Even after the pandemic subsides, it’s unlikely our lives will ever return to the way they were. Spurred by the pandemic, remote work and virtual meetings will likely become widely accepted, possibly preferred, practices as we move forward. Sales leaders who are looking to prep their sales teams for success into the future are considering how they can help their sales professionals sell virtually. Here are four tips you should consider when it comes to creating a salesforce who is proficient in virtual selling:
- Comfort with technology. First and foremost, you need to ensure your sales team is comfortable using technology. If members of your sales teams aren’t as tech-savvy as others, give them time to practice! This can be as simple as scheduling a virtual meeting using a free trial of a web conferencing software like Zoom or Google Meet and letting them explore the platform and the controls that come with it. Simple familiarity and practice time with a web conferencing platform can give your team a boost in confidence when it comes to their technical ability.
- Positive Contact. In Carew sales training programs, we teach the importance of attitude, energy and appearance in an initial meeting and to kick-off any sales call. In a virtual setting, positive contact can be more challenging as it is harder to convey your attitude, energy and appearance to your customer when you are not physically in the same space as them. Therefore, the tone of your voice, your facial expressions and your virtual background are exceptionally important factors when it comes to making positive contact in a virtual setting.
- Email Etiquette. Email is becoming increasingly important to communicating in a virtual world. Proper grammar matters. Format matters. Even more important is teaching your sales teams how to compose emails based on the personality types of their customers. Some customers may prefer straight to the point, bulleted-format emails while other customers may prefer emails that contain many details. At Carew, we call this customer orientations, and in a virtual world, it’s imperative that your sales professionals are communicating with their customers via email in the way they want to be communicated with.
- Topic of conversation. Your sales teams may be struggling to have conversations with customers simply because they don’t know how to approach them or what to talk about during this time of business uncertainty. The challenge of knowing what kinds of conversations your team should be having with customers right now is made even more challenging considering conversations can’t happen face-to-face. When it comes to having virtual customer conversations during this time, your sales team should always stay focused on their customer’s needs/wants rather than their own. Remaining in their customer’s Odds Are, even if that means listening to them vent their struggles and frustrations related to the pandemic or business uncertainty, is what will strengthen the customer-sales professional relationship.
The four tips above can help you create a sales team that is capable and confident with virtual selling. As you position your sales team toward the future, start with these tips to ensure your team’s selling versatility!
