What is a Virtual Sales Floor

One way sales managers started bringing their team in one place to cold call, was by using video conferencing tools, such as MS Teams, Zoom, Google Meets, and so on. Although these platforms are a great way to reduce isolation and build team collaboration and unity, they do not work as well when reps are cold-calling together.

The technology is not built for a sales team, and so there are many operational issues. These tools do not integrate with dialers, and reps have to mute and unmute themselves constantly in order to avoid distracting others while they are making calls. Also, managers are only able to listen to one call at a time, and even that requires the rep to have their call on speakerphone so that it can be heard on the other end of the meeting.

Another, more efficient way to bring a remote team together is by using a virtual sales floor. A virtual sales floor is a platform that uses video conferencing technology but is specifically built for cold-calling, to allow reps to work and collaborate in a remote setting, just as they would in person.

The goal of these platforms is to fix some of the key issues that sales managers are experiencing around the lack of team communication and collaboration, as well as around the struggles of managing and coaching efficiently.

There are two main types of virtual sales floors. Dialers with a sales floor feature and sales floors that integrate with your already existing dialer. Both come with different benefits.

1. Dialers with a sales floor feature: These dialers have a sales floor feature, and usually also a CRM, and they are useful as all of a rep’s workflow can be done in one place, saving up time. However, it might take some time for a sales team to adopt these tools because they have a bigger learning curve, and tend to be on the more expensive side.
   
   

2. A virtual sales floor that integrates with your dialer: In this case, a sales floor integrates with a team’s already existing dialer. It is a cost-effective way to bring your team together, and the changes in a rep’s workflow are minimal which makes it easily adaptable.

Features and Benefits of a Virtual Sales Floor

As mentioned before, the goal of a virtual sales floor is to tackle some of the issues that working remotely has brought to sales teams, and to bring in the benefits that an in-person team would have.

1. The team is in one place

In the same way that a sales team works together in one office, a virtual sales floor allows the whole team to be together remotely.

Reps are able to see and talk to each other live and they can be calling prospects simultaneously. The team gets to collaborate and work together, having a sense of community and togetherness, as opposed to the feelings of isolation remote work can bring.

Also, being able to work together and hear each other handling calls encourages reps to learn from each other things, such as objection handling and pitching, and it makes onboarding new reps way easier and faster.

At the end of the day, sales is a team sport, and having the ability to work alongside your colleagues, learn from each other, have fun together, celebrate each other’s wins, and laugh lightheartedly with each other’s mistakes, builds up a fun and motivating team culture which also leads to higher productivity.

2. Live coaching

When you work from an office, you are able to listen to your reps while they are on a call and you can give them live tips, guidance, and immediate feedback after their calls, which is crucial for their learning process.

Think about a soccer coach with their team. They spend a lot of time talking theory, coming up with game plans, and practicing, but the real thing happens during their games. If the coach is not there during the actual game, then they are not coaching properly.

Although practicing and watching post-game tapes to evaluate the team’s performance are important parts of coaching, It is during the game that the soccer coach will be able to adjust the team’s plan and strategy according to their opponent’s moves, and it is only then when they are able to fully evaluate the players’ performance.

It is the same way in sales. Your team needs you on the field with them. You can spend as much time doing mock calls, listening to call recordings, and talking about how sales work, but the real learning happens when your reps are actually cold-calling. That is when they need you by their side, giving them feedback, encouraging them, and guiding them.

Many remote sales managers rely on call recordings to evaluate their rep’s performance and to give them coaching. The issue is that call recordings are not efficient. The feedback you are giving might not be relevant anymore. By the time you get the recording, have the time to review it, and send your notes to your rep, that specific call is old news.

Virtual sales floors allow you to listen to your team’s calls live and you can either whisper in their ear while they are on the call, as you would in an actual office, or you can use a chat box to coach them live. This way the rep can correct any mistakes immediately, they can get confirmation around what they are doing right, and they can feel more supported while doing the scary task of cold-calling.

3. Performance dashboard

Many sales offices usually have a whiteboard of sorts, where the team can track the number of calls made, most meetings booked, and so on. Being able to see these statistics helps reps feel more motivated to perform and it encourages healthy competition.

Virtual sales floors often allow reps to track each other’s performance live, and reps can compare and have the same sense of competition remotely. This also motivates the team to celebrate each other’s successes and build camaraderie.  

4. The manager is present

When reps work remotely, their manager is not able to actually see what they are doing. Being able to see your reps' work, hear them on the calls, see their body language, and be there for them so that they can come to you, are crucial factors you need to be able to actually manage your team.

With a virtual sales floor, you can join your team when they are making calls, make yourself available so that they can come to you with any questions or concerns, and even lead by example and start cold-calling with them. Building a good and healthy relationship with your team is easier if you are able to see them and talk to them live.

Disadvantages of a Virtual Sales Floor

Although virtual sales floors tackle many issues that remote sales teams have been struggling with, they do not offer solutions to all the disadvantages of remote work.

Sales managers need to take into consideration that, although reps get to do call blocks together, a lot of the other work that comes with sales, such as prospecting and doing other types of cold outreach, is still done in isolation. It is important that you make yourself available and that you support your reps in all aspects of the job.

Also, a virtual sales floor cannot fully replace the in-person experience. Reps might learn faster than they would without the platform, but being able to communicate with coworkers in person brings another level of unity, relatability, fun, and excitement to work. It is way easier for them to build actual friendships, to share information, and to support each other as a community.

Finally, a virtual sales floor might help reps draw a clearer line between work hours and leisure time, but it does not help with the increased chances of burnout due to workers checking their work emails during personal time.

The Remote Work Culture is Here to Stay

Whether we like it or not, the remote and hybrid work models are here to stay, and if you are looking to grow your company you might want to consider offering some work-from-home benefits.

Although remote work comes with some great advantages that we ought to take into consideration, such as happier and more motivated employees, better team performance, access to a larger talent pool, and reduced costs for companies, it is important not to overlook some of the disadvantages, especially for sales teams.

Reduced team collaboration, lack of live coaching, weakened team culture, and the difficulties sales managers face in actually being there for their team, are a few of the disadvantages that come with the remote world.

Thankfully, virtual sales floors were built to make those issues less prevalent for sales teams, as these platforms bring reps to cold-call, learn, and win together, in one place. Managers can coach, train, and onboard reps with less difficulty, and the team can have fun and build culture together.