We are [more than] nine months into the COVID-19 crisis and following a period of relative improvement in infection rates, our community has again seen a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases. Beyond the troubling impact on public health, a rise in cases stands to further threaten our community’s economic progress as well. CenterState CEO remains laser-focused on developing strategies and tracking the resources necessary to help meet the immediate needs of businesses to drive our region’s economic recovery.

Since last spring, CenterState CEO has advocated for additional resources and spending on programs that will complement the region’s economic strategy and support key industries that have been severely disrupted. We continue to actively work with New York’s federal delegation as Congress deliberates new rounds of COVID-19 relief. Our team has been carefully tracking the progress and details of the proposals. As developments progress, we will share details of what is included in the stimulus package and how it will impact local businesses.

As the possibility of additional business restrictions and further pandemic challenges arise, our team stands ready to again rapidly deploy their skills and knowledge to track and share resources, information, tools, and programming. We remain committed to our four-pronged approach to assess, respond, mitigate, and recover from this crisis, and to assist your business now and in the weeks and months ahead.

Now more than ever, we all have a significant role to play to ensure our community can manage and quickly recover from this crisis. I urge you to do your part and take public-health protocols seriously. Your individual efforts will help ensure we are not overburdening our health-care system or contributing to a rise in cases that threatens the very people, livelihoods, and business we seek to protect and support.

The human and economic challenges presented by this virus are the most significant our community has faced. As with any challenge, we will leverage our assets and strengths to get through this together. Please continue to reach out to our team with your questions or to share your concerns with us at support@centerstateceo.com.         

Robert M. (Rob) Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This viewpoint is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter that the organization sent to members on Dec. 10.

When is the right time to buy a business? It’s an important question many people ask themselves for a variety of reasons, and it becomes even more interesting when they’re considering purchasing a business after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

That leads to a series of related questions. Such as, what types of businesses and locations will represent the best opportunities post-COVID? Which ones will pose the highest risk? Should potential new owners expect to get a decent deal, or would it be worth putting a bunch of their savings toward the purchase?

What kinds of companies have these potential owners been dreaming of during their working days? Shouldn’t it be the kind of business they could enjoy, rather than one that would run them into the ground, perhaps causing regret and a lot of lost money?

Chances are, many people will be ready to sell after the draining pandemic, and here are some tips to help you decide about buying:

1. Decide how much money you want to make. This should be the first question you should ask yourself, because the amount of money you want to earn determines what kind of business you are going to buy. 

2. Pursue a business you would enjoy. It is always better to be involved in a business that reflects your interests and brings you enjoyment. Ideally, your vocation will be a vacation. We don’t want to acquire a business that requires us to be behind a desk all day long when our passion is to be outdoors.

3. Make a list of all your talents. From the obvious to the forgotten ones, don’t leave any of them out. If you are proficient at MS Word, Excel, and other computer programs, write it down. If you know how to play a musical instrument, be sure to include it on your list of talents. Take a complete inventory of things you know how to do, which will be important in your search for the business you are going to acquire. 

Once, I was coaching an individual who wanted to earn additional income because his job wasn’t producing enough money. After we did an inventory of his talents, we discovered that in his younger years he had managed rental properties for his dad. I suggested he start a real-estate management business. He did and eventually owned and managed multiple properties, ultimately netting a six-figure income.

4. Select where you want to work. Do you want to stay in the same area where you are residing now, or are you willing to relocate? If you are not interested in moving, then your opportunities may be limited, unless you decide to work on a national basis by selling products on the internet.

The famous bank robber Willy Sutton was asked, why did he rob banks? To which he replied, “That is where the money is.” The best place to own a business is where there is growth. Cities, communities, and relationships are all either living or dying because nothing stays the same. Things are either going backward or forward. Stack the odds in your favor; go where there is growth and give your business an edge.

5. Know who you are as a potential business owner. Are you a self-starter who is disciplined, and once you start a project you finish it? Or do you perform better with a partner? I have worked with many people who, even though they were provided with a step-by-step guide for what to do, they were not able to implement and complete the program themselves. But if they partnered with another individual, they completed the job. When buying an operating business, you will get not only the playbook of how things are done, but also employees who know the business, as well as a business that is producing a cash flow from the day you take over.

6. Know your comfort level. Do you want to be out front or behind the scenes? Do you like working with and servicing the general public, or are you more comfortable behind the scenes helping people via emails or telephone? If you are an introvert who feels uncomfortable talking to people in person on a daily basis, then you should not own a retail or service business that requires a lot of personal interaction. I have seen people who enjoyed being a customer in a retail business, then purchased a retail business, only to discover they didn’t like the hours involved, working with individual shoppers, or the back-office duties. They ultimately sold the business at a loss.

7. Don’t get hung up on how and where you will get the money to get started. Once you have determined how much money you want to make, what you enjoy doing, what your talents are, and where you want to live, finding the right business gets a lot easier. Now you have the checklist of wants and needs, and all you need to do is to search out businesses that are for sale. A couple of places to do that are: www.bizbuysell.com and www.businessesforsale.com.

I have bought businesses with no money down and have started companies with no money down. Sometimes you may have to borrow money from credit cards or bring a partner on board to provide the money while you provide the work. This is called “bootstrapping” and it is how many people get started. 

Or you may want to use what we call “Love Money,” which is from family and friends. Money is not as hard to get as people think, because if the opportunity is good enough you will find the money. Cash is attracted to opportunity, especially after a pandemic. Many owners are tired of operating their businesses and are more receptive to selling out now than before. And as the saying goes, “Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity. And opportunity is always there.”      

Terry Monroe (www.terrymonroe.com) is founder and president of American Business Brokers & Advisors (ABBA) and author of “Hidden Wealth: The Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Business” with ForbesBooks. Monroe has owned and operated more than 40 different businesses and sold over 800 businesses.

Most CEOs would nod that the digital revolution is underway, but plenty haven’t fully understood what this means for their sales efforts. 

COVID is accelerating the transition online — even for B2B enterprises — which means that CEOs need to ensure their sales teams have the digital skills and the tools of engagement to win buyers, all without straying from the timeless principles that still apply. 

It’s been a while since anyone argued that “dialing for dollars” is still the best way to boost sales, but there are some holdovers that think while digital has its place, the real work is still grounded in “boozing and schmoozing.” But over the past year, COVID-19 sped up the migration toward a digital approach, with more people working remote and relying exclusively on online methods to make buying decisions. 

For some, it’s a whole new world, but that doesn’t have to be a threat. There are amazing tools available for those who are willing to learn a modern way to apply what they already know. If executives embrace this new platform and ensure their teams have the digital skills to win online buyers, then the future will be bright.

Here are five guidelines to ensure that your business is the “disruptor,” not the “disrupted.”

1. Lean into the digital transformation

Even before the pandemic shoved everyone on to one never-ending Zoom call, it was evermore clearer buyers were doing their initial research online, not just for B2C companies, but B2B as well. For example, one popular Google report claims 63 percent of shopping occasions begin online. This means that a great website isn’t a luxury, but a necessity. Although, it’s been the new first impression for some time now. In fact, businesses should test sample home pages with real customers to discern the best version — that’s how important it is. 

But COVID is accelerating B2B’s merging with B2C standards, as few people are eager to build relationships face-to-face at the moment. And if anyone is concerned that this is a momentary shift, they should know that many of their peers aren’t treating it as such. A recent Forrester report predicts that in 2021, B2B sellers and sales leaders will continue to evolve their methods and strategies in the face of pandemic-related challenges — 40 percent of B2B reps plan to modify their tactics to adapt to remote-selling activities, and 57 percent of B2B sales leaders plan to make deeper investments in tools with Al and automation.

B2B enterprises might feel as if website chatbots and calls to action are pushy, but that’s precisely the engagement buyers expect. They want third-party validation and a message that is comprehensive and compelling. The soft-sell tactics that might be smart in person, will only get drowned out online, where the struggle is to be seen and most importantly, comprehended. Digital has been the tip of the spear for some time, and the pandemic made this fact impossible to ignore. 

In fact, a recent Gartner study claims that over the next five years, an even greater rise in digital interactions between buyers and suppliers will break traditional sales models. They predict that by 2025, 80 percent of B2B-sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels.

2. Create a digital customer experience

Plenty of companies use CRM tools as a data repository, but that’s not the kind of technology we’re talking about here. Gartner defined three key areas of technology no sales professional should ignore: hyper-automation, digital scalability, and AI. “Hyper-automation” refers to the effective combination of complementary sets of tools that can integrate functional and process silos to automate and assist business processes. In short, this is moving more customer interactions online, into a digital channel. Chatbots have proven quite effective and customers are growing fonder of these instant, if automated, exchanges early in their buying process. 

“Digital scalability” is the concept of using technology to cope with the increasing volume of customer interactions and sales work. The demands for swift and accurate targeting and contact are only growing, but there’s technology out there today to help. If hyper-automation helps with tasks, digital scalability is the application of that automation to speed up the entire process, across the entire sales operation. 

Gartner admits that “AI” is only a concise, catch-all term that denotes the shift from highly analog decision making to automated, algorithm-based decision making. This means that decisions that might once have been based solely on hard-won experience are grounded in data and analytics. In fact, salespeople can use engagement tools that target the best day and time to call someone in each industry. That kind of intelligence might have been almost impossible to get without weeks (or even years) of trial and error. 

But for all the promise of these technologies, it still requires an investment of time and resources, along with a willingness for staff to build these digital skills. This isn’t simply about knowing a piece of software, but a fundamental shift in the approach, one that centers the process on the digital experience, tapping social influencers for third-party validation, and sharing articles of interest. It’s about building these connections digitally now. 

3. Reinvent sales and marketing

Marketing professionals have long understood that they need to be omnichannel, but now companies need an omnichannel salesforce as well. Sales and marketing need to work hand in hand, becoming a single discipline, known in some circles as “Smarketing.” Marketing is integral in helping the salespeople pick the right part of the pond to fish, the right bait, and even the right gadget to help track the fish one can’t see. 

Marketers have long understood the power of data and analytics and already revolutionized their discipline because of them. Now salespeople have new tech to revolutionize their craft as well. There are systems to track calls, and automate a playbook for following up on leads, and real-time visibility in the sales pipe. There’s even conversational analytics that can vet a sales call that was recorded and determine its effectiveness. 

What this tech does is add the same layer of rigor that’s been the standard for marketers for years, and it allows the entire marketing-to-sales process to be closely monitored and refined at every step along the way. 

4. Develop a strategy before execution

That is not to say that these great new tools replace what marketers do. A company can have all this tech, but if the branding, messaging, and positioning hasn’t been properly developed, all they do is get the company to that next “no” faster. Initially, businesses need to focus on branding, on the value proposition, on making sure that it’s all supported by robust market insight. Number one is still knowing what the customer’s pain points are, and then, communicating the value to the end user. Then it’s time to build a great website with a call to action and continue to build content out, such as eBooks, and third-party validation. All technology does is add speed, rigor, and visibility to the process, which allows businesses to get smarter because it becomes a virtuous feedback loop. 

5. Stay close to your principles

In some ways, this revolution is nothing more than a new way to do what salespeople have done since the first man convinced the guy in the cave next door that he could use a wheel too. Building trust, nurturing relationships, delivering value, communicating a value proposition that resonates — these are still happening with a chatbot, a Twitter feed, digital ads, or emails. And as much as these tools speed up a process, that still means a salesperson needs to be pushing that process along, day in and day out. The “hustle” has been transformed, not eradicated. 

There are a lot of second and third-generation companies that don’t appreciate what it takes to build the top of the funnel. There might be more smarts, or better technology, but there isn’t the momentum that created the founder’s exponential growth. 

One company was debating whether to invest $10,000 on an industry conference, and while some junior folks were planning several meetings to discuss the ROI, the 74-year-old founder decided to do it after a single afternoon’s consideration. It was a risk, but that veteran was willing to take it. And then they used all the data analytics available to make the most of that conference. 

That’s the best approach of all, to keep the old-school values of decisiveness, ambition, and a little intuition, and apply them with the most innovative technology available. Get that additional speed, rigor, and visibility, without ever forgetting the goal is a business that performs so well, it’s still around for that next revolution.        

Don Lee is partner & chief marketing officer (CMO) at Chief Outsiders (www.chiefoutsiders.com), a fractional CMO firm focused on mid-size company growth. He works with CEOs to accelerate growth by developing and implementing marketing strategies aligned with the organization.