Adapt & Thrive... 3 Steps To Pivot From In-Person Selling To Virtual-Selling...

"Ava-whaaa?" I asked.

Chris started laughing... "The software. It's the name of the software."

He's always been the more techy of the two of us, in fact, one of his nicknames is "Technado"...

...and I'd never heard of this name - Avochato.

Nor did I have any idea what it did.

Chris was explaining the initial setup he'd just completed for one of our newer clients and it flew way over my head.

...But he had successfully been able to solve an issue that had plagued us for months:

'How do we automate and scale the volume of sales calls for the companies we work with while simultaneously bring them into a virtual space?'

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Over the past 6 months we've been working to solve this challenge using a system that anyone can duplicate and we now have enough data to share the secret of how to answer the question above.

...And because of everything that's happening right now, the world is being forced into a virtual space.

So naturally, as you'd imagine, the demand for this solution has rapidly increased.

So here's where we started...

One of our clients came to us 6 months ago asking how they could adjust their sales force to be a virtual squad and work remote.

This was prompted by an unfortunate turn of events where due to lax landlord reasons, they lost their office space.

So adapting became the only reasonable and cost effective solution.

While they are masters of getting new leads for their sales team - which is always appreciated, but never expected from any company, they didn't know exactly how to pivot.

So we started testing.

The outcome we were looking for was to figure out a way to increase sales call volume, while making sure that every sales call was recorded and stored as a company asset.

And the solution involved testing all sorts of different softwares.

PIVOT #1: AGREE TO GO VIRTUAL

First and foremost, we urged our client to move from standard phone sales calls to video sales calls.

The reason for this is simple.

As a sales ascension pro, you open up your arsenal of tools.

Here's a couple secrets why video conferencing is more powerful than an average sales call.

• FOCUS: You can look your prospect in the eyeballs and develop a higher level of trust with your prospect simply because you've increased sensual absorption. You've leveled the playing field for yourself by adjusting a simple audio conversation to an audio-visual conversation.
• NO-DISTRACTIONS: Since there's visibility on the prospect, you can determine if they're paying attention or not by listening not only with your ears, but also listening with your eye-balls.
• EASE OF SHARING: Instead of having to email a sales deck, slides, or a powerpoint, you can simply do a screenshare and walk through any presentation live together while saving time.
• EASE OF RECORDING: Several states require that when recording a normal phone call you have to a disclose that you're recording (if you're recording - and you should be - for training purposes). However, the rules of video conferences haven't gotten quite as strict so you actually don't have to disclose whether or not you're recording because most video conferencing softwares have visual alerts or notifications that the call is being recorded. Further, softwares like Zoom / Webinarjam and others will automatically record calls in certain folders.
• FASTER REVIEW FOR TRAINING: In testing this concept, we've found recall of deeper level of details to be 23% higher when doing a video conference call vs. a normal phone call.

So, after explaining these things to the business owner, they were convinced that video conferencing is the right solution.

Next...

PIVOT #2: HOME OFFICE SETUP & UPDATED JOB REQUIREMENTS

Things to consider in moving from office to remote virtual office.

• Recording quality: it will be important for each sales pro moving into a virtual workspace has reliable and fairly high speed internet. You can check internet speeds at places like speedtest.net to determine upload and download speed. Recommended speeds? (Ping speed should be less than 11ms; Download speed should be close to 30Mbps; Upload speed should be above 6Mbps)
• Audio quality: most newer computers have decent audio-in lines. However, this is something that should be tested. If you're serious about getting the best setup for your home office, invest in a USB style external microphone. I currently use an Audio Technica (ATR2500-USB) that attaches to the side of my desk and has a adjustable boom arm. Here's a link to Amazon to get yours: Click here.
• Outside distractions and interference: If you have a confined space available where background noise exists (like children, or animals) it will be important to test using a sound deadening head set or interference noise cancelling technology. Many of these are available and will be more personal preference.
• Background and Aesthetic: Nobody wants to get onto a video conference call and see an ugly background. Put some thought into things like lighting, background, etc. Perhaps it would make sense to issue all of your sales pros some sort of plaque with your company name on it that they can hang on the wall in the background. Try to match your environment with what your prospects are interested in. This is a very stealth way to create social proof if you do it well.

Now that we have the remote workspace setup it will be important to build out a systematic scoreboard that tracks activity and results.

Give some thought to a universal way where all sales pros can have visibility of their progress against their goals as well as a way to compete against their peers. This can be as simple as a google/excel spreadsheet, or can become more complex with a CRM system like Pipedrive, Freshworks, Hubspot, or Salesforce.

PIVOT #3: SOFTWARE TOOLS FOR AUTOMATION AND SCALE

And the big hangup was the need to increase volume which brings me back to the story I shared earlier in the article.

We had been working with a way to create a sequence that helped our clients to be able to track the flow.

The best solution that came with tested results?

When we started, we worked with our client to have each of their sales pros leave the voicemail, then sent the text, and then send the email, book the calls, close the deal or close the file.

This is something that each sales pro could execute remotely, from anywhere.

Although it worked really well at first, here's what we found went wrong:

• It took too long for each sales pro to get the number of social reachouts to a sustainable number each day/week to warrant the kinds or results compared to the expectations.
• Sales pros were getting bogged down and stuck in the weeds with trying to customize each message to each new prospect - we found they were constantly browsing the web to identify and learn about prospects and it ultimately led to wasted time.
• None of the sales activity could be tracked or managed to make sense of the accumulating data to make better marketing decisions.

So after testing it, we knew the key would be automation.

And this led to "Technado Chris" finding a series of softwares that allow leadership to maintain control of all asset related items (recorded calls, texts, ringless vm, tracking, etc), limit the amount of research necessary for each sales pro to execute with, and deploy a strategy that could allow speed, accuracy, and WAAAY more sales.

So what softwares did we settle on?

Our client was already using Pipedrive as their CRM.

So we started with that as the base platform, then API connected Avochato for the ringless voicemails.

Avochato literally takes 5 minutes to setup and manages both the ringless voicemails as well as the text messaging - what's nice about avochato text is that it texts with long code numbers vs. a lot of the other softwares.

So, we got a google voicenumber and set it up in avochato.

Then we connected Avochato to Pipedrive through the Zapier connections.

Then we built automations that allowed each sales professional to manage their pipeline in the following manger.

Find a lead and enter it into the CRM / or receive a lead from the company's marketing and assign it to the sales pro that will be managing the account.

Once a card is created in pipedrive, and loaded into the fist stage of the social outreach process, we built an automation that fires the ringless voicemail, the follow up text, and an email to the prospect.

Both the text and the email have a booking link that we used from calendly.com because the zoom integration is easily setup and managed through this software. (Plus calendly is a no-charge software).

The link for booking was included in both the text and the email.

Then we build another email template that could be deployed by moving the prospect from the first stage of the social outreach to the 2nd stage.

Inside of Pipedrive, this move shows the sales pro that she's advancing and creates a type of visual momentum that's pleasing to watch.

THE RESULTS:

Once activated, we tested... and the results are IN!

We documented saving the sales dept. over 4 hours per sales pro PER DAY with an added ability too reach 50-100 more prospects per week during the outreach time they had allotted.

Now, imagine this for a second...

- If you have 0 sales pros, but this system is functional for you... (you free up 4 hours per day of time to do more important things)

- If you have 1 sales pro, and this system is functioning for you... (50-100 more opportunities for your organization EACH WEEK to reach out to qualified prospects and close more deals)

- If you have 2 sales pros, and this system is functioning for you... (100-200 more opportunities EACH WEEK for your organization to reach out to qualified prospects and close more deals)

- If you have 3 sales pros, and this system is functioning for you... (200-300 more opportunities EACH WEEK for your organization to reach out to qualified prospects and close more deals)

Get the point?

At scale the question now becomes, how much new business can you handle that won't overwhelm the fulfillment side of your company.

At the end of the day, we were able to book out the sales pros calendars for the next two weeks which turned into an explosion of new business for our client.

CONCLUSION:

As a business owner, entrepreneur, or even being a selling professional, deploying this strategy of moving to a virtual selling force and then automating a lot of the social outreach work with software tools has been proven to cut down on wasted time, create a higher level of tracking and traceability, as well as fill the sales calendar...

...but most importantly...

It been proven to create new revenue and new partnerships for all the clients we've used it with and overall, MORE SALES!

Cheers,

-sean ??

Ps... I'd love to know the other software tools you've been using to get results. Of if you haven't used any of these tools, let's chat about what may be the best setup for your business! Drop a COMMENT and let's connect!

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