In-person sales are back again. I would like to preface that and say that virtual or remote sales should likely still rule for start-ups. That being said, it is a good time to find some opportunities for in-person sales activities. Here are a few activities for both sales leaders and sales team members.
Sales Meetings
Some customers or prospects prefer in-person sales meetings. This may not always be convenient or even practical. We have a client that recently moved to Malta and we are not planning on any short term meetings. Recently I had a couple meetings with a new customer. They preferred to have these meetings, especially at the start of the engagement. There is the big benefit of keeping the client happy. You can also read body language much easier in person and build a closer bond with some people. It doesn’t need to be every time, but start thinking of opportunities.
Events
I wrote a blog last year about the enjoyment of being back at in-person events. One of the events that has moved back to in-person is the Communitech Sales Leaders P2P. Madhuri, a BDR on the VA Partners team, attended as well and during a networking portion after she talked to a few attendees and was able to get a good lead out of the event. If this was a virtual event that conversation would not have happened. Can you mix in a few in-person events to your virtual events?
Team Meetings
Our team of 5 is based in 4 cities with at least 100 kilometers from our office in Toronto. The four closest members get together once a month around a team meeting. Our fifth team member is a flight or very long drive away. He comes in twice a year for a few days. This is valuable time to get to know each other better, learn together, and have some fun. I do think that these in-person team meetings help with company culture.
Working in the Same Space
Working in the same space may not be easy, but it can be done in many cases. You get to learn a lot about the sales team being present where they work. As an example it is great to be present when they are making cold calls. You can hear how they handle it and right after you can review it with them. I have a team member that is about an hour away and I book time with them in a coworking space. They also come to Toronto once or twice a month. There is always time made available for cold calls when they are here. When our rep comes that is farther away we do the same thing. The trip is usually for 2 days and he spends some of the time on cold calls.
It is not always possible to work in the same space, but you can do a few things remotely that can help. Use your chat platform to check in. See how cold calls are going. Have they had any tough objections? Make sure they know they can chat with you or even set-up a quick call to discuss. There are also tools available that let you review cold call recordings.
If you would like to talk about managing your in-person or remote sales teams please reach out to me.
