One year into the pandemic, most businesses have realized two things:
- Remote work is the new reality
- You don’t need to meet someone in person to do business with them
While we’re all finding ways to cope with the situation, business has to move on and sales have to be closed. The good news is that you can definitely sell in a remote setting and many sales experts have become pros at selling through video conferencing.
So, how can you leverage video conferencing fully to close more sales and keep your customers happy? Here are a few tactics you can use immediately.
Be mindful of the start of the call
If you’re using video conferencing software, like MegaMeeting, Zoom, or any other service in the market, you will have the option to set the start of the meeting with the video on or off. While you do want to have the video on, never start the meeting by forcing the other side to turn on the video immediately.
When you start with the video off, you give the other party some time to prepare, adjust their background, remove any pets or other distractions and only then start the meeting. This will show the other side that you respect them; the extra few seconds at the start can mean a world of difference for the entire atmosphere of the call.
However, as the call starts, make sure to encourage all call participants to turn on their video. You want to get their full attention and make sure that they are present and not checking their phone or staring at the ceiling.
Keep the conversation going back and forth
One of the worst things that can happen during a sales call is hearing radio silence while you’re the only one talking. If you’re sharing your screen or showing a presentation, make sure to regularly stop and ask a question, to make sure you still have the participants’ full attention. If you are doing some kind of presentation, make sure to finish it quickly and move on to a one-to-one conversation.
Once you’re on that, make sure to call out the participants by name, especially if there are several people on the call. This will immediately grab their attention and you’ll switch the focus to someone else. On video calls, this is especially important because in many cases, it’s hard to know whose turn it is to speak.
If a sales call participant asks you a question (especially if there are several people on the call), repeat the question before answering it. You will make sure that you heard them right and you’ll also give a chance for all participants to hear the question one more time.
As you’re about to close the call, let everyone know what the next steps are. If you’re going to send out a business proposal, let the participants know when you will send it so they know what to expect. If you’re using modern proposal software, you can send the proposal as soon as the call is finished because you can enter the data in a proposal template. According to our research, the sooner you send out the proposal after the call, the better the chances of having it signed.
Set the stage with care
Appearance is crucial. While it may not make the difference between a closed deal or not, it will influence the decision in some way. If you’re selling a high-ticket B2B offer, you want to leave a great impression with your background. Don’t make it too formal, but ensure that it’s clean, well lit, and overall professional.
The second step is just as important and it relates to your tech. You rely on the customer hearing and seeing you well in order to make an informed decision, so don’t make this process difficult for them. Make sure your internet connection is solid and invest in a high-quality camera and microphone. If you’re selling an offer that costs thousands of dollars, the least you can do for your video conferencing efforts is investing $100 in a mic and a camera.
When you’re preparing for the call, set the camera at a 90-degree angle so that the participants are looking directly into your eyes. If using Zoom, place the boxes with the participants’ cameras in the center below the camera so you can look at them without distracting yourself from the camera.
Finally, encourage your participants to mute their mics if you really need their full attention for a presentation.
Source: Unsplash
Prepare the participants before the call
Let’s say that you’re selling a product that requires a bit more know-how and you want the participants to come to the call informed or maybe someone directly connects with a website chatbot and enables video call. You could rely on them researching what you sell and how it works or you could give them a short demo on the call. It’s similar to a webinar - everyone has a good idea of what you’re about to pitch them.
Or you can give them the option of doing it themselves.
To make things easy for everyone involved, send all materials in advance. Be it a product demo, a whitepaper with the latest industry stats, or just a blog post, send it in an email along with the invitation for the call and tell them what you’re sending and that it would be great if they could read it before the call. It will save time for both of you and they will be a more qualified prospect when they start the video call.
As participants start joining the call, make sure that everyone introduces themselves. Not only will it make it easier for you as the host, but the participants will be more aware of who’s present as well.
Wrapping up
Selling online through video conferencing has its pros and cons and it is not very different from doing a meeting in person. At the end of the day, it’s all about preparation and making sure that the person(s) on the other side are engaged and that they actively participate in the call. Once you have their full attention and a decently good product or service, it’s all up to your sales team to seal the deal.
Petra Odak is a Chief Marketing Officer at Better Proposals, providing a simple yet incredibly powerful proposal software tool that helps you send high-converting, web-based business proposals in minutes. She's a solution-oriented marketing enthusiast with more than 5 years of experience in various fields of marketing and project management.
