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20 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JULY 2025 place protocols set forth by our government. When manufacturing facilities finally came back online, masks, social distancing, regular disinfection, and lots of hand sanitizer became our new normal. This created a seemingly impenetrable barrier for outside salespeople. Not only did all regular customer visits stop, but so did all forward-moving sales activity, essentially killing those hot pending prospects just one NDA away from submitting their first PO. As an outside sales rep who made his liv- ing by creating business inroads and forging new relationships, the COVID-19 period was daunting, and quite honestly, I was not at all prepared. I was a door-to-door salesman for a time. It's a sales experience I would not trade. In all my years of going door-to-door, I learned some valuable life lessons, met great people, and, most impor- tantly, learned a lot about myself—something which is critically important for anyone who wants to be good at sales. By contrast, encountering the not-so-great people, the slammed doors, and the seemingly endless stream of "no's" helped me develop grit and tenacity. So, as the global pandemic began rewriting the rules of the modern-day sales interaction, it pro- vided me with a lot of thought time. I sat in my home, day after day, and brainstormed how to engage with new companies differently. Some of those approaches and methods yielded bet- ter results than others, but I kept at it. It was chal- lenging to be sure, and every salesperson at every level felt both the awkwardness and the pressure of this new reality. It was and still is much eas- ier to engage with real people face- to-face. At least I could see who was tossing me out of their lobby. After some time of bum- bling around in the flannel pants I'd worn for sev- eral days (can you relate?), it started to come together. I became energized at this new opportunity, forced as it was, to figure out the puz- zle of positive and successful sales interaction in the pandemic era. Today, some years post-COVID, what I know for sure is that the truisms around sales and effective communication are always rel- evant, no matter how you approach the process or what channels (email, phone, traditional snail mail, or in person) you may be limited to at a given time or place. Phone sales will never be my greatest strength area, but I am happy for the opportunity to have developed those muscles all the same. Beyond COVID When our society was given the green light to head back to the office and normalcy began to return, the COVID lessons came flooding back to me. What had I learned as a salesperson by living and working through the pandemic? Did any of this learning help me to be a better person or a better sales professional? Here are some tips that I learned from my COVID- sales era that made me a stronger salesperson: • Do your homework and research your pros- pects before engaging them; you'll sound better to them • Speak on topics other than work, such as your customer's interests and hobbies • Bring back those thank-you letters. Who doesn't love a letter addressed to their name? • Try to attend industry-related events. You'll have potential customers there by default My biggest takeaway, though, was that most working people have many other concerns on a given workday beyond just their work, and those things can't help but follow them into their work encounters. When I approach a potential customer face-to-face and begin speaking to them, I always keep that at the forefront of my mind. This has helped me be both a better person and a better sales professional. PCB007 Daniel Beauvois " " My biggest takeaway, though, was that most working people have many other concerns on a given workday beyond just their work.