499: How to Sell During the COVID-19 Crisis

What It Covers

Steli Efti provides tactical sales strategies for closing deals during COVID-19 crisis, emphasizing extreme urgency, optimizing for immediate cash flow, and adapting to work-from-home selling environments with families present.

Key Questions Answered

• •Speed optimization: Close every deal today rather than tomorrow or next week, as customer attention and willingness to buy decreases rapidly during crisis conditions. Prioritize closing over negotiating better terms or extracting additional dollars from deals already in progress.
• •Cash flow priority: Negotiate prepayments for three, six, or twelve months upfront with significant discounts rather than monthly contracts. Monthly payment contracts become worthless if customers face bankruptcy or severe financial distress within months, making upfront cash essential for survival.
• •Work-from-home authenticity: Embrace family interruptions and home distractions during sales calls rather than hiding them. Invite children to wave hello, acknowledge the shared situation with prospects, and make authentic human connections instead of pretending to operate from corporate offices.
• •Outstanding invoices urgency: Collect all pending payments and outstanding invoices immediately, treating collection as business-critical. Contracts and payment terms lose enforcement value during economic downturns when customers face bankruptcy, making current collections far more valuable than future commitments or legal agreements.