The world of B2B sales has undergone a profound transformation with the rise of remote work and virtual interactions. Sales managers are now faced with the challenge of creating a remote selling strategy to effectively navigate this new landscape and achieve sales success.
In this article, we will explore the top 10 selling strategies that B2B sales managers can implement to drive their teams toward exceptional results.
Explore the Article:
- Why do you need to improve your sales strategies?
- Best B2B Sales Strategies for Remote Selling
- What do sales strategy consultants offer?
- Key Takeaways
Why do you need to improve your sales strategies?
The shift to remote selling has reshaped the way sales teams engage with prospects and clients. No longer able to rely on in-person meetings and traditional sales approaches, sales managers must leverage innovative strategies to build strong relationships and close deals virtually.
As the market continues to shift and evolve it is imperative that teams adapt and continually improve their strategies and processes in order to remain competitive.
And while your sales team might seem high performing and functional from your perspective, if they are struggling with any of the problems below, your team could greatly benefit from an improved sales strategy.
7 Signs That Your Sales Team is Dysfunctional
- Low Close Rates
- Lack of Customer Loyalty
- Poor Product Knowledge
- Unclear Objectives
- Inability to Adapt
- Low Morale
- Limited Resources
From establishing a strong online presence to leveraging advanced communication tools, many B2B sales managers require optimized strategies in order to adapt and excel in remote selling environments.
Sales strategies are crucially important as they help teams achieve their goals by staying focused and aligned with organizational efforts, maintain a competitive advantage in the changing market, and become more flexible to changes and shifts in customer behaviors and preferences.
Best B2B Sales Strategies for Remote Selling
A recent article about how to create an effective sales strategy expertly compared B2B companies with great strategies to professional sports teams with great game plans.
Neither athlete nor company would have been able to get very far or very successful without a quality strategy to direct their actions, highlight room for improvement, and improve collaboration.
And especially since remote selling strategies are necessary to succeed in this digital sales age, below are some examples of how to improve how to sell virtually.
1. Establish a Strong Online Presence
The first remote selling strategy is to establish an online presence that is credible and informative.
While this is an intuitive step to be able to succeed in the world of digital sales, it is often overlooked.
As a sales manager, you should ensure your sales team has a robust online presence to leverage during sales interactions by optimizing your website, social media profiles, and professional networking platforms to better attract and engage potential customers.
And as articulated by Insivia, a marketing and growth agency, for tech and software companies, there might not be a more important customer-facing marketing asset than a website.
2. Leverage Video Conferencing
Videos have exploded in popularity in recent years.
From taking over social media platforms to being the subject of countless studies, videos have been proven to be effective tools for capturing attention and sustaining engagement.
But videos aren’t just successful in outreach emails or on landing pages, videos can also be extremely effective at personalizing and humanizing remote selling interactions.
Encourage your sales teams to utilize video conferencing tools for virtual sales meetings. Not only do video meetings make the sales process more engaging, but face-to-face interactions build rapport, strengthen trust, and allow for better communication and understanding.
By implementing this remote selling strategy, you will be able to provide a more comprehensive sales experience for your customers.
3. Personalized Communication
Additionally, personalized interactions and communication are another remote selling strategy to drastically improve how to sell virtually.
Because consumers want to feel special and want individualized experiences, customizing the sales process is an extremely effective way to build trust and close deals.
As a sales manager, it is crucial to emphasize the importance of personalization in virtual sales. Encourage your sales team to tailor their communication to each prospect’s specific needs and pain points, using personalized emails, video messages, and follow-ups.
The video below also gives a complete overview of why personalization is vitally important for your sales process.
4. Utilize Virtual Product Demonstrations
Successful B2B sales managers also guide their teams on how to effectively conduct virtual product demonstrations using screen-sharing, document sharing within digital sales rooms, and video tools.
Especially for tech or software companies this B2b SaaS sales strategy can be effective at helping customers understand the complexities of your product so that there is no confusion during the sales process.
Tools to assist with these virtual product demonstrations include…
- Loom: a video messaging platform that allows users to record their screens and share their thoughts through async videos
- The Saleslion Digital Sales Room: an online space that allows companies to share resources and information with prospects for a more streamlined sales process (shown below).
With either of these tools, your sales team can provide a virtual product demonstration to prospects that is engaging and informative.
5. Implement Virtual Networking Strategies
Before the COVID pandemic when most business interactions still took place in person, one key strategy to improve the sales team’s effectiveness was to push sales reps to attend networking events.
And while virtual networking might look a little different, it is still a productive practice to implement virtual networking strategies into your game plan to boost the effectiveness of your B2B sales team.
Whether it is through LinkedIn or Slack networking channels or through attending webinars, sales managers should educate their team on how to network effectively in the virtual world.
These online communities are not only important for building the reach of your sales reps, but they can also be great opportunities for building relationships with potential customers.
6. Offer Virtual Workshops or Webinars
In addition to sending team members out to webinars for lead generation and networking purposes, another great remote selling strategy is to organize virtual workshops or webinars yourselves.
By focusing on relevant topics and addressing pain points that your target audience faces, these events can attract prospects who are genuinely interested in the subject matter. And as attendees engage with the content, they gain valuable insights and potential solutions to their challenges.
All of this will help you to position yourself and your sales team as experts in your field simultaneously making it far easier to generate leads and maintain industry credibility.
7. Provide Virtual Sales Collateral
The 7th sign that your sales team is actually dysfunctional is that they are operating with limited resources.
In essence, if your sales team does not have the resources to effectively engage with prospects, answer their questions, and differentiate the solution your company offers, then they probably won’t be able to close deals either.
The remote selling strategy to combat this potential area of dysfunction is to equip your sales team with visually appealing and interactive virtual sales collateral, such as e-brochures, product videos, and case studies.
These materials can be easily shared with prospects during virtual meetings allowing them to have a more informative and interactive sales experience.
8. Implement Sales Enablement Tools
One of the most effective B2B sales strategies for sales managers is the implementation of digital sales enablement tools.
Sales enablement software is the platform companies use to enhance their sales processes, increase the effectiveness of sales teams, and close more deals, faster.
These tools can include customer relationship management (CRM) software, document management systems, and sales analytics platforms, but one of the most effective digital enablement tools is a digital sales room. As mentioned before, the document-sharing features within digital sales rooms can be incredibly effective at helping prospects learn more about the solution being offered.
Additionally, digital sales rooms and other sales enablement tools can help sales reps manage and track their virtual sales activities more efficiently.
Check out these articles to learn more about sales enablement in general or the best sales enablement solutions that you should implement for your sales teams to boost close rates.
9. Emphasize Follow-Up and Relationship Building
The ninth remote selling strategy, and perhaps one of the most important, is follow-up and relationship building.
In virtual sales, maintaining strong relationships is crucial.
Especially since it can be difficult to build trust over Zoom and email, encourage your sales team to follow up promptly after meetings, send personalized thank-you notes, and regularly check in with prospects to nurture relationships and drive long-term sales opportunities.
An additional benefit from timely follow-ups is that prospects are more likely to commit to the company that responds first. Because of this, speed during communication can be a critical factor in closing deals.
The video below provides an overview of how speed is a critical part of effective sales processes.
10. Continuously Train and Coach
The final remote selling strategy for B2B sales managers is to continuously train and coach your sales reps in order to achieve growth across your entire team.
In today’s rapidly changing and evolving world, without constant learning, your company will quickly fall behind competitors.
In order to provide sales teams with the support that they need to stay competitive, sales managers should provide ongoing training and coaching to their teams to enhance virtual selling skills.
And while some B2B companies have enough internal expertise to provide consistent training and coaching, oftentimes it is easier and more productive to use a sales strategy consulting service to share best practices, optimize current strategies, and stay updated on the latest sales techniques for the digital era.
What do sales strategy consultants offer?
Having a great sales strategy can be the difference between life and death for your company.
And while the remote selling tips above are effective, sometimes it takes an outside perspective to truly design the perfect sales strategy for your B2B company.
This is where a sales strategy consulting team can help.
Sales strategy consulting companies can be extremely helpful for B2B companies that lack the necessary expertise or technology infrastructure to effectively revamp their sales strategy.
The outside perspective these companies offer can also be extremely beneficial as external experts can often recognize blindspots that internal teams might miss. And additionally, with support from strategy consultants, it is much easier to adapt to changing market conditions.
Sales strategy consultants offer a range of services to help businesses enhance their sales performance and drive growth.
Most services provide strategic planning, conducting market analysis to identify opportunities and refine value propositions. These consultants will also focus on sales process optimization by streamlining workflows and shortening cycles.
Sales strategy consultants offer training and development programs to equip sales teams with essential skills, from prospecting to negotiation, and implement sales analytics so B2B companies can track progress and make data-driven decisions.
The sales strategy consultants at Saleslion specifically understand that a great sales strategy without the tools to carry it through is useless. That is why the main part of their consulting and support is guiding businesses in integrating sales technology tools like digital sals rooms to improve efficiency and data management.
Overall, sales strategy consultants bring expertise, insights, and methodologies to help your company optimize sales, from strategic planning to process optimization, team training, technology integration, and ongoing support.
Key Takeaways
This article delves into the critical strategies that sales managers need to excel in the realm of remote selling.
As businesses embrace virtual interactions, sales managers must adapt their approaches to effectively engage prospects and drive sales success.
This article explores ten key remote selling strategies, including establishing a strong online presence, leveraging video conferencing for impactful meetings, and personalizing communication to cater to individual prospect needs. Virtual product demonstrations, virtual networking, and hosting workshops or webinars are highlighted as effective tactics to position sales teams as industry experts and generate leads. Implementing sales enablement tools, emphasizing follow-up and relationship building, and providing continuous training and coaching are essential for maintaining sales performance in the digital landscape.
We also explore how sales strategy consulting can assist B2B sales professionals with their training and development.
By adopting these strategies, sales managers can navigate the challenges of remote selling, leverage technology to their advantage, and achieve exceptional results in driving business growth.
Reach out to us today to learn more about our sales strategy consulting services.