What happens when a road warrior salesperson is suddenly forced to forgo the road (and expense account) and spend all day closing big-ticket deals via video conferencing? Well, COVID-19 has forced this scenario upon sales professionals in media, SaaS, and all other industries. The results raise profound questions about how enterprise sales will change (perhaps dramatically) in a post-COVID environment.
Episode 5 of BIG5D.TV premieres this week featuring interviews with two sales leaders who have lived the remote sales experiment over the past few months. They share stories of the adjustments they needed to make to keep the revenue flowing during a global pandemic, the likes of which the world hasn't seen in a century.
Listen to the Podcast
The BIG5D.TV Podcast · Episode 5: Featuring Wayne Bischoff & George Leith
Wayne Bischoff is CEO of Johannesburg-based Mediamark, a media sales house focused on radio and digital audio. George Leith is CRO of Vendasta, a Canadian SaaS digital marketing platform with international reach. Vendasta is a Mediamark partner.
Both leaders have been through the experience of transforming sales organizations during COVID. They've had to transition from fully in-person or hybrid inside-outside sales to fully inside and remote, virtually overnight.
"I think we are more productive now," Wayne said in the interview. "And whatever we go back to after this will be very different from before."
One way that COVID may leave a permanent mark is by debunking the notion that higher-value deals require extensive travel and expensive dinners.
"More and more you are going to see the amount of the deal that you can close remotely continue to accelerate upward," George told us.
Watch the episode on YouTube
BIG5D.TV is an online news magazine presented by BigFive Digital that features engaging interviews with thought leaders in the Africa/Middle East local digital ecosystem.