If anything, the fact that we are not currently selling face to face with somebody in the same room, means that our attention, research, and purpose need to be even stronger, and even better than ever before. This is the time to get better at Enterprise Selling and to prune out some of those old habits and adopt some new ones.

It is key to really understand:

a. Why you are connecting with this individual in the first place; and

b. Whether this is the only person you should be connecting with, from an economic buyer or influence perspective.

There are the five key steps that I recommend to cracking remote selling during COVID-19:

1. Research - what research have you done before reaching out to this prospect or customer? Do you know what their goals, fears and ambitions are? Have you looked at their LinkedIn profile? Have you listened to any podcasts they have recently appeared on?

2. Insights - Have you real or imaginary insights on the person or the organisation before reaching out? Have you picked the insights and topics that you want to talk about?

Have you identified whether the technology that you want to be aligned with is aligned with their most strategically important pieces? These are the things that you need to know to engage with them at a senior level.

3. Contacts - How many contacts in the organisation are you reaching out to? And why? Do you know what role they play? Are they influencers, users, recommenders, decision makers or champions? Do you know specifically what the purpose of connecting with them is?

4. Personalise - How personal can you make your message? What help have you on hand to craft your message so that it is non ‘vanilla’ and grabs their attention? Ask yourself: is this crafted and is it appropriate?

It's much like writing this article in many ways, it might take draft three, four or forty-four to get it crystal clear, and to have crafted our message effectively. It also needs space to iterate over time.

5. Quality of message. Focus on the quality of your message over the quantity. How well do you know your audience? How well do you know their customers and where their customers are going? Knowing both well will improve the overall quality of your message.

By pulling each of these factors together, we are earning the right to build a relationship and build that rapport with each individual that we want to attract. And, as I have said before, all relationships are built on trust, like and respect.

So, consider, how can you use each one of these tools to pull your prospect towards you?

I would love to hear your views on this evolving topic that is not going away anytime soon!

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If you want to take your career to the next level, and also improve your skills in Enterprise Sales, please contact me [email protected]