Gartner for Sales Leaders

Strategic Virtual
Selling Framework
Gartner for Sales Research Team
Sales enablement leaders need a clear strategy
to support the sales force in a virtual selling
environment. Use this framework to review, align
and enable virtual selling with new buying realities,
including asynchronous and synchronous virtual
customer engagement.

Published 26 March 2021 — ID G00745579

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 2

Chief sales officers (CSOs) are preparing for a more permanent shift to a Figure 1: CSO Actions Related to Virtual Selling
virtual selling reality. In our CSO Priorities Pulse Survey (January to February
2021), CSOs reported they expect 58% of the sales force will remain operating
virtual by the end of 2021 (up from 24% working virtually prepandemic). Percentage of CSOs
Looking beyond this year, over a third of CSOs reported they are permanently
Updating Seller Competency Investing in New Technology
transitioning some or all field sellers to virtual roles, and another third are Profiles for Virtual Selling to Enable Virtual Selling
considering it. While a partial or fully virtual sales force can reduce cost of
sales, this shift is also attractive to CSOs because of buyers’ preference to 6.6%
complete B2B purchases digitally. 26.2% 32.8% Not Considering
Considering Considering
As a result, sales enablement leaders need to continue making investments
in training, coaching and other resources to support sellers seeking to adopt
an effective virtual selling approach. In fact, 74% of CSOs report they have
recently or are currently updating their seller skills profile for virtual selling,
and 61% of CSOs are already investing in new technology to enable virtual
selling (see Figure 1).

As you build out your virtual selling strategy, it is

important to fit your strategy into your organizational
context and culture. 73.8% 60.7%
Executed/ Executed/
Executing Executing

n = 61 CSOs
Source: Gartner CSO Priorities Pulse Survey (January to February 2021)
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
745579_C

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 3

 Figure 2: Framework to Enable Effective Virtual Selling
Sales enablement’s guidance should emphasize
the quality of a seller’s virtual customer interaction,
regardless of whether it is a meeting or email,
instead of seeking to maximize the quantity of
a seller’s virtual customer interactions. Synchronous Asynchronous Virtual Effective
Virtual Customer
Engagement
+ Virtual Customer
Engagement
x Seller
Enablement
= Virtual
Selling

Key to a more permanent shift toward virtual selling is a shift in Tactics for Opportunities Actions to The people,
enablement strategy. Progressive enablement leaders realize sellers need live customer for customers to develop resources processes and
interactions, such independently that enable technology to
to stop assuming live meeting practices transfer seamlessly to virtual as before, during review information virtual selling support virtual
settings, and they must prepare sellers to sustain digital-first selling and after virtual and engage with and to execute selling.
meetings. digital tools while enablement
behaviors. This research provides a framework to help sales enablement ensuring continuity initiatives virtually.
take immediate and plan longer-term actions to develop a virtual selling between channels.
strategy along the following dimensions (see Figure 2):

• Synchronous Customer Engagement — This includes tactics for live Source: Gartner
customer interactions, such as premeeting planning, virtual meeting 745579_C

engagement and postmeeting follow-ups.

• Asynchronous Customer Engagement — This includes providing

customers with opportunities to independently review information and
engage with tools on supplier websites, microsites and so forth while
ensuring continuity as customers transition between channels.

• Virtual Seller Enablement — This includes actions to develop resources

that enable virtual selling and to execute enablement initiatives virtually.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 4

Synchronous Virtual Customer Engagement
Sellers that master the new strategies required to virtually engage will help
distinguish themselves from their peers. In fact, 73% of B2B buyers say the
winning supplier’s seller for a purchase was either effective or highly effective
at virtual meetings; just 2% were ineffective. However, to deliver virtual
meetings effectively, they require greater coordination and different meeting
facilitation skills compared to in-person meetings.

Sales enablement leaders must help sellers make critical changes to how
they prepare for, facilitate and follow up after a virtual customer meeting
(see Tables 1 and 2). This is necessary because compared to live meetings,
in a virtual setting:

• Customers are likely to have lower attention spans.

• Customers’ expressions, body language and other cues are harder

to observe and track.

• Key decision makers and senior leaders may more often delegate
virtual calls to junior contacts.

• Stakeholders may be more reluctant to share skepticism and

challenge viewpoints, especially in a big buying group, making
it harder to facilitate consensus.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 5

Table 1: Short- and Long-Term Seller Actions for Synchronous Virtual Customer Engagement (Premeeting Planning)
Activity Short-Term Actions (One to Three Months) Long-Term Actions (Six to 12 Months)
Virtual Meeting Create Precall Plan: Develop a precall plan (PAO) to establish expectations for the – Determine Value of Live Virtual Interactions: In a hybrid setup of in-person and
Strategizing • Purpose (of the meeting) virtual interactions with clients, prioritize virtual interactions for an agenda that
• Agenda (three to five words per bullet) would best be supported by remote specialists and geographically dispersed
customer or supplier teams.
• Outcome (that drives towards the next step). For more information,
see Remote Meeting Fundamentals. Host Remote Meetings for Major Project Milestones: Use remote meetings to
facilitate major milestone events so you can ensure maximum customer participation.
Set Meeting Cadence Expectations: Set and communicate expectations about
Save in-person meetings for coordinating and executing on targeted, intermediate
shorter but potentially more frequent meetings.
milestones with relevant customer stakeholders.
Define Call Participant Roles: Identify the colleagues to invite for an upcoming
Assess Customers' Digital Footprint: Review asynchronous customer activities on
meeting with tightly defined roles for each seller, manager or specialist to maximize
platforms such as customer microsites and digital sales rooms to –
limited customer time.
• Inform meeting agendas and provide recommendations that push deals forward.
Find Best-Fit Subject Matter Expert Deal Support: Use the remote setup as an • Inform the creation of new content and improve the content usage by sellers
opportunity to selectively deploy geographically dispersed, high-quality experts and customers during live meetings.
and specialists for complex and high-value deals.

Execute Precall Customer Planning and Run Role-Playing Exercises: Schedule a

call planning session to coordinate with colleagues joining the customer call,
and as appropriate, role-play select interactions to anticipate and strategize for
Source: Gartner likely roadblocks.

Continued on next page

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 6

Table 1: Short- and Long-Term Seller Actions for Synchronous Virtual Customer Engagement (Premeeting Planning)
Activity Short-Term Actions (One to Three Months) Long-Term Actions (Six to 12 Months)
Stakeholder Confirm Participants and Meeting Agenda: Informed by the PAO, highlight the Select Customer Stakeholders to Invite to Meeting: In a hybrid setup, determine
Identification intent or purpose of the meeting with customers in advance of the call to target whether a customer stakeholder must be present in an in-person buying group
and Engagement appropriate stakeholders, validate the plan, solicit additional topics and confirm meeting or can be engaged in a separate virtual meeting or asynchronously.
Planning participation by senior stakeholders who may delegate virtual sales calls to This decision can be made by mapping stakeholders’ roles and levels of influence
junior contacts. in the buying group as well as their communication preferences.

Identify and Collaborate With Mobilizer(s): Identify Mobilizers in the buying group Find Best-Fit Channel to Engage Stakeholders: Determine the best-fit synchronous/
who will be advocates for you within the customer organization. Partner with them asynchronous channel (e.g., email, text, social media, customer microsite, live
to encourage the buying group’s participation during meetings using our meeting, etc.) to engage customers across all customer touchpoints with a supplier
Stakeholder/Mobilizer Identifier Toolkit. during a purchase. Stay attuned to customer communication preferences, and
track changes in customer preferences on an ongoing basis to regularly revisit
Create Conversation Roadmap: Prepare talking points and a plan of action to —
channel selection.
• Invite inputs from stakeholders other than primary contact or decision makers
• Proactively seek information about and introduction to additional stakeholders
who should be involved

Generate Hypotheses to Prepare for Meeting: Hypothesize potential conclusions

and questions customers might bring to the meeting. Also, hypothesize topics,
goals and transitions to prepare a conversation path, to develop customer prompts
to provide context for questions, and to help the meeting attendees arrive at a
Source: Gartner common understanding about the information shared in meetings.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 7

Table 2: Short- and Long-Term Actions for Synchronous Virtual Customer Engagement (During Meeting and Meeting Debrief)

Activity Short-Term Actions (One to Three Months) Long-Term Actions (Six to 12 Months)
Establish Agenda Share Narrrowly Scoped Agenda and Prioritized Meeting Topics: Begin meeting by Improve Meeting Management: In a hybrid setup of remote and in-person meetings,
for Meeting communicating a narrowly scoped agenda and desired outcome(s) with a few, clearly sellers should –
defined objectives, informed by the precall plan (PAO). Prioritize information that • Share a recap of the last discussion at the start of each meeting to ensure
requires stakeholder inputs and/or approval to move conversations forward. continuity between meetings, since some stakeholders may not be present
Prioritize and Adapt Content for a Virtual Format: Thoughtfully create shorter, in all meetings.
bite-sized data and content in appropriate formats for 30-, 45- or 60-minute virtual • Anticipate and proactively manage tangents in a discussion, which is more likely
meetings to ensure comprehension and respect for time commitments. to occur in remote, larger group meetings.

Stakeholder Encourage Customer Stakeholder Participation: Intentionally use pauses in the Create a Digitally Immersive Customer Experience: To create a more engaging and
Engagement meeting to compel customer participation and to check for comprehension and dynamic experience in a hybrid setup of remote and in-person meetings —
During Meeting attention; engage Mobilizers to help drive discussion forward. • Leverage available technology to conduct virtual product demos.
Increase Stakeholder Involvement: Drive planned and purposeful involvement of • Record and share customized videos.
various customer stakeholders’ opinions (beyond the primary point of contact). • Share fillable forms or calculators.

Incorporate Collaboration Tools: Use different collaboration technologies, especially

when meeting with larger groups, such as whiteboarding, mind mapping and polling
tools to alleviate virtual meeting fatigue, reduce the barrier for participation and
encourage active collaboration.

Debrief With Key Debrief With Mobilizer(s): Assess stakeholder engagement in a call debrief with Drive Cross-Functional Collaboration: In addition to customer stakeholders, work
Stakeholder(s) Mobilizer, and create a plan to facilitate consensus. with your sales manager to identify and help broker appropriate marketing and
service relationships. Leverage these cross-functional colleagues to better execute
Debrief With Senior Stakeholder(s): End the call five minutes early and request
on postmeeting action items and create a truly consistent supplier experience.
the senior customer stakeholder remain on virtual platform with the sales leader
to discuss progress.

Send Follow-Up Email and Share Next-steps: Ensure agreement and clear
Source: Gartner
expectations on next steps, which are promptly sent as a follow-up email.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 8

Asynchronous Virtual Customer Engagement
According to our 2021 Digital Buying Survey, B2B customers report review information on supplier websites and customer microsites as well
spending more than one-fourth of their time engaging the winning supplier as drive continuity in the buying experience as customers move between
in a purchase decision through asynchronous exchanges (e.g., via email, channels. This type of engagement is necessary because in the current
text, social media, microsites, voicemail, and so forth). Clearly, sellers today sales environment:
must master asynchronous engagement to be successful.
• Customers have become fatigued by virtual meetings.
Mastering asynchronous engagement requires sellers to effectively connect • Customers want answers to their questions on-demand.
with customers outside of in-person meetings (see Table 3). Sellers should
use asynchronous engagement to both ensure customers independently • Customer requests can often be addressed quicker without live meetings.

Table 3: Short- and Long-Term Seller Actions for Asynchronous Virtual Customer Engagement

Activity Short-Term Actions (One to Three Months) Long-Term Actions (Six to 12 Months)
Channel Select Interaction Method: Before scheduling a virtual meeting or phone call, consider Prioritize Asynchronous Engagement: In a hybrid set-up of in-person and virtual
Selection whether an asynchronous engagement would be more effective. interactions with clients, use synchronous engagement first to resolve most customer
problems and reserve synchronous engagement only for situations clients would
define as "high value" and when problems cannot be resolved asynchronously.
Content Share Buyer Enablement: Share high-quality digital content aligned to key customer Curate and Reconcile Conflicting Information: Create and continually update a
Management jobs during a purchase process (e.g., buyer enablement) to help customer stakeholders repository of information resources customers are likely to review and help customers
and Sharing socialize ideas and drive action asynchronously. reconcile contradictory content.
Record and Share Simple, Custom-Made Videos: Record and share with customers Centralize Follow-Up Materials Online: Using a secure webpage or a cloud file
short videos of seller presentation voiceovers and customer testimonials. storage solution, centralize follow-up materials to make them easy for customers to
access and also for your organization to track the customer’s “digital footprint.”
Ongoing Use Cloud-Based Documents: Rather than sharing a static document or email Ensure Multichannel Alignment: Regularly track customer interactions to ensure
Collaboration attachment, share a cloud-based and editable document that can be automatically alignment between communication through in-person and digital platforms, and ask
updated to reflect seller or customer changes and comments. questions to determine customer perceptions of experience consistency as leading
Leverage Collaboration Instant Messaging Capabilities: Create an online messaging indicators of deal challenges.
space (e.g., Microsoft Teams or Slack channel) where customers and sellers can
Source: Gartner connect to share short and quick updates and address issues that do not require
detailed emails or a virtual meeting.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 9

Table 4: Short- and Long-Term Actions for Sales Enablement Leaders to Enable Effective Virtual Selling

Activity Short-Term Actions (One to Three Months) Long-Term Actions (Six to 12 Months)
Sales Enablement Evaluate and Implement Additional Capabilities of Existing Technologies: Develop Guided Selling Capabilities: Develop AI-based guided selling capabilities to
Technology Before purchasing new technology to support virtual selling, carefully assess existing help manage the full pipeline, from lead development to helping sellers capture buying
Investment technologies and digital tools to understand and maximize additional functionalities. signals and sentiment that are lost using traditional selling methods.

Regularly Review Existing Tech Stack for Relevance: As business needs and customer Use Conversation Analytics to Support Coaching: Provide managers access to AI-
expectations change, selectively retire technologies that no longer match these needs based conversational analytics to track the share of speaking time on a call between
or are redundant and have low utilization. seller and customer, words and questions asks. and the ability for managers to search
past calls based on keywords and topics. Afterward, a seller and manager can use this
technology to further refine a seller's virtual meeting facilitation skills.

Invest in High Impact Coaching Technology: Select coaching technology that reduces
manager effort and maximizes the quality of manager-seller coaching interactions,
rather than trying to replace it.

Explore Digital Sales Rooms: Prepare your organization to embrace digital sales
room technology as it becomes available so sellers can effectively engage customers
asynchronously. Digital sales rooms are an evolution of the microcontent pages and
customer portals that have built-in virtual meetings and dynamic content creation
capabilities, customer engagement analytics, and augmented or virtual reality and
visual configuration tools.

Onboarding Offer Recorded Trainings to Accelerate Onboarding Completion: Deploy learning Develop Hybrid Onboarding Programming: In a hybrid setup of in-office and remote
Design and based on predetermined onboarding milestones to build foundational knowledge, work, rethink timing and promote live onboarding sessions to accelerate new hire
Deployment such as product features and benefits, and “hard skills” training that does not require collaboration and networking opportunities, while reserving asynchronous channels
a live instructor, such as system and tool training. for onboarding activities sellers can complete independently.

Curate Onboarding Resources: To minimize information overload for new hires,

prioritize digital content that delivers the most critical knowledge needed for
a fast start, such as prospecting templates, product information, sales process
basics and so forth.
Source: Gartner

Continued on next page

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 10

Table 4: Short- and Long-Term Actions for Sales Enablement Leaders to Enable Effective Virtual Selling

Activity Short-Term Actions (One to Three Months) Long-Term Actions (Six to 12 Months)
Training Sellers Create Short Training Modules: Design and deliver short training modules that Develop Hybrid Training Program: In a hybrid set-up of in-office and remote work,
and Managers can be completed either synchronously (with a live facilitator) or asynchronously prioritize live training sessions for “soft skills” training (e.g., negotiation training) or
on Virtual (e-learning) with application exercises to avoid training burnout and maximize content requiring significant discussion; prioritize e-learning modules and other
Selling Skills learning engagement. modes of asynchronous learning for “hard skills” training (e.g., using a new tool).

Design Training for Complex Topics: Host live (virtual) sessions to help sellers Assess Seller Virtual Selling Skills: Evaluate sellers’ mastery of skills such as digital
with more complex concepts, keeping class sizes manageable enough to drive dexterity and data literacy, identifying virtual selling skill gaps to close through
participation. training and coaching.

Design Training to Adapt Existing Skills: Teach how behaviors within existing
skills such as discovery, active listening, social selling, stakeholder management,
commercial insight delivery, consensus facilitation and negotiation must adjust for
virtual interactions.

Design Training to Teach New Skills for Virtual Selling: Teach new or emerging skills,
such as Sense Making, digital dexterity and data literacy that reflect remote selling
realities and changes in the buying environment.

Teach Managers Virtual Selling Skills to Model for Sellers: Help managers
understand what mastery of virtual selling skills looks like so they can effectively
coach on and model these skills for their teams.

Set Standards for Effective Virtual Selling Coaching: Set clear expectations for
Source: Gartner managers on what effective coaching behaviors for virtual selling look like.

Continued on next page

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 11

Table 4: Short- and Long-Term Actions for Sales Enablement Leaders to Enable Effective Virtual Selling

Activity Short-Term Actions (One to Three Months) Long-Term Actions (Six to 12 Months)
Sales Establish Clear Communication Cadence: Carefully plan and communicate the Ensure Change Readiness for a Hybrid Work Environment: Work with sales
Communication expected cadence of virtual events and training sessions, announcements and so leadership to deliver ongoing messaging and updates on how hybrid work aligns
forth, and match the messaging to the appropriate channel such as videos, emails, to corporate strategy and how to operate effectively in this type of environment,
and intranet. ensuring managers can contextualize ongoing changes and drive team engagement.

Limit Communications to Sales Teams: With an increased communication volume

in a virtual environment and constantly evolving business conditions, establish sales
enablement as the gatekeeper that funnels all messages to prioritize content that is
consistent and tailored for sellers.

Sales Events Host Frequent, Shorter Virtual Events: Instead of annual events that bring the team Expand Seller Recognition Efforts: Leverage sales kick offs and events to recognize
(including Sales together, host more frequent, shorter events to refine messaging and skills while seller accomplishments given that providing recognition to remote employees is
Kickoff) boosting momentum from previous events. challenging and a hybrid work environment is likely to be a significant change event.

Create Online Learning Communities: Reconstruct the in-person kickoff experience

by creating online communities that allow sellers to engage in team-building
activities, discuss relevant topics, post questions, share best practices and
showcase customer examples.

Tailor Content for Virtual Delivery: Create content with concise and graphic-
intensive slides; set aside time for frequent breaks throughout a virtual event,
and provide supplemental information afterward to reinforce new ideas shared
Source: Gartner
at the event.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 12

Enabling Effective Virtual Selling
Sales enablement has a critical role to play in not only enabling sellers
to prepare, plan and deliver engaging virtual sales interactions, but also
adapting seller enablement for the virtual environment.

Table 4 highlights how sales enablement leaders can take short-term and
long-term actions to optimize their approach to virtual seller enablement
in areas such as sales enablement technology, onboarding, training,
communication and events.

Next Steps and Way Forward

For successful virtual selling today, sales enablement leaders must adjust
their existing investments and reallocate resources among people,
processes and technology. Furthermore, a more permanent shift to virtual
selling is pushing sales organizations to adjust sales strategy, internal
organizational design, go-to-market strategies and key performance metrics.
Sales enablement leaders must stay aligned with these changes and prepare
their teams to adopt new ways of enabling frontline sellers and buyers.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 13

 Gartner client? Check out other research on this topic:

Recommended by the authors Recommended for you

The Future of Sales in 2025: A Gartner Trend Insight Report Sales Manager Competency Framework

The Gartner Sales Podcast With Brent Adamson: A Framework

Maintain Sales Performance While Battling Digital Fatigue
for Effective Virtual Selling With Neha Ahuja
Plan a Virtual Sales Kickoff Event That Informs, Inspires and Plan a Virtual Sales Kickoff Event That Informs, Inspires
Connects Sellers and Connects Sellers

Redesign Face-to-Face Sales Training for the Virtual Classroom The Sense-Making Approach to Leveraging Sales Specialists

Key Virtual Selling Challenges Sales Enablement Must Solve Key Virtual Selling Challenges Sales Enablement Must Solve

Top CRM Sales Technologies for the New Realities of Selling Not a client?
in the COVID-19 World Visit Become a Client.

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 14

 About Gartner

Gartner is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500.
We equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their
mission-critical priorities today and build the successful organizations of tomorrow.

Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven research

steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most. We are a trusted
advisor and an objective resource for more than 14,000 enterprises in more than 100
countries — across all major functions, in every industry and enterprise size.

To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business,
visit gartner.com.

© 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form
without Gartner’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization, which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained
in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner
research may address legal and financial issues, Gartner does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this
publication are governed by Gartner’s Usage Policy. Gartner prides itself on its reputation for independence and objectivity. Its research is produced independently by its research organization
without input or influence from any third party. For further information, see “Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity.” CM_GBS_1239421

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 15

Learn more.
Dig deep.
Stay ahead.
Follow us on LinkedIn | Gartner for Sales

Learn more about Gartner for Sales at gartner.com/en/sales

Become a Client

© 2022 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1622449

Gartner for Sales Follow Us on LinkedIn Become a Client 16