Stress-Test: How will the Covid-19 transform your business approach?

By Georges da Silva

In Salesapps news, Mobile Sales Enablement, Sales optimization, Technical

The impact of Covid-19 on businesses is and will be very significant. We are probably still only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

This situation is a real stress-test of your sales and marketing organization, in its ability to continue its activity at a distance.

How will the Covid-19 transform your business approach?

So, it's true, many of us have been caught off guard this time. Beyond the strict confinement we are experiencing, the transformation of the work environment is an inevitable prospect and in many ways.

The "global & forced education" of citizens to the use of remote meetings, screen sharing, video-conferences offers a new place of choice to this meeting format.

We have become accustomed to this way of working and it is clear that some trades would even benefit from generalizing this type of remote appointment.

There will be a post-Covid-19 period. This is the famous "ratchet effect", no turning back now.

Focus on the post-covid customer meeting.

1/ PREPARATION & REALITY

En février 2020 Décision-Achat titrait : « 9% des salariés de grandes entreprises affirment n’avoir jamais recours à la vidéo-conférence au travail et les cadres sont seulement 58% à organiser des vidéo-conférences dans le cadre de travail… »  > ici <

56% believe that video conferencing will be used more and more, but it does not work well enough for 66% of the panel.

These statistics have likely changed significantly since March 2020.

What about performance? That of video or screen sharing is indeed based on certain technical elements that cannot be denied, but we must admit that it is quite efficient today, technically speaking. The improvement of the algorithms, the power of the networks, the much more powerful hardware, etc. have allowed its generalization.

The fact remains that too few B2B sales organizations offer a place of choice for remote presentation, why?

• Lack of practice?
• Fear of taking the plunge?
• The fear of technical problems?
• The need to be in the best conditions?
• The "nice to have" feeling?
• A little bit of everything at the same time?

At Salesapps, we have been organizing videoconferences/screen-sharing since our creation and in significant proportions: >90% of the first appointments.

It is true that these tools can have moments of overload and it is therefore necessary to be flexible.

But in reality, the real obstacles we have sometimes encountered are of another type: the lack of habit of our interlocutors and/or the authoritarian restrictions of their IT (simply requiring the use of a backup solution).

Many companies have remote presentation, screen sharing and video tools but few actually use them and even fewer in the sales cycle.

However, the remote appointment format has many advantages that should not be forgotten: increase in the volume of appointments for the salesperson, acceleration of business, better quality first contact, easier availability for very busy interlocutors (decision-makers), precision of the message delivered, proof by image, maintaining attention, etc.

2/ THESE TOOLS ARE AT THE HEART OF YOUR SUCCESS

For screen sharing, use several video applications to adapt to the constraints of your contacts (Joinme, Teams, Zoom, Skype, Webex, etc.). They are the basis of the transformation of your commercial approach.

In fact, with a main solution and a backup solution (just in case) we cover the vast majority of situations and technical problems at Salesapps.

There remains the habit and the need for quality of the appointment.

There is no secret to this. Practice and eloquence will allow you to perform (just like in a physical meeting).

With the ratchet effect, remote presentations are becoming more and more popular. The habit is taken, with or without force, the volume of videoconferences and remote presentations has exploded.

We have taken in hand these tools of visio, screen sharing, have adjusted this microphone, these earphones and found in (almost) all situations the reasons of "why it does not work?

Just look at the number of posts on social networks of employees proudly showing themselves at work from home.

However, a sales meeting is a critical moment. Everything must be perfect.

However, a remote meeting does not have the same rhythm as a face-to-face meeting. The information shared is not of the same type and the ability to maintain attention is essential to have the opportunity to convey all the desired messages.

You have felt it, the need to make your meetings more interactive, more exciting becomes unavoidable.

Indeed, the human part of the remote appointment is put in the background and the focus is made on what is presented. This is not necessarily a problem, on the contrary, it is a great opportunity, but you still need to be prepared and equipped to guarantee the quality of your appointments.

"Mastering the content of their narrative becomes a decisive part of remote presentation performance."

Navigation, format, visual rendering, availability of information, the other team member of your appointments is at the heart of what you present.

Votre application doit appuyer le discours du commercial. Montrer ce que le commercial dit. Donner envie de cliquer. Une étude > ici < explique même qu’un client dans son environnement s’approprie 400 fois mieux vos concepts lorsqu’ils sont enrichis de visuels parlants.

To rework your content, keep in mind the 7 impacts it will have on your business. To find out how to optimize your content, I invite you to read our article on Content Staging and building a great sales presentation application.

The transformation of your sales approach through remote appointments depends on a perfect mastery of what you show. Train yourself, practice!

Opt for flexible, visual formats, and a sales presentation application like Salesapps will play a decisive role in smoothing exchanges and supporting your sales reps sales pitch in different situations.

Here, even more than in a face-to-face meeting, your meeting will be impacted by the material you present.

The offline availability of this information is just as critical as it is when you meet with your customers.

Why?

To lighten the network of course!

If everything you display is already present in your application, there will be no additional call to a server (which may already be saturated). Even remotely, high availability of content is crucial.

3/ Change management

We are there. We are on our way to deconfinement.

To what extent, in what way, at what pace? It's not certain that all sales reps employees can return to their customers' premises all day, every day.

Not even close!

The stress-test we are facing is pushing us to make our customer relationship more flexible and to use today's solutions. The Vendor 2.0 hardware optimization project is therefore a must for now and for the next major infectious episode.

We are fortunate in that we have all been called to this transformation: suppliers, partners, competitors, customers, students, etc.

In this perspective, the remote sales presentation meeting must become a habit, an evidence.

It is necessary to prepare it humanly and technically.

Beyond the simple screen-sharing application installed on your sales reps device, the long-term integration of remote appointments by your sales reps customers into their sales cycle requires practice and optimal presentation software hardware.

This is a key project to be carried out as soon as possible. The less tech-savvy your sales force is, the more you need to support this change with an intuitive presentation tool and training materials. In any case, the quality of what you show will be all the more important.

To help you transform your sales approach, I suggest you read our article dedicated to this subject: How to succeed in a remote sales presentation meeting