Training sales teams for virtual sales calls

The world has gone virtual. You can now hold a business meeting across seas and time zones. The days of people going to the same venue and sitting in the same room to discuss business opportunities are still there but in a very limited capacity. Now you have the option of holding virtual meetings.

And salespeople across the globe are leveraging this facility along with AI to evaluate sales and sales training opportunities.

Virtual sales calls are a way for sales reps to connect with their customers or business contacts in a convenient manner, and they are also a way for a sales rep to train up their team. Here are some tips for making the most of virtual sales calls and making sure you don't offend your business contacts.

But before we do that, let us tell you why it is important for sales reps to be trained for sales calls.

Why train your sales reps for sales calls?

Virtual sales calls have changed.

As per the latest Bain and Company report, what was once virtual selling is now what we describe as just plain “selling.”

The report also states that despite the heavy dependence on virtual selling, the selling falls short of win rates and revenue per sales agent because of lack of preparedness and other factors. And we all know that just means lesser revenue for the entire organization.

The report showed that 54% of sellers felt remote sales calls were effective in May 2020. However, this number quickly jumped to 79% in 2021 as the sellers started working on their ability to interact with prospects.

The report also found that 92% of B2B businesses favor virtual sales calls, which is a sharp up of 17 percentage points from the previous year because it shortens the sales cycle, improves customer and business relationships, and most importantly, closes the deal faster.

Aren’t these good enough points to start working on your sales reps' call training?

If you agree with us, read on.

If you don’t want to read, you can just skip to using Convin’s sales training platform for free and see how it reenvisions the sales training process for your organization.

Now let’s get back to how to go about virtual sales training.

Tips for sales call training

Evaluate the current sales process

First thing first before you can even start training your older reps with new processes and call training. You need to evaluate your current processes for their strengths and weaknesses.

Evaluate recently closed deals closely, i.e.,

• Reach out process
• Cold call log 
• Pre-demo call
• Demo call
• Objection handling
• Negotiation
• And finally, the closure and follow-up calls.

Even check every customer touch base that they had during the deal's life cycle, so you can work on creating a solid-streamlined sales process that would increase the odds of winning deals.

Break down the basic elements of the sales process.

Imagine if you are going for a trip to a new place– won’t you cross-check every detail for the trip, like your tickets, stay, mode of transportation, eateries, tourist place, etc., to ensure that you have a comfortable journey.

The same is true when it comes to training your sales representatives for sales calls. Check if they have the basic tools and documents needed to communicate and engage the prospects effectively, like

• Video conferencing platform
• Cloud-based dialer
• A steady flow of leads
• Call recording and transcription system
• Sales call library 
• Call documents, and material like demo video, product USP
• Call script
• Objection handling manual, 
• The deal tracking system, etc.

Apart from this, a sales enablement platform that tracks sales reps' performance along with enabling them to improve their performance call by call can help them to give their best every time.

Also, break down every deal stage to train your sales team on handling prospects and engage them in every stage of the sales funnel.

Invest in well-researched sales tools and AI-based sales enablement solutions.

According to the Rain Group, research shows that more than 8 out 10 customers have experienced technology challenges such as inadequate visuals or non-responsive sales reps.

Most importantly, sales reps end up switching from one platform to another to searching for knowledge centers, transcribing and recording the conversation, and adding detailed details in the database, which in the end breaks their concentration and focus.

Using a holistic platform that assists sales reps in tracking their performance, uncovering training opportunities, tracking deals, and even engaging the customer can reimagine the whole sales process along with training practices.

Personalize sales training for every seller.

Just think about your friend circle– some of your friends might be talented in one thing and others in another. You cannot fit them under one category, so how can you put your sales team under one and provide a generalized sales training together?

Even your sales team members are the same; some might be good in prospecting, others in the demo, negotiation, etc. 

That is why use a sales training platform like Convin to evaluate your sales team's weaknesses as well as their strength to determine the areas that they might need extra training and enable personalized sales training for your sales army. 

Note: Skill-gap sales training can only be effective if it is personalized based on reps' skills.

Make sales training interactive.

Getting sales reps to engage in their training is easier than you might think. Interactive presentations are very effective during virtual sales training - and can be 25% more memorable than a traditional slideshow presentation because of their interactive nature. 

Clickable elements and videos enable your sales team to learn about the subject matter by actually being involved. It's like acting out a story that helps them to grasp new concepts in a way that goes straight into their long-term memory!

Make sales call training consistent.

Sales is a tough business, but you can make it work for you as long as you are willing to learn. Within 90 days, 84% of what is learned during sales training sessions is forgotten. 

However, frequent virtual sales training meetings can help your sales reps remember the skills they were taught because these meetings typically last longer and may cover more topics than average – between 20-30 minutes per meeting. 

Not only will they be able to take advantage of this knowledge in formal sales presentations, but they will also improve their other selling techniques outside of the office setting as well. Those who have weekly or monthly virtual sales team meetings report that their opportunities to bond with fellow staff also allowed them to build trust with one another and increase overall productivity.

🥱 Bored?

Don’t sleep! 😴

Here is a TL;DR of tips that can help in your sales calls:

Additional tips for sales calls

Here are some additional tips for engaging your prospects in sales calls

• Focus on the conversation and not on taking notes– use call transcribing for note-taking.
• Let your customers talk to understand their problems and challenges better
• Ask more questions about their current process and challenges rather than preaching about your product and its capabilities.
• Take a pass every few minutes during the demo call so that your prospects can ask their questions.
• Use animation, numbers, and interactive content rather than boring content-heavy slides.
• Engage your prospect with polls.
• Always be prepared with frequently asked questions.
• And most importantly, end the call on an action item like sending a report or scheduling the next meeting.
  Parting words

We have learned a lot while evaluating thousands of sales calls, and we’ve also learned a lot from the clients we’ve worked with. We’ve learned that training sales reps for virtual sales calls are key to an organization’s success. That being said, we hope we have provided you with some insights into how you can train your sales reps for successful virtual sales calls.