One of the most requested topic areas for skills development that I have been working on during the last few weeks has been on the topic of Strategic Business Selling in the virtual world. Many of our client organizations have finally realized that things will never get “back to normal” and now they are scrambling to get “selling-in-the-virtual-world” training programs for their sales teams in place before it is too late.
Hopefully it’s not too late and I wanted to take a few moments to share some of our findings and skill training solutions.
There are literally millions of sales professionals in the United States and around the world who are giving up hope that they will be able to hit their targets and / or survive.
The good news is that selling in the virtual world can be better than the “old way” of taking a customer out to an expensive steak dinner. Virtual selling provides the opportunity to do things in a different way that is actually,
- More personalized
- More intimate
- More focused on customer needs
- More controllable in terms of delivering the right solution to the right customer
- More controllable in terms of managing the pipeline
For some sales professionals who have embraced the disruption, it is a dream come true and they are thriving in ways unimaginable before the pandemic changed the way we work.
As our Business Acumen for Sales Professionals virtual workshops and our Strategic Business Selling virtual workshops, we have refined and developed 25 foundational skills that must be above average to be successful. Here are 3 of the most important to think about and develop:
Business Empathy Skills
Business empathy, different than business acumen, is something that is difficult for many sales professionals but can be extremely powerful if it can become a well-developed skill. We define business empathy as the ability to fully understand your prospect’s business position including their strategy, financial position, future trends, and how they are feeling about both the present and the future. They then need the ability to reflect those feelings back to the prospect when collaborating on a potential solution. For example, you can have a deep, extremely personal virtual conversation with a prospect where they may express deep frustration with their supply chain and the fact there is disruption in their product supply. Instead of jumping all over a “pain point” and proposing a solution, the conversation should be only about the impact on the prospect’s business and how their goals and survival will be impacted. By selflessly understanding and listening upfront, without mentioning any solutions, the prospect will develop a deeper level of trust and a personalized relationship that can’t be replicated in traditional selling methods.
Critical Business Problem Solving Skills
Good sales professionals are able to listen, formulate a response, and propose a solution. Great sales professionals are able to listen, understand the business impact of their prospect’s business challenges and opportunities, and then in the moment formulate a sophisticated solution that has both short-term and long term positive impacts on the prospect’s key business metrics that matter. For example, you are in a deep conversation with a prospect in the retail space and you are having a conversation about the challenges of evolving their business model to an “omni-channel” approach that integrates digital strategies with traditional. The “easy” approach is to focus on the immediate challenge of getting products into the supply chain. The more complex challenge is how to create long term consumer confidence that they can get their favorite brand anytime, anywhere, and as quickly as possible no matter what the delivery method.
Virtual Presentation Skills
Presenting in a virtual environment is unique and different but if you can get really good at it, your world will change. Most sales professionals think they are good at presenting. Well, in this new world of virtual selling the rules have changed. You have about a minute to capture the attention of your prospect in a virtual environment before they will look into the camera pretending to be listening to you but in reality, doing email. There are 3 sub-skills that are important to making a great, engaging virtual presentation:
- Confidence – Feeling good with the technology, good about your understanding of the prospect, and good about your own solutions.
- Tell a story – In a virtual environment you can’t just talk at the audience, you must engage with them by telling a story that is interesting and meaningful to the prospect. Tell a story of how you helped another prospect achieve their goals and objectives in a way that is sincere and empathetic.
- Present an intriguing hook that makes them want to listen – In a virtual environment you need a hook, something unique and special about what your solution does that no other competitor does. The hook could be about product innovation, levels of service, or the fact you have the lowest price that can’t be beat.