SALES, MARKETING AND CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 By Dianna Brodine, managing editor, The American Mold Builder
Ractivities, and ongoing customer relationships rely on effective elationships are at the heart of successful sales and marketing
and consistent communication. The COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously increased the need for sales and marketing activities and reduced accessibility to customers and prospects. During a recent AMBA webinar roundtable discussion, sales and marketing executives from AMBA active and supplier member companies offered insights into the “new normal” at their organizations. The conversations provided assurances that many of the mold builders across the US are in the same uncomfortable situations, but also provided new ideas for those looking for a creative spark that could increase customer and prospect communications. WHAT DO CUSTOMER VISITS LOOK LIKE? Before March 2020, mold builders were on the road. Whether calling on potential customers down the street, across the state or around the country, prospecting activities were driving quoting activity and filling the pipeline with future projects. Just as important, sales staff and company executives were visiting current customers to enhance relationships, inquire about new business and perform mold tryouts. Today, mold builders are finding success with a combination of onsite visits (where allowed), virtual meetings and unique concepts that drive interest and meet customers where they feel most comfortable. On-site and Virtual Mike Heatherington (Franchino Mold & Engineering) said about 20% of the company’s customers are allowing Franchino staff to come in for on-site visits. “Some of the people we’re going in to see have had management changes during COVID-19, so they’re incentivized to get their new people in to meet with us,” he said. But, the majority of the mold builder’s customers are not allowing face-to-face visits, so the company has turned to phone and virtual solutions. “We’re using a lot of Teams and Go To Meeting, depending on what our customers use, so we’re using a host of different platforms,” Heatherington explained. “Our customers have had good availability to talk to us…. Communication with most of them has been very good.” Ben Franzen (Heritage Mold, Inc.) is finding that customers are allowing visits when it comes to mold delivery. “When we finish a mold, I deliver it and wait there while they’re sampling it,” he
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the american MOLD BUILDER | Issue 3 2020
explained. “We wear face masks.” Heritage Mold also serves customers located outside of the US and, with international travel curtailed, those conversations are happening virtually. Don Dumoulin (Precise Tooling Solutions) said his staff is seeing an increase in those companies allowing in-person visits. “We’re out seeing customers whenever we can,” he said. “Normally, it would be six to eight sales calls per day, but it’s at 50% of that right now – so we’re making headway.” Dumoulin explained that one issue hampering on-site sales visits is the unavailability of leadership staff. While plant personnel are hard at work on the production floor, leadership teams may be working from home to reduce the potential spread of coronavirus. The Precise Tooling team also is using Microsoft Teams “somewhat effectively” to reach customers around the country. Unique Concepts Hillary Coombs (Westminster Tool) said Westminster opened its doors in July to let customers come back in for mold samplings or other visits, but the company still hasn’t had many customers opening their doors to Westminster. Coombs instituted “Caffeinate and Connect” to catch up with both suppliers and customers. Caffeinate and Connect was a 30- to 45-minute virtual event where customers could sign up via an online calendar and schedule a time to meet with their chosen sales representative. Conversations were conducted via Zoom with video. Coombs said it was an opportunity to update those who participated on “what was new here, if we purchased new equipment or brought anyone on,” she said. “And, we asked them the same. Then, we sent everyone who participated a Starbucks gift card to refill their coffee mug for having a chat with us.” About 80% of Westminster’s suppliers participated and 35% to 40% of our customers participated. Coombs noted that supplier interactions were equally important as customer participation because Westminster was unable to participate in two tradeshows that would help the company to deepen its supplier relationships. Tony Brodzeller (Mastip) ran with an idea from a previous sales and marketing roundtable discussion. He has had “great luck” with off-site, outdoor lunches with customers at parks or restaurants with outside seating. “Prospecting continues to be a little trickier, but some people seem more open to have conversations or virtual
