Joe DiDonato | Chief of Staff | BCI
When you’re negotiating a very important deal, and you can’t see their body language, how do you proceed? How about when you’re presenting a very key proposal, and again, you can’t see their body language?
If you’re like most of us, a lot of the back and forth between you and your client or audience is based on body language. It’s those ‘triggers’ that let us know if we’ve hit a problem area in the negotiations. When we’re face to face, we’re going to shift our presentation – or at least, ask a question – when we see an unexpected reaction.
Selling over a synchronous meeting platform like Zoom or GoToMeeting, can produce some problems when you’re not face-to-face. In our upcoming webinar on April 10th, we’re going to focus in on some of these top issues. (The registration link at the end of this blog post.)
In preparation for some of these discussions, I asked our top seller, Isidro Iturralde, and our VP of Global Sales, William Behr, to take a pass at a couple of these questions. Here’s what they told me:
Question: How do you deal with the body language issue when you’re using a synchronous platform to deliver a presentation or to conduct a negotiation?
Answer from Isidro Iturralde: Historically, I have always started virtual meetings with my camera on – and a smile on my face. This often makes others comfortable enough to share their cameras as well. More recently, it seems to be easier than ever. The camera is key to the body language issue. We are all being asked to isolate ourselves and like most salespeople, I thrive on connectivity. We are all starving for interaction with people outside our household. Thanks to Zoom, video conferencing is trending, just look at all the virtual happy hours on your feeds! I love it!
Question: What do you do if they refuse to turn on their camera?
Answer from Isidro Iturralde: That happens. People may not feel they are appropriately dressed for the meeting or they may be embarrassed by their surroundings (i.e. kids in the background etc.). So, what I do in that situation – especially if they’re a key stakeholder – is pose a question to that person. “Sarah – what do you think about how we incorporated your priorities into the proposal?” By the way, the key here is to use an open-ended question, so that you can follow-up using something like the T.E.D framework (Editors note: Tell me more about that, Explain that to me, can you? Describe what you mean when you say…). And while she’s talking, I’m paying very close attention to the reactions of the other people who have their cameras on. Are they agreeing? Are they disagreeing? If I see a reaction that seems to be in disagreement with the response, I might ask that person the next question.
Answer from William Behr: The thing to keep in mind about cameras as well is that there is a time and place for using your camera in a virtual selling environment. Like Isidro, you should start, as well as end, all of your meetings with the camera on. What happens in between however is dependent upon what you are doing and where you want your audience to focus. If you want them to be attentive to your presentation, and not see what you’re doing, turn your camera off. If you want them to connect with you, turn your camera on and know where to look.
Question: William, both you and Isidro have been big fans of social selling over the past several years. How big a factor is that now? Has anything changed?
Answer from William: Now more than ever, people seem to be looking for community. The transition from working with proximity and physical connectivity to one of distance requires us to find new ways to be “close” to one another. I’ve seen the traffic on LinkedIn, and other social platforms, increase substantially. The challenge for many of us, myself included, is we have spent time consuming content, rather than contributing or engaging with content.? My advice would be to NOT try to go from 0 to 200, but rather make sure when and what you contribute represents you in an authentic manner and reflects the brand you represent. Finally, be open to, but not bound by, what others might have to say about your contribution.
Answer from Isidro: I agree completely with that William! Excellent points. Actually, if you have not been a contributor, start by spending a few minutes each morning engaging with other people’s social media content and being thoughtful in your responses or comments. If you share or reshare, add your own perspective or key insight to it. When you are ready to contribute your own content, you must absolutely be 100% YOU. Authentic and real is what stands out, no one is looking for a perfectly edited and scripted response, but everyone is looking to learn other people’s perspectives and best practices. I listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks, so I usually leverage a piece of that content to share a perspective or insight that can be valuable to others from what I am learning. As long as you aren’t forcing it, and you are being true to yourself as well as considerate of others, this is a great way for people to get an idea of who you are and what you stand for.
We thought that some of these were great questions to consider for our upcoming webinar on April 10th. We hope it gets you thinking about the kind of questions you might like to ask. We can’t hit all of the topics that we cover in our multi-session Virtual Selling Workshop, but we will let you guide the conversation by the questions that you ask.
Obviously, we’re just talking about the “tip of the iceberg” in this short blog post. We’re more than a bit excited to hear your questions and tips, as well as share with you some of the best practices that we’ve used. If you’d like to join us, you can register here: https://www.bakercommunications.com/webinars/Best-Practices-for-Virtual-Selling-Skills.html.
