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Finally!
For the many B2B salespeople that have resisted adopting technology and approaches to virtual selling, they now must survive by implementing a digital sales transformation.
A long, firm handshake used to mark the end of the sales process. No longer. This form of B2B selling will continue to exist, but will become increasingly out of the ordinary.
Covid-19 social distancing guidelines and travel restrictions will eventually lift, yet organizations large and small will stay with remote work and virtual meetings instead of in-person.
Fortunately, most salespersons armed with the right digital sales tools can transform the virtual sales process.
Your sales organization may not be able to achieve a complete digital sales transformation by implementing these tips as quickly. However, there is no reason why you can’t start the journey now.
Digital Sales Transformation Tips: Start Here
“Get smart” on the web conferencing platform your organization has selected
Technology-savvy companies have chosen a primary platform, even though all conferencing platforms have their pluses and minuses. Becoming adept at using your company’s primary platform will minimize technical issues with the internal sales support teams, and help you manage the inevitable problems when our conferencing with clients.
Don’t stop at the audio and video controls
Most platforms have whiteboarding, annotation, recording, audience feedback indicators, cursor highlighters, and so forth that your sales teams must become proficient in using. Did you know that your conferencing platform can probably report who uses it most and how they use it?
Allow salespeople to install other conferencing applications too
Why? Think of a conferencing platform as a customer’s preference for physical meeting space. If your company uses Microsoft Teams and a potential prospect or client is standardized on BlueJeans (yes, that is a thing), salespeople will need to install the BlueJeans application so that they can engage with stakeholders on “their turf.” An excuse such as ” My IT department won’t let me install the application” communicates an aura of inflexibility right from the first meeting. No es Bueno.
Train and coach your salespeople on how to sell digitally
There is more to virtual selling than picking which virtual background makes matches your personality. B2B selling is a team sport on both sides of the screen, so managing interactions demands skills that are different for an in-person meeting. You won’t be able to develop sales skills via Webinars. Instead, salespeople need a safe and structured environment to practice and hone their skills.
Before you start training and coaching salespeople for your digital sales transformation, map the training and coaching to your sales process. If you don’t have a sales process, contact me, and we can help.
Force your internal teams to turn on their cameras and share content
If you don’t nudge (I mean force) your team to be on video for internal company calls, they won’t develop the confidence and experience to lead and conduct external calls. This practice starts with leadership at the top.
Call planning is now serious
Digital sales takes less time, a lot less. If you are accustomed to flying a salesperson and a solution manager in for a 3-hour client meeting, now you’ll be conducting four or more meetings between 30 minutes and an hour.
Two hours on a Web conference is too much for most people if they need to participate and pay close attention. Salespeople now need to choreograph customer interactions based on the most recent interactions dynamically.
Digital B2B selling skills require practice. Just as much as its physical counterpart. Most existing sales skills are transferable to digital sales. With these digital sales transformation tips, you’ll have a wider reach, less time spent in transit, and more of an opportunity for a healthy work-life balance.
Remember that B2B sales are not a solo endeavor
Technical, sales support, and sales leadership teams also need training and coaching. If your executive team is not adept at dropping into a virtual selling approach, your success will be constrained.
Virtual selling is a journey, so why not start now?