Here at The360Suite, we have learned a lot about our customers and about how to sell a Virtual Tour at the retail level. The process of creating 360 Virtual Tours and Virtual Stores for retail begins with a face-to-face meeting with the owners or marketing teams. In over six years of selling and creating Virtual Tours, we have only sold one 360 Virtual Tour by email alone. A Virtual Tour is an experience that is best seen on a screen, be it a phone, iPad, or PC. As soon as a client sees a 360 Virtual Tour by The360Suite, the conversation then begins with the experience. A 360 Virtual Tour is like a living, breathing experience because it’s interactive. A 360 Virtual Tour allows the user to control and connect with the immersive experience.
So why are retail stores hesitant or even oblivious to the value of having a 360 Virtual Tour of their store or even a Virtual Store to add value to their online sales? It’s proven that a 360 Virtual Tour will increase customer engagement and interactions. When a retail store has a 360 Virtual Tour, the views and interactions can be tracked on the dashboard that comes with a 360 Virtual Tour. Every Custom Virtual Tour created by The360Suite offers a dashboard so the sales and marketing team can view the stats on usage, time spent, and weekly engagements that customers are viewing.
The best way that our team at The360Suite has found to sell our 360 Virtual Tours is by visiting clients, retail stores, hotels, and schools to give a quick demo and presentation on our phones or tablets. Once a client or sales clerk can view a Custom Virtual Tour and see what other retail stores are using, the conversation begins to move up the ladder to the decision makers or the owners who do the marketing. Unfortunately, there is often a disconnect between the sales clerk getting the message and value of a 360 Virtual Tour and how it can increase business.
We have often found that the disconnect between the retail salesperson and management is that the salesperson is unable to connect the dots to convey the message to management. It’s true that virtual technology is here to stay and growing by the day. We have virtual meetings on zoom, virtual job interviews, virtual conferences, and even virtual concerts with live music, yet retail is still hesitant to adopt the technology. Retailers can spend thousands of dollars on beautiful displays, decorations, lighting, mannequins, and window displays. They often overlook that all of these beautiful displays can come to life with an interactive, immersive experience.
This brings us back to the retail salespeople who are either unable, unwilling, or feel it’s just not their job to introduce technology to their managers. Yet, the basic job of a salesperson is to bring in more sales, not just meet and greet customers all day. One would think that a good way to move up the ladder into management is to convey the message to management that the 360 Virtual Tour demonstration they saw that day in the retail store is something that will help build their business and engage their customers. When we speak with these salespeople, we explain the many use cases of a 360 Virtual Tour, including posting the 360 images to social media, posting the 360 Virtual Tour to Google Maps or putting a QR code in the window which will open the 360 Virtual Tour on their phones even after hours when the store is closed. Which retailer does not want to engage their customers when window shoppers walk by every day?
I’m not trying to say that retail salespeople don’t see the value of a 360 Virtual Tour because every now and then, we meet a retail salesperson who gets it. They make an effort and take the time to introduce our team to the decision-makers. These are the retail salespeople who understand retail. These are the retail salespeople that will move up the ladder. So, to all retail salespeople, take the time to think outside the box. See what other retailers are doing. Search our 360 Virtual Tours and visit Virtual Stores online. You just may be the retail salesperson of the week or of the year and be store manager one day.
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