CSOs must focus on designing a purpose-built virtual selling technology stack that helps sellers execute fundamental virtual selling competencies. As mentioned previously, the three critical attributes include:
Improving Buyer Engagement
Virtual selling technologies help sellers improve customer engagement with innovative methods for facilitating meetings (for example, videoconferencing, visual collaboration), and asynchronous interactions with customers in a virtual selling environment (for example, video messaging, digital sales rooms). Innovative technologies can accelerate seller development of virtual customer engagement skills.
Simplified Workflows
Virtual selling technologies simplify day-to-day seller workflows by automating time-consuming tasks (for example, e-sign, sales engagement applications) and streamlining the seller’s user experience (UX) of technology. Lack of seller digital dexterity easily undermines the successful adoption of technology. Innovative technology vendors understand that making sellers fall in love with their products requires embedding technologies into sellers’ highly detailed daily workflows.
Adapt Data-Driven Seller Actions
Virtual selling technologies equip sellers with stakeholder and company data that generates situationally aware insights to influence messaging, workflows and tactics (for example, conversation intelligence, account-based platform). Since sellers tend to have the lowest data proficiency in the enterprise, innovative technologies must help sellers understand and activate data points.
Gartner recommends CSOs evaluate emerging technologies that support two kinds of B2B transactions:
- Volume and velocity: Typically executed over shorter sales cycles (less than three months), for small deal sizes (less than $25,000), with a small buying committee (less than six stakeholders), often for products with lower complexity.
- Enterprise: Typically executed over longer sales cycles (six months or more), for larger deal sizes (greater than $125,000), with a large buying committee (eight to 11 stakeholders), often for complex products.
Additional information is available to Gartner for Sales Leaders clients in the report: Introduction to the Virtual Selling Tech Stack.
About the Gartner CSO & Sales Leaders Conference
Sales leaders face unprecedented changes in B2B buying behaviors, customer expectations, technology and the talent needed to drive results. At the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference, taking place virtually on May 17-18, 2022, sales leaders will learn from the latest research and Gartner experts covering sales talent, customer buying behavior, account-based marketing strategies and leveraging digital channels. Follow news and updates from the event on Twitter at #GartnerSales.
About Gartner for Sales Leaders
Gartner for Sales Leaders provides heads of sales and their teams with the insights, advice and tools they need to address mission-critical priorities amid mounting pressures to drive growth through new and existing customers. With extensive qualitative and quantitative research, Gartner for Sales Leaders helps sales teams combat commoditization and price-based purchasing, develop critical manager and seller skills, elevate the value of sales interactions, unlock existing growth potential, and optimize sales force enablement. Follow news and update from the Gartner Sales practice on Twitter and LinkedIn using #GartnerSales. Members of the media can find additional information and insights in the Gartner Sales Newsroom.
