Virtual Events: Making Sales Teams More Agile than Ever Before

In recent years, sales departments have faced increasing pressure to deliver and drive growth, especially in the events field. Now, it’s undeniable that one of the prime reasons companies host events is to create opportunities for securing leads. But as going virtual became a necessity for brand events worldwide, sales teams — big and small — faced the challenge of showcasing products clients couldn’t easily get a feel for.

As a Sales Director for Asia’s leading virtual event platform, we know all too well the struggles of switching from traditional in-person events to virtual and hybrid models. From adopting new strategies with organizers to educating our customer base, it was not an easy transition.

However, there’s no need for any sad violins because my team can certify that any hurdles we faced were insignificant compared to the amazing advantages that virtual events now offer in helping sales teams like mine deliver faster and better results.

Online, Anytime, and in Any Place

With traditional events, there are strict meeting times and venues you have no option but to physically travel to. Sales teams are compelled to constantly run around meeting clients at venues as well as hit their usual work deadlines, and all before their nine-to-five shift ends and they have to catch the last bus ride home. Ever since the shift to online events, we said goodbye to these daily inconveniences.

Leading the Asia-based charge for virtual events has meant that we have removed the requirement for our sales teams to travel in-person to physical venues while affording our sales teams the convenience and efficiency of remote working options. What’s more, by embracing online networking we’ve also become more equipped for flexible working hours and are able to maintain consistent collaboration from any location. Daily meetings can be arranged and executed at a snap, while sales reps rack up clients throughout the day. And since attendees — many of which are potential customers — can attend virtual and hybrid events from any part of the globe, the possibility for a wider audience is also well within reach.

Case in point: Global-link MP Event International — one of Southeast Asia’s major event organizers — saw around 40% growth in visitors to its Hotel Suppliers Show VX last year. They had tapped us to help them host a digital expo where attendees could easily browse offerings from vendors across SEA (in place of running physical shows) in each of their major markets. This clever and convenient virtual solution immediately paid off as they recorded their highest sales to date.

Read: 5 Tips To Running a Successful Virtual Booth at an Online Event

Optimized Data Collection = Better Decisions

Gone are the days where we would deploy sales representatives en masse to event locations to form meaningful engagements with clients. This means less wasted labor and greater conservation of our team members’ social batteries. If you’re wondering how we’re bridging any potential gap this leaves in the virtual landscape, the answer can be summarized thusly: data-driven decisions.

Due to the digital nature of our products, we’re able to get extremely accurate information about how our events perform. Metrics like engagement and satisfaction are easier to track for online events, helping us tweak our campaign strategies along the way for maximum impact. We can also personalize our client follow-ups based on their ‘interest level’ through real-time analytics on file downloads, initiated conversations, and meetings booked. These elements work hand in hand and in combination they inform us on how best to approach our clients.

With just a few clicks, we can adapt to the newest trends and address customers’ pain points by using our virtual platform’s optimized data collection system. Indeed, it serves as a much-needed anchor as we navigate the tumultuous digital landscape.

Read: 7 Ways Event Management Software Is Essential For Organizers

A Whole New World of Possibilities

There is still so much to discover about virtual event settings. Considering all the fascinating features the event tech industry is putting out, sales teams are being given more room to experiment now more than ever.

Read: What will happen to events in a post-Covid Asia?

I could even argue that it is Sales departments that are on the front line of defining the future of virtual event technology. This is owing to the fact that these platforms’ advancements also depend on how we communicate the needs and feedback of our customers with our development teams. Either way, it’s a win-win situation that only opens up even more new avenues for innovation.

Virtual events transcend time and geographical constraints. They eliminate the heavy bureaucracy of traditional events but also allow companies access to a wide variety of virtual and hybrid show formats that can engage partners and prospective clients alike. And since virtual event platforms offer a single location for multiple purposes, it actually requires little effort to maintain, paving the way for teams to allocate more of their energy and creativity to other aspects of their sales strategy.

In summary, the shift to virtual events has opened a lot of doors for us in sales. It provided a flexible new setup for us to adapt to the changing competitive market as well as more ways to accelerate and reinvent the way we meet the needs of our customers.