Virtual Selling

6Blending

When I got my start in sales, back in my early twenties, I worked in an assigned territory in a local market. I could drive to all of my sales calls.

I called on local service businesses and manufacturers. To be effective at making recommendations that addressed their unique needs, I needed to physically walk through their operations. It was the most effective way to both build relationships and get hands-on with the problems my stakeholders faced.

My industry was also insanely competitive. Because the competition was so fierce, and the products, services, and prices offered by each company were essentially the same, it was the relationship that mattered most. People bought me first and then my company.

Those face-to-face interactions mattered dearly, because it was there that I built trust, reduced risk, differentiated and locked my competitors out.

Still, I spent a lot of time driving. My territory was four hours from top to bottom. Windshield time was, and still is, the biggest time sucker for field sales reps.

Then, as today, most field salespeople preferred to prospect for new business with their feet—in-person prospecting and door-to-door canvassing. I remember one of my first managers telling me to “go get lost in my territory” and that he “didn't want to see me in the office during the day.”

I quickly realized that this approach—driving around in my territory looking for new business opportunities—was stupid. Driving was not an accomplishment.

Time is money, ...