Virtual sales became all the rage COVID-19 forced most businesses to go remote. Before COVID, virtual selling had been limited to technology companies doing inside sales and finance, with advisors supporting high-net-worth customers.
As the pandemic kicked into high gear, virtual selling came into its own, and businesses are now rapidly turning to the advisor model across all industries to achieve more personal connections. Here, we break down what virtual selling is and what industries have been reaping the benefits.
What is Virtual Selling?
Virtual selling is any aspect of the sales process that takes place remotely or through online technologies. Also known as “remote selling”, virtual selling reflects the way that COVID has changed sales practices for the foreseeable future. Virtual selling allows more flexibility for time and meeting place, meaning sales reps can get in front of more potential clients faster than ever before. Virtual selling takes out the aspect of travel, meeting places, and juggling multiple schedules all at once.
Banks, for example, are leveraging it to re-engage with customers after the temporary closure of their branches. Post-COVID, virtual selling is poised to explode and grow even more. Last week, Gartner predicted that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions will occur in digital channels.
Virtual Selling Best Practices
Virtual selling is more than just hopping on a video call. It takes practice and skills to be able to engage potential customers remotely. Here are some tips for virtual selling to help you close more deals.
- Prospecting: Make sure that you understand who you are meeting with before hopping on a video call. Looking at data from a Customer Data Platform to understand the needs of your customer can be incredibly beneficial in fostering a positive relationship.
- Pre-Call Planning: This may seem obvious, but it is important to mention. Sending an agenda to the prospect, ensuring the video call link works and lay out how the call is going to go. This will make a good first impression and reduce any confusion for both parties.
- Follow Ups: Just like it can be helpful to send an agenda, it is equally important to send a recap and a thank you to make sure that all parties are aware of next steps. This also shows the customer that you care about conversation and are taking the time to keep the conversation going.
It is always good to keep meetings brief and concise. Make sure to come prepared to answer questions and provide easily accessible documents for further clarification.
Best Tools for Virtual Selling
Most businesses can benefit from virtual selling. But with varying team sizes, it may be hard to decipher where your business should turn to when it comes to virtual selling tools.
Sales teams need to be proactive; run personalized campaigns, develop loyalty while at the same time leverage every opportunity to become a trusted source of insight. The main emphasis is education, which can be a lot for one person or team to handle.
To be able to do all that, you need a workflow-focused campaign management solution. A solution that not only enables your advisors to engage in personalized interactions over the phone but also to message and contact their customers via other digital channels as needed.
With buying going virtual, sales teams need to be able to meet customers where they are at and engage them digitally. Creating an omnichannel outbound campaign allows for your sales team to create a streamlined and powerful campaign that can successfully target more prospects in an efficient way.
Learn more about how Acqueon can help with your sales goals.