When it comes to virtual selling, every sales rep will need to lean on both tried and tested best practices, and shape their new virtual selling practices in accordance with virtual sales calls.
However, the burden of these two facets is not equal. Standards, such as prospecting, building rapport, setting up and managing meetings all exist in a new, unprecedented context: the digital world.
So, what will a virtual sales team need to do? Representatives must take a measured approach to translate traditional activities into this new context and start branching out their virtual selling skills.
Even salespeople who are familiar with conducting business over virtual channels will need to accommodate the new environment buyers and buying committees find themselves in — namely, conducting deals and business over a remote meeting.
Sellers themselves will also need to understand how virtual contexts impact the buying journey. For example, sellers and buying committees no longer need to meet face-to-face and can instead use virtual conferencing tools to conduct business.
Virtual conferencing alone could help accelerate buying journeys as more meetings can be easily scheduled and adjusted to meet the buyer’s needs. The digital actions a buyer takes, like the interactions they make with a website or chatbot, can also influence remote selling.
Understanding the buyer journey in a virtual world
In today’s virtual landscape, buyers are more informed and self-sufficient, often completing a significant portion of their buying journey online before ever engaging with a salesperson. This shift requires a deep understanding of how buyers move through various digital touchpoints, so sales and marketing teams can meet them where they are with relevant content and interactions.
Awareness: The Start of the Journey
The digital buyer journey begins when prospects recognize a need or problem. At this stage, they’re seeking information, researching solutions through blogs, webinars, and social media. Buyers are independent in their search, and their engagement with educational content becomes the foundation for future interactions. Offering valuable insights through webinars or thought leadership pieces positions your brand as a trusted resource early on in their journey.
Consideration: Weighing the Options
Once prospects move from awareness to consideration, they begin evaluating potential solutions. They compare vendors, attend product demos, read case studies, and explore features. During this phase, digital interactions are key indicators of buyer intent. For example, prospects who spend time engaging with detailed product demos or downloading in-depth whitepapers are signaling deeper interest.
Tracking these engagements helps sales and marketing teams identify when a prospect is ready for more targeted outreach. Understanding these touchpoints enables your team to provide the most relevant content, helping prospects see how your solution addresses their specific needs.
Decision: The Final Steps
In the decision stage, buyers narrow down their choices and prepare to make a purchase. They might review testimonials, request pricing, or seek a final demo to validate their decision. At this point, timing and precision are critical—buyers expect highly personalized digital experiences tailored to their concerns.
Leveraging data from ON24’s engagement analytics can provide insight into where prospects stand in the decision-making process. By understanding which content has influenced them most, you can deliver the final nudge needed to close the deal—whether it’s a personalized offer or an in-depth consultation.
Unifying Sales and Marketing Efforts
The digital buyer journey is often nonlinear, with buyers jumping between different touchpoints. This makes seamless alignment between sales and marketing crucial. Marketing nurtures prospects through informative content, while sales leverage data insights to continue those conversations when prospects are ready. By working together and sharing insights, your teams can create a cohesive buyer experience that feels natural and personalized at every stage.
What are the common challenges associated with remote selling?
1. Building Genuine Connections in a Digital World
One of the biggest hurdles in virtual selling is the lack of face-to-face interaction, making it difficult to establish rapport and read non-verbal cues, like body language.
Solution: Use video to create a human connection. Engage with open body language, maintain eye contact, and personalize interactions. Leverage ON24’s interactive features to create dynamic virtual experiences.
2. Keeping Attention and Engagement High
Virtual meetings are full of distractions—emails, household interruptions, or multitasking—that can lead to disengagement, making it hard to hold a prospect’s focus.
Solution: Incorporate multimedia and interactive tools like video demos and polls. Use ON24’s platform to engage prospects with Q&A, live interactions, and concise, focused presentations to keep attention high.
3. Overcoming Technology Hiccups
Technical issues like poor video quality, dropped calls, and audio disruptions can negatively impact a meeting’s flow, leading to frustration and lost sales opportunities.
Solution: Test technology beforehand, invest in reliable connections and equipment, and have backup plans. Ensuring technical preparedness helps avoid interruptions and leaves a professional impression.
4. Navigating a Longer, More Complex Buyer Journey
The virtual buyer’s journey has more digital touchpoints, from webinars to case studies, which can make it feel more detached and harder to track.
Solution: Leverage ON24’s analytics to track engagement and tailor follow-ups. Provide personalized content at key touchpoints to guide prospects through the journey and maintain seamless digital experiences.
Quick Tips for Hosting a Virtual Sales Meeting
Fortunately, translating sales activities into a remote selling environment isn’t too complicated on the face of it. A sales professional will still need to build rapport, conduct research, measure successes and more.
What will be difficult, however, is making the initial connection with a buyer and successfully nurturing that relationship over virtual channels.
To start, it’s best to stick to the basics. If an account becomes qualified or wants to meet, conduct research and set up a meeting. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for meetings to take place over virtual channels and video conferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams.
Video is a particularly important medium as it helps create a genuine, personable connection with the buyer and can help provide all of the context the seller would normally receive in person, such as body language, demeanor and overall interest in the product or service.
When setting up these meetings, confirm with your prospective customer that they are comfortable with using a video tool, and schedule the appointment and stick with standards of rapport building. Make sure you:
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- Be your authentic self – Putting on a face during a sales meeting doesn’t impress. Be upfront and honest – it helps to build genuine connections with buyers and can improve communication with a remote employee.
- Ask how buyers are doing and feeling. Be empathetic with your account. Ask how they’re doing and how they’re handling a remote setting. This not only builds rapport but can help reveal pain points that would otherwise be missed.
- Actively listen to customers – According to a 2020 report by Rain Group, only 26% of buyers say sellers are competent listeners. Beat expectations by actively listening to customers, showing a genuine interest, and following up on any insights gleaned from conversations.
- Create an experience they enjoy – Remote selling isn’t just about emails and meetings. Sales organizations will need to team up with marketing partners and create on-demand digital experiences that buyers can visit and consume in their own time.
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The 6 Best Practices for Running a Virtual Meeting
1. Use Video to Connect, Build Relationships
Remote and virtual selling, given its inherent nature, lacks a lot of the context salespeople rely on to build rapport. Body language, facial expressions and even the overall tone of an office helps build context. For virtual selling, it is essential that members of the sales team should use video conferencing tools to create a personal connection with the prospective customer and to ensure the best virtual selling practices. Doing so helps to put a name to a face, provide immediate education and insight to prospects and can help ensure everyone is on the same page.
Still, there are some best practices for selling virtually to keep in mind when using video in remote scenarios. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective examples below.
2. Set your goals
Not all virtual meetings are the same. Introductory and 1:1 calls, for example, are best suited to virtual conferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts. Live and personalized demos, by contrast, are better served by tools such as webinars.
Think about the goals you wish to accomplish and tailor your video usage accordingly. For example, if a rep is still in the discovery phase, then a casual video conversation can help illuminate any specific needs and alleviate any pressure.
Conversely, tools like webinars are best suited for situations where there’s either a large group of people who need to attend – like a buying committee – and the presenter needs to actively moderate the pace of the presentation, or when some attendees are unable to attend a meeting and need to consume content on-demand.
3. Know your tools
There are a wide range of video conferencing tools currently available on the market, and most of them share the same basic feature a virtual sales team will need to implement the best virtual selling practices. These features include screen sharing, live chat and window selection to name just three.
The virtual sales team should select a single tool that suits its needs and stick to it. This can help organizations deliver a consistent experience on each call and reduce technology convolution throughout the organization, providing for a streamlined virtual selling procedure.
Regardless of the tool you choose, create the best practices or “how-to” guide to ensure the virtual sales team knows just exactly how to use the tool and make the most out of its features during a call.
4. Ensure a good connection
Virtual selling and remote work has opened a lot of opportunities to drive more efficiency. One constraint, however, is bandwidth, which is crucial for efficient video calls. These can range for different solutions – especially if you use a lot of features during a live presentation.
Check your preferred video conferencing tool or tools for bandwidth requirements, keep consistent records of them and circulate those minimums with your sales and IT teams.
Once shared, develop a plan to improve bandwidth for remote employees – such as compensation for a more expensive, but faster and more efficient, internet connection.
5. Put an end to “can you hear me?”
An often overlooked, but equally important, aspect of video conferencing is audio quality. Make sure your B2B sales team knows how to troubleshoot any audio issues they may encounter – such as a muted microphone – and encourage representatives to invest in quality headsets to ensure maximum clarity and a more professional video conferencing experience.
6. Set up a room for video
More often than not, virtual selling means remote selling. As we’ve discussed before, sales should take the time to prepare their workspace for being on video. That means ensuring a clean background without clutter, making use of good lighting, quality audio and video, appropriate camera angles, and finding a quiet area where potential interruptions can be minimized or, ideally, completely eliminated.
7. Personalize Every Interaction
Personalization is a critical factor in virtual selling success. Conversations must be based on the buyer’s unique needs. Sales teams should research their prospects beforehand, referencing specific pain points or business challenges during meetings. Personalized follow-ups, such as customized content or demos, can leave a lasting impact.
8. Engage with Interactive Content
Virtual selling often lacks the natural engagement of in-person meetings. To overcome this, incorporate interactive content like live polls, Q&A sessions, and product walkthroughs. Tools like whiteboarding or real-time surveys can foster two-way communication and make the meeting feel more dynamic, keeping prospects engaged throughout the session.
9. Practice Active Listening
Virtual settings can make it easier to overlook the importance of listening. Encourage your sales reps to focus on active listening, which involves understanding and responding thoughtfully to a prospect’s concerns. This helps build rapport and signals that you’re genuinely interested in their specific needs. Take notes and follow up on key points to demonstrate attention and care.
10. Use Data to Drive Conversations
Data-driven selling is gaining traction, as seen in competitors like Seismic. Leverage data to tailor your outreach and conversations. For example, use analytics to track a prospect’s engagement with your website or content and reference these behaviors in your conversations. This targeted approach ensures that your message aligns with where the buyer is in their journey, helping you build a stronger case for your solution.
11. Focus on Follow-Up Timing
Competitors like Indeed and Allego stress the importance of follow-up timing. Don’t leave too much time between the initial meeting and your follow-up communication. Send personalized recaps within 24 hours, including relevant content that matches what was discussed. This shows attention to detail and keeps your solution on mind as the prospect decides.
12. Embrace Continuous Learning
The virtual selling environment is always evolving; your team should be, too. Encourage your sales reps to embrace continuous learning by keeping up with new tools, techniques, and customer preferences. Competitors like Plecto highlight the importance of training and skill development, especially in remote selling. Investing in ongoing learning helps your team stay sharp and adaptable in an ever-changing virtual landscape.
Conclusion
Virtual selling is essential in today’s digital-first world. By combining traditional sales skills with an understanding of the buyer’s digital journey, your team can build meaningful connections and deliver personalized, impactful experiences. Embrace continuous learning, align marketing and sales, and stay adaptable. With these best practices, your team will thrive and achieve exceptional results in the evolving sales landscape.
