In this Guest Article, Justin Leigh shares with Humble Sale readers 12 Top Principles for Remote & Virtual Selling.
The World has changed… how many times in history have we heard that said?
This time though, it feels different. At the time of writing this (January 21st, 2021) we’re 10 months into a Global Pandemic and here in the UK we’re still in lockdown! There is light at the end of the tunnel, a mass vaccination program is rolling out to the UK population and a sense that we may be able to return to a more normal way of life in the future.
BUT… what is a normal way of life after we’ve been through a Global Pandemic, we’ve experienced the world of work and life in a different way! Will we just ‘return to normal’?
I don’t believe we will. I believe we will experience a new ‘blended’ experience of work. Time working in an office, time working at home and time working at other remote locations. However, you view it, I believe in the future there will always be somebody who isn’t ‘physically’ in the room.
That means we will need to embrace a Remote or Virtual way of working. Some of us have worked this way for years, so we understand it. Even then, we have ‘settled’ for working in a remote or virtual environment that isn’t optimal. We haven’t given due consideration to how we should be conducting ourselves in the virtual setting, we haven’t made the same personal investments as we have when we were working in an office or visiting clients in their offices. We’ve ‘settled’ for less than we’re capable of and are making excuses for it! “We’re in a pandemic”, “Everyone else is doing it”, “It’s OK, my customer doesn’t mind a few distractions, it happens to them too”.
If you’re happy to settle, your customer is happy for you to settle and your business is happy for you to settle, then relax, stop reading.
BUT… if you want to raise your game, make a personal and professional investment in yourself and become masterful at working in the Remote & Virtual Setting, then read on!
I work with world-class organisations, training their Sales & Business Leaders to Coach their teams more effectively. I also work with Sales teams helping them get the foundations in place for highly effective consultative selling. In the last year, I’ve been sharing the foundations of selling through the lens of the Remote & Virtual environment. What follows are the latest Top 12 recommendations I make to business and sales teams for Remote & Virtual Selling. With the caveat that you’ve trained your teams to consultatively sell. If they haven’t been trained to sell, this Top 12 is the equivalent of putting a hairdryer under the bonnet (or hood) of a Ferrari. It might look good, but it won’t get you anywhere.
The final point to note is that client feedback advises these points are as helpful for general remote practice as remote selling. So, feel free to share this article and the principles with other members of your organisation that may benefit from them, not exclusively the sales leaders and teams.
Let’s get to our Top 12 principles for Remote & Virtual Selling.
The principles fall into two categories:
1 – The ‘Set Up’ and Preparation for Remote Working/ Selling
2 – The Skills you need to Develop for Remote Working/ Selling
Here they are in order:
1 – Remember to follow your Proven Sales Process
Just because it’s a Virtual meeting we mustn’t forget the fundamentals of selling & influencing. Using a Sales process to get maximum impact and consistency is vital for sales success.
If you don’t use a process, I have one called INSPIRe©, it’s detailed in the book INSPIRE, INFLUENCE, SELL (Master the psychology, skills and systems of the world’s best sales teams). The link can be found here and on The Humble Sale Resources page.
2 – Set up a Professional Environment
Consider the following:
You: how are you dressed and presenting yourself? Be business ready. If you’d wear a shirt or smart top for a client meeting in person, then dress like that for the virtual meeting. Hold yourself to high standards.
Background: Make sure your background is appropriate and professional. If you can’t do that at least have a blank wall behind you.
Angle: Make sure your webcam/ camera angle is horizontal. It’s unprofessional to be looking up someone’s nose or at the top/ side of their head.
Lighting: Balance the lighting in the room so that your customer can easily see you. Casting deep shadows is off putting.
Point to Note: Ensure you minimise the ‘visual’ distractions so you and your customer can focus on the meeting.
Finally, consider your position – I have a standing desk and it allows me to project much more positive energy and engagement to clients, teams and potential clients. Manage yourself for the optimal performance.
3 – Be Early, Practiced, and Prepared
Your customer sees the virtual meeting as your domain, you need to take the lead. Build your confidence by learning the platform and practicing hosting meetings.
Get a friend or a colleague to help and ask for feedback so you can continually improve.
4 – Manage the Environment and Minimise Distractions in advance
When you’re hosting a meeting and you have scheduled the time, be proactive about possible distractions and ensure you’ve done everything in your power to manage them.
Put a note on the door, tell people who are also working at home you need some quiet time, give yourself some time in advance of the meeting to ‘prime’ yourself too.
5 – Ensure your ‘Reason Why’ is Powerful, or Risk Cancellation
When you’re meeting your customer online you and (more importantly) they have to be clear on WHY you’re meeting. Ensure you’ve been clear on a reason for your customer to be there. If neither of you are, you risk cancellation at the last minute.
6 – Send an Invitation & an Agenda – use your compelling WHY as the Heading
The simple act of sending an electronic meeting invitation, with your compelling Reason Why for the meeting as the header combined with a simple 3 point agenda maximises your customers’ engagement in advance. Simple but powerful steps you can easily take.
7 – VIDEO Call is better than a Phone Call, use yours even if they don’t
Always strive for a video call (when you can’t meet in person). When your customer arrives on the call, sometimes they may not put their video on. Don’t turn yours off, keep it on. Your ability to convey your message, demonstrate your passion and authentically connect is doubled by having your video on. Yes DOUBLED!
So every time you’re meeting with your customer, get them on video and have yours turned on!
8 – Look at the Camera, not their Image! Or you Break Eye Contact
This is a simple but powerful principle. Most people will look at the image on the screen, not the lens of the camera. This takes practice, but in a short time you can re-train your eye to the camera lens. When you do your customer ‘feels’ a stronger connection in the meeting because you’re making direct eye contact when you look at the lens.
Work on this, it will really help your engagement.
9 – Start with Rapport and get Engagement before Selling
Rapport should be at the heart of every sales process, in person or online. You must get Rapport flowing before you start selling.
There are simple and powerful ways to deepen Rapport in a virtual meeting, the simplest is to be interested in your client. Take this interest at the start and Rapport will flow naturally and easily.
10 – Remember to Listen Carefully and Pause for the Overlap
Listening is a skill, and it’s one that most people haven’t cultivated in their lives. It’s critical in selling and never more so than in the virtual meeting. There is often a slight ‘lag’ on virtual platforms. To overcome this, slow down and create small pauses after your questions & statements and after your customer has spoken. This makes a big difference to the online experience.
11 – Make sure you Summarise, Confirm actions & Next steps
One of the big challenges salespeople face is the follow up and getting the customer re-engaged. The time to address that is in the meeting, not after the meeting!
At the end of the meeting, summarise, clarify actions and timing for you and the customer and then agree the date and time for follow up.
This simple principle can reduce the sales cycle time dramatically, and that can increase sales exponentially!
12 – Mix the Real with the Virtual!
Virtual & Remote Sales calls don’t have to be completely on line. We can bring the virtual to life with planning. Decide on a sample, asset or demo product that you can send to your customer in advance. Find the best address for them and send it to arrive the day before your meeting, and check they’ve received it!
Then when you’re in the virtual meeting, at the right stage of demonstrating (not at the start, and after you’ve discovered your customer’s needs) demo your product, or ask your customer to use the ‘real product’ you’ve sent.
This makes the experience physical as well as virtual and can be an incredible differentiator for you and your organisation.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these Top 12 principles and I hope you’ve learned some valuable insights (if you’d like to see me speak about this Top 12, I have just released a webinar where I talk about them, you can watch it here).
There are so many ways we can improve our sales & leadership skills and capability. If you’d like a way to assess your (or your teams’) sales capability please visit The Humble Sale resources page where you can access a sales diagnostic tool that will really help.
Should you like your organisation to learn more, or learn to Master Sales or Leadership, please contact me on any of these channels, I’d be happy to help.
I wish you and your teams every future success, Justin
Justin Leigh is the founder and Managing Director of Focus4growth Ltd. He is a bestselling author, an accredited Executive Coach and Leadership Mentor. He works with Senior Leaders and teams to develop High Performance organisations and accelerate growth. Justin has a passion for helping people to become the best they can be. He has worked with and for large corporations for over 25 years and is experienced in Leadership, Business, Sales & Marketing.
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