Certainly, the B2B sales arsenal can be used in various ways, and everyone has their own approach. Some sell straightforwardly, while others try to build special relationships with each client. Finding your own working style is crucial. But in any case, it all comes down to communication with the client. Statistics show that a successful online meeting increases sales effectiveness by 3.5 times compared to just sending a presentation.
Every sales manager is familiar with the feeling of disappointment when it turns out that the time spent preparing presentations and other materials sent to the client was in vain because they didn’t even open them. Maybe something needed to be added? Perhaps certain points required a stronger emphasis? In a direct conversation, you can make changes to the presentation plan based on the participants’ reactions. But the problem is that they might not respond to your proposal, and the meeting may never take place.
By the way, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the content you packaged your proposal in was poorly prepared or uninteresting. More likely, the potential client viewed it, decided to contact you later, and got distracted by other tasks.
But how can you be timely? How can you initiate a conversation with a potential buyers exactly when they might be interested? What if we knew the most opportune time for communication? We tried to address this question for our parent company, Softprom, a large IT distributor whose sales managers send quite a few presentations to potential clients. Our idea was that a salesperson needed a tool that would notify them when a potential client was viewing their presentation or was interested in communicating. We assumed that this time would be the best for discussing a deal. As a result, our team created a solution that does exactly that – sends a message to the sales manager’s smartphone when someone starts viewing their presentation. In other words, your presentation becomes more effective than just sending materials.
Now, you have several options for interaction. But first, let’s understand how it works.
- Upload your presentation to Pitch Avatar. It can be in the form of PPT or PDF slides, or even a video that can be parsed.
- Add a script (description) or generate one using AI to accompany each slide. Even when you’re busy or on vacation, and another manager or a new employee is working with your presentation, they can familiarize themselves with your scripts and conduct the presentation or meeting at a high level.
- Add or generate voice-over for each slide and create your presenter avatar. This allows you to conduct the presentation even without your physical presence.
- Create a pitch and a detailed version. Especially for clients with limited time, mark the slides that serve as the pitch – a concise version of the presentation that conveys only its main idea. I should note that the pitch can also be useful for communicating with client employees who only need specific information, such as technical specifications.
- Create personalized links and send them to potential clients. You can do this both within the web version and using the Google Chrome Extension, sending them to the client via Gmail. In Gmail, a small widget is created, and you can upload the presentation that will be assigned to the email address you are sending it to. The same can be done on LinkedIn.
- Embed the presentation in an iframe. Without going into detailed explanations, this step clearly enhances the effectiveness of the presentation itself and your website.
I’d like to add a few technical details to this. In Pitch Avatar, you can control the presentation using voice commands. Clients have the option to use buttons like “call presenter,” “schedule a meeting,” and provide reactions, all while viewing the presentation.
The presentation is uploaded, configured, distributed across all platforms and sent to all clients. What’s next?
Here’s where the real magic happens. When someone clicks on your link and views the presentation, you receive a corresponding notification. If you’ve chosen a proactive scenario, you can immediately join the session and say something like, “Thank you, Mr. Smith, for taking the time to review my proposal. If you don’t mind, I’m ready to provide you with a personalized presentation and delve into the topic in more detail, or simply answer your questions.” It’s worth noting that notifications come to your smartphone or desktop, allowing you to control the presentation – switch slides and videos, activate the camera and microphone, and respond to chat messages. This turns your smartphone or laptop into a presentation control panel, meaning you can work with the client from anywhere, at any time, without being tied to a specific location.
The second possible scenario is interacting with the viewer at their request. You join the session when the potential client presses the “Call presenter” button. Here’s an important point: you can encourage the client to press this button, either during the presentation – through text on one of the slides, or through your voice, if you’re recording or generating audio or video comments. Or you can use both methods. It might look something like this: “Thank you for viewing my presentation. It consists of 10 slides. If you have any questions during or after the presentation, press the ‘Call presenter’ button, and I’ll be happy to join you and provide all the answers.”
Of course, the presenter isn’t always available to communicate with the client. They may be busy with other tasks, spending time with their family, eating, or simply sleeping. Can Pitch Avatar help with this? Yes.
Firstly, you can set your status to offline, making the “Call presenter” button inactive. However, the “Schedule meeting” button remains active, and you can link it to your calendar. This allows the client to choose a convenient time for both them and you. Thanks to “Schedule meeting,” you can avoid the traditional back-and-forth of emails and messages in which the seller and buyer exchange messages to agree on a meeting time.
Secondly, under any scenario, you receive a detailed report for each session. Analytical dashboards with key information about the viewer’s behavior are sent to your email. You will see:
- How much time the client spent on each slide
- Entry and exit times
- Viewer reactions
- Questions asked in the chat
- Comments that potential buyers can leave on each slide
- Other actions during the viewing
Thanks to this report, even if you didn’t have a direct conversation with the client during the presentation, you’ll be well-prepared for further communication.
Another advantage of Pitch Avatar is its ready-made integrations. Now is the time to mention that modern sales managers are somewhat skeptical about new solutions. They already have quite a large set of tools, and they must switch between them throughout the workday. However, they are receptive to ideas that integrate seamlessly into their daily workflow, enhancing the capabilities of their existing ecosystem. Pitch Avatar integrates with YouTube, PowerPoint, Google Docs, PDF formats, documents on Google Drive, and other familiar solutions. Notably, it offers integrations with Zapier, HubSpot, and SalesForce.
For instance, with HubSpot, you simply install an additional application and assign presentations in your CRM system to potential clients. This means you only upload the presentation and then you work as usual within the HubSpot system, receiving all data, view reports, and more. You can even conduct mass mailings to your clients, and each link will be personalized.
In short, Pitch Avatar allows the manager to continue working within their familiar ecosystem, which becomes even more convenient and efficient.
To conclude, I’d like to share some secrets from our sales team. I won’t reveal all the details, but here’s a general cheat sheet:
- Think of an intriguing topic. One effective approach is to request that potential clients showcase their presentations. Even though the email recipient doesn’t know who sent it, a savvy sales manager in this situation will provide a link to their presentation or multiple presentations. This establishes direct contact, accomplishing half the task. In our case, we can inquire about how often clients who view the presentation subsequently disappear, and we explain how we’ve addressed this issue.
- Add creative text. I won’t delve into a lengthy explanation of what constitutes “creative text.” Instead, I’ll share a real-life example from our company. One of our managers, in the third email of a sequence sent to potential clients, uses just one word and one punctuation mark. The text looks like this: “Name?” Surprisingly, the response rate to such an email turned out to be the highest.
- Experiment. This advice is highly individual. For some, the boldest experiment might involve making a direct sale. Indeed, many have become so accustomed to beating around the bush that they’ve forgotten when they last made a straightforward commercial offer without any frills. I know cases where this approach worked brilliantly, both as an original and attention-grabbing method.
- Always maintain a polished appearance during your presentation. The first thing that might come to mind with this advice is dressing well and applying makeup. A presenter’s impeccable appearance serves as a company’s showcase. However, this is only half the story. It’s equally important to conduct yourself confidently and demonstrate a thorough understanding of the subject on camera. This ensures that you will be trusted.
- Be sincere. This advice logically follows the previous one. Give sincere compliments, genuinely empathize with clients’ issues and tasks, and express sincere interest in their point of view. In return, they will be equally sincere. By the way, a sincere compliment can defuse almost any negativity from a client.
Wishing you all success, great clients, and high earnings!
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Author: Victoria Abed – Chief Revenue Officer at Pitch Avatar
