Being a VDI in the digital age: what digital tools should you use?

25 NOVEMBER 2020

The least we can say is that this very special year of 2020 will remain engraved in our memories. After an initial lockdown in March, the French population was locked down again in November, while businesses deemed non-essential had to close their doors and adapt to the country's current climate.

Home shopping, although closely linked to face-to-face meetings and physical exchanges, has adapted by taking a more digital approach. The digitisation of the home shopping sector, which had already begun a few years ago, is gathering pace: home shopping agents no longer hesitate to offer their services over the Internet, by booking items online, sending orders taken over the Internet or using click and collect.

outils digitaux VDI

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Door-to-door sales: what digital tools can you use to boost your business?

The door-to-door sales sector is gradually evolving to keep pace with changing needs, demands and French society. Home sellers can no longer afford to ignore digital tools if they want to develop their business.

But what are the best digital practices to put in place when you're a VDI? Elora explains.

Keeping in touch thanks to digital technology

Even if you're not taking part in a sales meeting or you can't organise physical meetings, it's important to keep in touch with your network.

Don't hesitate to send text messages or emails to your customers, who will be delighted to get a sneak preview of your new collections. For more comprehensive, less commercial and perhaps more informal discussions, social network chats and the various applications on the market are proving very practical.

For a more human touch, calls will make all the difference if your contacts ask you for more information about a particular product. You're sure to please some of your most regular customers, who will feel privileged!

Social networks, the first digital tool to use as a VDI

As a VDI, you can't ignore social networks. These platforms allow you to stay in constant contact with your customers and to effectively prospect for new VDI customers.

Social networks are also ideal for presenting your collections to your network. What could be better than images and videos to arouse interest? Each format has its advantages, so it's up to you to choose them according to your personality and your targets.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of what you can do:

Create a folder with photos of your collections on your Facebook account to show your customers what's new
Set up an Instagram account with pretty photos of the products you sell. With the right hashtags, you'll gain even more visibility!
Set up Facebook or Instagram lives to show exclusive previews of new products and products in action or being worn. There's nothing like it to get your customers excited!
Looking for more entertaining content? TikTok videos, which are totally in vogue at the moment, will give you real exposure to a wide target audience and will also allow you to show off your real personality

Videoconferencing: a good idea when physical meetings aren't possible

Unfortunately, you can't travel, but customers are interested in a sale? Organise videoconferences!

This is a trend that has grown strongly with the rise of confinement. There are now a multitude of sites and applications for organising online conferences. What's more, some companies will invest in software and train you to use it.

You can also organise Facebook rooms or free video conferences using applications you know, such as Whatsapp or Messenger.

Digitalising product catalogues: which digital formats?

To boost your sales, whatever the sales channel, it's a good idea to have digital tools at your disposal.

Some brands don't hesitate to send their sales advisers a digital product catalogue or to create dedicated areas for them as if they had an eshop. This may be the case with thehome shopping company you have chosen, so you can find out more about this.

What's more, extranets are often deployed by retailers to enable you to take orders online, whether you're in a physical meeting or at a distance. Practical, not to say essential!

E-learning courses: train online

In response to the digital transformation taking place in France and the ever-increasing demand for e-learning, the range of online training courses on offer has diversified. Free and paid e-learning modules are widely available online, whatever the training you are looking for.

As a VDI, you can perfect your sales techniques, your web communication or the way you organise yourself on a daily basis. Some brands offer a complete home sales training programme available as an e-learning course to help you develop your projects!

With all the free formats offered by video platforms such as YouTube, you can also train on your own, simply out of personal curiosity or to boost your business.

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