In recent years, we’ve seen a seismic shift in how people interact with businesses. Due to global events as well as some significant technological advances a remotely handled customer experience schematic has become a priority for many companies. That means virtual negotiation and persuasive skills will now be key to succeeding in sales and customer experience. ..
In fact, according to the 2022 Workplace Learning Trends Report, persuasion is the number one growing skill necessary for sales and customer experience success with a 78% increase in utilization. Negotiation is a close second, experiencing a 67% increase.
What is Persuasion?
Persuasion is the ability to inspire action by aligning others with your perspective or idea. It’s not just about convincing someone to agree with you, it’s about motivating them to act.
This distinction is key: convincing someone means they believe in your point of view, while persuading them involves using logic, emotion, and reasoning to drive a specific action.
For example, you might convince a team member that your proposed marketing strategy is effective, and they come to understand and support your approach. From there, you persuade them to allocate resources to implement the plan.
Effective persuasion often draws on a diverse skill set, including:
- Communication
- Negotiation
- Emotional regulation
- Public speaking
- Presentation
- Interpreting body language
- Strategic decision-making
Together, these skills empower you to present your ideas compellingly, connect with your audience, and drive action that brings your vision to life.
Customer Experience in an Online World
Strictly online customers no longer experience your products, sales staff, or consumer environment during in-person shopping and other events. This has created the need for a virtual customer experience. Simply put, if you want to keep your online customers, it’s important that they have a positive experience with your company.
Primarily, this means supplying an excellent customer service experience and being responsive to any questions or concerns that the customer may have. To do so, it is critical to develop negotiation and persuasion skills.
Why Persuasive Skills are Important
Of course, the ability to negotiate is important in any field, but it’s especially critical when working with customers. Negotiation is key to drive sales, ensure fair or favorable contracts, and keep valuable customers. It’s not always easy to get what you want, but a good negotiator can usually find a way to reach an agreement that benefits both parties.
Key Benefits of Persuasion in Your Career
Elevated Team Collaboration
Persuasion helps team leads and managers encourage others to embrace innovative ideas and take decisive action. Imagine you’re spearheading a project that involves untested strategies. With persuasive communication, you can address concerns, build excitement, and motivate your team to work toward a shared goal.
Driving Positive Change
Resistance to change is common in any workplace. Persuasion enables you to introduce beneficial processes or policies by focusing on their value and addressing potential objections. For example, presenting a case for a new flexible work policy by highlighting its advantages such as increased productivity and employee satisfaction can foster a more receptive environment.
Advancing Professional Growth
Persuasive skills can help you advocate for your own success, whether you’re pitching a groundbreaking idea or negotiating better pay. For instance, knowing how to use data to support your arguments, combined with empathetic communication, can help you approach salary negotiations with confidence and secure the compensation you deserve.
Boosting Productivity
Persuasion isn’t just about big-picture goals; it’s also vital for day-to-day collaboration. Whether you’re convincing a colleague to assist with a project or aligning priorities across departments, persuasive communication helps ensure smoother workflows and higher output.
Effective Crisis Management
In challenging situations, persuasion can be the key to de-escalating tension and finding solutions. Whether you’re calming a frustrated client or rallying your team during tough times, the ability to communicate with clarity and empathy allows you to resolve conflicts and maintain focus on shared objectives.
Strengthening Leadership Skills
Mastering persuasion fosters leadership qualities like active listening, empathy, and trust-building. Leaders who understand what motivates their team can inspire action while nurturing a sense of unity. For example, persuading your team to meet a critical deadline by emphasizing shared goals and rewards can lead to both success and camaraderie.
Building Stronger Relationships
Persuasion is most effective when it prioritizes mutual benefit. Showing genuine understanding of others’ perspectives during conversations fosters trust and respect, leading to stronger professional relationships. Over time, this approach creates an environment where collaboration and support flourish.
How Negotiation Skills Have Changed in a Remote Workplace
In a remote workplace, the ability to negotiate is even more important. Since you’re not face-to-face with the customer, many of the classic negotiation skills like perfecting your handshake, maintaining open body language, and even keeping eye contact must be altered. Virtually, you’ll need to focus on convincing them that your product or service is the right solution for their needs. This means learning how to understand customer needs and identify what they are looking for.
This can be challenging, especially since research shows customers are more likely to buy products or services online on an impulse. Even consumer research of your product or service will likely take place in one of many customer service review or ratings websites and out of your control. If you’ve created a product that meets your customers’ needs, it’s now essential to go into negotiations with a compelling case for what will benefit them.
A Shift to Virtual Sales
As mentioned, now, more than ever, it’s important to understand the customer and their needs before trying to make a sale. This means taking the time to build a relationship with the customer and understanding their buying process. Adding the power of persuasion to your negotiation strategy can help fill in the gaps left by switching away from in-person negotiation.
For sales and customer service staff, that means communicating with customers in a way that is respectful and professional. In a virtual setting perhaps to a larger degree than at the negotiation table it’s easy for misunderstandings to happen. You must be able to head off misunderstandings when possible, resolve the problems that do occur, and work towards building a strong business relationship.
Here are some key tips to help you succeed in virtual sales negotiations:
- Don’t overcomplicate things. When you’re in a virtual setting, it’s easy to hyperfocus on your presentation. When being too polished can have a negative effect on the customer and being unprepared can leave the customer second-guessing your value, it can seem like you must walk a fine line to make the sale.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale. In a virtual setting, it’s easy to feel like you’re not in control. However, the truth is, taking control of a virtual negotiation is as easy as calmly and confidently stating your goals. Be confident in your abilities and ask for the sale.
- Be clear and concise. When you’re negotiating virtually, it’s critical to be transparent and honest about your product or service, as well as your company’s values. Keep this energy throughout the sales negotiations and even after the sale remain responsive and available when the customer has questions or concerns.
- Deliver easily digestible pieces of information. In a time where customers are consuming more video and other virtual content more than ever, this can seem counterintuitive. However, due to all the competition for your customers’ attention, it’s important to deliver information quickly and concisely. Make sure your presentation is easy for the customer to read and use bullet points when necessary.
- Use images and videos. Humans process and remember information more easily when it is presented visually. Using images and videos can be a fantastic way to help the customer understand your product quickly. You can also visually demonstrate how your product or service will solve a problem for the consumer.
- Be proactive in nonverbal communication. While nonverbal communication is certainly more difficult during virtual sales, it’s still enormously important. Monitor your facial expressions using your own camera feed and do your best to maintain eye contact virtually.
- Continue to practice active listening skills. In a virtual setting, it’s easy for one person to take over and dominate the conversation. Thus, active listening techniques like visibly and audibly affirming your understanding, repeating client points or questions before responding, and asking your own questions are crucial in the digital age. Active listening helps you build that vital connection with your customer and strengthens your position without dominating the negotiations process.
Key Takeaways
It is clear that negotiation and persuasion skills will be more important than ever in the workplace. Companies need to make sure their staff is equipped with this skillset to be successful in a virtual setting. This includes adapting and fine tuning their skills of negotiation and persuasion for the online world.
