How Virtual Selling Could Potentially Save your Business

What is Virtual Selling?

The term "virtual selling" or “remote selling” refers to sales conversations that take place fully online rather than in person, primarily by video. Having sales meetings via video conferences or connecting with prospects via video messages are examples of this.

Virtual selling is taking activities that are usually done in-person or through phone calls, and conducting them through videos.

Why Virtual Selling?

If your company is waiting for the Covid pandemic to be over, you have to think again. Your competition is innovating and always on the move, so you have to act fast.

If your competitors are selling remotely, they’re already ahead of you, and you’ll have to catch up. If you decide not to virtually sell, within a couple of years, you’ll end up without a business.

If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will. – Bob Hooey, sales success coach.

According to Mckinsey, “Only about 20 percent of B2B buyers say they hope to return to in-person sales, even in sectors where field-sales models have traditionally dominated, such as pharma and medical products.”

Even in the medical profession, virtual checkups are now a thing. During the lockdown, no one was able to go out, even for doctors’ checkups. Many doctors had to find a way to save their clients, so they adapted to the new rules of the market, virtually. 

How did Covid-19 impact sales?

According to an NCBI article, during the second quarter of 2020, business sales fell by 17% on average owing to the epidemic. Accommodations saw a 91% drop in sales, while online sales increased by 180%.  Sales plummeted in counties with the highest number of COVID-19 cases.

They added “The average losses of 17% in the second quarter of 2020 relative to the second quarter of 2019 occurred even though year-over-year sales typically grow by 3-4%. We find that sales losses were largest in businesses affected by mandatory lockdowns”

This shows that any business, retailer, supermarket, or anything that comes to your mind that has dealt with a major loss during the pandemic will continue to do so if they don’t adapt to doing business remotely.

The Covid pandemic fastened the ongoing shift to online retail. With the lockdown hitting worldwide, people were obliged to buy things they wanted, online.

Check the following graph:

Retail sales started falling sharply in March, when the pandemic hit, at the same time, the shift towards online retailing started to increase.

Covid’s Effect on Salespeople:

Covid has changed the way we operate, probably forever. And that isn’t a bad thing. Many salespeople are reluctant to go back to their offices more than ever.

According to the 2020 Media Sales Report When asked how they would like to work in the future, 91% of salespeople made it clear that they do not want to go back into the office full time.

They gave their work from home experience a 4 out of 4 stars, while only 4% gave it a star.

This shows that salespeople prefer working from out rather than their offices.

In a study done by Mckinsey, “76% of sales leaders believe that remote sales interactions are equally or more effective than traditional in-person engagement when prospecting for new customers”

But what does this mean?

Virtual selling fastens the selling cycle, helps you engage with new prospects, keeps you focused on your existing clients, provides additional information promptly, and helps you overcome the expenses of face-to-face meetings.

Sales after the Covid-19 pandemic:

The pandemic forces every business to move virtually. Even when you think that the pandemic will have to end at some point, the business world will look a lot different.

And to be fair, virtually selling offers benefits that are too good to abandon. It saves time, gives you the ability to negotiate freely and with more confidence, and you don’t have to travel all around the world for a meeting.

The effort needed for a remote meeting, excluding the preparation for the actual meeting, is close to none. You just have to put on some neat clothes, make sure your laptop, phone, smart T.V, or whatever you have is functioning, and attend the meeting.

When it comes to meetings being done remotely, this gives you the confidence to say what you want to rather than agreeing with everyone and keeping your thoughts to yourself.

The internet has opened the doors for salespeople to reach a new level of efficiency when it comes to selling and marketing their products. Businesses can now market products and services to a larger audience without having to pay for expensive advertising on television, radio, or print.

Today, there are many ways that companies can set up their online platforms to sell their products and services. One of the most popular ways is through e-commerce. The easiest way to do so is by using Cheers Connect’s advanced video recorder.

Cheer's Video Recorder

What’s better than recording your screen when talking about a service you’re promoting? Recording yourself in the same video, at the same time!

The video recorder is your compacted studio that allows you to record yourself, your screen, or both simultaneously.

With four different video formats, you get full control over the video, for edits, for reviewing it, or whatever comes to mind. With Cheer’s video management interface, you can adjust the way your video looks and adjust its settings.

You can also track it, know if and when your customer watches your video, and for how long. All these details will help you out in your marketing campaigns, through analytics.

Tools like Cheers Connect are an integral part of virtual selling.