Creating an effective virtual selling strategy

There’s no doubt virtual selling is on the rise. The circumstances forced businesses to shift their traditional way of operating, and the sales industry is just one of many that had to shift gears. Now, virtual selling is here and here to stay. We’re here to cover everything you need to know about this relatively new term, and how you or your team can maximize your potential remotely. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is remote selling?
• Virtual selling techniques
• Remote selling best practices
• Virtual sales platform

The rise of virtual selling

The pandemic has caused businesses large and small to take their work virtual. It’s been a year of altering, learning, and discovering in so many aspects. One of which has been restructuring a department that thrived off of interpersonal interactions and relationships – sales. Teams have had to overhaul their traditional strategies and take on a fully virtual sales process. Virtual sales calls and virtual sales meetings quickly became the new normal. However, many sales reps were given little insight into how to perform this challenging task effectively.

Now that we’ve had a year to adapt and survive, we can almost guarantee that virtual sales jobs are here and here to stay. These positions offer a wide range of benefits, primarily the flexibility of the role. With the rise of virtual sales, we’re here to share our insights into what virtual selling is all about, some common techniques, best practices, and platforms that make virtual sales more efficient and effective.

What is a virtual sales process?

First, let’s cover the basics – what is virtual selling? According to Gartner, the virtual selling definition is “the collection of processes and technologies by which salespeople engage with a customer remotely with both synchronous and asynchronous communications.” To put it simply, the remote selling definition really comes down to sales reps having to perform the entire sales process from start to finish remotely, and without any in-person meetings or interactions. This change was in large part due to the pandemic, but even before, remote work has been on the rise.

How to sell virtually

As you build and advise your virtual selling strategy, there are a few key components to keep in mind to maximize your potential. The most effective virtual selling strategies provide value, engage your audience, and still incorporate visuals into the process. When you are looking to replace the traditional face-to-face sales skills and techniques, it’s important to still provide a similar experience that in-person interactions allow. In-person meetings are engaging, they allow you to build trust, and really showcase your product/service and demonstrate how you can help. You are building a relationship, establishing credibility, and highlighting your expertise. These aspects are still critical components when it comes to closing a deal, so they can’t be overlooked in a virtual environment. Here are a few items to consider as you build experience in virtual selling.

Invest in a virtual sales platform

Having virtual sales tools aren’t a necessity to get the job done, but they sure do make your life a whole lot easier. Here are some of the go-to virtual selling tools that we use on a daily basis.

1. Salesforce

Salesforce is a customer relationship management platform that tracks all of your customer and prospects data in an organized and simplified format. Specifically, you can view who’s been working prospects, when they’ve contacted, any notes from previous conversations and more. On the other hand, if current customers reach out you can easily reference their profile to see their customer history, prior interactions, notes, and any additional information.

2. Dialpad

With Dialpad, you’re no longer confined to your physical work phone. Dialpad allows you to receive your phone calls from your computer and cell phone, allowing you to work from anywhere. While we love the flexibility, Dialpad also includes powerful AI that captures action items, provides coaching, takes notes, analyzes sentiment, and more in real-time.

3. DocuSign

DocuSign makes electronic signing simple for all parties involved. With DocuSign, you can send and sign sales contracts from anywhere. The convenience and simplicity of DocuSign makes business move faster – nearly 82% of contracts are signed in less than a day, and it also is more efficient, with fewer manual tasks required from prospects. Say your final goodbyes to printing, signing, and scanning.

4. Zoom

Zoom allows you to video conference live with colleagues, prospects, customers, – you name it. Whether you’re meeting one-on-one with a buyer, or need to present to a full team, Zoom’s capabilities allow you to connect “face-to-face” when in-person meetings aren’t an option. With Zoom you can host webinars, and meetings in real-time, allowing you to still reap the benefits of face-to-face interactions.

5. Covideo

Covideo combines the power of video with the convenience of sending an email. With Covideo, you can quickly and easily record, send, and track personalized video messages for potential customers. These are used for prospecting, follow-ups, offering next steps, and saying thanks. Video messages are truly one of the best ways to stand out in the inbox, engage your audience, and increase conversions. They require zero schedule sharing and coordinating, so prospects can watch (and rewatch!) your video message on their own time.

Virtual selling best practices

Like anything, virtual selling takes some practice before becoming an expert. However learning a new set of virtual selling skills is new for most sales reps, which makes it comforting knowing that everyone’s in the same boat. What works for some may not work for others, so talk with your colleagues, network, managers and more to see if they have any tips for selling virtually or can offer any virtual selling training. Here are a few universally common virtual selling tips to keep in mind on your next sales call or meeting.

○ Always keep your webcam on

According to Gong research, “Win rates are 94% higher for deals where sales pros sell with video on.” Why? Prospects enjoy talking to a face, rather than just a name. When people can see your face and hear your voice, you are humanizing the sales process, building a connection and establishing trust.

○ Prepare ahead of time

By now we may think we’d be experts at Zoom and screen sharing, but it’s easy to get scattered under pressure. Also, you can never fully rely on technology. So pull up any documents you plan on sharing ahead of time, have talking points ready, and join meetings a few minutes early to get situated if it makes sense for the situation.

○ Have a plan b

Going off of the previous note, always have a backup option. You never know what might happen – maybe your WiFi goes down, your screen share doesn’t work, etc. Have a plan in place so you can execute what you need to if things don’t go as planned.

○ Send a reminder

Everyone’s situation is a little bit different. Your prospects may be at home juggling work, kids, pets, etc. We like to send a video message with Covideo a few hours before the meeting, reminding our prospects, and let them know we’re looking forward to speaking with them. This improves show rates – and adds an extra level of guilt to prospects. When they see you’re a real person, and that you put in the extra effort to reach out, they feel more compelled to show up.

○ Keep an eye on time

No one likes long meetings, especially when they’re virtual. For maximum engagement, try not to ramble on, and consider cutting your virtual meetings down to shorter time periods. Focus on the most valuable and important information, and if there’s anything you left out but still want to share, send a video message following up after the call.

○ Record the call

If you’re using a video conferencing platform like Zoom, record your sales calls and meetings. Then you can reference back to your conversation to remind yourself of what was said. You can also rewatch these recordings and use them as a learning tool to improve your virtual sales skills. It’s like receiving free virtual sales training!

○ Say thanks

You can never say thank you enough. Send a thank you video message after your call, meeting, closed-won deal, and thank your customer for their time. Everyone likes to feel appreciated, and a personalized thank you video will do just that.

Transform your virtual selling strategy today

There are plenty of options for you to improve your virtual selling skills. Training, articles, and even just talking with others will help you improve your skills day by day. However, the best advice is to be yourself. People want to do business with people – not technology. Utilize the power of video to continue selling as you would in person.

Enhance your virtual selling today with a  free trial of our video messaging platform. Record, send and track unlimited sales videos and see just how powerful video can be in the sales process. Try now – , no credit card required.