How Do You Handle Objections During Customer Meetings?
Selling products and services online has become a common practice among salespeople worldwide. Many sales leaders now see virtualization as the new standard approach to business and the future of sales. This belief is corroborated by a study from HubSpot that revealed that 63% of sales leaders consider virtual sales meeting more effective than traditional, in-person meetings.
With this in mind, we’ve put together this proven guide which covers every important thing that sales professionals should know about virtual selling. In this post, we’ll provide you with tips on how you can create a winning virtual sales strategy for your sales organization. We’ll also share some tactics on the powerful ways to close more virtual sales.
What is Virtual Sales?
The term “virtual sales” does not need too much explanation, and it’s simply the form of sales that takes place entirely online. Virtual sales replace the component of physical interactions as seen in traditional or in-person sales with virtual interactions. In virtual sales, sellers’ interaction and engagement with prospects and customers happen online. This selling approach is facilitated by technology and digital tools without the need for both parties (sellers and buyers) to meet in person.
How To Create A Winning Virtual Sales Strategy
A strong strategy is needed to sell effectively in the virtual world. Here’s how you can create an effective sales strategy that will help you win more sales remotely:
Have a simple sales process
A sales process is a pillar of effective virtual selling. It’s the framework that gets you from your first contact with a prospect to the point of closing a deal with a customer. The smooth functionality of your sales team rests on having a virtual sales process that provides a clear direction on what is expected to be done.
With a simple, repeated sales process that your sales team follows day-in and day-out, there will be no question of what to tell the prospect at every stage of any high-quality sales cycle. This will help accelerate the sales cycle, increase your close rate, and give you a better chance at exceeding your sales goals virtually.
Assemble a winning virtual sales team
Those sales organizations making six figures through virtual selling have one thing in common – salespeople that help execute their sales process effectively. These people know what to do at every stage of the sales cycle. In addition, they know what to say to prospects and customers at a specific stage in their buyer journey to help them feel safe.
Having a sales team that understands sales practices, possesses relevant sales skills, and can explain your sales process clearly to prospects is essential in winning sales virtually. Your strategy can only win you deals if you have the right sales team at your disposal.
Invest in the right sales tools
Regardless of the experience level, your sales team needs the right sales tools to boost their selling power in virtual sales. Sales tools help save time on tedious and time-consuming administrative tasks that would otherwise make your sales team focuses less on selling. With the administrative tasks out of the equation for your sales team, they can focus more on providing value for your clients and sales organization.
With experience and relevant sales tools at their fingertips, sales reps tend to do better and close more deals remotely. As a sales leader, it’s your job to arm your sales team with the right sales tools they need to engage prospects via virtual meetings, virtual sales calls, and video calls.
Track your sales metrics
Now it’s time to track your key sales metrics for your sales results. Paying close attention to your sales outcome will let you know how your sales strategy is doing. If your strategy is doing great, you need to update and improve the process to make it better. If it’s not doing so well, you need to make the necessary adjustment to make it works.
In remote sales, the apparent data and metrics to track in real-time include:
- Sign-up rate.
- Close rate.
- The average revenue per new client.
- Actual sales versus quota.
- The sales cycle in days.
- The percentage of sales opportunities that close.
Review these key metrics week over week and month over month to know your sales strategy performance and improve where necessary.
Strong Ways To Close More Virtual Sales
Now that you know what sales strategy to put in place to win more sales, it’s time to learn about how to close more deals with the strategy. Here are a few powerful ways to close more virtual sales.
#1. Research your prospects
Your success in closing more remote sales is determined by how much you know about your target audience. You need to understand your prospects as much as you know your sales process to convert them into paying customers. Take your time to walk in their shoes and develop an interest in their world. This way, you get to know who they are, their pain points, and how your solution can be tailored to help ease the pain.
Virtual buyers tend to connect easily with a seller who understands their needs and can help meet them quickly. Systematic research can help reveal all these and more about your prospects.
#2 Leverage social media
Today, social selling has become a goldmine for virtual sellers. It’s a great way to reach over 80% of B2B buyers and senior executives who use the social platform to research products and services before making a buying decision.
Here, social selling refers to exploring social platforms in business to generate leads, nurture leads, establish relationships with prospects, and offer meaningful value to them. As a virtual seller, you need a strong presence on relevant social media to hit your quota quickly.
#3. Personalize your sales conversations
Buyers are not looking for generic solutions to their pain points. They want a seller that can provide them with specific answers to the problem they’re looking for a way to solve. If you don’t skip the first tactic (that is, if you conduct your research well), you get to know your prospects well enough to make your sales calls all about them.
Buyers tend to pay attention to sales conversations that they feel are personalized, which helps increase the close rate in remote sales.
#4 Follow up your virtual sales conversations
As a sales rep, your job doesn’t end after closing video calls, phone calls, or sales meetings with a prospect. It’s also your responsibility to create a series of follow-up interactions. Follow-ups help gauge your prospects’ interest and give you a better chance of closing more deals with prospects still struggling to decide.
Create An Impactful Virtual Sales Strategy
With an increasing number of digital buyers worldwide, it’s easier to form an opinion that winning sales remotely will come so easy. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case here – convincing prospects to choose your solution in a virtual environment is more challenging than in face-to-face scenarios.
However, sales leaders who follow the right strategies and tactics are reaping the full rewards of virtual sales. Use the information in this guide to create an impactful virtual sales strategy to win more sales, close sales, and drive more revenue virtually.
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