Virtual sales have grown exponentially in the last few years, and they are now a reality that will only continue to grow in the future.
In a recent survey by McKinsey, business leaders from around the world said that sales through digital channels are about twice as important as they were before the pandemic. In simple words, virtual sales have become the new norm in business and physical sales meetings have decreased significantly.
As a salesperson, it is important to adapt to the new market conditions and be comfortable with integrating traditional and digital channels as needed to engage potential and existing customers.
If you have a sales team that works remotely and you’re engaging with customers in digital spaces, your representatives must know exactly how to execute your virtual sales strategy.
In this article, we’ll share a virtual sales guide covering everything you need to know about how to create a powerful strategy that will help you close more deals.
Create Your Virtual Sales Process
Having a clear process that your sales team can follow to achieve the best possible results is the key to a perfect virtual selling strategy. Make sure to create, document, and refine your sales process so that everyone feels they’re on the same page and that there’s a clear path to winning a sale.
Consider how you can handle pre-sales preparation, prospecting, calls, follows ups, and handovers to new team members in a mostly digital space. Make sure to test out a process, look at the feedback, and continue revamping your sales process until it gets the desired results.
Engage Prospects
As a sales representative, one of the biggest challenges you might face when selling virtually is engaging your prospects during the call. Most often, potential prospects multitask during a virtual sales meeting and for this reason, you should ask questions and wait for them to answer. Do your best to capture your audience’s attention and invite them to participate. This way, it will be much easier to build a relationship with your prospect.
If you think about using a sales deck, keep it short. You can also use engaging visuals to attract their attention and share your screen, or even upload media during the virtual sales meeting as a way to better illustrate your topics.
We advise you to sit down with your team at the weekly sales team meeting and come up and discuss more creative ideas.
Understand Your Customers’ Needs
Knowing how to listen to your customers’ needs is the key to building a successful relationship. Always make sure to actively listen to what your customers are expressing instead of waiting for your turn to speak and pitch your product or service.
When you get clear insight and understanding of a customer’s actual needs, it will help you get better results and you’ll be able to close more deals. Every situation is unique and what worked best for one customer does not guarantee that it will work for someone else. So, make sure to develop a comprehensive understanding of their needs and wants.
Choose the Right Tools
Your team needs the right tools to excel at their job. Without the proper technology, your sales reps will not be able to do their job efficiently so investing in the best virtual sales tools should be your top priority.
A sales-focused CRM will guarantee increased sales, as well as a pipeline management tool and email marketing software. Also, consider a tool to help you keep track of brand mentions across various social media platforms and digital content.
In addition to these standard sales tools, you should also consider investing in high-quality video conferencing tools and run your sales calls on Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Virtual event platforms also provide engaging features such as gamification, digital whiteboards, and collaboration tools that can make the overall virtual sales environment more special.
Don’t Forget to Follow Up
The sales process does not end after you close the video call with a prospect. Once the meeting is done, you should always follow up via email in a timely manner and make this an integral part of your virtual sales strategy if your goal is to close more deals.
A series of follow-up interactions will help you assess whether your prospect is interested and see if there is room to advance the sales negotiations.
Final Thoughts
As with any other sales strategy, your virtual sales strategy is something you should invest time and effort into so that it can evolve and improve. This guide will hopefully help you build a strong strategy that will make your sales more interactive, engaging, and exciting for prospective customers, and support your sales team in closing important deals.
