Joseph Callahan

The traditional wisdom of the sales business is that potential customers need a physical experience to be convinced to decide on a purchase. Still, powerful new technology is changing how businesses make sales. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are poised to transform the sales process in incredible ways.

Consumers are likely used to seeing VR and AR technology in action for entertainment purposes. Virtual reality and augmented reality games have become popular because of their unparalleled levels of interactivity and immersion. In recent years, VR and AR technology have also been significantly developed and improved. Experiences that once required expensive, specialized hardware can now be done on desktops or mobile phones. This has allowed VR and AR to move beyond being a fringe technology to being legitimately mainstream.

VR and AR technologies—like digital twins—in business settings

This transition has also made virtual and augmented reality technology significantly more useful in business settings. Use cases for AR and VR in the world of business have ranged from sales tools to enabling more immersive, interactive training activities. These applications of this powerful technology will help businesses form the connections they need with customers and employees.

One enterprise application of VR and AR technology that has proven particularly exciting is the digital twin. A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical machine. Although this technology was primarily innovated for the purpose of troubleshooting, businesses are beginning to see the potential of this technology to be applied during the sales process, helping potential customers inspect products they hope to buy before making a purchase.

The concept of digital twins has also enabled the development of virtual showrooms, where businesses can show off their products in the metaverse using VR and AR. As the term implies, virtual showrooms are virtual spaces where companies showcase digital twins of their products. The use of virtual reality and augmented reality technology creates features like allowing customers to visualize a product in their space through AR, which helps with challenges like space considerations and design.

VR and AR can also be powerful tools for presentations. With this technology, presenters are no longer limited by the bounds of space. While in-person presentations at trade shows and other events have maximum capacities because you can only fit so many people into a single room, VR and AR can reach a virtually limitless audience in a way that doesn’t lose the engagement and atmosphere of an in-person event like this.

Why AR and VR are transforming business

The main advantage virtual and augmented reality offers to businesses is added convenience. With digital twins and virtual showrooms, potential customers no longer have to enter a brick-and-mortar storefront to see a business’s products. They can view the product from the convenience of their offices or homes, whether through specialized hardware like VR headsets or simply on a desktop computer. When partnered with a customer service tool like live chat, customers can receive a comparable (or improved) level of service to what they would get in person.

Indeed, beyond their convenience, virtual reality and augmented reality experiences, in several ways, are superior to tangible experiences. For example, VR and AR allow a level of interactivity that rivals or even exceeds real-world experiences. In virtual and augmented reality settings, prospective customers can engage with a digital twin of a product in incredible detail. They can inspect individual components in ways that would not be practical if they were examining a physical product — particularly if the product is large in scale.

Virtual and augmented reality technology will have a transformative effect on businesses, from enabling virtually limitless presentations to creating incredible digital showrooms. Offering both convenience and immersion, VR and AR are the future for businesses that hope to connect with their customers and employees in profound ways. Now is the time for businesses to take their businesses from the real world into the virtual one.

About the author:

Joseph Callahan is the CEO of Ciright, a provider of information technology services under a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model to businesses, governments, and not-for-profit organizations. He is also a director of the Portals Organization, which works with cities, governments and private organizations to build an international network of outdoor portal sculptures in public spaces, providing a “real-time, unfiltered” visual livestream 24/7, letting groups of people in distant locations virtually meet.

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