20 minute read
Adapting the Business During Covid
ADAPTING the BUSINESS DuringCovid-19
‘We’re incredibly proud of the way in which the organisation has responded to these difficult times. Like everyone else in the world, we had no idea of the scale or extent to which the pandemic would impact our lives, but we took it in our stride, moved everything online and continued to work as best as we could’ - JAMES BUCKLEY -
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his last quarter has T thrown our industry into (yes, I think you know what’s coming..) ‘unprecedented’ territory. The ramifications of a global pandemic are almost unfathomable and it can be difficult to focus on ‘the week ahead’, let alone ‘the future’ when faced with such a vast scale of economical and social disruption; however, whilst anxiety levels can be high and finances unstable, it is important to stick together. Forging strong connections and enhancing the support network has never been more important as we work to sustain a productive level of motivation and keep our business moving. Positivity and team-building have always been at the heart of our company and whilst these are incredibly testing times, our sense of ensemble and ability to think outside the box stand us in good stead for coping with the chaos. It’s about adapting; finding alternative methods of approaching the workload that came before, whilst simultaneously implementing new strategies for the future. Now, more than ever, is the time to connect with your inner Entrepreneur. Take a breath, fill your ‘glass half full’ and step out into the unknown. PULLING TOGETHER: I caught up with Mark Widnell from Enigma, Phil Reid from The Promotions Company and Rob Cotterell from RedSeven to discuss how they have managed to adapt their respective organisations in response to covid-19. Mark shared that, ‘For us it’s been pretty full on. When these things happen, you can either sit back on your laurels, feel sorry for yourself and wait for everything to blow over, or you can pull together and look at the ways in which you can adapt, grow and alter the business in response to what’s been happening in the world. We’ve really made the best of the situation and I’m incredibly proud of my team’. It’s as much about attitude as it is about anything else, and so one of the first things Mark did was to ensure that his team felt as if they were still part of a collective despite their respective isolation - ‘The first 4-6 weeks was all about bringing the community together. We’re used to working in quite a disparate fashion, so it was important to establish a sense of togetherness from the get go, to maintain a connection with everybody across the company’. Once they had established a sense of unity as a company, it was time to step into the virtual office space, hosted by...yes you’ve guessed it...Zoo m. continued --->
MOVING THE BUSINESS ONLINE: GENERATION ZOOM: For those who have been living under a rock for the last 3 months (no judgement passed), Zoom is a ‘modern enterprise for video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars’ (https:// zoom.us). Over the last couple of months, the platform’s average number of daily meeting participants rocketed to over 300million + worldwide, with businesses, families and friends using it to stay in contact during lockdown. Because of the way it is formatted, Zoom allows for up to 500 participants (with the ‘large meeting add-on), and is therefore a fantastic means of holding large-scale video conferences as well as more intimate training sessions.
Mark tells me that - as a result of moving things online - they’ve ‘been able to bring everyone together in a way that perhaps we wouldn’t have done before; meetings have been more frequent and we have been able to get more people in each meeting as a result of it being held online, so in many ways this has helped us to establish a stronger sense of community’. You’re engaging with people that you might not have had the chance to meet with in person before which means you can start putting names to faces and establishing a more coherent understanding of the scale of the business. Because everyone is in the same boat, worldwide, they have been able to schedule meetings with Brand Ambassadors and other Owners across the globe, as opposed to having to base their in-person meetings around specific physical locations. Not only did this enable them to continue educating their guys, but it also meant that the guys were able to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the scale of the organisation. There’s something about the tangibility of seeing everybody’s face on the screen that shifts your perspective slightly.
ONLINE TRAINING PROGRAMME: Once they had established a sense of unity across the business, they could then begin to focus on structuring the next few weeks of ‘work’. The first thing to do was to establish a ‘work schedule’ that didn’t involve fieldwork; face-to-face sales simply weren’t possible due to the covid restrictions and both the Charity and Events sectors in which the companies worked had been forced to take a step back from the Industry. Instead of wasting time waiting for their clients to return, the team decided to plough headfirst into a comprehensive online training programme. They essentially went ‘back to school’, launching into an upskilling of the entire organisation. Phil Reid from Promotions Co. was one of the main brains behind establishing the online coaching programme and describes how ‘it has enabled them to continue growing the business’. The programme consisted of 4 or 5 half hour sessions each day led by various members of the company - both in the UK and internationally - over the course of 7 weeks. Sometimes they had Owners running these sessions, and sometimes they had brand new members of the team, depending on what people’s strengths were. This meant that everyone had an opportunity not only to develop their skills, but to develop their sense of Entrepreneurship and confidence through taking the reins and teaching others. Phil elaborates on how each day panned out:
‘We had a ‘huddle call’ every morning at 8am during lockdown to plan each day and maintain a sense of structure. We had separate calls for each team and this meant that we were able to be really time-effective, even more so than before lockdown. Before we moved everything online, if I wanted to teach somebody how to run an appointment, I would have planned an open-day presentation and a whole array of other inperson sessions that would have spanned the course of a month or so; whereas now, we’ve managed to get through the same level of up-skilling in a quarter of that time which is phenomenal. The guys have had nothing to do except learn which is a pretty unique position to be in, so we really made the most of that.’
For the first 3 weeks, the team focussed simply on up-skilling and training with a new topic every single day. From Week 4 onwards, they started interviewing new people, holding online open days and recruitment sessions via Zoom. Once they’d recruited everyone, they used the remaining 3 weeks to train the new members of the team and bring them up to ‘working level’. The first week and a half they were coached, and the second week and a half they actually coached that information back to the people that had trained them. This allowed for the integration of the new skills and an opportunity for them to put into practise everything that they had learned. continued --->
MOVING ONLINE
REMOTE methods of RECRUITMENT The next phase of transposing the organisation to an online format was recruitment. Rather than halting the process entirely due to the restrictions, the interview process was started via video-chat. Rob explains how ‘it’s actually a brilliant time for recruitment right now. Whilst the traditional methods of bringing people into the office aren’t available, we’ve been successfully managing our recruitment process over Zoom which has been incredibly productive in many ways’. Not only has it meant that they are able to interview more people due to it being more time-effective, but there is also a wider pool of talented individuals looking for employment. As a result of other businesses having to lay people off because of the pandemic, the recruitment market is full of fantastic people that are now seeking alternative careers.
Mark describes how moving the business online has ‘made lots of people realise that they can change the way they work. I’ve now got twice the number of people working for me than before lockdown began, which is quite something. Because the recruitment process started online almost 6 weeks ago, we’ve been gradually building up a team of people that we’ve never met in person which is bizarre. In a way it makes you re-evaluate the necessity of a physical office space’.
The teams have just finished training the first load of recruits, and so have paused on bringing more people in for the time being to focus on developing the initial intake. Mark explains that, ‘in this way, we will have a solid development strategy in place and we will be able to grow the business more successfully’. It’s important that all areas of the business are developing at a similar pace, in order to expand the organisation in a sustainable and effective manner.
WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED WORKING VIA ZOOM? Whilst Zoom has been invaluable in providing a virtual ‘space’ in which the company could operate, it’s not without its challenges. After all, our industry is essentially based around person-toperson communication, so it took some time to get used to the etiquette of interacting with each other online (not to mention the 40-minute timeout which sometimes cut the meetings short without warning!). Rob was quick to establish a simple set of ‘Zoom rules’, such as ‘everyone putting their video on mute when they joined’ and ‘ensuring that people were appropriately dressed for work’ etc. which sounds basic, but these are things that are easy to let slip when you’re working from home! Despite the obvious hindrances, Mark describes how ‘working on Zoom has been a chance for us to pick out those individuals who have shown true Entrepreneurial spirit’. They were running the training sessions every single day, so it was easy to decipher who was putting in the most effort and who continually attended every session. Small things such as who switched their video on and things like that really made a difference; being able to see your peers has a huge impact on your productivity. He goes on to describe how, ‘Because people are at home and not having to physically come into these meetings, it’s a lot easier to simply not log on and take a step back without feeling the immediate repercussions of that; it really comes down to personal levels of motivation and that’s a big part of what it means to be an Entrepreneur. It’s certainly given me an idea of who I am going to put my time and energy into working with when things are up and running again at full capacity’.
NEW CLIENTS After they had completed their online coaching programme and come to terms
'it’s a lot easier to simply not log on and take a step back without feeling the immediate repercussions of that; it really comes down to personal levels of motivation and that’s a big
part of what it means to be an Entrepreneur'.
with the prospect of their Charity and Events partners perhaps not returning to the field for some time, they decided it was time to branch out and explore a new avenue of sales. They started engaging with two Energy Comparison Companies called ‘Don’t Waste Money’ and ‘Love Energy Saving’, who essentially try to save people money by switching them over to a new energy provider.
Each Owner implemented a structured training programme based around the new product whilst swiftly moving into telesales so as to be able to complete their work remotely. Mark explains that ‘the guys who are on the tele-sales side of things actually go through a training programme with the client over Zoom. They have to go through a series of tests before they can get on board. We have a similar process with the Domestic Energy client where our guys get sent four videos with questions at the end of each video. They have to answer those questions and submit a DBS check and then I complete the training process with a day’s coaching in Sales in the office. The final part of the training is in person, but obviously with all the social distancing rules in place, and then the guys are ready to go out into the Field. It’s quite a varied and rigorous process, but that’s simply what these times demand’.
When times are hard, the true Spirit of the Entrepreneur shines through. We’ve been testing our levels of Entrepreneurship to the extreme, and it’s simply been a case of seeing what’s out there and where we can take the business during this time. Kev and his team went to companies such as Costa, Starbucks and Nando’s etc. and said, ‘look, you’re going to want to boost your sales as quickly as possible once we’re out of lockdown, can we collaborate on some 3-4-2 offers?’ for example. He elaborates upon his strategy of how to best adapt the business: ‘I had a list of 20 ideas or so and we just worked through those and adapted our way of working as best we could during this time. I spoke to Mike Blain and said you know, charities are going to need to get money quickly. They’ve been hit hard by the pandemic simply because people aren’t in a position to be able to donate or to support in the same way as before. The economy is suffering and it has a knock on effect. I suggested to him that
perhaps we could offer a ‘Charity Package’ where a business can buy into not just one charity, but three or four that best match the ethos of their business.’
The pandemic has made lots of people realise that they can change the way they work. I’ve now got twice the number of people working for me than before lockdown began, which is quite something. Because the recruitment process started online almost 6 weeks ago, we’ve been gradually building up a team of people that we’ve never met in person which is bizarre.
- MARK WIDNELL -
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW SKILLS In order to successfully transition into the Energy market, the teams had to adapt their skills accordingly. Mark shares how, ‘We’re used to doing a lot of the relationship building with the Charities so upfront when you first speak to them. With energy sales it’s a little different. We’re essentially saving them money by reducing their energy bill so you don’t have to do as much relationship building beforehand!’. 65% of people are currently paying too much for their energy bill, so it’s a relatively simple conversation that’s had on the doorstep or over the phone. ‘You still make an effort to get to know your customers, but you do it towards the end of the sale when you’re working for the Energy Client as opposed to spending the initial 10 minutes establishing a good relationship with whoever you’re selling to’. Rob describes how ‘working in the Energy field with this new client has actually been really brilliant for the guys in terms of their skills-development. It’s simply more difficult to get people to sign up for this as opposed to fundraising, so whilst it’s been challenging, it’s only made for a more resilient and talented workforce’. When the fundraising does come back into business, the team will be in an even better position to move forward in that sector, ‘because the guys will be better sales-people. We’re covering all bases and growing in all sorts of ways as we move through this uncertain period’.
As things are beginning to lift slightly in terms of lockdown restrictions, the teams have been able to start working together in person a little more. Promotions Co. have got two floors in the office building, so they have been able to socially distance the space and have 5 guys upstairs, 5 guys downstairs, all working 2 metres apart. They have 3 guys working from home and another division of the office working face-to-face in PPE. Phil has ensured that everybody feels comfortable going back to this level of interacting with the public explaining how ‘those that are working ‘face-to-face’ come in each morning for ‘Impact Training’, so ways in which we can successfully engage with members of the public despite the limitations of wearing PPE and having to be 2 metres apart’.
In terms of the technical aspect of completing door-to-door sales, Rob explains that ‘they have a system in place now where they complete the majority of the sale on the iPad and then any sensitive information given by the customer is done over the phone with the call centre. We’ve adapted not just in terms of our personal approach, but also in terms of the physical selling process in order to continue the work professionally and responsibly. A lot of companies looked at the situation and thought, ‘we simply cannot sell, we cannot do the work’; whereas, we came together and found new ways in which to move forward’. The main thing, really, has been treating each sale with subjectivity and sensitivity. Rob describes how, ‘the first day I went out, I was very apprehensive and I really had no idea how people were going to react. Some people were understandably cautious and very keen to social distance, and others were just thrilled to see someone! A lot of people just want to have a conversation and the fact that we could then offer to save them money during a period of time where everyone is experiencing financial instability, was a bonus. Of course we had customers that weren’t willing to engage, but the majority of people were very willing to engage and we were able to save them up to £500 a year on their utilities which was a lovely thing to be able to offer considering the economy as it stands right now’. As we move out of this period of lockdown, it is important to remember that everyone will be responding differently to the idea of being out in public again, so the guys have made a concerted effort to ensure that their customers feel not only at ease, but safe.
LOOKING FORWARDS - EXPANSION In terms of the trajectory of the business looking out over the rest of the year, each office still has the same goals in place as before, they have simply shifted them back by a quarter. Phil explains that they ‘are still working towards the same high standard of sales and it’s been important not to lower our expectations of ourselves despite the uncertain climate under which we are operating’. Each organisation is planning for the future, with the potential caveat of another lockdown after the summer. Mark explains how ‘that’s a worry for many reasons, and is partly why I decided to move us into telesales. I can’t see them shutting down the economy again because it would just have a devastating impact on everybody, so I am confident that if we have another lockdown, my team will be able to continue the work over the phone. We don’t know how long we will be living with this virus, so until they find a vaccine, we have to adapt, plan ahead and make sure we have strategies in place to be able to continue the work regardless of restrictions in terms of travel and communication’.
Despite having to adapt many aspects of the organisation, The Energy campaign has opened up lots of new opportunities all over the country. Mark and Enigma Promotions have plans to open two new offices, one in Exeter and one in Plymouth. Essentially, they will be splitting the business in two and moving into a variety of new divisions: Telesales, Business-to-Business Energy, Domestic Energy, Charity Lotteries. It’s a really exciting time and has shaken things up in such a way that it has forced them to explore new ways of working: ‘We are planning for the future and maintaining a positive attitude, focussing on the new opportunities that have arisen as opposed to what we may have lost. In that sense, we are in a good place, and the teams are closer than ever’. Decisions that were initially made out of necessity have actually proven to be extremely productive for the organisation as a whole. Things like recruiting online for example, the offices will continue to do in the future; not only does it save them time, but it broadens the recruitment pool to other cities. Rob can now ‘recruit in say, Cardiff, and build an office without actually having to be there in person. It also means that my guys can watch me do a recruitment appointment on Zoom and learn that way, whereas that could never have happened in person. Normally, to build an organisation in our industry, you spend a lot of time travelling, which of course has its benefits, but ultimately wastes a lot of time’.
All in all, adapting the business during the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise. We’ve made it work, we’ve adapted as best we could and we’re now in a fantastic position moving forward. Rob tells me that ‘the thing I’m most proud of is the way that the guys have responded to all this. No-one sat there whinging and moaning and feeling sorry for themselves. Everyone threw themselves into this new territory with absolute commitment and enthusiasm, taking notes, educating themselves and each other, and generally coming at it with a positive attitude. They were all really keen to learn new skills and to improve their technique which I think made us all realize that we are surrounded by a team of incredible, like-minded, positive individuals. I’m sure that a lot of people will have responded to this in a very different way and it’s not always the case that you can take things in your stride with such adaptability and energy, but I’m really really proud of my guys and the way in which we’ve handled this, together’. Here’s to a future where we learn from experience. It’s not always the case that we must return to where we left off, but rather move forwards with knowledge, awareness and a new found perspective.
