War sounds awful. On February 24 all of us ukrainians woke up in the morning horror as we became part of a historical event of our country life. In a blink of an eye our multi-year plans vanished. During the first days of invasion all the people, colleagues, entrepreneurs fought for life, then for their business and possibility of sustenance, then for the right to start over. This war led us to review all–from relationships to believe in ourselves and our army, government.
I believe in our victory and that we will smash the enemy in all the battlefields. But those of us who have no practice of making war in the trenches should act on the economic front. Most of my friends entered Area Defense as they had been preparing for that yet staying in the offices, but physically training, buying ammunition and provision. Four of my salesmen took the military oath and went to war. Some of them have been incommunicado for a couple of weeks, some keep on making FB posts from abandoned ruins on a stakeout, some guard important infrastructure.
Everyone around me divided in those who can fight and those who are able to earn money in a state of maximum uncertainty. They are my heroes, my guides and example to follow. I see their willingness to go forward and not to give up.
To my regret I can also see people who do nothing for our victory. Generally they used to get everything without effort and lounge for creepholes to comfort their life while others unite in solidarity. And there’s a real majority of this kind of people around me. They just wait for the war to end and after they want to proclaim their patriotism and great assistance.
There is also one more kind of people who used to complain before war, during the war and sure will after war too. No water in the tap, no favorite milk, no opportunity to walk outside as usual etc. Total reduse of the sense of reality. Just kids in mature bodies, emotionally stunted.
The war turned to them unsuspected. Firstly, day-by-day changing predictions of end war dates make them depressed; secondly, their ultra maximalism cramps them to achieve personal goals and leads to self-castigation and feeling of littleness.
As for business, it is always optimization and improving process. During the first weeks of the crisis most companies reduced 30-40% of personnel. To my surprise those were companies who developed products and sold subscriptions globally. Less loss had IT-companies who made classical outsourcing. And just a tiny part of IT-companies was able to improve sales performance due to adequate clients who required extending the projects.
Those companies who lived from traffic and platforms stopped their existence. They, like the Germans and the French, were addicted to the flow through one pipe.
During the first month of war I got plenty of messages as for what to do, any available alternatives and how to get the hang of the new channel. And my answers were kind of–get the new team, it’s not a one week affair, need to revise the expertise.
War pushes us for dramatical changes and to make quick and rather complicated decisions.
I’ve always been surprised by the motto of most IT-companies “if it works then there’s nothing to change” – in peace and war times either. And there is really minimum number of those who keep on changing, try to calm down and to improve. I believe, those who overcame war will overcome any challenges. To my regret, bigger companies suffered most.
It was an encounter to relocate developers to Lviv and to Zakarpatye as a whole. First, it was difficult to book a hotel, then problems with food quality there, then everybody received call-up papers, and that affected the industry really tough. It was difficult to concentrate on the project. Plenty of guys entered the cyber force and started to help hack websites of different structures.
So what happened to sales as a whole?
It’s evident that the clients started to look for plan B, to demand continuous performance guarantees, and that lasted for a couple of weeks. Sales improved after the first shock changed to planning. Sales reps had hard times especially those who had relatives in war zones. My family– parents and brother–have been staying in occupation for 3 months but they don’t lose heart and believe that in time all will return to the usual life. So we keep on working harder in order to overcome fear and to donate our army and support families in difficult conditions.
After three months of war Lead generation didn’t get worse, on the contrary it improved. Conversion rates retained pre-war level and Leads became more thoughtful and cooperative. Everybody wants to support us with money, contacts and recommendations. So we have to just act and work as hard as we can. Strategy has been replaced with tactics and we need to play the long game here. Also the mood of our guys and clients will depend on war situation. But what we can do now is to increase email sequences, review more cases on the sites, and inform clients about their business state thoroughly.
Don’t give up! Sales do exist and the revenue also–the same as the light at the end of the tunnel exists. We will win for sure. It’s just the matter of time. Our economic front has to stay strong and tough as our army is.
P.S. I have some spare time for new challenges and consulting projects, so feel free to contact me if you need any assistance in tuning your sales team. DM me in Telegram: @antonfedulov