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Failure of first-generation virtual selling
The Default Sales Approach is exposed.
The widespread failure of first-generation virtual selling arose from the inability of the constraint-dependent Default Sales Approach to be delivered effectively through virtual selling. Because virtual selling removes the constraints the Default Sales Approach depends upon.
In-person, the Logistical Exit Barrier and the Time Reallocation Barrier work to keep the Buyer in the meeting, due to the inability for the Buyer to gain much time saved by leaving the meeting early. But in virtual selling these constraints are gone.
Further, Accelerated Cognition means any information presented by salespeople is consumed immediately, rendering the Holdback In Desired Expertise (HIDE) approach completely ineffective, and leaving salespeople's minimal presentation of information seem very sparse indeed.
Technique-reliant salespeople find their Buyers unresponsive or unwilling to suffer through their sales-centric approach.
And are left solely to compete based on value, on a new intensity of value, thanks to Information Buying Experience Conditioning, and something which neither they, nor their management, nor the sales training industry has any idea of how to deliver.
Little wonder so many say virtual selling doesn't work.
First generation virtual selling
In First generation pandemic-era virtual selling, Salespeople attempt to use the Default Sales Approach in a virtual selling environment, and deliver the Commodity Buying Experience to the Buyer using video conference for meetings and supporting the effort through email and phone.
First generation virtual selling fails to win the support of sales-centric salespeople, as virtual selling removes the constraints that force the Buyer to accept the Commodity Buying Experience.
Early Exit Incentive
The Early Exit Incentive is the opposite of the Logistical Exit Barrier. It means that the Buyer will automatically see value in starting the meeting by getting right to it and wrapping up quickly once the value is absorbed from the meeting. They are less likely to sit through rapport building attempts which to them are most often not only unnecessary to their purpose but downright creepy in this privacy and security conscious age. Therefore, as soon as the Buyer perceives that the meeting has delivered all the value it can, the Early Exit Incentive arises to hasten their departure from that meeting.
Buyer preference for Virtual
The Buyer receives significant benefits from buying through virtual selling, including logistical freedom, shorter meetings, freedom from the Logistical Exit Barrier, the Time Reallocation Barrier, and the Limited Alternative Constraint; and gains considerable benefits from being in their Own Private Workspace, and gaining advantages such as the Early Exit Incentive, and Unlimited Alternative Consideration.
Unlimited Alternative Consideration
The Limited Alternative Constraint keeps the number of competitive alternatives the Buyer can consider at a low number. The time it takes to meet with a salesperson in-person, discuss their needs, meet again for a presentation, and a proposal, and repeat that process is too costly to allow for too many alternatives to be considered. The Unlimited Alternative Consideration allows Buyers to be freed from the constraints imposed by in-person selling and its Limited Alternative Constraint. So they are able to consider a higher volume of alternatives to find their Clearly Superior Alternative.
Cognition Crash
Salespeople face the problem of the Cognition Crash. This is the downgrade of the Buyer's working and thinking rate from what it was before the meeting when they were in Accelerated Cognition receiving Compressed Value to what it became once they joined the meeting, having to throw into gear their Value Filter Throttle while receiving Decompressed Value. This puts the Buyer into a Decline In Virtual Enthusiasm (DIVE), making it more difficult for the salesperson to carry out sales-centric selling.
Confusion Quicksand
Confusion Quicksand is the Buyer's disorientation resulting from being in a state of Accelerated Cognition and consistently encountering decompressed content; content which is moving too slowly, is confusing, unclear, inconsistent or boring. In other words, being in a state of Accelerated Cognition in a virtual meeting, and suffering through the typical salesperson's rambling, incoherent presentation, punctuated by sales-centric closing, and objection handling.
Value Filter Throttle
Value Filter Throttle is strenuous mental effort by the Buyer to overcome the Click Off Response and focus on content which is moving too slowly, is confusing, unclear, inconsistent or boring. This effort is often required in order to make any sense of what the sales-centric salesperson is saying, presenting, or asking for. Being in a state of Accelerated Cognition, the Buyer immediately absorbs what the salesperson is presenting, but because the salesperson is presenting as if they are in-person, the Buyer "sees" this content multiple times, and must downshift their virtual Value Filter Throttle in order to understand it.
Virtual Vertigo
Fatigue resulting from being in a state of Accelerated Cognition before the meeting, Communication Standby pressure to pay close attention during the meeting, and the requirement of a near-constant engagement of the Value Filter Throttle from too much Decompressed Value delivered by the salesperson is debilitating to the Buyer audience. This Virtual Vertigo gives rise to exhaustion, which inspires the Buyer to heed the Early Exit Incentive and follow the Click Off Response to terminate the meeting.
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