Gartner Identifies Sales Strategies to Mitigate Supply and Demand Disruptions

The economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to sustained supply and demand reductions that have impacted not just revenue but also customer trust and seller motivation, according to Gartner.

“The economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has left CSOs and their teams struggling to adhere to commitments and sales targets—with some companies selling out of their products or offerings. This can make or break a company and their sales team,” says Maria Boulden, vice president and executive partner in the Gartner Sales practice.

“A selling environment with nothing to sell or nowhere to sell poses a significant threat to any company and the people within their sales force,” Boulden says. “Besides the clear business challenges, it has particularly harmful impact on seller motivation.”

However, Gartner has identified key actions that chief sales officers and their teams must take now to mitigate the damages from a lack of demand or supply.

Gartner urges sales leaders to do the following:

• Prioritize accounts during supply disruption to balance financial loss with long-term account growth and partnership by focusing on contractual, strategic and profit requirements of the supplier organization.
• Create appropriate commercial messaging to maintain engagement with low-demand or no-supply customer segments, helping them make sense of overwhelming amounts of information and explore future business possibilities.
• Work with customers to identify indicators of recovery and develop easy and executable solutions to resume business at the first sign of recovery.
• Support sellers during disruption to prevent a loss of selling confidence by adjusting compensation targets and focusing them on future market demands for their offering.