When sales teams go digital: A recruitment challenge in a strained profession
Posté le 20 Mar. 2023
At Baron, an agency specialising in outsourcing sales activities, new job offers have been appearing for a few months: E-promoters, digital ambassadors, e-consultants, digital sales consultants … Sales teams are going digital. The profiles we are looking for often already come from B2C sales, are familiar with field sales and the positions of sales consultant or even demonstrator. But they must have “that certain something”: a digital competence. Because in these positions there is no physical encounter with the customer and not really the same sales scenario as usual … Everything happens at a distance via a chatbot or a video conference. This is one of the new recruitment challenges Baron has taken on since the health crisis.
Digitise sales without dehumanising it.
The digital transformation of brands has naturally become a major challenge to seduce consumers. But this transformation should in no way mean “dehumanisation” on the internet, quite the opposite. Baron needs to offer an attractive brand experience to its customers – brands with high utility in the areas of high-tech, lifestyle, sportswear and beauty – in order to increase e-commerce sales and compensate for the damage caused by being limited to physical sales. In addition to all its classic sales force activities, which are still relevant as the majority of purchases are still made in physical points of sale. Omnichannel is becoming stronger and stronger in order to achieve more and more coherence. Jeremy Dahan, President of the Group, explains that it is “not about giving up our historic business, but it is about moving beyond omnichannel and moving towards no channel”.
Still little known professions, but efficient recruitment and training
It’s a reality: these digital salesperson professions are strained. They are just emerging and still little known, although Baron’s talents are precisely trained through his assessment centre. which is made possible through a series of tests: Digital culture, brand expertise, spelling and video retention are thus assessed before the profiles are selected. Once the candidates are selected, they are of course trained in specific modules related to this new profession. How to chat properly, master e-reputation, avoid any bad buzz and advise well from a distance… There are numerous modules, always created in-house by the Digital Training Service teams.
So the training is comprehensive, as Clément, digital sales consultant for a high-tech giant in the group, explains. “I received training to master the chatbot and start a video during the demos, but I was also trained on the technologies of the products and how to sell them digitally”. Because the difference is definitely there, as Clément explains again and again. “There are differences, of course! First of all, it is the client who comes to us every time and he already has something in mind… He is prepared for our “encounter”. The other big difference is that we don’t see the customer: Who is he? We have to decode it by its messages, its punctuation, and adapt to the clues it leaves us”.. Baron teaches this know-how to these new types of salespeople.
