Hivebrite

Aug 15, 2023

Learn how sales teams at Skillsoft and Hivebrite navigate and benefit from the virtual selling process. August 15, 2023Updated: August 15, 2023 For VP of Sales Elly Hanek, the most fun aspect of virtual selling isn’t closing a tough deal — it’s facing the challenges that come before that happens. At Skillsoft , she helps the company’s sales team foster relationships with clients through a mixture of in-person and remote selling. Hanek loves taking this hybrid approach, even though it can be harder to build trust with clients. In her mind, the key to overcoming this hurdle is simple: Enjoy the journey. “If we’re having fun with the customer and hitting the mark on helping them, they’re more likely to stay engaged with us, even in a virtual environment,” Hanek said. Despite the challenges associated with it, virtual selling is considered advantageous by some sales leaders. This includes Douglas Hoodack, VP of sales in North America at Hivebrite . He believes virtual selling has enhanced the experience for both customers and sellers in various ways, including shortening the sales cycle. “It doesn’t replace the value of in-person meetings — it adds to it,” Hoodack said. Of course, Hoodack noted, his team members still struggle with various aspects of virtual selling, such as lacking the ability to read a customer’s non-verbal cues and body language. But by leveraging a variety of tools — including Gong, Salesforce and Chilly Piper — they’re able to more easily manage client relationships throughout the sales cycle. Below, Hanek and Hoodack outline the complexities that come with virtual selling and how to navigate them. VP of Sales Give us some background about you and your career journey so far. My family and I moved to Franklin, Tennessee, two years ago after a lifetime in Chicago. We’re loving the shift to warmer winters and enjoying all of the fun the Nashville area has to offer. From a professional standpoint, I’ve been in the human capital space for 20 years. I started my career and spent 16 years at CareerBuilder, where I helped the company pivot from advertising to advertising and software. I started many different divisions at CareerBuilder, including a new sales motion selling to large franchise brands, built a customer success group from scratch and led countless teams to success, which resulted in my being named “Sales Leader of the Year” four times. In my five years at Skillsoft, I’ve enjoyed working with many different regions on growing our relationships with the Fortune 1000. I’ve been in virtual sales mixed with in-person sales my entire career and love the hybrid nature of being able to react to what’s needed based on each individual situation. Skillsoft has really been a trailblazer in virtual selling, and I’ve learned so much over the years working with a remote and distributed team that has vast relationships in this space. In your opinion, what challenges are unique to virtual selling, and how do you overcome them? I think building trust is a unique challenge to virtual selling. I’m a big believer in my team showing up having done their research and having a clear point of view on how we can help our client solve their challenges. In a world full of short attention spans, it’s important to be personable, interesting and interested in the client first. Solving challenges is fun, so at the end of the day, we try to work very hard but not take things too seriously. In a world full of short attention spans, it’s important to be personable, interesting and interested in the client first.” What tools do you use to take virtual sales to the next level? I believe our best tools for virtual sales are being human with our customers and allowing them to be human as well. We love to use Microsoft Teams and show up on camera. We have put together a virtual coffee series during which we connect with executives on large-scale initiatives. We’re always willing to invest in buying a virtual lunch via Uber Eats to create the time and space for a conversation we wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. We also use Highspot to see what aspects of a deck resonate most with a customer, further highlighting the importance of customization and paying attention to the customer’s needs. We use many research tools to hit the mark, such as ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, customers’ annual reports and Google Alerts. Selling to large organizations is complex, with many different decision-makers and intricate processes. It’s important for us to engage every resource available to remain timely regarding the arrival of new decision-makers and stay up to date on any news in the market or about the customer themselves. My days and weeks fly by, which is a sign that we’re all having fun.