What’s The Difference between a Virtual Customer Meeting and a Physical Meeting?

Many sales organizations and sales leaders now understand that more is expected from the sales teams than just the ability to use video calls for sales. As a result, they’ve already invested in various virtual sales training programs to empower their sales team, only to realize that it was a waste of money and time. Their sales reps selling power remain the same before and after the training. This is because most virtual training programs don’t teach the core virtual selling skills and practices that will make your salespeople successful in the virtual realm.

Teaching the right skills and practices to sales teams can have a profound effect on their sales performance. As a sales coach, it’s your job to know what virtual selling skills to teach and master how you can effectively empower sales teams with specific virtual sales training.

In this post, we’ll help you understand what virtual sales training means and how they are different from in-person scenarios. We’ll also open your eyes to the core skills that an excellent virtual sales training should focus on teaching salespeople.

What Is Virtual Sales Training?

Virtual sales training is any synchronous or asynchronous learning that takes place entirely in an online space. The training focuses on equipping virtual sellers with the skills, practices, and techniques required to engage customers and close deals remotely.

In this type of training, sales coaches often use a delivery medium such as video conferencing or on-demand training videos to deliver sales lessons to trainees. Also, less experienced sales professionals can learn how to engage leads successfully and drive revenue at their own pace with online training.

How Is Virtual Training Different From In-Person Scenarios?

The most apparent difference between virtual training and in-person training is found in their training delivery method. In-person training scenarios involve physical interaction between the sales coach and the learners, while in virtual training, interaction occurs online.

The facilitator for a virtual training program is not in the same scenario as the learners at the same time. Instead, the two parties choose to interact and engage virtually via video conferencing, pre-recorded video, or a combination of both for learning purposes.

Which Skills Should Virtual Training Focus on?

As an individual offering a virtual sales coaching program, your training content should help sales cycle sales managers or sales professionals overcome virtual sales challenges. The best way to empower sales teams with your online training program is to teach the skills that matter the most in the virtual selling field.

With this in mind, here are the three most essential skills you should be teaching in your online sales training program:

#1. Excellent Sales Presentation

In virtual sales, you need a solid first visual impression to win the heart of your customers during sales meetings. And this starts with learning how to design a great slide deck for your virtual presentation.

Your presentation slides should grab your buyers’ attention and hook them down for as long as possible. You can get creative by adding animation and motion effects to your deck to make your presentation the talk of the show. If you can get this part right, it’ll help guide the organization of your sales conversations that are supposed to come next.

As a sales coach, your training content should help sellers develop great deck-building and presentation skills needed to deliver a more engaging experience to customers in virtual meetings.

#2. Effective Communication

Virtual sales come with holding continuous sales conversations, sales meetings, video calls, and phone calls with buyers. Sellers need to develop the skills required to communicate critical objectives, benefits, and takeaways from every sales meeting with buyers effectively and efficiently. This involves learning how to use the right tone of voice, correct body language, and customers’ words.

Excellent communication skills are also required to convince buyers to choose your product versus your competitors. As a virtual seller, your communication skills are the key to your success in the virtual environment.

As crucial as this skill is, sales coaches should focus on teaching it to sales teams to help make their communications stand out, both visually and audibly.

#3. Great Relationship Selling Skill

Building relationships with customers is crucial in virtual sales, especially when your sales organization has a longer sales process. This way, your sales team can significantly improve the chance of closing a deal and retaining more customers for the long term.

However, virtual relationships with online prospects and customers can be hard to establish. It requires taking an interest in their world with consistent, meaningful digital engagement to befriend buyers in the distracted virtual environment.

Virtual sales coaches should focus on training salespeople on how they can connect and establish a relationship with prospects and buyers through virtual engagement. Sales coaches should tailor their training content to teaching sellers how to demand honest feedback from sellers, show empathy and listen actively to gain customers’ trust. Doing these can help salespeople endear their sales organizations to customers.

Conclusion

Many firms offer virtual sales training that can help boost your sales team performance. There are also many cheesy online sales training programs that will have no profound effect on your sales team’s performance. Thus, as a sales leader, it’s your responsibility to ensure you invest in the proper virtual sales training for your sales team that will help improve their selling power. That’s if you can’t combine a Sales Coach job with sales leadership.

Don’t choose an online sales training program that fails to train sellers on how to build a deck more effectively for a sales presentation, communicate more efficiently with customers, and build long-term relationships virtually. Instead, choose the training program that teaches salespeople the core virtual sales skills required to overcome any challenges they may face in the virtual selling field.

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