Virtual Reality Sales Training Use Cases

Written by:

Talespin Team

Virtual Reality Sales Training Use Cases

Virtual reality sales training helps sales teams train with proven benefits. From making training for sales professionals more realistic and engaging to saving money through its cost effectiveness, the benefits VR sales training offers are wide ranging.

Among these benefits is the ability to create VR sales training modules for a variety of use cases, like practicing overcoming customer objections and building relationships with buyers. Learn more about the sales training use cases that VR can be used for in this blog post.

Why Use VR Sales Training?

VR sales training platforms offer a variety of benefits that make them more effective and cheaper than other sales training methods. For example, VR training platforms that combine custom VR content creation and off-the-shelf VR training content give sales teams the ability to create cost-effective sales training programs that can be updated and customized over time.

VR sales training benefits include:

The Ability to Continually Customize VR Sales Training Content Over Time
VR Sales Training Simulations Reduce Training Costs
Realism: VR Sales Training Simulations are Realistic
Train Anywhere: Ease of Distribution and Access
Built-In Scoring and Skills Measurement

Examples of Virtual Reality Sales Training Use Cases

Not only are the benefits impressive, but VR sales training can be applied to a plethora of use cases. VR training platforms that use virtual human avatars to simulate sales role play conversations can be used for use cases ranging from practicing negotiating to overcoming customer objections. Use cases for VR sales training include:

Prospecting Calls and Qualifying Leads
Building Customer Rapport and Maintaining Customer Relationships
Identifying Customer Needs
Pitching Products and Services
Collaborating With Buyers
Communicating with Different Buyer Personas
Overcoming Customer Objections
Responding to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Discussing Competitors
Negotiating and Closing Deals

1. Prospecting Calls and Qualifying Leads

VR sales training can be used to practice prospecting calls and lead qualification. VR’s ability to simulate real-life sales situations means sales teams can practice their prospecting and qualifying skills in a safe and controlled environment. This can be particularly useful for new sales team members who may not have much experience in making prospecting calls or for experienced salespeople who want to refine their approach.

With VR sales training, sales teams can practice their prospecting scripts, learn how to ask the right questions to qualify leads, and establish next steps once a lead is qualified. This is possible because virtual human characters are able to simulate realistic speech and body language, playing the role of customers in sales training simulations.

2. Building Customer Rapport and Maintaining Customer Relationships

With VR sales training, sales teams can practice active listening, empathy, and other interpersonal skills that are essential for building strong customer relationships. The same is true of maintaining and growing existing customer relationships—a critical priority for sales professionals, with 56% of surveyed buyers believing that investing in existing buyer relationships is an essential sales behavior for closing deals.
Simulating customer conversations with VR can help sales professionals develop their ability to connect with customers, build trust and credibility, and establish long-term relationships that lead to repeat business and referrals.

3. Identifying Customer Needs

VR allows sales teams to simulate real-life sales situations and practice their ability to ask the right questions and deploy active listening skills to identify the needs of their customers.

Sales teams can practice asking open-ended questions, listening carefully to customer responses, and using this information to tailor their sales pitch to specific customer needs and goals. This can help sales professionals develop their ability to identify customer needs and provide solutions that are relevant and valuable to the customer, ultimately leading to improved sales performance.

4. Pitching Products and Services

According to LinkedIn, 44% of buyers ranked not understanding products or services as one of the key things that kills deals for sales professionals.

Salespeople can use VR to ensure product or service knowledge is not an impediment to deals closing. VR sales training simulations immerse sales professionals in realistic, interactive scenarios where they can practice presenting their products or services to virtual human characters representing customers. This virtual sales training can help them develop their presentation skills and improve their ability to effectively communicate the benefits and features of their offerings. Not only will sales professionals who practice product and service pitching in VR become more knowledgeable about what they are selling, they will become more comfortable discussing it.

VR sales training can also provide instant feedback and skills analytics, allowing salespeople to learn from their mistakes and improve their performance in a safe place to fail. This builds confidence and improves their ability to effectively present the value of their products and services, leading to better sales results.

5. Collaborating With Buyers

Buyers can become an internal champion and ally for sales professionals if they are able to establish a collaborative relationship that benefits both parties. However, doing so takes practice and the effective application of communication skills.

VR technology allows sales teams to simulate real-life sales situations and practice their ability to work with buyers to identify their needs and develop solutions that meet their goals. This can be particularly useful for sales teams that need to collaborate with buyers to develop custom products or services, as it allows them to develop the skills and knowledge they need to effectively work with buyers to design solutions that meet their needs.

Sales teams can use VR to practice collaborating with buyers to identify their needs, co-develop mutually beneficial solutions, and refine them based on buyer feedback. This can help them improve their sales performance and build strong, long-term relationships with their customers.

6. Communicating with Different Buyer Personas

Virtual reality (VR) sales training can be used to practice communicating with different buyer personas that sales professionals will encounter. Virtual sales training simulations can be designed to feature virtual characters with different buyer personas. Sales professionals can practice selling to these different personas in VR, learning to tailor their sales pitch to the specific needs and preferences of different buyer personas.

This can be particularly useful for sales teams that need to sell to a diverse customer base, as it allows them to develop the skills and knowledge they need to effectively communicate with different types of target customers. With VR sales training, sales teams can practice crafting customized sales pitches for different buyer personas, learn how to adapt their approach to different personalities and preferences, and develop their ability to communicate in a way that is relevant and compelling to each type of customer.

7. Simulating Customer Objections and Practicing Overcoming Objections

According to Mindtickle, 63% of sales calls consist of more negative sentiment than they do positive sentiment. This means sales professionals need to be comfortable operating in these conditions and navigating objections.

VR sales training can be used to realistically simulate customers who are delivering common objections that your company receives. Sales team members can practice different scripts, value props, and strategies for overcoming these objections in VR. This will give them a greater level of comfort and confidence in the face of objections when it comes to real customer conversations.

VR training modules can also be updated over time as new customer objections become common, and need to be introduced into sales training programs.

8. Responding to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Being able to respond to FAQs is an important part of the sales cycle. Virtual reality training content can be designed to deliver these FAQs in the context of simulated conversations. This makes for an effective tool for practicing responding to FAQs.

Salespeople can immerse themselves in realistic, interactive scenarios where they can practice deploying different FAQ responses and seeing how the virtual human characters representing customers respond. This can help them see first hand which responses have which effects, and develop scripts that best navigate FAQs. VR sales training modules can also be updated to add new FAQ responses as marketing and product teams provide new talking points and battle cards to sales teams.

9. Discussing Competitors

Virtual reality training can be an effective tool for practicing discussions about competitors. Buyers identified a salesperson’s ability to demonstrate knowledge of competitors as a factor they use in weighing their decision making during the sales cycle.

Salespeople can immerse themselves in realistic, interactive VR training scenarios where they can practice responding to questions and concerns about competing products or services. This can help them develop their knowledge and understanding of their competitors, as well as improve their ability to effectively communicate the strengths of their own products or services in comparison.

10. Negotiating and Closing Deals

With VR training, sales teams can practice their closing techniques, learn how to handle common objections, and develop their ability to overcome obstacles and persuade customers to make a purchase.

This can help them build confidence and gain experience in closing sales deals. Additionally, VR training can be customized to accurately simulate the way negotiations and deal closing cycles typically take place for your respective products or services. This gives sales team members invaluable practice repetitions in closing deals before attempting to do so with real customers.

Final Thoughts

Virtual reality sales training is a potential powerful tool for improving sales skills and sales performance. By providing realistic, interactive scenarios for practicing common sales situations, VR sales training can help salespeople develop their knowledge about their products, buyers and competitors, practice communication skills, and build confidence. VR sales training also offers instant feedback and coaching opportunities. With its ability to simulate a wide range of scenarios, VR sales training can be deployed across use cases to improve sales performance.

To bring your learning programs to the next level, check out the Talespin blog for further analysis, updates, and Metaverse intel.

Frequently Asked Questions About VR Sales Training

What is virtual reality sales training?

Virtual reality sales training refers to the use of immersive virtual reality technology to simulate sales scenarios and train sales professionals on various aspects of the sales process, such as product knowledge, customer interaction, objection handling, and deal closing techniques.

This type of training allows salespeople to practice in a safe and controlled environment, where they can make mistakes without negative consequences, receive immediate feedback, and refine their skills.

What is virtual sales training?

Virtual sales training refers to sales training formats that are delivered to sales professionals remotely, primarily through digital platforms. Video conferencing, e-learning, live webinars, and virtual reality sales training are examples of virtual sales training methods.

Virtual sales training can be a cost-effective and flexible way to train sales teams, particularly those who are geographically dispersed or who have busy schedules that make it difficult to attend in-person training sessions.

How can VR be added to a virtual sales training program?

Virtual reality can be a valuable addition to a virtual sales training program, as it allows sales professionals to practice and refine their skills in a simulated environment that closely replicates real-life sales scenarios.

To incorporate VR into a virtual sales training program, companies can identify the critical sales scenarios that can benefit from VR, develop VR simulations that accurately replicate the sales environment, integrate these simulations into the broader sales training program, and provide feedback and assessment to the sales team based on their performance in the VR simulations. By doing so, sales professionals can practice their sales techniques in a safe and controlled environment, receive immediate feedback, and refine their skills, ultimately leading to improved sales performance and increased revenue.

Virtual Reality Sales Training Use Cases