Every business in the world is trying to figure out how to transition to an online and hybrid setting; it’s more important than ever for you to train your team on collaborating and connecting with new customers in a virtual setting. But how does one navigate the ton of online collaboration software and video conferencing tools? What are the important factors to consider in a virtual sales meeting? Read this article for tips to help you create an effective online sales training program.
New normal vs. the old way of doing things
Remote and hybrid sales process is very different from traditional sales process that we have used for decades. As all of us have figured out by now, through endless online presentations and attending endless virtual meetings, you can’t just take the practices that worked in person and use them as-is in a virtual setting. We need to figure out ways of overcoming the hurdles of distance and screen sharing to build personal relationships.
Four Things to Consider
Elevating your presence
In the past, our communication through email, and other digital channels, was sometimes formulaic and generic. This wasn’t such a big deal as we could always forge a bond when we met in person and allowed our personality to show through. But today, when all your interactions happen online, you and your sales team should try to form bonds and connections during remote presentations.
We recommend changing the way you use your video during conference calls, especially when you are sharing your screen. Most video conferencing platforms focus on the screen share and the data you are presenting versus your presence. You usually become a tiny little postage stamp on the bottom of the screen, and this is not going to create lasting impressions. You need to realize that your image, your presence, is as important as your data and create a canvas where you can be besides your content and stand out. If done properly, you have the chance to create a more meaningful interaction with your potential new clients and form a closer personal connection. A lot of video meeting platforms and remote work tools tend to prioritize and focus on your data and not your presence.
Reactiv SUITE allows you to deliver your sales pitch next to you on screen. You can resize yourself, or the content, at any time in order to be more dynamic. If you want to look at your customer in the eye, make your image larger or if you are sharing multiple pieces of data, make yourself smaller. With you on the screen, your leads are more likely to give you their full attention and less likely to start multitasking (as so many of us generally do). Your presence is no longer controlled by your video conference app, you are in control of how you and your data are portrayed.
Video of screen presence
Investing in new technologies
With your team working in a remotely and attending countless virtual meetings, you don’t have the luxury of joining impromptu watercooler conversations or having side conversations that help your team communicate organically. Investing in a new generation of tools designed specially for hybrid meeting environments can dramatically help your sales teams have more impactful and memorable meetings with your customers.
Train your sales team on your virtual sales enablement practices, not just how to use video conference software. Show them how your company supports sales and makes virtual sales processes more effective. Your sales enablement training should cover not only how to use collaboration tools but the best practices to help customers remember the information being presented.
Just as your sales team will use new technologies to collaborate, technology has also caused a big shift in the way that sales pitches are delivered. As Vizetto’s Colin Doe points out, there are over 35 million PowerPoint presentations being delivered everyday. And the internet gives your customers the opportunity to do a lot of research on a product or service on their own. They want to attend a virtual sales meeting to fill in gaps and build trust in your Company, products and services. This means that you need to be more non-linear in your approach and help your customers the way they want to be helped versus just present the same deck, every time, the same way.
Leveraging all your content
Your organization has invested a lot of time and money in developing all sorts of content. Product brochures, training manuals, customer testimonial videos, real time content on the web, and so much more than just the same old PowerPoint deck. But in most virtual sales meetings salespeople seem to be stuck on the same format. The current tools don’t make it easy to seamlessly switch between different types of content and file formats without a lot of micro frustrations. Arranging windows, opening multiple files, dealing with cluttered user interfaces makes it a challenge. So, a lot of salespeople revert back to a simple, linear PowerPoint presentation.
Reactiv SUITE allows you to be non-linear using your existing content. Simply create a workspace to an existing customer folder with all sorts of content. Then you can just drag any of these files onto your ‘Digital Table’ during your sales presentation and present without boundaries. While you are presenting using your PowerPoint deck switch over to the product brochure or open a live dashboard on your website, or even pull up that customer testimonial video.
Create meaningful and impactful presentations.
Pre-pandemic practices are dead
There’s no doubt that the pandemic has changed the way we do sales, but it’s important to remember that things aren’t just going to go back to the way they were before the pandemic. Your online sales training should continue to teach your team to overcome the inability to (quite literally) knock on doors.
Your sales team needs to bring the same energy they had in face-to-face meetings to the online world. Hosting live online sales training sessions, that are interactive and dynamic, is a great way to engage your customers and get feedback from them in real time. Recreating the feeling of presence and interactivity that you had with your in-person sales presentations and meetings is one of the best ways to engage your team and create more memorable online sales training sessions.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of “movie mode.” With speakers and presenters on the other side of a screen. This makes it too easy for your team to sit back and watch the presentation and really fall back into a passive experience. Make sure you’re asking them questions frequently and getting feedback along the way. With Reactiv SUITE you can visually capture their feedback, create sticky notes, or highlight and ink directly into documents. This allows your audiences to follow along and visually learn, versus just passively watch and online meeting.
Reiterate lessons so that your team doesn’t forget it. Creating a resource hub that holds all your online sales training material is a great way to store key information and give your employees a place to go when they need to review anything.
Contact us to learn more about how you can transform your online sales meetings.
