Episode 31 – Sales and Marketing Post-COVID

Welcome to the TRSA podcast. Providing interviews and insights from the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. Most Americans might not realize it, but they benefit at least once per week from the cleanliness and safety of laundered, reusable linens, uniforms, towels, mats, and other products provided by various businesses and organizations. TRSA represents the companies that supply, launder, and maintain linens and uniforms. And in this podcast, we will bring the thought leaders of the industry to you.

 

Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of the Linen, Uniform and Facility Services podcast, interviews and insights by TRSA. I’m your host, Jason Risley, the senior editor of digital and new media at TRSA. The last few episodes of the podcast have focused on the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic and its effects on the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. Make sure you go back and listen if you haven’t already. In today’s episode, we’ll hear from Anna Walker, the marketing manager at Cosgrove Partners in Indianapolis.

 

Anna will discuss the importance of retaining your customer base in the post COVID sales and marketing environment. She’ll talk about the critical pivot your marketing and sales teams must make, how to develop marketing messages that resonate with your customers in this climate, and why adding new product lines may be a smart move for your business. Hi, Hi, everyone. My name is Anna Walker. I’m the marketing manager at Cosgrove Partners.

 

We are based in Indianapolis and we specialize in serving independent and regional laundry. Obviously, the last few months, we’ve all experienced a massive shift in our personal lives and, you know, the lives of our business. But what’s really interesting is that few industries have born witness to that shift more than this one. Not only have you had to function as an essential business, but you’ve also had to straddle the really fine line between customers, some of your customers running at or above capacity and others that are shutting their doors. Some of them for good.

 

And now you’re wondering what’s next. You’ve kind of made it through the first phase, but what is next? CostGroup Partners helped clients come out of the 2008 recession. And as we’ve been working alongside our clients in the midst of this pandemic, we’ve been able to apply and expand on some of those learnings, which is exactly what I’d like to just share with you today. If you walk away with just one thing today, I want it to be that there are opportunities for increased success for your business right now.

 

Things have been hard. There is no doubt about it. But there is also great potential about what the cultural shift has been and ultimately what it means for your business. The new normal work isn’t going away anytime soon. We hear that on the news every single day.

 

The fact is that this pandemic has fundamentally shifted how people operate and therefore how businesses operate, how your customers operate for good. Personal safety is going to be the prevailing issue from here on out, and people are also gonna be more risk averse just in general than they’ve ever been. So for your business, that means a few things. 1, customers will be less inclined to talk to vendors and more likely to stay with their existing suppliers. And 2, your sales and service people are not going to have the same access to customers that they once had.

 

This leads us and shows us the value of retention. When we’re working in the laundry space and serving clients like you, there are consistently 2 streams of marketing and sales activity as there should be. Right? New customer acquisition and penetration. Oftentimes, though, we see that the balance is heavily in favor of new customer acquisition, and that’s the pivot that needs to happen.

 

In today’s world, which do you think is gonna be more effective, selling into a customer that’s never met you or expanding a relationship with a customer who already knows you? Probably the latter, right? Retention is going to be so important and studies show us that selling incremental dollars to existing customers is 5 times more profitable than acquiring new ones. It’s especially true in this industry where oftentimes it’ll take, you know, 12 to 18 months to recoup your investment in things like uniforms or scrubs. Overlay that with the post COVID reality that we’re in.

 

Most customers aren’t going to want to introduce new suppliers anywhere in the near term. So unless their supplier is failing them in a very meaningful way, they’re gonna hold pretty tight to their current supply chain, the supply chain that you’re already part of with your existing customers. So how then do you pivot? Now for a brief message from TRSA. Hi.

 

I’m Joseph Ricci, president and CEO of TRSA. As the economy has slowed to a grinding pace, we know many of you are struggling while others are working overtime. As your trade association, TSA is open and working to ensure you have the information and resources necessary to continue operations and disseminate accurate relevant information to your customers and employees. TRSA is also strategically focusing on helping the industry recover by launching market specific business recovery task forces and consulting with economists and futurists to provide members with insight into the new emerging post COVID crisis business environment. With your health and safety in mind, TerraSave has canceled several programs and rescheduled others as virtual events.

 

These include the recently completed market sector specific virtual meetings with more than 500 participants. We look forward to seeing you again either virtually or when we can begin hosting valuable networking and information sharing events. Please watch your email for announcements of programs that will provide immediately applicable information and offer strategic insight into the reemergence of the economy and our industry. Thank you. Now back to the episode.

 

There are 4 steps I really suggest you take. Number 1, understand your customer mindset. This is, of course, the basis of all effective sales and marketing. I really encourage you to ask yourself, to ask your leadership, to ask your team to sit down and answer the question, what can we do to help our customers and their customers stay safe? Because remember, staying safe is the the fundamental shift that has happened here.

 

The answer to that question should then direct all of your sales and marketing efforts and decisions in the coming months. Then number 2, equip your team with the right messages. It’s really important that each time a customer comes into contact with your brand, if that’s a social media post or an email or a phone conversation, that you are reinforcing the same message, that everyone’s being the same language. This is what builds trust with these customers. So focus on 2 things with these messages.

 

So this was focus on being relevant, offering timely, current messages that really acknowledge the state of their business. Show that you know these people and what they’re going through, and be empathetic. Realize that there is a human behind this business, and show genuine understanding for those challenges and offer genuine effective solutions, create your solution, to help them overcome them. Next, and of course, this is likely already on your radar. We were just talking about social media earlier.

 

Digitize your marketing and sales strategies. Sales in this industry have always been tough. Your sales teams have had to work very hard to get access to decision makers to build relationships, and now it’s only gotten harder. You know, what they used to accomplish over 4 or 5 visits, they’re now having to accomplish over 1 or 2 if they even are able to be face to face at all. So that’s why strategic marketing is so important.

 

So that even before they have a conversation via phone or face to face with a salesperson, your marketing messages have already begun to communicate the value that you provide your customers in and the way that you are not just a vendor, but you are a solution provider. And of course, make it easy for customers to do business with you online. If you can make any investments in updating your order processing, invoicing, service systems, whatever that is, so it becomes really easy to be one of your customers. We wanna lower any obstacle we can. And then last but not least, consider expanding your product portfolio into direct sale offerings.

 

Maybe that’s facility services, maybe that’s direct sale scrub, whatever that looks like for your business. Broadening your product portfolio is just in general, a key element of retention, more products, better retention opportunities. But this also ties back to the mindset of your customers. They’re less likely to introduce new suppliers, and they’re more apt to purchase items via existing relationships. Because at the end of the day, succeeding in this market is going to come back to relationship.

 

The businesses that rebound back out of this time will be those that have invested in developing relationships with their customers on an emotional level, who have achieved an intimate understanding of their customers’ challenges and constraints and opportunities, and who use this knowledge to direct their business decisions. We’ve seen this with our own clients at CostGroup Partners. We have been able to support them in brand new ways during this time, strengthening the trust and faith they in us, but also allowing us to help them continue to be more successful. This pandemic has created fertile soil for cultivating existing connections with customers. And if your teams are showing up as relevant, empathetic, attentive, reassuring solution providers, your business will leave a lasting impression on your customers, one that extends far beyond this pandemic and helps you continue to be successful for years to come.

 

You can access a variety of materials on COVID 19 specifically designed for members of the linen, uniform, and facility services industry at www. Trsa.org/covid19. To hear more marketing and sales insights from Anna Walker, make sure you read the June edition of Textile Services Magazine. Her article titled How to Market Your Laundry in the Post COVID 19 World appears on page 28. Thanks again for tuning in to today’s episode of the podcast.

 

And as always, make sure you subscribe, rate, and review our show on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher. Additionally, follow TRSA on Facebook at trsaorg, on Twitter at trsa, on LinkedIn at Textile Rental Services Association of America, and on Instagram at trsa.org.