Recently, Petra Coach hosted a Coaches’ Corner – a 1-hour session of live Q&A with Certified Petra Coaches. This webinar featured coaches Jason Rush, Jennifer Faught and Mark Comiso.

The content is invaluable to leaders during this unprecedented time.

You can find the full recording here.

To augment the recording, below is a brief recap of questions and answers from the session. 

Q: We recently surveyed our members and the top concern was a recession this fall. How should business owners be preparing for that?

  • Look at managing your cash and how you can build cash – Create a “cash bucket”
  • Make sure you’re still investing in your people and their growth and team activities
  • Look at your brand awareness and invest in that as well
  • Look for ways you can “recession proof” your business – Target industries that will be able to stay open

Q: Business owners are working off of a plan that was created 6 months ago – how do we plan for next year when we have an old plan that feels obsolete?

  • Look at your targets more frequently throughout the year – monthly rather than quarterly
  • Make a plan for 2021 using the information you have today
  • Make sure you are communicating any adjustments to the rest of the team

Q: We were so focused on retention of current clients, and sales has slowed down. How do we get our company focused on ramping sales back up?

  • Create a Company Priority around a specific sales outcome
  • You have to shift your mindset – if you’re used to selling face-to-face, find how you can pivot and see what you can go do instead
  • This is a great time to look at processes of what you’ve done in the past and see how it can be done differently now
  • Creating a Theme around the priority will help get the rest of the team on board – make sure that it includes the whole team

Q: I am thinking this might be a good time to get a bargain on acquisitions to expand my business. How do I find them? I’m a landscape and snow service provider to commercial clients.

  • How you do those acquisitions/how you partner with someone is going to be important – the way it’s structured is important
  • Create a list of businesses you are interested in and just go talk to them and see if they would be interested
  • Look for some level of connection with their organization and make sure it’s similar to yours

Q: We have orders coming in, but not the people to complete our orders? Any suggestions on what we can do?

  • This is an opportunity to reach out and bring people on for part time work or contract work
  • Communicate with your customers and let them know what’s going on – ask them for flexibility

Q: A lot of your team members are facing the decision of school districts choosing virtual, in-person, or a hybrid approach in the fall. How can businesses support their employees while not losing productivity?

  • Set up a virtual tutor or Accountability Coach for employees’ students
  • Can you provide childcare?
  • Hire someone to run errands for you or your team
  • Adjust work hours based on their child’s needs

Q: We’ve watched our culture deteriorate over the last quarter due to stress, a virtual environment, furloughs and layoffs, and burnout. Is this fixable?

  • Start small – think about what is important and what you can do
  • Recognition and appreciation of your team or a team member goes a long way
  • Invest in your people and the culture

Q: How practical and costly is it to outsource a sales manager?

  • Not sure what a cost would be – it all depends on what you need your sales manager to do
  • If you do outsource someone, they might not be engrained in the culture and be as invested
  • Look at the reason you’re wanting to outsource vs bringing someone in

 

For more options specific to your organization, contact us at info@petracoach.com or set up a FREE 30-min coaching call with one of our Certified Petra Coaches.

Like what you see? Register for our upcoming webinars today!