but there is a fine line between this concept and ambulance chasing. Again, an experienced sales and marketing strategist can help ensure that you are capitalizing on revenue opportunities while being sensitive to the crisis at hand. It's also important to be authentic when pivoting your product or service for a crisis, especially if the crisis is widespread. This allows you to provide value without giving the impression that you're taking advantage of the crisis.
- Where are there additional revenue opportunities? Uncovering these can be the difference between thriving or barely surviving. How can your product or service provide value during a time of crisis? Are there additional products or services you can offer?
- A Personal Approach is Always Best in Times of Crisis. You may need to totally change the game by 'coaching up' your sales team to reach out personally to their clients. Going back to the traditional method of personal phone calls, from your team to their clients, can be very genuine and effective and serve to strengthen relationships, trust and loyalty.
Internal Communication
Before you can broadcast a message to your prospects, clients, and the world at large, you need to ensure your internal communication with employees, suppliers, and vendors is consistent. Not only does good internal communication manage expectations, it creates trust among those who are tasked with executing your strategy. So, be sure you communicate effectively and clearly with your 'internal' audience.
Let your team know how you're handling the crisis, what the expectations are for your team members, and how they can help support the effort. It's also important that you share with them what they should not do, especially on social media, if you're trying to minimize erroneous information or control panic.
Advise them of social media policies and/or advise them where they can seek accurate information, during the crisis. Setting up an internal company website for news and information is a good idea too!
External Communication
How will communicate during a crisis, with your customers, prospects, communities or even the world, at large?
- Get Expert Guidance. Creating a social media update and/or press release about how the organization is responding to the crisis helps keep your external audience informed of your actions. It can create responsibility and loyalty...or, it can create the wrong perception. Enlist the services of a Marketing Agency or PR firm to assist in this process. Often, you and your team are seeing the message from your (internal) perspective, so having an outsider assist in crafting and managing the message, for your audience, is critical.
- Use Multiple Touches. Use multiple mediums to communicate your message. Don't just rely on social media.
- A Personal Approach is Always Best in Times of Crisis. You may need to totally change the game by 'coaching up' your sales team to reach out personally to their clients. Going back to the old method of personal phone calls from your team to their clients can be very genuine and effective.