Why your team needs a virtual sales floor

There is nothing quite like the buzz of the sales floor. When reps can gather together in one place, calling on prospects and customers, the energy is electric. This element of the sales process has evolved as work environments have adapted to hybrid and remote experiences.

Virtual selling for a virtual world

63% of high-growth organizations currently use a hybrid work model, meaning that employees are either remote or working from home at least some of the time. Virtual meeting platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and others make collaborating and connecting with clients from anywhere in the world easier.

Many employees love this flexibility, but making cold calls together for sales reps is very valuable. Dialing prospects in a remote environment is challenging for several reasons.

• Isolation: Spending hours in your home office dialing prospects can be lonely. Rejections feel harsher, and the moments between connections are more drawn out.
• Reduction of on-demand coaching opportunities: Real-time feedback is exponentially more valuable than receiving coaching tips based on calls you made several days ago. Many managers ask their reps to send them call recordings for feedback, but getting that feedback immediately after calls helps that feedback stick.
• Upskilling takes longer: Dialing alone makes finding examples of new and fresh approaches more challenging. In theory, reps are expected to listen to call recordings of others, but how often does that happen? On a sales floor, you can live listen to their calls while you wait for your next connection.

Isolation can lead to burnout and increased turnover, while the inability to listen to other people’s calls slows down ramp time for new reps. Organizations needed a way to recreate the energy of in-person selling even though they now use a virtual sales process. They turned to virtual sales floors.

What is a virtual sales floor?

A virtual sales floor is not just a digital version of the in-person sales floor; it's a community hub for reps. Virtual sales floors foster a sense of togetherness, allowing you to meet with your manager and fellow sales reps, perform call blitzes simultaneously, and listen to calls with prospects in real-time.

Orum’s Salesfloor offers a wealth of learning opportunities to reps of every experience level, as well as managers and executive leadership. Organizations using Orum host daily call blitzes, where sales reps complete their call tasks within the Salesfloor. Orum’s Salesfloor provides the opportunity to spotlight reps connected with prospects. This means reps can listen to other people’s conversations to see how they handle objections, make their pitches, and build relationships with prospects, empowering them to improve their sales techniques.

The benefits of a virtual salesfloor

Collaboration

The biggest advantage of a virtual sales floor is that it optimizes your organization’s ability to create a thriving calling culture. Reps can dial together during call blitzes and sit on the sales floor while doing pre-call research and post-call follow-ups. This fosters a sense of teamwork while working remotely and builds trust amongst your team.

Increasing learning opportunities

Orum’s Salesfloor is designed to create an environment of continuous learning. Reps can ramp up faster by receiving instant feedback on their conversations. They can also “spotlight” another rep during their calls, allowing them to listen to that conversation.

New reps can watch their coworkers handle objections and learn to provide value through pitching. Even the most experienced reps frequently uncover new discovery question ideas and pick up subtle adjustments to their own repertoire.

Provide Real-time support

Support can take multiple forms. When your teammates listen to your conversations, they can celebrate your biggest successes and help you overcome rough rejections. That moral support is crucial, especially in cold calling, where failure is part of the process.

Managers can also provide support in the form of instant feedback after calls. Managers can hop into conversations with their reps directly after a call when the feedback and experience are fresh by sharing a virtual sales floor. Any coaching from managers can result in improvements from reps, but when that coaching occurs in real time, it can be implemented immediately, resulting in immediate growth.

Productivity and visibility

Having a virtual sales floor creates FOMO for your sales reps. They want to get involved and start dialing when they see other people making calls. This healthy “fear of missing out” increases productivity for individual reps and the team. Healthy competition drives better results for all involved.

Virtual sales floors also put faces to names. Sales reps can connect with their teammates daily and get more “face time” with leadership. This visibility is often lost in remote environments, but it’s beneficial for multiple reasons. When leaders interact with their teams, they can more quickly connect the dots between prospects they meet and the reps who can help work those deals.

From a rep perspective, the more face time you get with leadership, the more comfortable you are asking them questions or seeking feedback. Visibility from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective benefits the entire organization.

With Orum, you’ll never dial alone

The power of a virtual sales floor is multiple. Sales leaders can provide coaching feedback instantly, which previously took hours of additional meetings and clogged calendars. Decision makers and directors can gain visibility into how pipeline is being built, and sales reps can build camaraderie.

For some, making cold calls with your camera on can be as daunting as dialing alone. The benefit of Salesfloor is that, while you can dial with your team, you don’t need to dial with your whole team. Yes, there will be times when everyone is dialing together during call blitzes, but you can also create a room where reps can dial with one or a few other people.

Remote teams thrive on virtual salesfloors

Providing virtual sales floors for your reps offers the best of both worlds. Your team maintains the work-life balance and flexibility that working from home provides while also having the opportunity to connect and collaborate with teammates.

Organizations need a way to grow a healthy culture for their teams in a world where employees work globally. Platforms like Orum’s Salesfloor offer the best of both worlds. You can work from anywhere while feeling part of a thriving and growing sales team.