Nearly 70 Percent of Survey Respondents Do Not Believe Virtual Meetings are as Effective as In Person
RENO, NV. – May 12, 2020 – Today, Corporate Visions, a leader in sales and marketing messaging, content, and skills training, announced the results of its new survey, “Virtual Reality Check,” shedding light on the overall sentiment around virtual meetings and remote sales opportunities. These findings are especially relevant, as in an instant, 100 percent of salespeople are delivering remote presentations. The new study polled over 550 B2B sales reps to analyze how salespeople feel about virtual sales calls versus in-person meetings.
Nearly 70 percent of salespeople surveyed responded that remote selling is not as effective as in-person. Sales reps cited audience multi-tasking, limited interaction, and passive presentations as the main reasons behind their lack of confidence.
89 percent of those surveyed believe they could improve audience interaction and avoid multi-tasking if all participants turned on their cameras. However, 82 percent of respondents are hesitant to ask their customers to show their faces. Ironically, 67 percent of sellers who participated in the survey rarely or never turn on their own camera themselves.
The survey also found that 90 percent of sellers believe remote presentations should be more engaging than their in-person presentations. But the vast majority (76 percent) of survey respondents continue to use the same slide deck they used for in-person sales conversations.
“Sellers are clearly concerned about the new ‘virtual reality’ they find themselves in today,” said Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions. “But they will have to get used to it and figure out how to differentiate themselves. In speaking with sales leaders, they’re not sure this approach is going to change any time soon. In addition to safety considerations, they’re beginning to see the potential productivity improvements and cost savings of remote selling versus in-person.”
Corporate Visions recently released a Mastering Remote Selling skills training course designed to help companies clarify their most compelling message and deliver that message in a presentation that captures and holds audiences’ attention. By using evidence-based presentation techniques, sellers and marketers can embed memory and action triggers to ensure their audience remembers them when it’s time to buy.
“We’ve uniquely incorporated brain science principles and research-backed techniques on what drives memory and how memory drives decisions,” said Dr. Carmen Simon, Chief Science Officer at Corporate Visions. “In our research, we observe that virtual presenters are aware of the importance of sustaining focus and driving decisions. But they must become equally aware of the importance of being memorable in a virtual medium. In our most recent research, we found that people remembered less than 10% of the virtual content they viewed after 48 hours,” Simon added.
Three concepts that Corporate Visions encourages marketers and sellers to consider when updating their presentations for the online environment include:
- Attention Triggers: Your buyers won’t remember information if they don’t pay attention to it in the first place. You need to use dynamic visual techniques, such as animation, to present your story in a way that captures attention and sustains it for long periods.
- Memory Magnets: Even if your buyers pay attention, it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll remember what you showed them. You need to appeal to existing mental models, build associations, and use repetition thoughtfully, so your audience remembers key points without becoming annoyed.
- Decision Drivers: Even if you manage to get your audience to pay attention and remember your message, will they act on it? To influence buying behavior, you must appeal to human motivational drivers, like their need for achievement, autonomy, efficiency, excitement, prominence, or freedom from worry.
To learn more about Corporate Visions and its “Mastering Remote Selling” skills training product, visit https://cvi.to/master-remote-selling.
Methodology
This survey was conducted over a span of two weeks in Q1 2020 and captured responses from more than 550 B2B Sales, Marketing and Customer Success leaders across various industries, including high tech, healthcare, financial / fintech, telecommunications and professional services.
About Corporate Visions, Inc.
Corporate Visions is a leading marketing, sales and customer success messaging, content, and skills training company. Global B2B companies come to Corporate Visions when they want to:
- Create Value®: Increase pipeline by breaking the status quo, differentiating your solutions and creating more qualified opportunities
- Elevate Value®: Close more deals by building an effective business case that increases urgency and justifies executive decisions
- Capture Value®: Maximize the profitability of each deal by protecting pricing premiums and avoiding unnecessary discounting
- Expand Value®: Keep and grow existing customer revenue by improving retention rates, justifying price increases, and convincing customers to buy more