Your prospect spends less than 17% of their time in actual sales meetings and around 5 % with you. By controlling what happens between those meetings, you can get more of your prospect’s time and drive your deal forward faster. As a result, you can up your win rate and close the deal quicker.
There is a gap between you and your prospect, and it works like a partial blindfold: it only lets you see certain things that happen throughout the sales process. Usually, this means that you can see what happens in the live meetings you hold with your prospect, but what’s going on between them is anyone’s guess. This, in turn, can make you lose the deal or spend too much time on a prospect who isn’t interested. So, how can we tackle this problem and close the gap between you and your prospect?
Asynchronous vs synchronous interactions
To figure this out, we need to introduct two terms – namely synchronous and asynchronous interactions. Synchronous interactions are all those that happen live, such as digital meetings, phone calls etc. while asynchronous interactions are those that don’t happen in real time. This could, for example, be emails, chat -or video messages.
Oftentimes, sellers are focused on the synchronous interactions that occur between them and their prospect. This is partly a good thing – we need to run great sales meetings and get to know our prospect live – but it does leave out some crucial interactions. Namely, the interactions that could occur between meetings.
Connecting with your prospect between meetings
So, how can you use asynchronous interactions to take control of what happens between meetings? For example, you could:
- Use a chat tool to catch any questions your prospect has between meetings, and never let them sit around waiting for a response for too long. This can let you control the conversation, and help make sure your prospect gets the information they need when they need it. So that they can move forward in their buying journey.
- Use video messages to bridge the gap between meetings. Video messages offer a more personal approach, and can let you walk through your offering or underline what you spoke about in the last meeting. On top of that, video messages allow your prospect to see you even when you’re not in a live call, which can help them get to know you better and feel a personal connection.
- Share material that the prospect can go through in their own time. Content sharing via some asynchronous mode of interaction is an important part in driving sales. You are probably already doing this by sending sales material through email, but there are more modern tools that make said content sharing easier for both you and your prospect (such as digital content repositories).
- Use a task manager to build accountability throughout the sales process. The sheer idea of giving your prospect tasks may be daunting, and it might feel a little bit off. That said, if your prospect is open to it, setting short to-do’s that are to be done by you and your prospect, before the next call, can create a sense of joint accountability. It could even underline the notion that you and your prospect are in this together, as a team, and have the same drive to see the process through. Plus, it can help make sure that everything that should be done before a call is, in fact, done. Which can help save time for both you and your prospect and show that you truly value the time you get with them.
Use more of your sales potential
By using these types of interactions, you can control a larger portion of the sales process. You will no longer only be able to connect with your prospect during meetings. Instead, you can do so in micro-steps throughout the whole journey – by chatting, sending video messages, sharing material etc. As a result, you will get more of your prospect’s time and can have a larger chance of affecting the outcome. It’s almost like unlocking a larger part of your sales potential, and having more chances to drive the deal home.
Cater to buyer requirements
There is yet another reason to expand your focus to the asynchronous: buyers have undergone a change in preference and behavior and want more digital and asynchronous interactions. For example, Outreach (via Forrester), has shown that buyers want to drive their own journeys, do their own research and meet a sales rep first later in the process. This has also been underlined by a recent McKinsey study that showed how most medtech customers (50% +) prefer to use digital or remote channels earlier in the buyer’s journey.
What this means is that your buyer might actively be looking to interact with you through these asynchronous interactions. With that, you can cater to buyer preferences by giving them the chance to go through your material in their own time, get quick answers via chat or walkthroughs through video messages. In fact, doing so can enable them – and you – simultaneously.
Gathering your interactions
With all this, starting to control the conversation between meetings may sound like a slam dunk. There is, however, one risk involved: by starting to use different tools to interact with your prospect between meetings, you may spread your interactions over several tools. You may use one tool for sending chat messages and another for video messages. You might have your content repository in one place or send material as email attachments that get forwarded across your prospect’s organizations. You may use all these tools separately, which makes it hard for your prospect to find what they’re looking for – and practically impossible for you to control what’s going on.
The good news is that there is a solution. Sales enablement has come a long way and there are tools that gather all these interactions in one place. By using such a tool, you can truly control these interactions, enable your buyer and make the sales journey so much smoother for everyone involved. There are even certain Digital Sales Rooms that let you gather both your asynchronous and synchronous interactions in one space. In other words, you can hold your digital meetings in the same space where you can connect with your prospect between meetings and effectively close the gap between you.
The result? You will no longer have a mere 5 % of your prospect’s time. Instead, you can connect with your prospect continuously throughout their journey and get more of their time in the process. It almost becomes a math equation. If you can close X number of deals with 5 % of your prospect’s time, how many could you close with 10, 20 or 30 %?
The SP CE Digital Sales Room lets you drive the deal in – and between – meetings, and connect with your buyer in one space throughout your journey together. Learn more in our Digital Sales Room FAQ or contact us to get a live tour of the SP_CE Digital Sales Room.
