The Evolving Sales & Marketing Landscape During COVID-19 | PSA Sales & Marketing Committee
May 6, 2020
The Evolving Sales & Marketing Landscape During COVID-19
Recommendations from the PSA Sales & Marketing Committee
The PSA Sales & Marketing Committee sat down to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business landscape and what security integrators can do to adapt.
How have your sales and or marketing efforts at your company changed during the pandemic?
- Sales teams are doing more remote reporting. Some customers are dictating how many people can be in the building. Email blasts letting customers voice any concerns are great for keeping communication open. Be proactive to get work completed before businesses come back online.
– Denise Niles, VP – Key Accounts, Advanced Electronic Security
- It is critical that sales teams are staying in touch with existing clients. Focus on M&A strategy, social media and internal marketing. Communicating with employees is more important than ever. Some integrators will really struggle if they did not have a strong balance sheet before the COVID-19 pandemic.
– John Nemerofsky, Chief Operating Officer, SAGE Integration
- Stay focused on existing client base instead of expending effort attracting new clients. Weekly communication with clients about what service they can provide and at what level as well as supply chain issues has been a great strategy. Try to find the right balance between what is helpful to the client and what is helpful to our companies. Do not only focus on ways to help our own business. Continuing webinars to educate clients and employees. Focus on internal communications such as having daily “coffee talk” meetings to check in with employees. The slowdown has provided an opportunity for PMs and professional services unit to work on business development.
– Alethia O’Dell, Chief Marketing Officer, Northland Controls
- This has been a very busy time on the event and webinar planning side. Integrators are very interested in COVID-19 roundtables and discussions.
– Candice Aragon, Director of Marketing, PSA
What advice would you offer to sales or marketing teams adapting to the changes brought on by COVID-19?
- Reach out to clients that we have not heard from in a while. Offering maintenance to check on customer systems has provided good opportunities. Go into your contact list and check-in with older clients.
– Denise Niles, VP – Key Accounts Advanced Electronic Security
- Keeping your company’s brand in front of the end user is more critical now more than ever. Get ahead of the curve.
– John Nemerofsky, Chief Operating Officer, SAGE Integration
What advice would you offer to people who are leading sales teams during the COVID-19 pandemic?
- Now is an important time to focus on cloud-based managed services which have a great ROI.
– Dan Dunkel, Managing Director – MSSP, PSA
- Customers with cloud-based systems are very happy they have them now that it’s challenging to have someone on site. Customers who must go into the office are unhappy.
– Clifford Franklin, Chief Executive Office, Sabre Integrated Secuirty
What collaborations platforms would you recommend for security integrators who are working from home?
- We have used Zoom, Skype, Slack and are open to working on any that are available.
- We are currently using Webex and BlueJeans
– Denise Niles, VP – Key Accounts Advanced Electronic Security
How do you keep the value of webinars when there are so many going on currently?
- Who is speaking? The speakers add value. Having customers, distributors and vendors on a single call can diminish the value. Sending grub hub cards to people registered for lunch and learns has had very positive feedback.
– John Nemerofsky, Chief Operating Officer, SAGE Integration
- Only add a webinar if it is something that hasn’t come up in the industry already i.e. new partnerships or topics or hard to get speakers who will bring new insight.
-Alethia O’Dell, Chief Marketing Officer, Northland Controls