The Dirty Little Secret of Selling and Consulting Virtually

Knowing your client has never been more critical than in today’s virtual environment. Even though some businesses and industries plan to return to in-person meetings, virtual consulting and selling are here to stay. The world is grappling with uncertainty, and organizations are struggling to stay nimble in an ever-changing environment. However, these circumstances are also creating many opportunities.

These opportunities include:

  • Technology and services to support digital channels
  • Cybersecurity services to help organizations reduce risk as they support remote workers and digitalize processes
  • Cloud computing, robotic process automation and outsourcing services to help reduce costs
  • Devices, collaboration/communication tools and analytics to support remote customer service

Seamlessly serving clients where and how they are doing business makes identifying opportunities to support them critical to your success. This is only possible if you avoid perpetuating the dirty little secret that erodes trust and impedes success.

More Choices and Higher Expectations

Since location doesn’t necessarily limit their options, today’s buyers have more choices and higher expectations. They expect to meet, consult and do business with professionals who are thoroughly versed in their business.

According to the LinkedIn “State of Sales 2021: United States & Canada Edition” study, virtual sellers and consultants must:

  • Solve problems, not just sell products and services.
  • Build long-term relationships that transcend the initial engagement.
  • Earn Trust by always acting in the client’s best interest.

To be successful, your professionals need to be prepared and agile in an ever-shifting workplace. There’s no room to “wing” it.

“Winging it” Kills Opportunities

However, the dirty little secret across companies in many industries is that some intelligent, business-savvy, senior-level professionals “wing it” when selling to buyers. They rely on their knowledge of their company’s products and services to win the business instead of gaining deep knowledge of their client’s industry, competition, KPIs, or specific business challenges. In a virtual environment, that lack of industry acumen is amplified.

Your professionals need to invest time in growing industry-specific insight to enable them to focus on client pain points and understand where clients will invest their precious capital.

Staying current on client-specific issues and connecting them to your offerings will lead to long and mutually rewarding client relationships.

Meeting and Exceeding Buyer Expectations

Tools that help build industry knowledge are critical to your professionals’ success in a virtual environment.

When professionals have the level of industry competency to engage executives in meaningful conversations, opportunities are limitless.

The thousands of sales and consulting professionals we work with support key industries. Our clients see marked improvement when their professionals have access to resources that are current and created by industry experts.

Offering your professionals curated, relevant, digital resources will make “winging it” unnecessary and increase their opportunities to contribute to your company’s growth. Learn more about PSI’s ever-evolving industry curriculums and wikis that include in-depth industry insights and information for professionals in Financial Services, Insurance, Health Care and Life Sciences, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Manufacturing and other industries.

Tools for Success

To provide access to up-to-the-minute insights and enable learning on the job, our clients offer their professionals PSI’s Inside the Industry® Wikis. Our wikis include Industry Executive Profiles that your sales, consulting and in-industry professionals can use to prepare for meetings with key executives across various industries. Profiles include role/responsibilities, KPIs the executive tracks and recommended sales opportunities.

Take advantage of our Inside the Industry® Wiki 30-days free access offer! Choose an industry and see how our Wiki can give your professionals the information they need to succeed.

About the Author

Jill Gualtieri, is the Chief Learning Officer and a partner at Performance Solutions International (PSI). She has been providing training and consulting services for the last 25 years and loves helping clients achieve their learning goals.

Performance Solutions International (PSI)

PSI is the leading provider of industry-focused training, custom learning solutions and learning consulting services to empower your professionals with the knowledge, skills and tools they need to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment.