MARKET VIEW 15
Nik Nicholas
PARTNER
Virtual selling doesn't give much of an opportunity for salespeople to implement their interpersonal skills and build rapport, e.g. face-to-face interactions, micro facial expressions and body language.
In your opinion, what are some of the pros and cons of the virtual sales process?
Virtual selling has considerable benefits, especially when a product or a service affects people across multiple geographies and time zones – it allows the seller to accelerate the sales process by connecting people together instantaneously rather than physically bringing them all together to a single location. In addition to accelerating the process, there is also a significant cost reduction.
However, virtual selling doesn't give much of an opportunity for salespeople to implement their interpersonal skills and build rapport, e.g. face-to-face interactions, micro facial expressions and body language. They miss out on the broader opportunity to learn the psychology of selling.
Rather than selling to the client, we should try to bring them along on the sales journey and make them a fundamental part of that process.
What are some strategies that salespeople can use to establish trust with their clients in today’s virtual environment?
I would say that storytelling and dialogue in general are critical to most selling processes and really help to establish trust. Now, this might be harder to achieve in a remote setting but it's not impossible. Rather than selling to the client, we should try to bring them along on the sales journey and make them a fundamental part of that process.
Another key strategy is utilising a remote setting which assists salespeople to step out of the traditional role and reframe it to that of an expert by connecting one-on-one with customers, having the client ask questions and explain what it is that they actually want. This allows the customer to feel more included in the process and this approach of underselling and overdelivering to your customers helps create an experience in which both parties feel they can add value to the process and arrive at a mutual goal.
Compelling and relevant content is definitely first on the list. Second is focusing on value and not just selling – genuinely providing value to your audience without any ulterior motive.
NIK NICHOLAS
Partner RADICALLY DIGITAL
In terms of content creation, what are some key considerations for establishing brand recognition?
Compelling and relevant content is definitely first on the list. Second is focusing on value and not just selling – genuinely providing value to your audience without any ulterior motive. Next is developing a brand voice. Now, you could argue that this should be number one on the list but a lot of companies don't really know what their brand voice is until they actually start to publish some content into the market. And beyond that, it's just a case of actually engaging with your audience and your community.
