While many of the skills of salespeople translate well to a world of Zoom and Teams, some adjustments need to be made to effectively sell remotely. Over the past few months’, we’ve delivered several programmes and seminars helping organisations and salespeople find their way in the ‘new normal’ and today, we’re going to share some of the basic strategies on our blog.
Master Your Tools
You need to master your tools and master your customers’ tools. Your organisation may prefer Zoom, but a customer may wish to use Teams or Skype. Familiarising yourself with several of the most popular video conferencing or communication platforms will help avoid any embarrassing technical issues.
Renew Your Focus on Building Rapport
Ensure that you are fully present during a virtual meeting. A good strategy, although not an intuitive one, is to look directly at the camera from time-to-time. Not only will this prevent your eyes from drifting, but it helps to mimic eye-contact, which is often lacking from virtual conversations.
Similarly, try to gently mirror the other side’s body language, energy and language. Don’t just clone their mannerisms, but attempt to break down the cyber barriers by creating a welcoming environment.
Engagement
When presenting/pitching, don’t rely too much on PowerPoint. While you may wish to show some slides, because of the nature of online interactions, it can build a wall between you and other people. Instead, send some pre-reading, use whiteboards, and other sharing tools.
You should also encourage questions by calling upon people regularly to give you their thoughts and reactions. Make sure that you pay attention to see if anyone is using a hand-raising tool, and let people know before the meeting that they can.
Mimic the Walk to the Elevator
After most in-person pitches or presentations, there is usually the few minutes where both parties walk to the elevator or to the exit. While this obviously doesn’t occur during a remote conversation, you should aim to include a five-minute ‘cooldown’ towards the end of the meeting.
This is one of the last, and often one of the most effective chances you have to influence the other side by building a personal connection. Always remember that people like people who are like them, and are always far more likely to buy from somebody they like!
