Your Virtual Sales Strategy

Like many of you, this is the longest I’ve gone without boarding a plane since I can remember. In response to this prolonged travel slow-down, last week on LinkedIn Live we focused on your ‘ground’ game. By ground game, I mean your virtual sales strategy. Below are the five principles we discussed to ensure a sound virtual sales strategy:

1. There is a difference between in-person and virtual engagement. A successful virtual strategy does more than simply move an in-person approach to a virtual format. People are easily fatigued on video and finding ways to engage them throughout the interaction is paramount.
2. It is about the conversation, not the presentation. In a virtual world, your ability to engage people in a discussion becomes more difficult, and more important. A surefire way to lose people’s attention? Share your screen and read your slides. One of my clients with young children recently said to me, “I read to my children every night, and then I come to work and people read to me all day long.” Present your slide to succinctly share data, then take the slide down and engage in a dialogue about what you just presented.
3. Sustain the focus on creating value. Remember, clients have access to information through a myriad of channels such as brochures, websites, and videos. Be intentional with the time you have and use it to provide insight, expertise, and perspective they can’t get anywhere else. The interaction in itself must create value.
4. It’s easier than ever to access value-added resources in your company. Before virtual was the norm, bringing additional resources into the sales process was expensive. Today, you have much easier access to people. Consider how a subject-matter expert may enhance your conversation by bringing additional insight and value. Don’t lose sight of the new resources you have at your fingertips (literally).
5. Don’t forget to leverage the physical world. Sure, you may not be able to meet for coffee, but you can still buy someone a cup of coffee (or a whole week’s worth!) if you send a package of gourmet coffee directly to their house. As our time at home drags on, surprises from the physical world become that much more meaningful. Next time you schedule a meeting around the lunch hour, consider sending lunch to the person’s home, to arrive at the time of your meeting. Who says we can’t break bread virtually?

Want to go deeper? Click here to see the recording of the discussion. One of the advantages of LinkedIn Live is the conversation we create together. Principles and tips are only useful when applied effectively, and I would love to talk to you about how about how you can apply these tips to your specific context. Join me next week on August 11^th at 10 am Eastern for another live!

Land and Expand, but First You Have to Fly

When you watch planes move across the sky it looks effortless, seamless and powerful. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a flight instructor, and as I listened to him, I was struck by the technical complexity of flying.  As a bystander, flying may look simple, but there is so much more to it than meets the eye.

There are some parallels between flying a plane and leading your sales organization. Effective leaders make it look effortless, despite how much they are navigating, tweaking the ‘flight path’, and guiding the team behind the scenes. As you and your team prepare to “take off,” make sure you have prepared in a way that will ensure a smooth and effortless journey.

Create a solid flight plan. You can’t fly a plane to a specific airport without a flight plan, and you can’t lead your team to revenue growth without a strategy.  Never underestimate the power of planning: invest time in evaluating your competitors, understanding your clients, and mapping out the environmental factors that may impact your journey. Be crystal clear on where you’re trying to go, and how to design and deliver a compelling sales experience that creates value. The more you do on the front end, the smoother the flight will be.

Know your plane and your crew. A flight plan takes into account the external factors and the path you need to take to reach your destination. Perhaps even more important is a deep understanding of your plane (business model) and your crew (sales organization). Take time to understand the strengths of each to effectively leverage the whole.

Practice. Practice. Practice. Did you know that in addition to training, you need about 250 flight hours to be a commercial pilot? Sure, pilots have people’s lives in their hands so it makes sense they need to be experts, but is leadership really all that different? It may not be a matter of life or death, but great leadership and great sales strategy takes time and practice, so don’t practice on your best prospects and customers. Be willing to put in the work, and be willing to be the “instructor” who helps your team get their flight hours in as they’re learning to fly the plane. 

Finally, don’t forget to create that runway. A mile of road will take you one mile, a mile of runway will take you anywhere. 

Current Read:

We all know the value a board of directors brings to a corporation, but have you ever considered how a board of directors may benefit your family? This article touches on why a classic element of the corporate structure can help manage the small and large challenges that arise in your life as a working parent.

Question to Ponder:

How can you leverage the physical world to add value in our new remote world of meetings? 

Quotable: