The 5 Best Tips to Sell Remotely

Let’s face it—the world has changed overnight. This is undeniable, and it has affected everyone.

One of the biggest business outcomes of the current crisis is that sales reps are being forced to find a way to sell remotely. We’re no longer able to get face to face, eyeball to eyeball, and physically in front of our prospects and customers.

As a result, we must become incredibly effective at selling remotely—fast.

My team has scraped together all of the best ideas we’ve seen about how to successfully sell remotely in today’s market. (We’ve used every single one of these tips ourselves, so we speak from experience.)

In this video, I’m going to show you the five best tips to sell remotely. Check it out.

Summary:

How to Sell Remotely Tip #1: Get face to face whenever possible.

When I say face to face, of course I don’t mean physically in the same room. I’m talking about using some kind of video chat program to get face to face whenever possible with your prospects.

The absolute best tool for getting face to face, particularly in the B2B space, is Zoom. Zoom meetings are highly effective if you want to sell remotely. Zoom is not only one of the simplest platforms out there, but it also has high levels of functionality that enable productive meetings with your prospects.

The data shows that when you can get on some version of a video-chat conversation where you can physically see prospects, your close rates go up significantly.

On the other hand, I understand that not every salesperson lives in a world where Zoom is the easiest technology to use to sell remotely. If you’re selling to prospects who are less technically savvy, you might want to use a different video chat service that they are already familiar with, such as FaceTime, Skype, or Google Hangouts.

Whatever your technology of choice, just make sure it’s something that your prospects can use without much effort. You never want to start off a meeting with trying to get them configured online. Make sure they can easily get on the call. The focus should be on getting face to face, not on using the best technology.

Selling Remotely Tip #2: Have your other tools ready.

When it comes to selling remotely, you need to do everything you can to proactively avoid technical issues.

This means, first of all, that you need to have a solid microphone, headphones, and webcam setup. Maybe you’re using the earbuds with built-in microphone that came with your iPhone, which is fine. Or you might have a proper setup with an actual microphone and headphones. Either way, make sure that your microphone and headphones have been tested and work with your webcam, which may already be connected to or built into your laptop. Use your setup multiple times before trying it with a prospect to ensure it’s seamless.

You should also have LinkedIn Navigator set up and ready to go. This is the most critical subscription service for every salesperson right now. It allows you to do your research on prospects, so that when you get onto that face-to-face Zoom call, you’re well-informed and able to demonstrate that you’ve done your homework.

Next, you must have your CRM system set up, with all of your sales data in it. Don’t store your data in more than one place. Put it all into that one CRM system.

And finally, be sure to set up a Google Drive Suite account if you don’t have one already. You can store and create any kind of document on Google Drive. There’s no need to use Microsoft Word or Excel anymore. When emailing back and forth with a prospect or someone on your sales team, Google Drive Suite allows you to seamlessly share any kind of document with anyone in the world.

If you want to successfully sell remotely, then you’ve got to get these tech tools set up and ready to go.

Sell More Remotely Tip #3: Have a dedicated workspace.

A dedicated workspace is crucial if you want to sell remotely in today’s climate. This means not working from the couch, or in an area where the people in your family are constantly walking around and making noise. Instead, set up an office or a dedicated area specific for your work.

As a salesperson, it’s so important that you have a way to “go to work,” even if that means working from home or working from a virtual office. Having that dedicated workspace is key because, let’s face it, working in sales can be difficult right now. There are a lot of distractions going on at home. Be disciplined about having a dedicated workspace where you can completely focus on selling remotely.

How to Sell Remotely Tip #4: Structure your day like a normal day.

There’s something about working from home that makes you suddenly want to act like a kid and structure your day however you want, based on how you feel in the moment. But just because you don’t have a manager checking in on your office these days, that doesn’t mean you can give up the structure of your typical workday. The reality is that having a structured day will keep you on track and make you successful when you sell remotely.

There are, of course, tremendous benefits to working remotely. You can take your lunch break whenever you want. You can go for a run in the middle of the day. But it’s also important to keep that structure you’re used to at the office. Don’t revert to acting like a college kid living in a dorm. You want to have structure. What that structure looks like for you may be different from what it looks like for me. But make sure that you do maintain that normal structure in your day.

How-to Close Sales Remotely Tip #5: Focus on behavior.

Now, the term “behavior” refers to different things for different salespeople. Whatever that may be, you need to identify a specific set of behaviors that you follow through on every single day. When we sell remotely, we tend to start to get a little bit sloppy—we relax a bit when it comes to our usual day-to-day selling activities and tasks. That’s why it’s so important to hold yourself accountable to specific sales behavior during this time.

Whether it means making a certain number of dials per day, or sending a certain number of emails, or researching a certain number of prospects, or conducting a certain number of virtual meetings—whatever those behaviors are, focus on them. Make sure you follow through on those behaviors and hold yourself accountable. Without that discipline, you won’t ever sell remotely to the best of your ability.

So, there you have it. Now you know the five best tips to sell remotely. Which of these ideas did you find most useful? Share your thoughts in the comments section below to join the conversation.