November 2021

25
Nov
B2B Sales  ·  Virtual selling
How virtual selling is becoming the fastest-growing sales channel

Introduction

When the COVID pandemic flipped our life upside down, companies and businesses across the globe were sent scrambling to figure out how to sell in the newly virtual-first world. Virtual selling came to the rescue and rapidly became the obvious choice.

Today, virtual sales have become more popular than ever before because of the major benefits they provide. As the majority of B2B selling interactions have gone remote, customers also want virtual selling to stay, with approximately 80% saying they prefer this method of interaction.

Rapid Adoption of Virtual Selling

The pandemic’s long-term effects on sales won’t be understood for some time. But it is safe to say that we will never fully go back to how it was pre-COVID. Therefore, many companies are rapidly adapting to new sales technology i.e Virtual or Digital Selling.

Most of the employees across the organization and particularly in sales have got adjusted to this digital transformation. This is clearly visible in the numbers video meetings giants reported in their latest numbers. Zoom saw its revenue skyrocket throughout the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.

Following a 169-percent revenue increase in the first quarter, year-over-year revenue growth accelerated to 355, 367, and 369 percent, respectively, in the second, third, and fourth quarter while Microsoft teams reported 145 million daily active users recently, 5X from this 32 million number pre-Covid. Particularly in sales, Google Meet reported people were spending 2 billion minutes in online sales meetings every day.

Unlocking Opportunities with Virtual Selling

Virtual selling is making the world further flat opening the doors for you to sell across the world without the need for any physical presence or salesforce.

With the possibility of connecting in minutes and no hassles of travel, it is giving that additional time to both the buyer and seller to spend time on understanding synergies with each other and make the selling interaction much more relevant for the buyers. This closer and faster access to buyers have allowed sellers to provide more personalized attention and develop stronger valued relationships.

As per a recent study conducted by Hubspot, 63% of sales leaders believe virtual sales meetings are equally effective or more effective than traditional, face-to-face meetings.

Buyers are also equally enjoying the convenience of meeting virtually for their purchase decisions. According to McKinsey, only 20% of B2B buyers say they hope to return to in-person sales even post-pandemic.

What does the future hold for Virtual Selling

According to Businessweek, Virtual selling is the fastest-growing sales channel in the world. The selling world is going to change with this adoption. The conventional sales strategies and technologies will have to change too.

Virtual selling will be an ever-evolving process from here on. Many companies are now embracing the idea of virtual selling products using a lot of video content, virtual tours, and 3D renderings. This strategy has already proven to be a successful way for retailers to showcase. It elaborates its products/service items to virtual buyers to find anything they need (and everything else) in one place.

Having the sales teams also available to the buyers for them to interact whenever they want and for sales teams to meet the buyers in their buying journeys itself will make the entire sales process very seamless. Further, making these selling interactions more personalized and intuitive will make the buyers love meeting sellers and establish a healthy relationship amongst them to achieve a win-win conversation every time.

Conclusion

The post-COVID buying world is very different from the pre-COVID buying world. Buyers will have more options than ever before, sellers will need to be smarter, more researched, have more technology in their hands, and be more efficient to continue to win deals.

Have you started thinking about how your virtual selling processes will be different? You will need to assess which skills, which technologies, and what metrics you should be tracking to ensure you don’t miss the virtual selling bus.

We at Zipteams are building a full-stack virtual selling platform to help businesses get to virtual selling faster. Reach out to us at www.zipteams.com if you are looking to get some answers on virtual selling soon.

by Saanya George


15
Nov
Sales  ·  Virtual selling
3 New Skills You Must Master to Excel In B2B Digital Selling

Digital Selling skills are no more for B2B Sales professionals as it has opened up a new and incredibly effective avenue to sellers as traditional sales techniques like cold calling no longer interest or convince today’s digitally savvy customers.

To excel in this fast-paced digital world, sales professionals and leaders need to learn and hone several key skills to become successful digital selling machines. 

Here we bring the top 3 skills to learn to excel in B2B digital selling

1. Social Selling Skills 

Social selling is no longer an option but a necessity in the business. Sales reps can no longer rely on prospecting strategies, they must learn the art of social selling and cultural intelligence. 

The goal of social selling is to build relationships with prospects through authentic human-to-human conversations formed through digital platforms. Social selling includes becoming adept at exchanging ideas, helping others, and bringing the community closer together. It’s time to go out there, meet people, and learn how to make people feel a part of your business. Social selling is an important skill for B2B sales professionals.

Cultural intelligence is essential if you want to leverage your network and build relationships with potential B2B leads. If you want to get the most out of social selling, you’ll need to get out of your head and understand how different industries operate.

2. Skills to Create Engaging Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings are all the rage these days. If your face-to-face meetings are old-fashioned and boring, it’s time you learn to create engaging virtual meetings. A digital meeting will save you lots of time and energy traveling, parking, waiting for colleagues or clients.

Before the pandemic, a group of buyers and sellers could network and build relationships in your conference room before the meeting. However, post-pandemic things have changed. Engaging virtually frees up your time (so you can do something other than wait around in an office) and they’re much more convenient to set up. They also provide a level of engagement that face-to-face meetings can’t match, which makes it easy to generate more interest and ultimately sell more. Plus, making them by yourself is incredibly hard — you’re going to need an audience for that!

Sales reps are busier than ever. Sales best practices have evolved in recent years with changes in technology, allowing companies to better leverage their time through virtual meeting technologies

3. Follow-Up: Building Relationships

The new era of digital sales means if you want to have a significant impact on your business, you need to focus on long-term relationships and one way to achieve this is to send follow-up messages.

You might think that contacting a prospect/client once to let them know you made a follow-up would suffice but chances are that most of your prospects and clients would be missing out on leads, opportunities, and the opportunity to win an account.

So the follow-up message should be specific. This means your follow-up message should give your prospects and clients an important message, providing a strong reason for them to respond. Then make it personal, by creating a human relationship with your prospect or client.

Conclusion 

The importance of developing skills for today’s digital selling landscape cannot be overstated. Two recurring themes transcend all other topics: adapting to change and evolving with the times, and mastering your craft.

We at Zipteams are building X to 10X Digital Selling Teams. Do follow us at our LinkedIn page. to keep learning the new age selling skills every day. Cheers had happy Digital Selling!

by Saanya George