What is the secret to selling effectively when customer behaviour keeps shifting? Tebogo Selebi, a senior associate partner at TMMBS, a professional services firm offering business development support to enterprises, has advice worth heeding, built around a simple starting point: if you are not already selling online, it is time to start.
Meeting customers where they actually are
Product-based businesses need a genuinely strong ecommerce presence, while service-based businesses need websites that actually allow online client sign-ups, not just a contact form that goes unanswered for days. “Entrepreneurs need to work on collaborative efforts, embrace and adapt to digital and technological solutions, as this saves both money and time, and start selling online through social media while making provision for ecommerce and online client sign-ups through their websites,” says Selebi.
Adapting your sales approach to how customers actually buy now
The way business gets done keeps shifting, and entrepreneurs need new, genuinely innovative ways to communicate their offering, advertise, and sell to potential customers, rather than defaulting to whatever worked five years ago.
Selebi’s advice: treat this as a period for trial and error. Test new strategies in the market, remodel parts of the business that are not working, and collaborate more with other entrepreneurs rather than trying to solve every challenge alone.
Rebuilding sales confidence
Many entrepreneurs lose confidence in their ability to sell when market conditions shift hard beneath them. Selebi’s advice here is to recognise that difficult conditions affect nearly everyone, not just you individually, and to keep pushing forward rather than freezing. Whatever helps you survive and grow deserves genuine consideration, the one thing you should not do is simply stop trying.
What to focus on right now
Selebi frames this simply: an old map is no help in new territory. Focus on seeking genuinely new opportunities, solving customers’ current problems with new products, and building services relevant to where demand actually sits today, since real opportunity tends to hide inside disruption.
Turning online visibility into actual sales
Attention on social media only matters if it converts into real transactions. Selebi’s advice: capitalise on under-priced, easily accessible advertising channels like social media, since customers are more directly reachable through platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn than through almost any traditional channel. The real skill is converting that online visibility into offline sales and conversions, not just accumulating followers or impressions.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most important step for a business that isn’t selling online yet?
Getting a genuine ecommerce or online sign-up capability in place, whichever fits your business model, rather than treating a website as a static brochure with no way for customers to actually transact.
How do I rebuild confidence after a difficult sales period?
Recognise that market disruption affects most businesses, not just yours specifically, and keep testing new approaches rather than freezing. Persistence through trial and error matters more here than any single perfect strategy.
Yes, when treated as a sales channel rather than pure brand awareness. The real skill is converting social media attention into actual transactions, through clear calls to action and a frictionless path from a social post to a completed sale.
Should I collaborate with other entrepreneurs instead of competing directly?
Often, yes. Collaborative efforts can help entrepreneurs solve shared challenges, share costs, and reach new audiences faster than tackling every problem independently.
How do I know which new opportunities are worth pursuing?
Focus on genuinely solving customers’ current problems rather than forcing an old product into a changed market, opportunity tends to sit wherever real, unmet customer need still exists.
Selling in a changed market
Effective selling now depends on genuine digital presence, adaptability, and the discipline to convert online visibility into real transactions. Build these fundamentals properly, and your sales process holds up regardless of how market conditions shift next.
Originally published in November 2020. Updated September 2026 to remove COVID-specific framing and present this expert sales advice as durable, general guidance. Confirm current digital marketing tools and platforms directly, since specific tools change over time.
