Let’s face it: Many of the external forces that influence your business in the current unpredictable environment are beyond your control. Your B2B marketing and sales teams’ responses to the pandemic and economic downturn, however, are under your control.

Your staff will have to get used to operating in an unpredictable environment with frequently moving goalposts, which isn’t ideal for anyone. To generate more leads, your marketing budget needs to work harder and smarter than ever before. If you want to succeed instead of just stay alive, you have to change all the time. This means coming up with creative and new ways to prospect.

With your B2B business development plan, the COVID-19 world can be adapted in four major ways.

Think about account-based marketing

In the past, you may have mostly concentrated on demand creation, but the present environment requires you to cease focusing only on MQLs and SQLs. By recognising each client as a separate market, you can concentrate on them using an ABM strategy. Although it takes time, it gives you more time to concentrate strategically on lead creation.

Review your tech stack

When utilising the newest and finest technological tools to optimise and track your prospecting efforts, it’s easy to get carried away. You require a collection of trustworthy, effective tools that meet your needs. It’s time to run an audit of your tools, platforms, and plugins to make sure they support your plan, provide data on the agreed-upon KPIs, and address your concerns over performance and marketing expenditures. Make your company leaner and meaner during any downtime you may have.

Has your messaging evolved to suit the pandemic?

Even if you spent a lot of effort developing your messaging before the epidemic, does it still apply in the present environment? Does it respect your outlined buyer personas while addressing the market’s expectations? Make sure your messaging demonstrates empathy and emphasises the ways in which you can assist and support your clients during this trying time. Don’t take the chance of coming across as glib, dishonest, or out of touch if you don’t update your content to reflect current affairs.

Craft your brand story to resonate more with customers

Since understanding and empathy are more important than ever, it is crucial to evaluate your brand story and make sure it tells the proper tale. Consider the following inquiries carefully:

Whom are you addressing?

Which message has the best chance of getting their attention?

What demands can your brand’s story and USP meet?

Build your story around your clients rather than attempting to shoehorn them into it.