Straight Talk: The Future of the Sales Pitch [Video]

NORTHBROOK, Ill.—October 15, 2020—In this edition of Straight Talk with Jeff Cross, John Monroe, a business development advisor with Violand Management Associates (VMA), discusses his ideas for improving the sales pitch by capitalizing on the technology and strategies that became necessary during the pandemic.

In addition to advising clients with VMA, Monroe also writes articles for Cleanfax, including his recent article, “Four Sales Management Strategies for a Post-COVID-19 World.” Monroe points out that as sales and marketing staffs begin to strategize for the next months and the upcoming year, it’s important not to forget what we learned about sales during the pandemic.

“COVID made salespeople better,” Monroe says. “I think they got better at being on social media; I think they got better at talking on the phone; I think they got better at doing these types of zoom meetings; I think they got better at virtual marketing.” He points out that we will likely not be returning to the traditional live sales pitch any time soon and the landscape has likely shifted permanently toward more virtual meetings, so the sales strategies we have come to rely on in the pandemic will continue to serve companies going forward.

Monroe also highlights some of the virtual sales tools that have gained popularity during COVID-19, such as Loom, Vidyard, and CloudApp. These platforms for creating digital marketing materials allow salespeople to create a recorded presentation about a new product or service. The video can then be linked or embedded in emails to clients, and research suggests that clients are more likely to respond to emails containing a personalized video sales pitch than they are to respond to an email alone, according to Monroe.

Monroe also wrote the article, “Are You Running in the Right Direction?” where he encourages salespeople not to go backward. “Don’t go back to the way you were doing business pre-March 13; that’s the day the world shut down and we were told to shelter in place.” Monroe insists that salespeople need to stick with what they learned during those difficult months of lockdown because the lessons were important.

“I think that the salesperson of the future, the 21st-century salesperson has got to learn to be able to work from home and also go out and make live sales calls,” Monroe says. He points out that LinkedIn, social media, and video marketing have all become essential to sales, and that is likely not going to change even post-pandemic.

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