A quick-start guide to Virtual Selling

The definition of Virtual selling according to Gartner is: the collection of processes and technologies by which salespeople engage with customers remotely with both synchronous and asynchronous communications.
Virtual selling allows you to engage with your prospects on a different level and the magic word here is video. We’ll take a dive into the different approaches you can take and easy-to-use tips to start your virtual selling experience.
There are many benefits of virtual selling, but let’s shine a light on the 4 biggest highlights.
To emphasize the importance of virtual selling, Everyonesocial found some numbers to back up the benefits of this powerful tool:
Start from the beginning and make sure you’ve done your research. When you as a sales agent book time in the calendar of your prospect, you have to be prepared because you’ve got a limited amount of time. So, get the basics down.
Begin to know your buyer, what they do, what they value, and most importantly – their pain points. When you know which problem to solve, you can actively start bringing in solutions. If they ask questions, anticipate them and be ready to give the right answers. Also, always try to listen actively. Pay attention to the way they speak, what their tone is, what they mean without saying it so you can continue to have a smooth conversation. This is especially important if you can’t be in the same room as your prospect – you need all the info you can get. Try to be thorough and to the point, you don’t want to waste their time.
Remote sales prospecting is another level and it presents a new range of challenges, but also opportunities. How do you break into their inboxes and grab their attention? You need to make an impression, and do it fast. Engage with them any way you can – video is a great way to pull it off.
For some buyers, it can be a bit intimidating to buy products online without seeing it in person – especially if it’s about high ticket products. It’s your job to make them feel at ease. This is how you do it: make them understand the virtual sales process so they’re assured when they’re making a big purchase. Secondly, it’s important to educate your buyers. This way, you show your expertise and you can build trust which you would also do in person.
Not everything has to happen in a live conversation, sometimes people need more time to think about their purchase or do other comparison research. In the end it’s necessary to build a genuine relationship – which can be challenging when you’re speaking in a virtual way. Find ways to show buyers your face, invest time in video calls with them and minimize the gap so they feel they can always stay in touch with you whenever they have questions.
Unfun fact: 48 hours after a virtual sales call, buyers only retain 10% of what you talked about. This means that you have to identify the most important tenth of your message and be sure it gets through to your buyer.
Get visual and capture their attention, this is perfectly done through video. Show live demos, graphs of other clients in the industry and whatever you can get your hands on and what is interesting to your potential buyers. This way, you will keep them interested during the call and that’s what’s necessary to start engaging. Turn a one-way presentation into a collaborative exercise.
When you’re selling, information is crucial. According to McKinsey research, companies that analyze and act on sales behavior can increase their sales productivity by up to 20%. But what sales metrics should you be tracking? How can you process them into insights? What do you do with that intelligence once you have it?
These metrics open a window into buying and selling behavior – which can fill in the missing information gap. It makes it more clear on how buyers are interacting with you, which strategies are working and which aren’t.
It’s important to note that selling products doesn’t exist in a vacuum, especially when you’re doing it in a virtual environment. Your leads are coming from the marketing department, which makes it essential to align. Make sure both departments are on the same page when it comes to buyer-facing materials, think about your lead generation strategy together and create a unified revenue team that has a direct stake in the marketing & selling process.
Whisbi
First off, Whisbi Engage. This tool helps you to increase customer engagement and deliver a more delightful customer experience on your website. Send your brand message to an unlimited number of viewers online through live video broadcast, using just a tablet. Customers are able to ask questions to brand experts and based on the advice they can easily make a purchase.
Unlike other live streaming platforms, our solution allows your website visitors to add items to their basket without needing to leave the stream. Brands can integrate Whisbi’s software without a hassle in 3 easy steps:
1. Embed just one line of javascript,
2. Download the Broadcast by Whisbi app,
3. Start live streaming – it’s that easy.
Our live video streaming solution is geared towards top of the funnel engagement, helping you drive sales. Our platform lets you achieve a 3:1 return on investment, and customers are 10X more likely to buy your product(s) – using our solution. This results in a 26% increase in up-selling.
JW Player
JW Player is a video player with a number of built-in features like video hosting, live streaming, and a number of analytics tools.
Although its primary use case is for watching videos, it’s a great choice for both creating your own videos and sharing them in a live format.
Livestream
Livestream is built for high-quality live broadcasting in a range of environments, including but not limited to meetings, webinars, conferences, online training courses, podcast interviews, and product demos.
Some of its features include the ability to share files, include polls and voting options in your broadcast, and easy mobile access for viewers. However, Livestream isn’t focused on sales, so it lacks features in this area.
Bluejeans
Bluejeans’ service allows you to connect a large number of participants in one broadcast, with real-time chat to encourage easy communication. There’s a suite of reporting and analytics features to better understand your broadcasts and audience, and a range of lead generation tools to help grow your business.
On the other hand, Bluejeans is more focused on internal business meetings and conferences, and less aimed at engaging your audience and driving sales.
You could also start by using pre-recorded videos with tools like Vidyard, Loom, and Wistia. This way, you can create personalized videos, specifically for each of your clients. It’s something not overly produced, but still comes across as natural and honest. It’s like creating a video for a friend, but then explaining your product or service in a specific way. If there is a resource that would be helpful for a prospect, consider using a video to briefly discuss what challenge it is going to help solve for them, why it’s specifically valuable to them, and what they can expect to gain from it.
To find out how Whisbi can help you implement Virtual Selling techniques in your sales strategy and create an engaging online experience, schedule a demo with us.