Remote selling may be the norm at the moment, but there’s no getting away from the fact that it can lack the immediacy and innate engagement of an in-person pitch.
The best way around this issue is to embrace the right visual tech to elevate presentations delivered remotely, bringing prospects a richer, more intimate look at what you’re offering than can be achieved with words alone.
There are a number of tools and tactics out there that allow salespeople to amplify their efforts and build pitches that hit home even if they’re being delivered digitally. Here’s an overview of what’s available, and how to make the most of the potential of each solution.
3D Models for Eye-catching Product Demos
If a client can’t share the same physical space as a product you’re pitching, or if the finished article itself doesn’t actually exist in tangible form quite yet, then 3D modeling software is the ideal way to bring them onboard.
The top platforms in this segment, such as Sketchfab and Vectary, are well suited to quickly mocking up fully three dimensional representations of products you want to demonstrate. Once built, a model can easily be manipulated to open up every angle and feature to thorough examination.
You’ve probably encountered 3D models yourself if you’ve ever used a car manufacturer’s online configurator tool. Porsche has one of the best in the business, giving would-be buyers or even just wannabe owners without a realistic hope of affording its products a means of putting together a bespoke spec for their dream 911, Boxster or Taycan via its website. Different paint colors, interior details, and body kit tweaks can be altered on the fly and showcased immediately on a 3D model of the car in question.
It’s not necessary to go to this length with your own product demos, of course, but the point is that it’s possible. So whether you’re a furniture manufacturer highlighting different finishes or an industrial component maker pinpointing what’s possible with your latest tooling, 3D models are informative, impactful, and serve a purpose for brand-building as much as they do for earning individual sales. You’ll still need to find the right prospects for such pitches in the first place in order to get the best results, but thankfully, there are tools for that as well.
Virtual Tours for Selling Spaces
The virtual tour is another tried and tested visual technology that plays a crucial role in the toolkit of any remote selling setup. While it’s not a new concept, recent advances in tech mean that modern virtual tours are both easier to create and packed with more detail than anything from previous generations of the tech.
For instance, the 360 virtual tour camera from Giraffe360 is geared towards the real estate sector, enabling agents to bring interested parties into the heart of homes without needing to guide them around in person. The upshot is that listings viewers spend five times longer on realtors’ websites, because there’s something fun about being able to click around a property and see every part of it in full.
Arguably, we’re now at a point where virtual tours are a minimum expectation of real estate listings, and so not having them is a sign of an agency that’s behind the times. It only takes a minute per room to capture the necessary imagery, so it’s not a significant time sink either.
Home viewings aren’t the only thing that can be recreated virtually with modern visual technology. This is useful in a variety of other remote selling contexts, whether that’s providing an in-depth preview of spaces to prospective theme part attendees, concert goers, conference center hirers, or anything else of this nature.
Bespoke Video Backgrounds for Thoroughly Themed Remote Presentations
When you need to pitch a product or service via a video call, there’s no excuse for doing so from a bland office space or, worse still, a domestic room that has clutter or personal items visible in the background. With the video conferencing market growing 8.2% annually and the majority of people having at least some experience of using these tools, there’s a high bar for what’s expected when the tech is deployed for professional purposes.
The simplest option is, of course, to just blur your background so only your body is visible onscreen. However, if you need to give a more involved presentation, then it makes sense to think more carefully about what you use in this context. Since customizing video call backgrounds is a cakewalk, there’s every reason to go the extra mile here.
Let’s say you’re pitching your latest vacation offering in a remote meeting using a reputable video conferencing platform. Having the video background themed appropriately, such as with footage of ocean views taken at the actual location you’re talking about, is a nice touch. This strategy applies regardless of the product or service, and so long as you don’t go for a background that’s overly distracting or detrimental to the quality of the call, it’s a win-win.
Using Data to Advance your Remote Selling
One of the upsides of selling products and services remotely is that each interaction a prospect makes is tracked by the platforms you use, providing you with plenty of data that can then form the basis for tweaks and improvements to your subsequent efforts.
Going back to the example of virtual property tours, being able to see which parts of the tour attract the most attention, both in terms of time spent on them and number of user interactions (i.e. clicks), gives you insight into what’s engaging, and by contrast, what isn’t. The same can be applied to 3D models of products, and using sales tools along with CRM solutions that offer the opportunity to tap into customer behavior data is a good idea as a result.
Aside from allowing you to adjust your sales material to reflect the needs and preferences of prospects going forward, it also enables you to follow up with existing clients in a way that’s personalized rather than generic.
Say you’ve got data from a sales platform that shows the client spent much of their time focusing on one particular part of a property listing. With this info in your back pocket, you could get back in touch and provide them with additional details about that specific area, with a view to improving your chances of converting them into a satisfied buyer.
Regardless of the context, visual technology and the valuable data it generates means that you aren’t reliant on intuition or guesswork. Moreover, it’s a means of delivering the levels of personalization that customers now expect, and which 76% will find frustrating if it’s not present in their interactions with businesses.
The Bottom Line
The right visual technology is a godsend for remote selling in all its forms, and as a result, it is already in use across every conceivable industry niche and market type.
The trick is for businesses to recognize their potential and take advantage of the tools on offer and the data they generate, rather than assuming that only the very most prominent players have the means and motive to follow this route.
