Virtual sales: It’s here to stay, fellow marketers. For almost a full year, we’ve been adapting to an online world. Even as we return to in-person events and other sales opportunities, virtual sales will remain an important part of the revenue stream. With that said, we’ve got 5 ways you can support your sales teams in the short- and long-term as we settle in to this new normal.
1. Create simple sequences for hotter cold calls
Content sequences aren’t just for marketers! Create simple 2-4 step outreach sequences to help salespeople cold call. These sequences can include social media outreach, emails, or call scripts designed to help your team attract interest and convert sales. Many of us have had to sharpen our cold call game in a virtual world—these sequences are a great way to get started.
The key to success: Provide compelling content that progresses prospects down the path to your product. If you haven’t yet mapped your customer journey, complete the exercise with a leading member of your sales organization before crafting your messaging. Once your customer journey is mapped, you’ll be able to determine the order of your messages and the most appropriate conversion content for each step of the sequence.
Pro tip: Consider drafting a variety of sequences based on different buyer personas. Your sequence content can be revised to address your ideal target’s job title, the size of their veterinary clinic, or their geographic location.
2. Save time with email templates
We’re sending a lot more emails! Scratch that—we’re sending more redundant emails. Save time and improve consistency by creating email templates for salespeople. House the templates in your CRM or marketing automation platform to easily send and track opens, click-throughs, and more.
Email templates have a few big benefits.
- They help the salesperson quickly communicate with prospects.
- They standardize your prospect sales experience.
- Using email templates allows the marketing team to stay on top of messaging and ensures the sales team is sharing up-to-date information with prospects.
A Note on Copy
We all have inboxes, so we all know how hard it is to cut through the clutter. To wit: Take your time crafting these templated emails to ensure the language and content resonates with your target audience. Short emails that get right to the point of what the audience needs are often most effective.
3. Invest in virtual demonstration tools
If your product contains complex concepts, provide your sales team with visual tools to help them communicate effectively in the virtual space. This may include interactive product demonstrations, flow charts, infographics, pictures, or videos.
In the veterinary industry specifically, visual algorithms have emerged as a popular virtual tool. They help facilitate discussions around complex clinical topics. Algorithms can take a demonstration from a boring static presentation to an exciting collaborative conversation. Combine them with infographics and editable ROI support tools for an interactive virtual demonstration.
Talk with your sales team first to understand their communication challenges and then build content to address their pain points.
4. Track performance with dashboards and analytics
Transparency is key! Provide salespeople with dashboards that display key real-time analytics. This helps everyone visualize the progress toward goal achievement. Share performance indicators that are useful to their processes (eg, their prospect funnel, sales pipeline, revenue achievement progress).
Marketers should evaluate more detailed metrics, including sales rep email sequences, individual salesperson email performance, and conversion rates of virtual demonstrations to sales. This data will help marketers refine sales enablement tools and keep sales and marketing working in harmony.
5. Use self-serve calendar-booking links
Nowadays, veterinary clinic phone lines are tied up with curbside protocols, and emails can get lost in overflowing inboxes. Instead of playing phone tag to nail down a meeting time, many smart salespeople use self-serve calendar-booking links to streamline the meeting scheduling process.
Tools such as native Salesforce and CRM tools, Calendly, the HubSpot meeting tool, or Doodle enable salespeople to send a booking link for prospects to select a time that works for them. This can save time and improve conversion rates of interested prospects into meetings.
Pro tip: Already using automation? Take your booking links to the next level. Automatically send emails from sales representatives based on prospect behavioral triggers. This helps lighten your sales team’s load while keeping the personal touch in your communication.
Listen First, Build Second
Before beginning any sales enablement strategies, listen to your sales team. They know better than anyone what’s working and what needs improvement. A simple listening session may reveal some gems and surprises.