The Virtual Sales That Can Keep Buyers’ Eyes On You

The transition from physical selling to virtual sales was a simple one for many. You were once a superstar basketball player with good skills and an impressive field goal percentage. Next, you were told to win in a baseball match by being given a ball and handed a glove. You were playing on a completely new field. It requires a different skill set.

Do you sound familiar?

Although you might have been successful in person, it is now more difficult to make connections with buyers. They are more distracted, less likely to be focused and can multitask more in virtual environments.

Virtual selling Study It was found that 91% said it is difficult to “get a buyer’s interest and keep them on the line virtually”. Here are four ways to engage buyers during virtual meetings.

Related: The 4 Essential Imperatives to Virtual Sales Success

Utilize tools Virtual Sales

In 2020 you might have been in a meeting room with 5-10 people. A few of them represent your sales team. All the rest belong to your prospective client. Champion internal These are the key decision-makers.

With everybody in the room, it was easy to jump up on the whiteboard quickly and collaborate with others, as well as bounce ideas off of your team. You also had the ability to remain agile while you responded to questions.

In virtual meetings, we’re limited to a very small box — and, in many cases, buyers have already been focused on this small box for much of their day. People can also opt out of virtual meetings, or simply leave early.

Virtual meetings require you to be more intentional about how you present yourself, grab attention and inspire engagement.

Planning is key. You should be prepared with all the necessary tools to facilitate a collaborative, interactive meeting. You can:

• Video: Video conferencing in virtual meetings can help to create personal connections, strengthen relationships and increase trust.
• Tell us something about your screen You can show your ideas with a variety of supporting material, from slides to statistics to videos.
• Use virtual whiteboards to collaborate: You can use virtual whiteboards for taking notes, collaboration, demonstrating ideas, and many other things.
• Use digital sticky notes: You can use sticky notes to keep track of agenda items, or to remind you to return to specific topics/questions.
• Start surveys and polls You can use anonymous surveys and polls to gauge the mood of your buyers, especially if there are several.

Takeaway: It is important to plan and practice using available tools. You are more likely to have tech issues and awkward silences while you’re on-the-go. This can lead to poor customer experiences.

Visuals are a great way to communicate your ideas

Adult attention spans shrinking. Videos should not exceed 30 seconds. You need to capture the attention of your audience within eight seconds.

These are ideas that most of us have encountered in one form or another over the past few years. People pay more attention to things that matter and things that are visually appealing. You can think of things like action movies, social media scrolling, and the Opening Ceremony at the Olympics.

This is your goal: to make this happen in virtual sales meetings. The first part of the article will cover this. We will now concentrate on visuals. Visuals are the best way to communicate your ideas in virtual sales meetings. This isn’t just for the designers. Consider:

• Movement: You can incorporate movement into your content and yourself (e.g. animations in PowerPoint, on-screen annotation).
• Face: Be aware of your facial expressions. Smile!
• Body: To signal your interest, use body language (sitting forward and moving up) and then speak naturally with your hands.
• Space: You can make the most of your space on both your screen and in your video.
• Timing: Screen movement is a great way to increase dopamine levels and keep people interested.

Importantly, do not complicate it.

Takeaway: To keep customers engaged, reduce the amount of text and increase visuals.

Similar: Avoiding the #1 Virtual Sales Meeting Error

Templates are a great idea

You’re usually in control of your environment when selling in person. Your internet speed, quality of audio or background are not issues. It is possible to keep track of all the questions you wish to answer in your mind.

When there is so much going on, it can be difficult to choose just one topic to discuss in virtual meetings. Instead, keep your slides, questions, and talking points handy. A pre-made template can be used to prepare the slides.

RAIN Group’s Buyer Change Blueprint is an example. It’s easy to open the blueprint and complete it live as you discuss each section with your buyer.

You can use any template you like, but the point is still to get everything needed to make a unique solution. Even better is a platform where buyers can add to the templates directly. One example is to share a list with buyers and ask them for checks.

You can then clean up the documents and email them to the buyer after the meeting. This allows them to easily communicate with their teams or ask additional questions during your next meeting.

Takeaway: You can use a template as a guideline to capture the necessary information and collaborate when appropriate.

Use collaboration For Virtual Sales

We have already mentioned that people are more interested in things they care about than others. Collaboration is key. While seven out of 10 buyers want to collaborate, only 34% believe that sellers can be effective.

Sellers who don’t cooperate reduce their chances of success.

• Establish rapport and build relationships
• Find solutions to your problems
• Inspirational ideas to inspire buyers
• Transform buyer attitudes
• Keep and gain the engagement threshold
• Win more deals

Templates are a great way to work together, get attention, and keep engagement high, as we mentioned in our previous points. During needs discovery.

It’s like this: When you meet in person, it would be a conversation. You make eye contact, signal with verbal and visual cues, such as nodding or making affirmative noises.), but now you’re limited to your little black box, listening to what your buyer is saying and taking diligent notes on the notepad in front of you — while the buyer looks at the top of your head. They would know that you are taking notes in person. In a virtual meeting they won’t even know you do what it is.

Related: How To Build Relationships With Customers Online

This is a great opportunity for collaboration. Write on your screen, in real time, so that buyers can see the template, Word document, text pad, or virtual whiteboard.

• Check to see if the information they share is accurate.
• Engage by looking at the screen.
• Collaboration is possible when you are able to go back-and-forth, answering deeper questions, and bringing more information to the table.

Takeaway: Take into consideration the buyer’s perspective and find ways to work together at each stage.

It’s not easy to retain buyers in virtual sales meetings. These four tips will help you capture their interest and keep them on your side. Use visuals and templates to increase the chances of success during your next virtual meeting.