Virtual Selling is Here to Stay

Unless you’re floating in a sea of delusion hoping for the winds of change to blow you to safety, you’ve at least started blending virtual selling into your current sales strategies.

Some of you might still be holding on to the idea of things “returning back to normal” as a justification for not converting to virtual selling techniques.

Let’s get honest about what that means:

• Companies (which include your customers) have begun to realize that employees can be just as effective from home. This means that the people you want to physically meet with may not be at the office, even after the dust settles.
• Business is successfully being transacted virtually. As such, companies are going to challenge the need for travel and onsite meetings. They’ll at least require that reasonable effort be put into virtual technologies before they yield to face-to-face.
• Everyone has been forced to optimize their day-to-day operations using virtual collaboration technologies. The Band-Aid was ripped off, and everyone started to gain efficiency fast with tools like Zoom, Webex, and Teams. Companies realized that traditional meetings (and the inefficiencies they bring) aren’t as necessary as we once thought.

#VirtualSellingTruths

1. Virtual Selling isn’t going anywhere.

   You’re going to need to adopt it; however, the best way forward will be blending. In Jeb Blount’s book, Virtual Selling, he describes just how to do this. Mastering the art of blending virtual with traditional selling will be the new normal.

2. Everyone who wants to survive will embrace virtual selling.

   The good news is that your customers have and will continue to embrace it. The bad news is that your competition will, too.

3. Virtual selling has a lot of advantages.

   For one, you can do more in the same amount of time – but so can your competition. Virtual selling comes with a learning curve that you need to embrace, and herein lies your opportunity. In Virtual Selling, Jeb explores the how-to’s and hell-no’s of virtual selling. Differentiation is king. But when everyone is doing it, how can you differentiate?

4. The window to differentiate is closing.

   As more and more of your competition embraces virtual selling, you need to stay ahead by ensuring that the quality of your efforts lead the pack. The quality of your messaging, audio, video, background, lighting, cadence, and frequency matter. When everyone is prospecting or selling with virtual technologies, how will a customer choose you? Your quality is paramount, and as time goes on, the window to differentiate will begin to close as your competition figures this out. Get ahead and stay ahead.

5. The most brutal truth of all: Your competition is EVERYONE.

   When you’re prospecting, your competitor is EVERYONE that wants the time of your prospect. Everyone comes in with the same pitch at first: If you give me some of your time, I promise I’ll show you value. So, if you consider that more and more companies are blending virtual selling with their current sales processes AND that you can cover more ground in the same amount of time, your competitive landscape just got even more fierce. It is absolutely essential that you master virtual selling and differentiate through meaningful, relevant messaging with an unprecedented quality.

Virtual selling is NOT a pickup game.

It’s not something you can wing or “just do” on the fly.  It requires investment, planning, strategy, and lots of dedicated practice. The competition is fierce; the window is always closing.

But that’s the job; that’s the deal. Embrace this and don’t let one more day go by hoping things will get back to normal. Blending virtual and traditional sales is the next normal. Get ahead; stay ahead.

To remain competitive, sellers must shift the way they engage prospects and customers. Learn how to leverage video-based technology, digital tools, and virtual communication channels with our Virtual Selling Skills Training.