Does Lockdown mean your business has to stop? How to survive a pandemic!

It's true that every challenge also presents you with an opportunity. Here at B23, we didn't want a pandemic to stop us from achieving our goals, instead we just had to rearrange them to see what could still be achieved. 

A lot of direct sales marketing companies made the mistake of downing tools completely and focused purely on retention of their best people. Whilst this is so important, there were a number of things we identified that we knew we had to maintain focus on. 

By far one of the most crucial elements was Recruitment. We knew we had the ability to move our world class sales coaching online. This gave us the opportunity to recruit just as aggressively as if the office was open. 2020 had already taught us to embrace technology and move the various stages of our recruitment process to platforms like Zoom. Our Open Days, 2nd interviews and Inductions had all already moved across. 

Embracing online conferencing actually improved our networking ability. We're lucky at B23 that we're affiliated to a larger global marketing company. There was therefore a huge amount of resource to tap into which would aide our online coaching ten fold. 

The trick was to write a programme for our new online academy that was fluid. This was key as we didn't know, and we remain unsure, as to when the lockdown restrictions will end. We needed a programme that could capitalise on 4-8 weeks if necessary but be moved to the sales field once we were advised of when restrictions would ease. 

We now have a team that is bigger than before the pandemic, who have been upskilled via the academy and are essentially ready to hit the ground running. This will mean that our ability to bounce back post lockdown is robust. 

As we already stated, retention is also incredibly important. We set up weekly team nights where the team could interact, play games, enjoy a drink and just let off some of that isolation steam. It's important that those relationships still form so that coming together face to face for the first time is not awkward. Our business relies on that energy in the coaching room, so we knew that a room full of strangers carried the risk of stifling that atmosphere somewhat. The ice breakers had to be done over zoom catch ups to alleviate us of this risk. 

The coaching had to include elements that supported our people as well as educate them. Of course the primary focus was on teaching them the systems they will need to be effective in the field. However we were also very aware that our team tend to be younger, around age 18-30. With little life experience on their side, they would no doubt find isolation difficult. We wanted to ensure they had a team around them where they felt confident to air any mental health issues.

One of our invited guest speakers was from a very successful office in Australia. They had the same mindset as we do and they are now seeing the benefits of that hard work. The Business Owner spoke purely of the need to use this time to invest in yourself. Focus on the things that you normally don't get the chance to because you're caught in that hamster wheel of life. One where we focus almost entirely on career success and the monetary reward that this can deliver. Instead, focus that energy on taking time to reflect and address some of your personal weaknesses. To ensure your ability to bounce back post lockdown is as robust as the company you work for. 

Finally it was an opportunity to get that admin in order. To go through material and ensure content was relevant and up to date. Archive old documents and generally tidy up. We know that when restrictions ease we don't want to waste any of our valuable time on all those mundane tasks that could be done now. 

When restrictions ease we'll be fired up and ready to invest all our time and energy in what we do best - Deliver for our clients.