It takes a lot of work to land a meeting with a prospect. Pre-COVID, sales pros had the luxury of meeting in person to establish rapport in the first meeting. That is not so likely these days. And it won’t be likely for much of 2021.
With remote sales, there are barriers to creating a connection with prospects. But, with a few tweaks, your next remote sales pitch can be the next best thing to the in-person experience. What follows are three areas to use to prepare and deliver a powerful, prospect-centric presentation.
Remote Sales Pitch Tweaks That Work
As you prepare for winning your next deal, evaluate your current remote sales pitch against the following three categories. Use these categories to refresh how you plan to connect with your audience.
Mindset. On the surface, adjusting your mindset may be a no-brainer. For many, Zoom meetings and PowerPoints are the default for sales pitches, unfortunately. This is problematic. The seller can fall into talking “at” the prospect when giving a presentation. The mindset shift needs to be talking “with” a prospect.
Connecting with a prospect is at the heart of winning deals. An effective remote sales pitch focuses on engagement first and winning second. How you engage and maintain your audience's attention via video will set you apart from others.
Technology. You can no longer rely on video conferencing and screen sharing to “wow” your prospect. Your remote sales pitch needs to stand out from your competition. A virtual work platform helps you bring together your video feed and content assets that help you best show how your solution is the answer to your prospect’s problems.
For example, don’t put together another PowerPoint presentation, just like everyone else. Instead, in the virtual work platform, you can upload images, charts and graphs, and videos, to have a conversation about your prospect’s pain points. What’s more, in the same platform, you can use a virtual whiteboard. Prepare an exercise for those present for the pitch and have them interact with you and others on the virtual whiteboard.
Questions. Video meetings can be awkward. Layer on a video sales meeting and the awkwardness is amplified. Don’t assume that you’ll do all the talking. Instead, before you dive into understanding pain points and showing your solution to them, prepare questions that establish rapport. Be careful, though. You have a limited amount of time. So, choose your opening question thoughtfully.
“Tell me about your role here.”
“How has your company or team settled in with working remotely?”
“In your LinkedIn profile, you mention you love [insert hobby]. Have you been able to do more of it during COVID-19?”
Also, if you’re doing all the talking during your remote sales pitch, pause. This is a good time to use the other questions you prepared to pull-in your audience. The questions should invite a dialogue. They should also be intriguing enough so you can learn new insights into your prospect’s needs.
Have one or two questions that can be answered when using the virtual whiteboard. Have people put their answers on the note cards. Not only is the question important, but so too is the engagement. Interacting on the whiteboard changes the delivery of your pitch, too.
Relationships help make closing deals easier. Frankly, establishing rapport that helps build a high-quality relationship is what will make you stand out. How you go about doing that--mindset, technology, and questions--positions you to build rapport and learn about your prospect's pain points. This positions you to better understand their needs and how you can help solve them.
