COVID-19 has forced many B2B buyers and sellers to start doing business digitally online. What started as a response to the crisis has now become the new normal. However, this transformation was already occurring before the pandemic; COVID-19 simply accelerated the process of going fully digitally.
Adapting the digital way of selling
At GetAccept, we believe in the power of relationships and bringing personal and engaging interactions back to the online sales process. Before COVID19, we could see a change coming along as more and more B2B businesses were moving online and selling digitally. Since COVID-19, it has become apparent that B2B sales leaders are adapting the digital way of selling, with a growing conviction that digital is the way of the future.
According to Mckinsey, more than three-quarters of buyers and sellers say they now prefer digital self-service and remote human engagement over face-to-face interactions, and only about 20 percent of B2B buyers say they hope to return to in-person purchasing.
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The power of personal interaction
As we are moving to work more digital and remote, creating the personal interaction between the buyer and seller is going to be challenging. It can cause an engagement gap, create trust issues, and make it harder to close deals. To help and improve the remote and digital interactions, it's important to work with features that keep the personal and human touch alive.
Since the massive shift to online selling, video and live chat have emerged as the top channels for interacting and closing sales with B2B customers. Video and live chat are both sales enablement tools that can increase engagement with prospects and customers while selling remotely.
What does the data say about sales enablement features?
At GetAccept, we believe in the power of relationships and want to bring personal and engaging interactions back to the online sales process. Our sales enablement platform is an all in one tool that helps sales reps increase personalization and build trust in a digital sales environment.
Engaging communication channels increase hit-rate by 30%
During 2020 we analyzed ~800,000 sent sales documents from customers. The data tells us that by adding engaging communication channels, like presenting your sales assets with a personal video or introducing your collateral with a personalized message through chat, the hit rate of closing the deal increases by 30.4%. Also, sending proposals and other documents with SMS and automatic chat reminders increases your hit rate to 75.3% rather than a 52.2% hit rate if not applied.
Our research also shows that online and remote selling can be as effective and engaging, if not more, than in-person interactions. When we asked our own sales representatives, they also confirmed that digital prospecting has been as effective as in-person meetings to connect with existing customers.
Digital is the way to go
During this year, sales leaders have gone from being forced to adopt digital processes, to now realizing that digital is here to stay. The shift to remote selling can help sales organizations lower their cost, extend their reach, and significantly improve sales effectiveness.
