#remoteselling

[james007anthony]

How Ashkan Rajaee Quietly Redefined Remote Meetings While Most Teams Are Still Getting It Wrong

[oliviafons14]

Your CRM should help you, not drown you. Ashkan Rajaee breaks down a simpler, smarter approach.

[remotesellingmastery]

How to be more effective selling virtually

Some organizations are beginning to move their sales teams back to work in the company office in staggered shifts to avoid overcrowding of the office space.

The question is, are salespeople more productive working from home or in the office? The answer may surprise you.

There is a lot of value in the water-cooler effect for salespeople in working in an office with easy access to SME knowledge, meeting people in different departments and sharing stories with colleagues. However this social aspect aside, salespeople are more productive working from home, and part of the problem is the office itself.

From Open Plan, to Partitions and Back Again

Open plan has been around since commerce began in London in the 18th century.

Open plan was sold as an innovative concept for offices back in the 1940’s, a Frank Lloyd Wright idea implemented first at SC Johnson Wax. Wright’s innovative design was well spaced, but open. The original idea was slowly degraded over the ensuing decades without regard for workers in the typing pool and other clerical roles. This excellent Vox video Open Offices are Over-rated gives a brief history of office design.

For those who were not around before word processing systems were invented, Mad Men was an echo-back to the noisy and impersonal work environment of the typing and clerical pool of those times from the 50’s to the 70’s.

Then came cubicles, an idea from furniture manufacturer Herman Miller in the 60’s. I started selling in 1981 and the cubicles were 6’ high and covered in brown sound absorbent carpeting and they were a big advance on open plan from a privacy perspective. You could have a normal conversation with someone next to you having a phone conversation without overhearing what was being said at normal volume.

Then the height of the cubicle was reduced several feet and glass was fitted to provide a feeling of connectedness. But the noise level went up drastically as the partitions dropped and the modern surfaces while looking cool, reflected noise instead of absorbing it.

Then came an open-plan work desk with the idea that salespeople use conference room or booth for making calls. I don’t know who the genius was who came up with this format, but the idea was sold as a collaborative environment in high density tech-hubs in Boston, San Francisco and New York, when actually, it is a terrible environment for any customer-facing professional making calls. It was cheap though. All of these environments have drawbacks, but from a sales perspective, the open desk setup of today’s tech companies really sucks.

Then COVID hit and now everyone is working from home. While a fraction of the population has always worked from home, now nearly everyone is.

Improving Virtual Selling Productivity

The first and foremost skill salespeople must master is communication. Great salespeople are great communicators.

Whether salespeople work from home or in an office, CEO’s and CFO’s should be budgeting to equip each salesperson’s workspace to enable high-fidelity communication with customers and prospects. The fact that I am even having to mention this shows how little thought has gone into this subject from company leaders.

A quality working environment for a salesperson, whether working from home or in the company office should consist of the following:

Their own decent quality 4’ x 3’ desk

A top quality ergonomic chair

A standing desk-riser (salespeople should make calls standing up)

An external high quality monitor

A quality whiteboard drawing surface either mounted directly behind the salesperson or a portable whiteboard sufficient in size to share ideas and readable by the buyer in the Zoom call.

A quality microphone, camera and lighting to illuminate the salespersons face and the drawing surface without reflection.

Sound damping to eliminate echoes from hard surfaces and from neighboring salespeople if in an office environment.

Salespeople should be more productive working from home as they don’t have to leave their workstation to make calls in a small office or booth to avoid the boiler-room buzz of neighboring salespeople.

Family members make appearances from time to time in WFH Zoom calls as does the family cat for a smooch, or the dog with intrusive barking, but with zero commuting to an office and zero travel to in-person calls, it is perfectly reasonable to expect improved productivity.

How to Become more Effective Selling Virtually

Now that we have set up an office environment where salespeople can become more productive, how can we help them to become more effective?

According to several recent surveys, between 50% and 70% of salespeople surveyed believe they are more effective selling in person than virtually. This is a huge red-flag after 6-months WFH and this is an urgent problem for sales leaders to address. Could it be that 50% of your salespeople are underperforming on every call?

Virtual Selling Change Drivers

We have interviewed dozens of sales leaders in the past 6-months about the challenges they are facing with a WFH sales team. Here are the key drivers of change raised more than a few times:

Weak Pipeline

Low win-rates

Leading with product

Leading with Powerpoint instead of having a conversation

Low quota attainment

High attrition (voluntary and involuntary)

Poor differentiation v competition

Discounting to close

Deals slip from quarter to quarter

Long sales ramp time

Future State Vision

When asked what their vision or goals from an effective WFH enablement program we captured these comments:

Salespeople learn to use empathy to develop rapport and trust faster

True dialogue vs PowerPoint pitch

Acumen + insights + stories to connect

Create clarity in articulating value and influence buyer vision

Align with the buyer in their buying-process

Create aids to sell when you are not there and asynchronously

Qualify opportunities better and improve forecasting accuracy

Faster sales ramp.

Impact

When asked what the impact of those changes would be, we get the same answers from nearly everyone,

Differentiate in HOW we sell

Improved win-rate

Pipeline acceleration

Increased quota attainment

The good stuff that comes from these impacts up and down the management chain.

Introducing a Visual Dimension to the Virtual Conversation

As mentioned, salespeople are firstly great communicators. Sometimes simple ideas can make a huge difference in communicating and that is what we have learned as a result of introducing a whiteboard drawing surface to capture virtual sales conversations.

Remote Selling Mastery’s co-founder Corey Sommers wrote the book on Whiteboard Selling. Corey’s latest idea on the use of whiteboards in virtual meetings, combined with conversational frameworks that naturally guide the conversation is a breakthrough that sales leaders need and are embracing to improve virtual selling outcomes from every call.

Here is a whiteboard capture of the conversations we have had with buyers. When this image is embedded in the meeting summary and sent to the buyer post-meeting, it has the potential to walk around the organization and create mindshare when you are not there.

Where to From Here

Remote Selling Mastery is working with leading technology companies today to introduce what we are calling Customer Storyboarding which teaches salespeople the conversational storyboard technique and the conversational framework for each step in the buying process.

As a starting point for each engagement, we ask our customers to equip their sales teams with the equipment mentioned above to create an effective home environment for Remote Meeting Mastery.

Discuss Customer Storyboarding & Remote Selling Mastery

[girishj846]

5 Online Selling Tips to boost your Business Remotely

Many sales reps have been working from home for more than a couple of months now. During these days, many sales teams across various sectors have developed remote selling hacks, which will help their sales reps perform better, even without attending the person’s meetings. These virtual selling hacks make use of technology to help their business continue well during this pandemic phase.

We have listed some of the best hand-picked 5 online selling tips to boost your business remotely for a better sales performance for your sales reps to follow. So, do share with them and drive better sales online. Let’s get started.

5 Online Selling Tips to boost your business remotely:

Identify your buyer persona clearly  

Know the importance of body language  

Content is the king  

Use of online tools  

The practice is the key

Complete your read here - https://awarathon.com/5-online-selling-tips-to-boost-your-business-remotely/

[aaskrishi]

I Or. We. #humanity #human #leadership #virtualselling #remoteselling #digitalart (at Mumbai, Maharashtra) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLdvL7Tn_iJ/?igshid=1aaewo9w2gm78

[lozatech]

Virtual Reality showrooms. Low cost web & online stores. Visit us at lozatech.com and get tooled up for this pandemic. #lozatech #virtualreality #remoteselling #onlinestore https://www.instagram.com/p/CCRXVImgwXi/?igshid=1qaf673qbd1y4

[stephensbrostaxservice]

H.R.6824 - Online Sales Simplicity and Small Business Relief Act of 2018⁣ ⁣⁣ ⁣ This bill prohibits states from imposing a sales tax collection duty on certain remote sellers. A "remote seller" is a person without a physical presence in a state who makes a sale in the state.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ With respect to remote sellers, a state: ⁣ ⁣ (1) may not impose a sales tax collection duty for any sale that occurred before June 21, 2018, and ⁣ ⁣ (2) may only impose a sales tax collection duty for a sale that occurs after January 1, 2019.⁣ In the case of a small business remote seller (no more than $10 million in gross annual receipts in the United States), a state may not impose a sales tax collection duty on any person other than the purchaser if the sale is made:⁣ ⁣ (1) on or after June 21, 2018; and⁣ ⁣ (2) before the date that is 30 days after the states develop and Congress approves an interstate compact, applicable to the state and sale, governing the imposition of tax collection duties on remote sellers.⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ #OnlineSales #StephensBrosTaxService #Sales #SaleTax #OnlineBusiness #RemoteSeller #SmallBusiness #StateTax #OnlineMarketing #TaxCollection https://www.instagram.com/p/BvR76znnR45/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1wuun7cva0b0r

[remotesellingmastery]

Is remote selling the future of sales?

According to HubSpot, sales leaders who did not invest in remote selling fell behind.

64% of teams who transitioned to virtual sales met or exceeded their revenue targets for 2020, compared to 50% of those who did not change their sales practices.

If you’re not adapting, you’re falling behind.

See for yourself! Get Started Now! Schedule A Call Today https://bit.ly/3nustyc

[remotesellingmastery]

If you want your team to produce different outcomes from virtual meetings starting as soon as your team equips their home office for remote meeting mastery, then let’s get started with Customer Storyboarding and Remote Meeting Mastery. READ MORE https://bit.ly/3unogOB

[remotesellingmastery]

- Simon Lockington | Sr. Director of Global Solution Architecture, Equinix. | Testimonial

Don't take our word for it. Listen to what our clients have to say! Remote Selling Mastery - The most complete virtual selling skills training for B-2-B sellers.

Schedule a Call https://bit.ly/3nustyc

[remotesellingmastery]

Even in a remote working world we have to learn to adapt to first impressions. According to research, it only takes seven seconds for someone to establish an opinion of you. With so many of us meeting new prospects, clients, or even colleagues via video conference for the first time, it makes sense to be prepared.Untidy backgrounds, bad signals, wrong camera positions and no light source can undermine all the hard work and preparation you’ve put into your call. Investing a little time to learn how to improve sound and video quality will help you get your meeting off to a strong start and present your organisation in the best light possible.Get Started With Remote Selling Mastery https://bit.ly/3nustyc

[remotesellingmastery]

The use of video in sales are on the rise.

Using video for sales has rapidly become a priority for organisations trying to communicate effectively with customers and potential clients. Using one-to-one video (mostly used in sales conversations) has increased by 471% year over year, going from 7% to 40%. According to the video stats, sales reps would be wise to include video in their sales campaigns.Get Started With Remote Selling Mastery https://bit.ly/3nustyc - The most complete virtual selling skills training for B2B sellers.

[remotesellingmastery]

Remote sales practices do not focus on the customer or create an engaging or memorable experience. In the digital sales world, sellers need to go beyond video conferencing and PowerPoint. Discover how Remote Selling Mastery can improve your digital sales processes.

The pandemic has accelerated digital sales enablement! VIEW HERE https://bit.ly/36jEFu7

Get Started With Remote Selling Mastery https://bit.ly/3nustyc - The most complete virtual selling skills training for B-2-B sellers.

[remotesellingmastery]

When it comes to engaging content in virtual meetings, salespeople must go the extra mile to make it happen. The more visual and interactive, the better! These methods are necessary for - Keeping the buyer interested, Increasing the number of people who like your narrative, and Improving attention & recall.

75% of all sales calls are virtual! VIEW HERE https://bit.ly/36jEFu7

Get Started With Remote Selling Mastery https://bit.ly/3nustyc - The most complete virtual selling skills training for B-2-B sellers.

[remotesellingmastery]

For B2B companies, the rapid rise in digital use is a game-changing opportunity. Virtual sales may help sales companies cut their cost per visit, expand their reach, and considerably boost sales effectiveness.

Which one do you prefer (Face-to-Face Meetings or Virtual Meetings)? Let us know in the comments section!

Get Started With Remote Selling Mastery https://bit.ly/3nustyc - The most complete virtual selling skills training for B-2-B sellers.

[remotesellingmastery]

Remote sales can be a challenge, but as sales representatives we have to learn to adapt. While it might be a tough adjustment to make, remote sales opens up a world of opportunity for reps looking to make their mark.Don't wait for a “new normal” to return. Put in the work today and be prepared for whatever may come your way.Get Started With Remote Selling Mastery https://bit.ly/3nustyc - The most complete virtual selling skills training for B-2-B sellers.