How To Sell In A Remote Environment

Selling in a remote environment has been a challenge for many sales people and sales organizations. In the article published here in Medium Magazine, I share my tricks and tips to finding success when you are working and selling remotely. Here's a sneak peek into the sales skills needed to succeed, no matter the product or service you sell.

Could you list and briefly explain “5 Key Strategies for Mastering the Art of Remote Selling” based on your experiences and insights? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

I created the “Mighty Five” pillars to help keep my sales team grounded, focused, and unified during the pandemic. Since then I have added one more pillar, which have all proven, over time, to be key strategies for mastering the art of remote selling.

1) Be Curious

Curiosity is at the heart of sales. Have a genuine desire to uncover your prospects’ pain-points. Ask open-ended questions, practice actively listen with the intent to understand. Only then, you can start guiding a “potential buyer” to the right solutions. The takeaway: In sales, it is always more important to be interested than interesting.

2) Be Intentional

You aren’t selling to robots so avoid “sounding” robotic to prospects. Add a human aspect to the monotony of cold calling, mass emailing, and LinkedIn outreach. Setting intentionality by planning your day and for each task you have to tackle is the difference between burnout and success. The takeaway: A dull pencil is better than a sharp mind.

3) Be Tenacious

Sales happens on your prospects timeline, not yours. Sales cycles can be lengthy so having stick-to-it-ness is what makes great sales professionals. Grit can get you through tough times but tenacity will keep you going. The take away: Consistency over intensity.

4) Be Basic

The only magic formula in sales is excelling at the basics: role playing cold calls, planning, sourcing the right contacts, working with a mentor and coach, becoming an industry expert, doing outreach, and following up. If you stick to the basics, you never have to get back to them. The takeaway: Good sales people stick to the basics. The great ones excel at them.

5) Be Extra

The first time I heard the phrase “so extra” was from my daughter. I tend to be that dad who goes the extra mile to make sure the sandwiches are made just right. I give extra thought to buying gifts, planning vacations, and I go out of my way to make sure I am communicating effectively for everyone. Being extra, after all, wasn’t a bad thing. Putting in extra time to know your prospects, extra effort being a resource, extra care in following through, and extra thought when communicating, will likely add extra revenue to your bank account.

The take away: to stand out among the faceless and transactional sellers of today, be extra.