Joining a virtual sales team can hold many advantages for the salesperson, particularly those who are ready to get off the road and spend more time at home building a personal life without sacrificing productivity and income level. With many businesses taking steps to be completely virtual and keep their teams remote for the foreseeable future, it’s safe to say more sales calls will be happening over Zoom than in person. This gives salespeople a unique chance to move to a virtual model and be just as successful as before.
Doing most of your sales virtually does mean some adjustments if you are used to visiting prospects and making pitches in person, but making these adjustments can be well worth it and result in greater career satisfaction. Here are some of the impacts you can expect to see after joining a virtual team and tips for adjusting to them.
Increased selling activities
With many b2b database providers to choose from, there are tons of lists of prospective leads to choose from and start working on. Since you do not have to take time to visit these prospects in person, you can see an increased amount of sales in a shorter amount of time than a conventional salesperson by using b2b lead gen. You also receive more information on them than ever before, including multiple ways to contact them. b2b intent data providers can vary greatly in the amount and quality of prospects they provide, so it may take some time to refine which one is right for you and worth purchasing.
Greater impact from interactions
For a long time, the conventional sales wisdom was that an in person meeting was the only way to really connect with someone, especially a lead you hope to turn into a client. Virtual interactions have come to hold more weight than in person meetings thanks to the changing nature of our world. Unlike a casual meeting at a convention or trade show, each prospect you meet with online will be carving out specific time to speak with you. This typically means they are farther along in the sales process than those who might casually seek you out at an in person event. Prospects who take the time out to meet with you, take in your presentation and ask meaningful questions are more likely to purchase than those who are simply browsing.
More focus on virtual sales teams
One of the reasons salespeople may hesitate to go virtual is due to fear of isolation. If you’re used to working with a team, switching to working remotely can be a challenge. However, most organizations are meeting this challenge by building out virtual sales teams.
Having a full team of sales professionals working together from remote locations makes every member of the team more productive. In addition to salespeople, many companies have sales assistants, who can handle tasks like:
- Answering
inquiries via phone or email and scheduling appointments - Updating CRM
activities to reflect sales activity accurately - Sales
promotion and development tasks like cold calling, composing and sending email
newsletters and traditional sales materials - Lead
generation tasks like entering prospects into the CRM - Online
prospect and company research
Taking these tasks off your plate helps you concentrate on pursuing high value sales activities and can make you happier at your job. Being able to focus on the tasks that are most important to you and get them done in a reasonable amount of time without having to stop and work on lower priority items can make your whole workday go by faster.
Enhanced prospecting for clients
Thanks to the amount of information available on the internet, clients have more choice than ever before, and they are likely to do more prospecting work before signing on with someone. You may find yourself answering more in-depth questions and needing to cite specific examples to impress today’s potential customer.
However from the salesperson’s end, the increased amount of information available gives the same ability to research prospective sales and waste less time with enterprises who can’t afford your services.
Increased sales productivity
After the initial adjustment to working with a virtual team, salespeople can expect to see increased productivity. Studies show that remote employees are overall more productive than employees who report to an office every day. Without the distractions of office life, workers can find more time to focus and get tasks done. Some of the top time wasters in the office might include:
- Unnecessary
meetings - Birthday and
anniversary celebrations - Water cooler
chitchat
By cutting out these distractions, not only are employees more productive, they tend to be happier.
It may take some time to adjust to being part of a virtual sales team, but many salespeople find that it is a choice that enables them to do what they love while also having increased time for a personal life.