Your organization would have switched to virtual selling by now. You realize that working and operating sales virtually is the new normal. But, to succeed in virtual selling effectively, you require a plan, a roadmap to execute and make things happen. Your long-term visionary goals should be divided into short-term objectives and midterm objectives. So that you can monitor your achievements and plan the way forward.
Your sales team must have faced some challenges in sales during COVID–19.
But, it is evident as your entire sales experience is now tech driven. Things are new for your team as they are not from the technology side. The way you communicate, collaborate, research, share, and learn, follow-up, network, meet, present everything is now all tech-driven. The small room in your house is your new cabin now. You have everything that you want at your fingertips due to technology. Technology is making it feasible to connect with your buyers, teams in an effective manner.
Hence, technology plays a vital role in your overall success, and therefore is understanding, and mastering its use becomes a must. Keep exploring and keep learning. The practice is perhaps the fundamental key to this.
Things may look simple. But that is not enough. As a sales rep, you must take time to add relevant new skills to your knowledge bank to help you make winning pitches, gain the deal, map things to targets, and present yourself perfectly. From learning resources to aptitude tests to watching videos, technology has covered with literally everything you want and wish to ask.
However, this technology comes with a few challenges for those working professionals who are not that tech-savvy or whose work roles were done without effective technology use before, like the sales team.
Let’s begin with some of the top challenges in sales during COVID -19 in today’s read. Let’s begin.
Challenges in Sales during COVID – 19
- Less scope to Collaborate 2. Increased need for Agility 3. Getting distracted buyers to the Awareness stage 4. Lack of Rapport 5. Prepare before your time 6. Technical concerns
Mastering the art of virtual selling is not easy but not impossible too. It comes with handling objections, fights connectivity issues, system lags, maintains relations virtually, manages content, addresses queries effectively, etc. Is your sales team ready to tackle them all? You can check the same with your team doing mocks and creating a virtual environment for practice the sales process online through a sales readiness platform. Let us begin with each of these challenges in detail for a better understanding.
– Challenge 1 – Less scope to Collaborate
It is practically impossible to connect with your team and clients without online software and an internet connection. Hence, the need for connectivity is even more crucial than before, as no in-person meetings are happening as before. Therefore, the only scope to collaborate is online, so it is essential to learn how your work functions online. It would be best to connect with your team, peers to discuss things and resolve issues.
– Challenge 2: Increased need for Agility
Online selling demands flexibility and more groundwork for conducting research and getting the basics right. Personal interactions have been reduce, creating fewer opportunities to understand your buyer and their domain. As a sales rep, you now require to be more versatile and dynamic in your technical and soft skills necessary in your sales domain as you are learning new things, executing them, and so on. You can also learn how online selling tips can impact your business growth positively.
– Challenge 3: Getting distracted buyers to the Awareness stage
A new remote-buying experience can be distracting. It becomes hard to make sure your buyer gives you the time to meet virtually and attend your call. The buyer can come up with his reasons if they are not ready to know your offering. However, there are fewer possibilities of this in personal meet-ups. You may not precisely get hold of your buyer’s body language as you are on a virtual call compared to an offline meeting where you know the buyer’s interest level.
– Challenge 4: Lack of Rapport
Virtual selling is not that personal. Many things go missing on virtual calls as compared to the individual meetings. Both cannot be matched, but you can always provide a better experience in the best way possible. Hence, there is a lack of rapport in someways. By making sure you have a stable internet connection and a decent speed, your system is fast enough to process your device’s basic applications. So, that you hear, understand, and note things correctly without much interruptions in the call.
– Challenge 5: Prepare Before your time
The sales rep must be prepare and ready before the actual time of your virtual meet (video call). They must make sure they are never late. It looks unprofessional, and you must make sure you are ready with everything before time to avoid any delays from your side. You can join the meeting a couple of minutes in advance and wait for your client to attend and start the call. Meanwhile, you can practice your pitch or points you wish to begin with, along with the greeting format. So, you do not confuse or mess things up. Be calm, have patience, take
pauses where required when you start with the call.
– Challenge 6: Technical Concerns
Everyone must have struggled with the technical concerns offered by their systems so far. Some of them include – sound, video, system lag, network connectivity, and the list goes on. Any of these concerns do not leave a good impact on your buyer. So, as sales reps, you must try to minimize them to the best of your ability. You can practice or connect with your peers in your free time for a proper understanding so that you know what to do when things turn upside down.
