In today’s post-pandemic world, the sales landscape has evolved, blending the best of both in-person and virtual/remote interactions. While the rise of remote selling during the pandemic was necessary—90% of B2B salespeople interacted with their customers virtually (McKinsey, 2020)—we now see buyers and sellers increasingly opting for face-to-face meetings again. However, virtual selling isn’t going anywhere; far from it. At key stages of the sales process, sellers will still be expected to close deals, build relationships, and deliver value through screens.

In this blog, we explore the evolving dynamics between in-person and virtual selling, the challenges even the most experienced virtual sellers face, and how to step up your virtual selling game to drive success in 2024.

Is Virtual Selling here to stay?

What started as a temporary adjustment in 2020, remote or virtual selling has looked increasingly likely to become a more permanent fixture for post-pandemic sales organizations globally. In October 2020, after initial lockdowns in many regions had ended, McKinsey research found that the majority of worldwide sales organizations were still conducting their sales activities virtually. Interestingly, more than 75% of buyers and sellers stated they actually preferred remote human engagement over in-person interactions – and not just from a time and cost saving perspective. It was easier than ever for buyers to obtain the information they needed to procure products and services. Far from a temporary phenomenon, the shift to digital and remote engagement was increasingly being embraced by both purchasing decision-makers and sales leaders worldwide.

However, in the past year, despite remote working becoming the status quo, an increasing number of organizations are going back to work in the office, resulting in a shift back towards physically present meetings and events. We are certainly seeing an increased demand for in-person workshops from our own customers.

However, we should not assume that life will resume to the way it was before. Instead, a hybrid model is more likely, wherein buyers prioritize in-person for more valued interactions – for example to present pitches or collaborate in solution design workshops. Sellers should still expect to do the bulk of the heavy lifting virtually, especially in the earlier stages of the customer’s purchasing journey. As a result, the most successful sellers will be proficient at flexing their in-person and virtual selling muscles interchangeably as and when the need arises or the buyer requires.

Common Challenges of Virtual Selling in 2024

Whether sellers are meeting prospective customers in person or virtually, the sales landscape continues to evolve. Building relationships, collaborating with buyers, leading sales conversations, delivering value — all challenges relished by the average seller in normal circumstances. Economic uncertainty across the globe has continued to place additional pressure on an already challenging purchasing environment. That, coupled with the increasing pressure on face-to-face sellers to continually adapt their selling approach creates a very different and challenging buyer/seller dynamic.

In all cases, buyers will continue to seek out those salespeople who are the most engaging, impressive and worthy of building relationships with. After all, we shouldn’t forget that for all the changes we as sellers have been forced to adjust to, the story has been no different for our customers. Many buying organizations have undergone radical transformations to their purchasing approach over the past few years. As such, buyers need our help more than ever before.

In any case, the virtual sales environment presents several challenges:

  • Building the relationship can be more difficult
  • Customers are likely to have lower attention spans
  • Customer expressions, body language and other cues are harder to observe and track
  • Key decision makers and senior leaders may delegate virtual calls to junior contacts
  • Stakeholders may be more reluctant to share scepticism and challenge viewpoints, especially in a large buying group, making it harder to facilitate consensus.

Overall, it is far easier to lose a buyer’s attention in a virtual environment, and significantly harder to recapture it once lost. Smart facilitation of sales meetings, and effective use of the functionality offered by technology platforms can enable us to maximize engagement and collaboration.

Irrespective of the communication channel, or whether you are in person or on a screen, you still need to build rapport, uncover needs, develop compelling solutions and demonstrate value. The ability to educate customers, provide them with new ideas and perspectives, and to help them think differently are all capabilities required of the effective virtual seller.

Buyers are heavily influenced by those who can show them how to solve a problem, who listen attentively, make a clear impact case, bring new ideas, demonstrate value and build rapport. Furthermore, research suggests buyers actively support virtual selling, believing it can be as effective as in-person engagement. The most successful sellers therefore need to be proficient in both. However, many buyers remain underwhelmed when meeting sellers remotely (one report we saw claimed only 25% of virtual sellers are deemed effective by buyers).

In the case of demonstrating impact, research has found that sellers consider this one of the least challenging aspects of virtual selling – whereas buyers think sellers are, for the most part, terrible at it! Additionally, if sellers are not listening effectively, they simply cannot conduct a thorough needs analysis. If they do not fully uncover buyer needs, they cannot build as strong an impact case – and so the vicious circle continues. If they do not fully explore prospective volumes, they cannot develop an accurate forecast.

Sellers who listen to buyers, expand buyer thinking, show what’s possible and clearly demonstrate impact are more likely to build trust, win the sale and increase their earnings. The gap between highly skilled virtual sellers and the rest is wide, so demonstrating these capabilities when selling virtually could well differentiate us from our competition. If we are proactive in our approach and develop strong virtual selling skills, we have an opportunity to achieve differentiated success across our business.

How to Boost Your Virtual Selling Skills

Aside from being adept at using meeting technology platforms in virtual settings, there is plenty we can still do to enhance our virtual selling skills and ensure success, whenever they are required.

It’s certainly worth it. By strengthening our virtual selling skills, we have an opportunity to differentiate ourselves and win more sales. According to McKinsey, suppliers who provide buyers with a superior virtual experience are more than twice as likely to be selected as those who provide poor experiences.

If you want to step up your virtual selling game, you need to:

  1. Build Rapport and Trust. Developing relationships and building rapport is more difficult online than in person. Ahead of the call, consider your trustworthiness and what you can do to improve this. In virtual meetings, you must be proactive and deliberate in your attempts to establish rapport and trust. Focus on making personal connections. Always switch your camera on.
  2. Maximize Engagement. Capture your buyer’s attention by sharing visuals and leveraging technology to facilitate, inspire and engage participants. Keep attendees to a minimum to ensure maximum participation and engagement. Ask questions.
  3. Lead Discovery. Virtual meetings tend to be shorter than in-person meetings. You still need to conduct a thorough needs analysis. By being organized, and adopting effective questioning and listening skills, you can successfully complete a thorough virtual discovery.
  4. Collaborate. Strengthen your customer’s commitment by involving them – collaboration inspires ownership. Your customers will be more engaged if they feel involved in crafting the solutions that will impact their business. Active involvement in creating the solution also means they will better understand it and be more willing to act as a sponsor internally.
  5. Influence. There are many ways in which you can influence your customers in a virtual environment. Remember – virtual meetings can be a lot less forgiving than meetings in-person. Don’t waste time waffling – your messages need to be very clear. Stay top-of-mind between meetings through regular communication.
  6. Deliver Value. Your aim should be to add value in every virtual customer or partner interaction. You certainly do not want to erode value as a result of poor virtual selling. Following many of the tips that we share in our blogs and in our newsletters will naturally lead to creating greater customer value.
  7. Use Automation to Your Advantage: Automation tools, such as email sequences, CRM reminders, and AI-driven insights, can help you stay organised and ensure you follow up with leads at the right time. However, you should always balance automation with personalization in order to keep interactions human.

Timing is Everything

According to Gartner, customers are more than halfway through their buying process before they have their first meaningful contact with a seller. Our sales development programs equip sales teams with the skills and tools to build long-term, trust-based relationships with their customers and partners, allowing us to influence buying decisions earlier in the Customer Decision Cycle. However, our ability to do this is now heavily impacted by our capability to sell virtually. Even though we are seeing a shift back towards in-person meetings and events, there is plenty of opportunity for us to drive meaningful buyer value through the art of virtual selling at the right time in the buyer’s purchasing journey. The most successful sellers will add value during every interaction with prospective customers whether they are in the room OR on screen.

If we get this right, customers will in turn reach out to the sellers they respect and trust, for ideas on how to approach their challenges. The good news is that even though the need to sell remotely has now been around for several years, the gap between the most skilled virtual sellers and the unskilled still remains very wide. We therefore have a unique opportunity to truly differentiate ourselves from our competitors. And in doing so, we can expect to improve prospecting, achieve more accurate forecasts and ultimately maximize our earnings.

Are you interested in developing your sales team’s virtual selling skills? Get in touch today!