Competitive Selling

The Guidebook to Resilient Virtual Selling

Stacia Skinner, Marisa Pensa

• Publisher: Big Dogs Publishing
• Year: 2021
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781733853132
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

CHAPTER 1

THE GREAT DEBATE: IS VIRTUAL SELLING HERE TO STAY?

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go, there will be trouble.
And if I stay it will be double.

THE CLASH

We’ve been asking ourselves the same question. Should we stay and have the meeting virtually? Or should we go in person and have the meeting face to face? It’s the great debate for sales professionals everywhere. Rightly so after the events of 2020 threw us all for a loop and forced every type of business to rethink their sales approach and accelerate towards virtual selling.

When it comes to virtual selling, the number-one thing on a lot of sales professionals’ minds is that it “feels different.” And it’s true. It is different. As business owners, trainers, and sales professionals, we’ve been there. We had to change our ways of doing business, selling, and conducting training.

Change is hard. Change is messy. But change is necessary for growth and success. In this chapter we discuss what virtual selling is, why you should integrate it into your sales approach, and how to navigate the pros and cons of using virtual selling to stay resilient in this ever-changing world.

First let’s define virtual selling. Simply put, it’s selling that’s not done in person. More broadly, it’s a collection of tools, technologies, and tactics that enable you to communicate with your prospects and customers when you can’t meet face to face.

What is resilience? Oxford defines it as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.”

When you combine the two, you get a resilient virtual seller!

We realize virtual selling is new for some and routine for others, but all of us have been using a mix of strategies that includes virtual selling for years. When you pick up the phone, send an email, have a (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams) meeting, track activity in your customer relationship management system (CRM), or use social media, that’s virtual selling. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because there’s so much more to it.

We will guide you through virtual selling by sharing the best practices we’ve learned as we’ve adapted our own sales approaches to virtual. We will also take a deep dive into the channels, tools, processes, and strategies you and your team can use to leverage virtual selling most effectively.

To help you adjust or refine what you’re currently doing in your sales process to include more effective virtual communication, we’ll look at the advantages and disadvantages. First, let’s break down a few of the challenges when selling virtually:

Attention: Your prospects and customers are busy. They can be easily distracted and potentially overwhelmed as they navigate unique challenges such as using new tools and technologies and managing growing responsibilities and competing priorities.

Personal preferences: Some people won’t turn their camera on during a virtual meeting because they just don’t like to see themselves on camera. Or it might be distracting to others to turn their camera on in their current surroundings.

Relationship-building: There’s a rushed feeling to this part of a virtual meeting. You want to build rapport and establish a connection, but you also need to get down to business since there is even greater necessity to respect others’ time when meeting virtually.

Technical issues: There’s a wide range of things that can go wrong when it comes to the technical side of virtual meetings. These are mostly out of your control, but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating.

Body language: You’ve built your career on being able to read a room. In a virtual meeting you’re limited in your ability to read body language and non-verbal cues.

Digital fatigue: You have to keep your enthusiasm and energy level high for every video meeting or call, but being in front of a computer or on the phone all day long is draining.

Visibility: You lose visibility into a prospect’s or customer’s office when you meet virtually. You can’t get a feel for their office culture or take a tour of the facility.

Have you experienced any of these challenges? You’re in good company because we’ve been through them all! For example, we recently had this experience:

It was an absolute NIGHTMARE! As they say, anything that can go wrong will. And that’s exactly what happened. We lost the deal because of a technology breakdown. Up to that point everything was going smoothly. We had some good back-and-forth, we proposed a solution they found valuable, and all signs were pointing towards a win. Womp, womp, womp. Then came the big meeting. We couldn’t connect. We were unable to be on video. We lost our ability to get and keep their attention. It was a disaster. That was the last time we spoke.

Can you relate? Think back to your very first sales meeting with a prospect, or the very first time you picked up the phone to ask for an appointment. It was intimidating! Almost as intimidating as the thought of having a root canal. It’s the buildup and anticipation that make you anxious. But when all is said and done, it’s never as bad as you thought.

There are challenges to every form of communication, whether you’re meeting over the phone, face to face, or virtually. While virtual selling may be new to you, there are many advantages you could miss if you don’t embrace it. Let’s look at those advantages:

Decision-makers are more accessible: Getting every decision-maker into a single sales meeting can be difficult, especially when you have to contend with the different schedules and physical locations of stakeholders. Virtual selling gives sales reps the key to overcoming these challenges. They can easily bring stakeholders together, regardless of where they are, through virtual conferencing tools. Eighty percent of business-tobusiness (B2B) decision-makers prefer virtual interactions or digital self-service to face-to-face meetings. It makes it easier to schedule, saves on travel expenses, and increases safety. (McKinsey & Company)

More efficient: Most prospects and clients prefer virtual meetings and appreciate your giving them options. Your customers are busy. They have more responsibilities than ever before. They welcome the flexibility of virtual meetings because they’re less time-consuming and more purposeful.

Increased collaboration: You can share your screen, annotate, chat, and even record the meeting so you can deliver a thorough post-meeting follow-up.

Connect with more people: You can connect with far more people in a shorter period of time. When we’re doing things virtually, which includes both virtual meetings (Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc.) and meetings over the phone, we can cover more ground than if we were driving and flying to see someone face to face. Depending on who you are contacting, it might make sense just to pick up the phone or suggest a virtual dialog either to begin a relationship or during certain phases of the sales process.

More cost-effective and productive: Incorporating virtual meetings into your sales process costs far less than driving or flying to every meeting with prospective clients. On the personal side, you’re also increasing family time and spending less on dry cleaning, new clothes and shoes, gas in the car, etc. It’s also more productive because if someone cancels you haven’t wasted your whole day traveling to and from a meeting that didn’t happen.

You can build long-lasting relationships: Contrary to popular belief, you can still build healthy relationships with your customers while selling and communicating virtually. In many cases you meet more frequently and increase the number of touchpoints with your customers because of the lack of in-person meetings. This in turn creates deeper connections that result in great business relationships.

Buyers are making large purchases and reorders online and remotely: Seventy percent of B2B decision-makers say they’re open to making new, fully self-serve, or remote purchases over $50,000, and 27 percent would do so when spending more than $500,000. (McKinsey & Company) The perception some people have is that you cannot sell big-ticket items virtually; but the reality is you can! Inside sales teams have been doing this for years.

On the flip side of our first story, here’s an experience that turned out positively:

We were having a virtual sales meeting with a potential customer. Multiple people were joining the call, but one of the decision-makers joined early. She turned on her camera and we could see she was in her home office. Hanging on the wall was a pair of skis. While we waited for the others to join, we shared stories about our fondness for skiing. We were able to use the personal item we saw in her background as the perfect way to build rapport and get personal. To this day we still share stories of our skiing adventures with this customer.

Looking at the advantages and disadvantages, the reality is still the same: Adapting to virtual selling is an ongoing journey for many, including us. But we can’t let fear keep us from growing and evolving. 2020 and the fight against COVID-19 simply presented another opportunity to adjust and grow, so don’t let your comfort zone or the status quo stand in the way of evolving; you can continue to deliver results for yourself and your customers.

It all starts with a choice. A choice to learn and grow. A choice to be proactive versus reactive. A choice to look into that camera and smile. A choice to give it your ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Praise for Competitive Selling: The Guidebook To Resilient Virtual Selling and The Authors
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgment
• Foreword
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1 The Great Debate: Is Virtual Selling Here to Stay?
• Chapter 2 The Recipe for Successful Sales Communication
• Chapter 3 The Process to Pique Interest
• Chapter 4 The Phone as a Virtual Selling Tool
• Chapter 5 The Human Side of Prospecting (Video Email)
• Chapter 6 Let's Get Social!
• Chapter 7 Gaining the "EDGE" on Your Virtual Meetings
• Chapter 8 Getting Ready: Lights, Camera, Action!
• Chapter 9 Uh Oh, No-Show!
• Chapter 10 Where Is My Audience?
• Chapter 11 We Had a Great Virtual Meeting. Now What?
• Chapter 12 The Key to Resilience in a Virtual World
• Resources
• The Competitive Selling Training Series
• About the Authors