As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to negatively affect the economy, salespeople are left with no choice but to adapt to the new normal. While the preventive measures being taken to minimize the transmission of the virus are proven to be beneficial for everyone’s health and safety, it has taken a toll on the supply chain, labor force, and consumer demand. 

From a survey conducted to find out how the top 500 companies are responding to COVID-19, 93% of respondents noted that the pandemic will negatively affect their business but interestingly, only 28% of them are expecting a long-term impact! While there are other factors involved, this data suggests that the other 65% may have already found a strategy that can help their company thrive even after the pandemic.

Additionally, 77% of the respondents believe that an economic downturn is an inevitable outcome and with strict social distancing measures, travel bans, government restrictions, and most shoppers quarantined – it seems like everyone in the business industry is gradually shifting to virtual selling.

Although some of you may identify virtual selling as just a passing sales trend that will eventually end – well sadly, this isn’t the case.

There’s no need to wait for signs of things returning back to the way it was – virtual selling is here to stay. Gone are the days when face-to-face presentations are a necessity, online communication is the new normal.

A 2017 research suggested that there’s been an 89.2% increase of sales reps spending half of their time selling remotely – this was three years ago even before this whole fiasco, so you can just imagine how these numbers have skyrocketed from the beginning of this year!

While the concept of virtual selling has been used by other companies even before the pandemic, not everyone is comfortable with this technology. However, if we are left with no choice, why not view this time as an opportunity to shift to a more effective and modern way of selling?

If you are still reluctant to abandon your company’s long-standing processes, remember the story of how Alibaba, a B2B marketplace, survived amidst the pandemic back in 2003.

The SARS outbreak shattered China’s economy seventeen years ago and with Alibaba planning to launch a new website, most were expecting that the company would not be able to survive.

What’s worse is how all employees were forced to quarantine in their homes after a staff contracted SARS. Alibaba’s former executive chairman Jack Ma then decided to send his workers home while they continue to work with the e-commerce platform. After several days of this routine, they were able to successfully launch Taobao on time and Chinese consumers who were stuck at home continued purchasing items virtually even after the 2003 pandemic.

Take note that this was the time when computers were very bulky, telephone cables were needed, optical discs were just invented, and teleconferencing software wasn’t a thing. 

If this was possible before, then that means it’s easier now! With the invention of smartphones and software designed for remote communication, what’s stopping you from shifting to virtual selling? Especially when Chet Holmes International and our partners have been seeing a 30% closing rate with attendees!

Right after the terrible events of 9/11 in America, Chet Holmes had to rapidly shift from face to face traditional marketing. Because of the disruptions to flight and travel in general, we were forced to re-create the way we presented our services. You couldn’t attract an audience during this time and for several years after.

Chet Holmes recreated the unique paradigm that selling to a group, this long secret strategy is what lead to crazy high closing ratios of 30% or more when traditional webinar presentations closed at a measly 3% on average. Chet Holmes and our partners have been refining this process of virtual workshops over the past 18 years.

Our partner Ted Miller has packaged everything you need to know. And demand for this training has been off the charts during the Covid Panic. You want to see this strategy for increasing your closing ratio to as high as 30%, with the notoriously hard to close decision makers of companies before it becomes the new normal. (We have been secret shopped by some huge names in the internet marketing space recently.)

 Click here to learn more!

While it’s true that the transition from in-person to virtual selling may be challenging and may take several months or years of trial and error, it’s crucial to develop strategies that can go well with the new technology and abandon the traditional methods of selling we are all used to. However, judging from the current situation, it seems that virtual selling may be the only option you have for your business to survive and thrive during and after the pandemic. At least the companies that were able to maintain a strong number by being adaptable are going to be in a much better position after this crisis abates.

To know more about how businesses are adjusting to the new normal, here’s a clip of how Antonelli’s Cheese Shop has been gradually shifting to virtual selling after almost a decade of traditional selling.