Among recommendations I would make for effectively handling changes wrought by the pandemic is to instill a set of practices that would keep you, personally, at the top of your game.

With that in place, the next question has to do with your broader responsibilities. What about your business or organization? Are there some things you should be doing to prepare your business for life on the other side of social distancing?

A Digression

We have been here before. As a nation, as individuals, and every level of society in between, this level of confusion and anxiety is not new. The cause may be new, and the breath of the malaise may be unusual, but we’ve had similar times of national angst and confusion.

It may be new for you. Depending on your age, this may be your first encounter with life that hasn’t gone according to your plan.

But it certainly isn’t unique for many of us.

For example, I have lived through many similar circumstances. In addition to three major financial reverses in my life, I have lived through the oil embargo in the 70s; the 911 attacks and the resulting tailspin in the economy; the dot com crises, and the 2008 real estate crisis. I’ve seen my business so devastated that I had to tell my staff that I could no longer make payroll.

In all of this, I have learned some lessons and gained some wisdom that showed me business strategies that may be helpful to you. I have some advice and strategies to give regarding directing a business through these difficult times.

I am going to assume that you are taking the necessary steps to assure the survival of your business. With that said, what else?

Slow Times Are a Gift

One of the things that I have learned over my 35 + years in business is this: Slow times are a gift. Let me explain. As I struggled through the ebbs and flows of my business, it seemed that ebbs occurred pretty regularly, regardless of what I did. And, in that period of forced inactivity, I discovered the space to clean up the messes, to tighten up the systems, to address issues that hadn’t been addressed for a while. I found the space and the inclination to plan for the next thing and to lay the groundwork for the next climb up the sales curve.

After a while, I became thankful for the slow times, as they provided me space and time to get ready for the next onslaught of activity. The slow times, brought on by national calamities or just turns in my own specific markets, were a gift.

I believe the same is true for most of us. For most of our time, we find ourselves striving to build the business, to acquire the right people, to build effective systems, to increase our margins, and to expand our bottom lines. It has been a frenzy of activity focused on a single issue: build the business.

Now, however, for a lot of people, building the business, at least in the short term, is no longer a realistic goal. We just want to survive.

That sudden lull in frenetic activity presents us with an opportunity. Now, we have the emotional space, the time and the energy to think about things we haven’t thought about for a while, to imagine a future we haven’t dreamt about for a while, and to envision the specifics of more fulfilling tomorrow.

With that perspective, I have two suggestions for business strategies right now. Use the gift of slow time to:

• Do it better.
• Prepare to do it differently.

Do It Better

It is likely that some aspects of your business have gotten sloppy. Now is the time to look at all those bits and pieces that have been overlooked because they didn’t rise to the top of the “to do” list:

• Is all the software updated?
• Is everyone trained on the new features?
• Are their processes and procedures which have been around for a few years, and become ingrained to the point that no one questions them? Now is the time to dust them off and reconfigure them.
• Are there people who have been marginal performers, but you never had the luxury of time to address that issue? Now is the time to make those personnel changes you’ve been thinking about.

As a sales consultant, I have accumulated a whole list of very specific “systems issues” which should be looked at afresh, with an eye to putting in place the systems, processes, tools and people — not based on the past, but focused on the future.

While this list is specific to sales organizations, your list could be just as detailed for your area of responsibility.

Chief sales officers — now is the time to look at, and make adjustments to:

• The arrangement of sales territories and accounts.
• Creating a company-wide process for identifying and prioritizing high-potential accounts.
• The sales compensation formula.
• Making the changes in the CRM system that have been accumulating.
• Taking a critical look at your marketing collateral — hard copy and electronic and bringing it up to standards.
• Looking critically at the productivity of each salesperson and making adjustments along the way.
• Critically looking at the education and development of the sales force.

Now is the time to invest in providing them with the skills and strategies they will need in the post-pandemic world. You’ll find the sales team is more amenable to making changes and accepting training now than they may have been for years.

All these efforts are based on the premise that the business will survive and, after accounting for some minor changes, be pretty much the same, doing business in much the same way next year as you did last year. The focus, then, was to prepare to do it better.

But, what if the gift of slow times also brought an opportunity to challenge the limitations of business as usual? Then, you could spend some intellectual and emotional capital on the next business strategy.

Prepare to Do It Differently

Your business came into existence when you, or your predecessors, saw a need that you thought you could fill. That could have been generations ago, or it may have been last month. Regardless, the world has changed dramatically since then, and the fundamental premise upon which your business is based may be shifting.

What if you could use this gift of downtime to re-imagine your business? There is the possibility, at least with a few of you, that you could emerge from the pandemic malaise with a transformed business.

If you think that may be you, here are a few ideas on how I would go about it.

1. Ask this question, and brainstorm some solutions:

• What urgent problems and/or pain do our customers have (or will they have) that we can help with?

2. Then, I’d prioritize the answers to the brainstorming session by asking these questions:

• Which of these can we address the quickest?
• With which of these can we make the greatest impact?
• Which of these are we most passionate about?

3. And if your work uncovered a likely suspect, then I’d ask and answer these questions:

• If we wipe the slate clean and started fresh, what solutions could we provide?
• Exactly what would that look like?
• How could we deliver it?
• How much would we charge?
• How would we promote and sell it?
• What would we need to pull this off?
• What would we need to do to pull this off?
• Who needs to do what, by when?

And at the end all your hard work of brainstorming, prioritizing and planning, you’ll have a plan to transform the business, and maybe the industry.

Slow times are a gift. Use the gift well and implement some new business strategies. You may not have another opportunity like this for a long time.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].