As yet another sign of the strange times we’re living in, last week I happened to see a story from Entertainment Weekly about how a low-budget horror movie had become America’s No. 1 film. How? Drive-ins!

With typical movie theaters closed and the postponement of major blockbusters, it’s led to the resurgence of drive-ins and alternative programming! With built-in physical distancing, drive-ins are finding renewed success during the coronavirus outbreak. I used to love going to the drive-in as a kid, but I think it also challenges us as marketers to reconsider how we can connect and nurture during this time. Are you reaching back to some old/vintage playbooks?

Here is what the experts are saying, and some takeaways from the past week:

LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report

LinkedIn came out with its 2020 ‘State of Sales’ report this past week. Some key emerging trends:

• Virtual selling goes mainstream – 77% of respondents are holding more virtual meetings
• Less responsive buyers – 44% of respondents anticipated a decrease in responsiveness to outreach
• Longer sales cycles – 44% of respondents said customers’ sales cycles increased

These are things we’ve all been talking about since March, right? An interesting data point – 88% of buyers agree that the salespeople they ultimately do business with are “trusted advisors”. At the same time, just 40% of these decision-makers describe the sales profession as “trustworthy”. While buyers may distrust the sales profession as a whole, they do come to trust the salespeople they buy from.

So how do our respective sales teams become ‘trustworthy’? Seems that is the key question here – and will result in much success! So we need to invest in relationships and deliver value….ALWAYS!

Whoa….hold on! HubSpot – ‘Shaky’ Deal Data?

After optimism and improvement since April, HubSpot’s data shows that new deals created and closed-won deals declined last week. What gives? Three industries that have seen deal volume return to or exceed pre-COVID levels (Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Software) also saw decreases. However, on the brighter side, Construction and Human Resources industries had some good improvement.

Other interesting analysis of the data:

• Sales process metrics reveal misalignment in outreach and qualification – call prospecting volumes are still down compared to pre-COVID levels, email volume is up
• Sales meetings booked are up overall – but those meetings haven’t converted to business at corresponding levels – suggesting that beyond cash flow issues impacting deal volume, there is still misalignment at multiple steps of the outreach and qualification process
• Buyer activity continues to increase – email open rates are above pre-COVID levels; website traffic is trending higher; and the volume of buyer-initiated conversations has been steadily increasing as well!

See the full report here.

There’s no doubt it feels a bit like living on a yo-yo right now but let’s keep encouraging each other to press on. And when you need that break – find your local drive-in! Let me know how you’re doing – I’d love to hear from you….

Looking forward,

Rick

Rick Endrulat | President | Virtual Causeway | 519.866.1600 x622

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