3 Reasons Why Augmented Reality Will Reshape B2B Sales

3 reasons using a more visual and interactive selling strategy with augmented reality help sales teams deliver a better buyer experience.

July 11, 2018
Updated: January 7, 2020
While Augmented Reality has existed for some time (Oakley was experimenting with the tech as far back as 1997), we’ve only seen real applications of the technology manifest in the last several years. And most of these applications have been geared toward consumers – elevating the physical world by introducing digital data and images to it to improve their shopping experience, to take photos with some dog ears or to play games that encourage you to go outside and catch little monsters – think Google Glass, Snapchat’s selfie filters and Pokémon Go.But thanks to Apple’s introduction of ARKit late 2017, augmented reality is steadily making its way into the mainstream. In fact, Apple’s ARKit eliminates the biggest hurdle AR faced in coming to market: the need for a separate device supporting the technology. Now people can use their mobile devices – iPhones and iPads – to access these capabilities. And Google is following in these footsteps offering a similar kit called ARCore.Augmented Reality spending is expected to hit an estimated $60 billion in 2020 and earlier this year, Apple announced it’s doubling down on its AR support. With this kind of momentum, we’ll see that Augmented Reality will start to cross over from consumer applications to being used more often in the business world and impacting companies in every industry and across different organizations – from hospitals to industrial environments.
Moreover, it will change how organizations serve customers, train employees, design and create products, and manage their value chains, and, ultimately, how they differentiate.
A person holding a tablet presenting augmented reality examples in sales and marketing with a storage room in the back

3 Reasons Why Augmented Reality Will Benefit Sales Teams

Life as a salesperson can be challenging. Especially if you’re selling complex products, have a large product portfolio or simply sell physically large products. You can’t drag a 2 ton vehicle or piece of machinery to every client meeting, and buyers often have different beliefs about what a product should be compared to what they actually receive. The result might be a product with a different color or shape, or certain features lacking that the customer expected – leading to disappointment, painful revisions and a poor buyer experience.
 
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In these scenarios, being able to present your products in 3D or Augmented Reality can help educate your buyers, and ultimately deliver a better buyer experience that helps them make the right purchase decision. Here are 3 reasons using a more visual and interactive selling strategy with 3D models and Augmented Reality will help deliver a better buyer experience:

  1. Arm your sellers with your entire portfolio, at their fingertips
    Back to the 2 ton product example, unless you’re Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson you probably can’t bring your product line to your buyers, let alone a small portion of it. By arming your sales team with 3D models of your portfolio, they can carry all available models and variations at all times. It allows them to deliver a visual selling strategy, delivering an interactive buyer experience that differentiates your brand.
  2. Demo your products in real size, anywhere
    So turns out you’re not The Rock (even though you’re keeping up with your gym routine), yet you are equipped with 3D versions of your products. By adding Augmented Reality into the mix, you can even further accelerate the sales cycle by helping your buyer more quickly appreciate the value of your products. They will be better educated after offering a detailed view of complex objects, and you will get the opportunity to increase cross-sell and upsell revenue as well. Further, you can use AR to simplify complex objects and options by placing your products real size, in real life scenarios that buyers recognize. Immerse buyers in your product experience, without the time and expense tied to bringing physical products in brick and mortar environments. By virtually placing products into their actual context, you can further increase your value selling and become a true advisor to your buyers.
  3. Let buyers interact with your product line
    Augmented Reality not only empowers salespeople to deliver a visual storytelling experience on the spot, it also enables buyers to interact with each product themselves. As a result, they get a better understanding of your products to help make the right purchase decision. Even better, with the right solution in place your sellers can turn buyers into internal champions by sharing 3D models after the sales conversation – empowering them with the best information to internally build consensus.

Learn more about how Showpad supports a visual selling strategy with 3D models and Augmented Reality.