The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to reanalyze many of the processes at the core of their operations. The speed required of teams to adapt to these changing circumstances has frequently led to a breakdown in communication and collaboration, resulting in many businesses not operating at their best. One of the primary challenges facing businesses is the inefficiency caused by having a workforce connecting and collaborating from home. Remote workers often have issues carrying out the jobs they would have had little trouble with during normal times due to the limitations of the technology that they are working with.
The sales process in its traditional form is one of the areas that businesses have not been able to carry out effectively since the start of the pandemic. With the limitations currently impeding travel and gatherings, salespeople often struggle to fulfill their normal roles effectively now that they can rarely meet a potential customer in person. There is a way around this however, and the rise of remote selling is changing the way in which we buy and sell products and services forever.
Remote selling takes all of the essential parts of the sales process and distills them to accommodate a home working environment. With the aid of the right technology, you can now complete the entire sales process with a customer solely using video calls and online demonstrations, enabling your sales team to work effectively from home or anywhere else. A remote selling strategy allows your team to carry out the sales process more efficiently and with a greater degree of professionalism, while still achieving expected sales conversion rates.
There are rules to be followed when adopting a remote selling policy that businesses still have to adhere to in order to make sure this process stays as smooth and as organized as possible. Here we take a look at some of the most important insights we have seen recently to help successfully transition to remote selling.
How to Implement Remote Selling Successfully.
Like many aspects of business, the best way to integrate an organized remote selling policy into your business is by laying out and following a clearly structured process. Businesses need to establish with their team how best to make initial contact with a potential customer, how to deliver a sales pitch using video conferencing software and how to finalize a deal. All of these processes require an environment that supports collaboration between different members of your team in order to keep everyone fully informed of individual deals.
It can be beneficial to have different members of staff delegated to each step of your sales process. This works for two reasons. Firstly, it presents an enhanced level of professionalism in the eyes of the customer as the most qualified person for each role will be in charge of handling it. Secondly, it is beneficial for your staff as their role in the process is more clearly defined, allowing the sales process to run smoothly.
Businesses need to adapt to support remote workers and evolving to a remote selling model can be easier than many initially thought. Existing traditional salespeople can make the switch to remote selling relatively easily as long as they have the right equipment.
Which Technology is Most Useful for Remote Selling?
For a business to remain adaptable, its staff always need to be working alongside versatile technology. This is especially true of remote staff who have to rely far more on technology than their counterparts in the office.
Remote salespeople are reliant on three important pieces of technology in particular, their video conferencing service, Unified Communications for collaboration and a CRM.
The use of the video conferencing is pivotal in building and maintaining relationships with any potential customers, as well as enabling positive product or service demonstrations through screen sharing technology.
Unified Communications is essential as it enables effective team collaboration. Through an iPECS UC solution, you can easily reach the colleagues you are working alongside to ensure your sales process is running at maximum efficiency.
CRM software has more internal uses rather than being in view of a customer, however it is still equally crucial. CRM systems allow your staff to effectively organize their calls and information on one platform, facilitating easier collaboration and making the call process even more reliable. By integrating your CRM with iPECS solutions your staff can utilize the same powerful customer management features as they would from working in the office.
How can Remote Selling help Home Workers?
Remote selling is a fantastic way for businesses to adapt to the current uncertainties that we all face, but what about moving forward? Remote selling has brought some remarkable benefits for the businesses who have switched to this model, including large savings on travel and hospitality costs and improved staff morale. The sales process is also refined, as time that would have been spent traveling to and from customers can now be spent more productively. All these benefits combine to create a system that is set to remain in the business world long after Covid-19 is behind us.
