Challenges faced by salespeople in optical fiber B2C selling during COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic caused global lockdowns and halted operations in many industries. This study explores the challenges salespeople faced during the COVID-19 lockdown in the optical fiber industry. Optical fiber projects are most often aimed at specific neighborhoods and thus the selling is usually carried out in a Door-to-Door manner. To find out how salespeople handled the situation during the pandemic a semi structured interview was carried out where salespeople from the optical fiber industry were interviewed in which they had the chance to describe their view of sales during the pandemic. A total of three interviews were made. There are previous studies of purchasing behavior changes during COVID-19 but not so much of contact selling and how it was handled. This study was conducted to shed light on contact selling during times when everyone was trying to stay away from face-to-face contact. The results of the study highlight the importance of face-to-face contacts and preparedness in sales. The results indicate that marketing and selling need multiple approaches and channels to be effective. D2D and telesales are an effective combo in the optical fiber industry.