Think that sales activities couldn't work during the COVID-19 period? Think again!

When the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia was announced in March, business communities were thrown with lots of uncertainties especially about the sales activities of the consumer-facing and lead-to-sale companies.

More questions are left unanswered in these challenging times.

To address some of those questions, we at SalesCandy looked at our internal data of more than 500 thousand sales leads across 5 countries in the South-East Asia region. What we found may surprise you!

1. Digital is still working – strong and firm

Our study shows that except for the initial dip observed in the first few days when the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia was announced, the number of leads coming in from the digital channels are ramping up during the MCO, making Digital as one of the remaining sales channels that is still delivering.

2. The cost of advertising on Facebook has decreased due to higher inventory, but audience are as browsy as usual

Data from Facebook shows that the Cost Per Impression (CPI) for advertisements has decreased during MCO due to higher inventory, as the direct result of more people going online as everyone is at home.

Click Through Rate (CTR) has remained firm, indicating a potential window of opportunity for companies to take advantage of the lower cost now to increases its presence online.

3. Prospects are more ready to spend time listening during MCO

Our record shows that the average length per sales call (measured by call duration) increased by 30% during MCO compared to what has been achieved in the immediate past few weeks prior to the lockdown.

This means prospects are now more willing to spend time listening to the salesperson. Proactive sales teams who are making efforts to do more sales calls may see their labours paid off.

4. Meetings have reduced substantially, yet the calling efforts have not ramped up

There is no significant increase in the Count of Calls made by sales teams in their daily sales activities despite a significant drop in Meetings during the lockdown.

5. One third of the calls from incoming leads are missed, signalling a potential loss in opportunities

The % of missed calls from incoming leads, which normally fared below 25%, increased to a staggering 36% during the first two weeks of MCO, suggesting a potential drop in sales productivity.

Effectively, 1 out of 3 incoming calls from prospects were not picked up!

There are always opportunities in every crisis

Our data shows that despite the movement restriction, the market is still active and there are still ample opportunities, especially in the digital space.

With the reduction in opportunity to meet, Sales Teams should channel more efforts to make sales calls as prospects are now more willing to listen.

The immediate challenge for Sales Managers is to employ effective measures to track and monitor the daily sales activities of the team members, in order to sustain the sales momentum and combat the issue of productivity losses caused by remote supervision.

Need help to manage sales leads and track your sales activities? Talk to us today!

SalesCandy is a mobile app solution provider that helps enterprises improve sales performance through instant lead routing, rigorous sales tracking and campaign monitoring. SalesCandy currently operates in five countries across South East Asia.

Talk to us today at: https://www.salescandy.com/contact-us