What do you need to know, if you work in sales, about the post-pandemic period?

We still don't know if the pandemic is over or if a "reloaded" version of covid will come. I think the probability of being in the end stage of the pandemic is higher than another scenario, but either way, on a psychological level, people and companies have become accustomed to the virus, so there is no major change in that respect.

The changes we have already started to experience are more related to production, supply and distribution flows. If you work in sales, you have to expect that the coming years will bring overnight changes, peaks in activity where you cannot meet demand, followed by periods of quiet, significant drops in demand in certain areas, irrational customer behavior and psychological pressure. What I base this reasoning on:

The pandemic has created shortages of certain raw materials, which have led to price increases, and these shortages will only get worse.

The energy crisis will lead to double-digit inflation starting in the next few months.

Regardless of how Russia's invasion of Ukraine evolves, geopolitical tensions will generate economic imbalances.

Russia and Ukraine are responsible for 29% of world wheat exports and significant percentages of other grain exports. NATO restrictions will be reflected in higher food prices.

Low and middle-income earners will allocate a higher percentage of their income to essential shopping baskets, thus decreasing purchases of services and non-essential goods.

Is a new economic crisis coming? What happens to tomorrow's sales people?

So far, every global crisis has had a clear and somewhat singular cause: the overproduction crisis of 1929, the dot-com bubble of the 2000s, various currency crises in countries where the national currency has depreciated at an exponential rate (e.g. Venezuela), the crisis caused by the housing bubble and financial instruments without real hedging, which began in the United States in 2008, the crisis generated by Covid.

Is a new economic crisis coming in the current context? A hybrid crisis is likely to follow, of imbalances generated by multiple causes, in which governments, financial institutions and companies will not have just one fire to put out, but rather will act as a fire brigade trying to put out economic, social, geopolitical, technological "fires".

What will happen to people working in sales? Here are my thoughts:

Salespeople who have been riding the wave of growth in their field will disappear if they don't adapt to change.

People in sales will be forced to use more sophisticated skills to reach customers, such as emotional assertiveness, the ability to discover buying motivations, managing their own feelings and self-sabotaging mechanisms.

Sales consultants who do not embrace digitalisation, new communication channels and the rapid pace of change in the market will struggle to achieve results.

How can you prepare yourself to earn good sales in troubled times?

Even in difficult times, humanity moves forward. Maybe more difficult, with more effort, with sacrifices, but forward. Here's what I propose to prepare you to win in sales in troubled times:

Streamline your sales process through online interactions, you can have 5-10 meetings a day. Yes, you can have 10 online meetings a day, 30 minutes long, with potential customers and still have time for other activities.

Learn about how the brain works and how behavioral mechanisms are formed. The days of presenting your services and products to the customer, discovering needs and getting people to buy are slowly fading away. You need more sophisticated skills to help you make a difference in a competitive market plagued by uncertainty, scarcity and instability. You can find out more by visiting. Learn more accesing sales training in today's environment.

Develop your network and create a top profile on LinkedIn. One place to find potential clients, partners and jobs is LinkedIn, but to be visible and credible, you need to have a complete profile, recommendations and thousands of connections in your network. Here, for example, is how I built my profile, which helps me generate new meetings every day - Mihai Arghire.

Understand the role of emotions and train yourself to be emotionally assertive. Emotions are the emotional fuel that fuels our behavior. By understanding your own emotions, learning how to manage them and, at the same time, how to respond to your customers' emotions, you will be able to improve your conversion rate. You can learn more at the Emotional Intelligence training.

Work as hard as you can today to proactively generate new leads and sales opportunities. Don't wonder if an economic downturn is coming and don't wait for it to come before you get to work. Always, in my experience, people who reacted nimbly and worked harder before a tough time have benefited. I've seen many people in sales relax in times similar to the one we're experiencing today, acting at a bohemian pace, relying on mottos like "Well, how bad can it be?", "I can't influence what's coming anyway", "It'll be okay somehow". In most cases, these people experienced the worst pain in the crisis and suffered because there were fewer potential customers and they turned to someone with whom they already had a business relationship.

On a final note, I should mention that everything I have written above is my personal perspective on the present and future in sales, based on my 18 years as a salesman, entrepreneur and consultant. I hope it helps and inspires you to do something different from the rest of the sales consultants in your field!