As per the findings of research done by Bain & Company, around 92% of the B2B buyers enjoy virtual sales touchpoints. Moreover, now most of the salespeople (79%) agree that virtual selling is highly effective due to the fact that practicing virtual selling best practices make it a speedier, cost-effective means of enabling reps to contact more prospects.

To win the game of virtual selling, sales representatives need to consider more than just holding Zoom meetings. Rather, they will have to take a global perspective at the entire buying journey and how to infuse virtual components at every stage.

As noted by the authors of Mastering Virtual Selling, it is the sellers who will have to be at the top of their game in learning the new tricks that make a virtual world orchestrate sales success. 

What is Virtual Sales?

In actually understanding what virtual selling is, you can then go on to identify the skills the reps would need to master.  Virtual sales is selling products or services over the Internet or other remote methods where interaction between sales and customers does not take place in person. A type of sales technique that offers digital interaction with customers through email, a social networking site, video conferencing, sales enablement platform, etc. thus making virtual contacts possible. London Premier Hub of Training and Consulting guide your virtual sales journey! Discover powerful strategies and receive personalised offers.

When it comes to virtual sales, salespeople demonstrate products, share content, field questions from customers, and close deals through all these digital means. It increases access to buyers and reduces travel costs, allowing sales staff to conduct meetings with buyers from any part of the world.

Virtual Sales Best Practices

Selling anything and working with anyone online is an uphill task, but one that is becoming increasingly important. However, crossing the hurdles will mean you get many of the perks of virtual selling. Selling is by best practices. Apply the following virtual selling best practices, and all will materialise as per your wishes:

1. Be prepared

Regardless of the scenario, preparation is a must. Preparation is even more so in an online scenario. Customers should be spared from sales reps who take the first five minutes of a call getting set up. The rep’s time is certainly valuable, but even more so the customer’s time! A good sales rep always, always does their homework. They know all they possibly can about their prospect, the organisations, pressures, product or service, or really anything that may assist in closing the sale.

2. Explain the process

Selling in a virtual world is one thing, while purchasing is another thing altogether. Customers do not like it when they feel tricked into doing business with someone. They want a straightforward explanation about what is going to happen every step of the way. Providing a preemptive overview of the sales cycle is one of the best things you could do to increase the chances of them doing business with you.

3. Marketing should be implicated

By collaborating with marketing, sales will be able to procure the resources and collateral that they need. This also benefits the two teams in the long run by making everything more streamlined for the selling process and efficient. The marketing team, in turn, may collect the needed data in a more efficient way than ever before.

4. Personalize, Personalize, Personalize

B2B buyers are showing that they require the same experience as that of an Amazon. They want their buying process to be virtual, quick, accurate, transparent, and personalized: business buyers do not have much patience, and as fast as they have come, they also leave if their needs are not met. Therefore, to deliver what the companies expect, the sellers should have a hyper-personalised experience with the customers at each of the different touchpoints.

This starts out with highly personalized prospecting emails. The best way for the virtual sales rep to do this, however, is to refer to something specific to the buyer in the prospect’s industry, role, or areas of challenges. They could even share a piece of content specifically within this conversation.

To personalize that email even further, the seller can create a video introducing themselves, discussing the challenge, and further explaining the piece of content shared. The seller will not only add depth and engagement to the act, but also whom: it is now understood that the buyer can now put a real human face to the name.

The sales team will need to take the same tack when cold calling. The most effective kind of cold call happens when the seller has a reason, however tenuous, for calling. After just a few seconds, the rep then cold calls about the prospect with reason-to-call and demonstrates they’ve done their homework, and in most cases, earns the right for more time. 

5. Share the Materials and Track Engagement

Before and after the meeting, use recorded video and content-sharing tools to augment and enrich connection, trust, and rapport with the buyer. For example, instead of sending an email with an attachment, sales reps can send personalized videos explaining the materials they will be sharing. 

Send materials before the meeting so that the buyer can “consume” at their own pace, and save valuable meeting time, allowing tight selling time to zero in on issues and answer questions.

It is essential for the seller to track the activity done on the videos and other material shared with the client. How many times did a video get viewed? How many people frequently opened or downloaded the installment? It will help the seller in determining the interest and buying intent of the prospect.

Important virtual selling skills for sellers

You would probably raise your sales team into the stars, but never forget that it is just a start. You need to provide the representatives with training and coaching to implement proper virtual selling skills, which are definitely a must-have for any virtual selling process to be remotely successful. Essential for the whole procedure, proper training in virtual selling skills will enable your sales rep to acquire these extremely essential skills: 

1. Social skills

A sales rep must have social skills in order to establish a trustful and congenial relationship with a prospective customer. Without that certainly, trust goes out the window, and the chances for a successful sale are diminished considerably. 

2. Communication skills

Communicating intended meaning can be more difficult over the Internet. The client cannot assess the sales rep’s facial expressions and body language. They cannot pick up any nuance from the tone of voice; it can feel very robotic or even scripted. This impression creates a chance for misinterpretation by the client and can become offensive if the client perceives the sales rep’s message in a way that the sales rep did not intend. 

3. Active listening

A sales rep needs to listen to and respond to the customer’s comments, questions, and worries in any kind of selling. This becomes even more important in selling via the Internet. A customer often feels impatient, distracted, or uneasy. The sales rep needs to pick up that feeling and adjust the conversation to keep the customer’s interest. 

4. Demo skills

Selling online does not allow customers to make any judgments based on product inspection, unlike selling to customers in-store. A sales rep must be gifted in demonstrating a product online while putting it in the most positive light.