PPB August 2020

new. Re-think: why are you doing this? Your “vision” and “mission” must be ready for facing these new challenges. Make sure your heart and commitment to live out your purpose are strong and passionate. Re-think your strategies. How will you build it now that the world has changed? How will you communicate with your customers while physically distancing but remaining socially close? Have you considered that many of your clients who you regularly visited in their offices may continue to work from home? You are not a door- to-door salesperson. Studies of shopping behaviors during the pandemic are showing that people who previously were not big users of online shopping have changed their habits. In Italy alone, ecommerce transactions rose 90 percent between February and March 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. Up Your Ecommerce Game What does this mean for you? It means that if you’ve been ignoring your ability to conduct sales transactions through ecommerce, you need to accelerate it now. Your customers are expecting an Amazon experience from you. At the very least, partner with your suppliers for some free tools and customizable solutions that will get you into the game. Ask your supplier reps; they’ll be happy to guide you to these resources. There are a variety of industry providers of ecommerce solutions such as DistributorCentral, commonsku and SAGE, the latter available with a PPAI membership. You can also create your own customized, branded and uniquely-you ecommerce solution using non-industry solutions such as Shopify, WIX, Weebly, Magneto, Etsy, Nimbit, Squarespace and others. Develop Your Online Presence You should improve your online presence outside of ecommerce with content that is relevant to the needs and problems of your customers and target audience. Your job is to build trust and position yourself as a subject matter expert. How do you do that? You can create content through writing, reading, video or any creative outlet. If you have skills in any of these areas, use them and work on improving them. If you don’t have these skills, you can become a reader and researcher and share great content that you find online and in sources you read. (Just make sure to attribute the content to the creator of it.) You may also hire someone to create content that is relevant to the needs of your target clients. The great thing about creating an online presence is that you can be a media mogul fairly easily. Through blogging—sharing your writing online—you can create your own newsletter. Free resources such as WordPress make it easy. If you’re more comfortable just talking, record your great ideas and solutions and share them in a podcast. Now you’ve got your own radio station. Videos are extremely popular, especially if you’re trying to reach Millennials and Gen Z. Videos allow you to be real, funny and increase your chances of getting widespread shares. Did you know you can create your own channel on YouTube? There, now you’ve got your own television station. Here’s the thing. If you do it right, you could be everywhere. You can write your blog post. Then, audio-record it and deliver it as a podcast. Then, you can take the same information and record it as a video using whatever props are relevant and post it on YouTube. Then, you can push all these out on your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media profiles. If you do this consistently, within a month, you’ll be a social media rock star. Remain Physically Distant But Socially Close There are other important shifts to consider as your business bounces back from the pandemic and comes back stronger than the competition. Physically distant while socially close means that Alexander Graham Bell’s invention may make a comeback. No longer fear the telephone. Get good at and use FaceTime, Zoom, GoToMeeting and the other virtual communication tools. Direct mail, lumpy packages, “thinking of you” cards and promotional products will be a real advantage for you as you build your place in the hearts and minds of your clients. I predict that post-pandemic we will be looking at a Golden Age of Personalization. Look for and recommend products that can be personalized as both you and your clients will be connecting with people on a much closer level socially. Frommy experience, challenging times do not somuch build character as reveal it, and this current situation will showus who we are. | AUGUST 2020 | 73 THINK