Work on long-term investments in your business

Especially if you’re in B2B sales, the coronavirus might be an opportunity to make some longer-
term investments in your business. Especially if you’re seeing a short-term slowdown, this is the
time to re-evaluate your operations, platforms and processes and do some long-term strategic
planning.

If you have a few big prospects in the pipeline, now is a good occasion to put more energy into
lead management and nurturing of those longer-term opportunities. Keep checking in with your
leads, reassure them if needed, and let them know that you are planning for contingencies and
you’re ready to help.

This unprecedented situation is obviously driving a lot of cancellations for things like airline
reservations, concert tickets and business conferences, but bigger-ticket B2B sales may not be as
severely affected, unless the crisis goes on for so long that it causes companies to cut back on
their spending and investment. Keep nurturing your business leads with the long view in mind,
even if the short-term headlines are crazy and the situation feels uncertain.

Prepare for pent-up demand

Another lesson from Chinese businesses is that the post-coronavirus economic recovery might be
faster than we expect. If you cut back too far today, you might not be positioned to capitalize on
the post-crisis recovery. I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of the public-health aspects of
this crisis; everyone needs to take precautions to stay healthy and reduce the spread of the virus.
But I do believe that companies can put some good steps in place today to be positioned for
bigger success tomorrow. There are always challenges and crises affecting our businesses. We
can adapt and embrace the opportunities and bounce back stronger, even from a major crisis like
coronavirus.