In today’s episode of the ‘Sales Samurai’ podcast, host Sam Capra, who helps marketing leaders in the retail space go beyond the sale/transaction, talks with guest, Evan Santa, Vice President of Sales at Commerce Bear. They're going to be discussing first impressions in a remote sales world.

Episode Highlights

• 01:13 – This whole COVID thing threw us right into more remote work and more zoom that you kind of lose sight of the basic blocking, tackling, and first impressions, says Sam.
• 01:50 – Evan shares that his background is in building go-to-market sales teams at various software organizations.
• 09:25 – There's a loss of intensity because we're not sitting in an office.
• 11:25 – Evan mentions, those managers that were managing on fear or managing on friendship, they just became friends with those that reporting to them and then they hope that their friendship will push the needle, it rarely works.
• 27:10 - If you have your camera off as a salesperson, how could you ever expect that your prospect will have your camera on? 
• 29:20 - We're finding ways to brand ourselves in this digital world so that whenever a customer or prospect speaks to us, there's some type of brand there, states Evan.
• 29:42 – Sam asks Evan what's his thoughts are around virtual backgrounds in regards to creating that first impression.
• 31:48 – If you don't have a virtual background make sure you have a clean space and it's a presentable professional space. 
• 33:29 – Evan is teaching people how to set up a decent little background at home and it doesn't have to be crazy, just make it clean, make it eat, and make it personal.
• 40:22 - We're on the path towards a higher level of productivity and return for our investment as an organization, mentions Evan.
• 42:03 - If you're struggling to close deals online face-to-face, I don't think it's going to help you, states Evan
• 44:20 – Evan says, he spent a lot of time early in his career, going through these thought processes, developing his sales mantra, and essentially bringing his playbook and mantra from hiring building teams from the ground up.

Three Key Points

1. Evan highlights, now that they are digital-first, this is their only opportunity to create a brand for themselves in the organization, a brand with their customers. 
2. You need to make sure there are no technical issues; you should be getting in touch with your internet provider making sure that’s tight, logging on early, showing up to meetings five minutes early, etc. So, if you have a technical issue, you could rectify it most likely before anyone joins.
3. One of the biggest things we need to do in sales is be memorable.

Tweetable Quotes

• “Those that are truly driven, that a certain level of autonomy, are the ones who are flying right now.” – Evan Santa
• “It doesn't take much to look good, sound good, and feel good.” – Evan Santa
• “The body language is everything, your engagement is everything, and eye contact is everything.” – Evan Santa
• “You just have to have a good camera, good lighting, good audio, and it's so easy to do.” - Evan Santa
• “We should not have technical difficulties on our end at all.” – Evan Santa
• “People buy from people that they like.” – Evan Santa
• “My first word that comes to mind when I think virtual backgrounds is distraction.” – Evan Santa

Resources Mentioned

• Sam Capra on LinkedIn