COVID-19 created a world-wide crisis and is negatively impacting many businesses. It’s important we don’t stop working during this time, but rather, keep our revenue engines running. When the crisis slows or ends, you don’t want to have an empty pipeline. It will take time to rebuild the revenue flow and it will create a larger revenue gap for the companies who stop investing in pipeline building activities. The companies that continue to sell and market during this crisis will likely avoid potential fatal gaps in cash flow throughout the end of the year.

At Xbox, my boss Don Mattrick used to ask this question every time we met: “Val, did you make more than a week’s progress last week?” He would want to know what he could do to speed up how I delivered my goals, what was in the way that he could help move, whether there was anything at risk of not being completed on time, and what else I needed to do to improve the probability of success.