Last week, we published a great interview with the marketing team from Premise LED. They recently used InstaVR to create a Google Cardboard application to distribute to agents at their national sales meeting. Soon, they’ll be equipping their sales agents with multiple VR experiences to utilize in client meetings.

Taking learnings from that interview, we’re going to do a three part series on VR for Sales this week. The other two parts will consist of What VR Content Should You Create for Your Sales Team (Wednesday) and What VR Headset Should You Use for Sales Presentations (Friday).

But first we’ll start at the beginning: How to Introduce VR to Your Sales Team. Using Soo and Vince’s teachings, we’ll discuss the initial steps necessary to get your sales team excited to use VR as a tool in client presentations.

Let’s begin…

“What is VR?”

The first step in introducing VR to sales departments is to define what virtual reality/360 media is to them. While you may be familiar with all the great leaps forward in the VR space over the last two years, there’s a good chance your sales personnel is not. They likely equate VR with entertainment.

It’s important to highlight to them the value in using virtual reality — that it’s immersive, that it’s multi-sensory, that it’s interactive. Potential customers are inundated with marketing messages, so VR can help salespeople cut through the clutter and create memorable experiences.

For Premise LED, they’re in an industry that has been around for a long time, with entrenched ways of doing sales. So Vince and Soo took the smart approach of doing a single Proof of Concept app to show off to the sales team to gain their trust in the technology. Rather than creating a whole lot of content at once, they started with a single use case — a car dealership — to very simply show the value in how VR can make client meetings more productive.

When Should I Introduce VR to a Sales Team?

The answer to this question depends a lot on how your sales organization is structured. At Premise LED, they were able to time it to coincide with an on-site gathering of sales agents. This is a best case scenario. Introducing VR in-person allows you to physically hand out VR headsets and walk the salespeople through how to navigate a VR app, which Premise LED did by casting their InstaVR app from a tablet to a television screen.

But what if you have a remote sales team and the next company meeting is a long ways off? The great thing about InstaVR is you can self-distribute VR apps quite easily. You could mail to each of your sales agents a Google Cardboard, and then supply them with a URL to download the .apk file you’ve created, or a Web URL if you’re using 360 images & WebVR. You can also use our new Guided Co-Viewing feature to allow sales agents to experience the VR at the same time, walking them through it over a conference call.

So the answer is it depends. If you have an in-person sales training in the next couple months, it might be best to wait and introduce it then. But if you’re 3+ months out from the next time the whole team will be together, it’s probably best not to wait. Many companies have their sales team meetings in January or February, so now might be a great time to start investing in a 360 camera + InstaVR.

What Should I Include in my Proof of Concept App?

The initial app you create for introducing VR to your sales team is important. It’s what gets them interested in using the technology. If you underwhelm them, it’s hard to get them to proactively use VR. But if you amaze them, their thirst for VR content will only increase.

With Premise LED, they used a very clear cut use case — a before & after of a lighting installation at an auto dealership. Their sales team could clearly see the benefit in how using this application would make sales meetings more dynamic. You want your Proof of Concept VR app to have clear ROI. What you choose to feature in the app is not a decision to take lightly.

What’s the Next Step After Introducing VR to the Sales Department?

Once you have sales team buy-in, and you have them excited about VR, you want to make them part of the app creation process. Elicit feedback on what VR apps would be most valuable to them. Get them involved — in securing filming locations, in getting script feedback, etc. Use the momentum post-introduction to put together a schedule for VR app roll-out. You don’t want a lot of time to pass between introducing your sales team to VR and them actually practically putting it into use.

Conclusion

Salespeople have busy schedules. They’re also skeptical of new technologies. But VR is such a game changer, that in many industries, introducing them to the technology will completely change the way they approach client meetings.

You don’t want to casually introduce VR at your business. Don’t just use a random impressive VR app to explain the technology. You want to tailor that first introduction of VR to get them excited and open to all the possibilities inherent in it, reassuring them of the possible increase in sales tied to it. If you have an upcoming meeting, start putting your VR introduction plan together now. The more time you have, the more likely you are to create a great first VR experience.

Check back in Wednesday where we will discuss what type of VR content is valuable for sales teams. Thanks for using InstaVR!