B2B Selling on Zoom: Meeting Execution (Part 3)
This article is Part 3 of a three-part series on B2B Selling on Zoom. There are two additional articles in this series:
Technical Considerations
Screen Share: When you are done speaking about whatever you were sharing on the screen, make sure you turn it off to signal to the group that the topic has changed. Suppose your screen share shows technical product information, and you are now discussing business terms. You want your audience to be focused on the topic you are speaking about rather than being distracted by a technical diagram. You can toggle back and forth from screen share to keep the audience focused on the right material. Always make sure the screen share is representative of the topic being discussed.
Taking Notes: When taking notes, put the frame of your note-taking application directly under your camera so you are maintaining some eye contact with your audience while you are typing. And let the audience know you are taking notes, so they know you are fully engaged and not multitasking. If possible, avoid note-taking. If you are the main presenter and have a colleague on the call, ask your colleague to take notes so you can focus 100% on listening to your prospect.
Chat Functionality: You rarely want to use the chat functionality in your video conferencing application because this can be a distraction for you and your audience. For example, you may have a link to product information you would like to share with your client during your meeting. However, sharing the link via your follow-up email after your session is better. There are three reasons you should shy away from sending links to your client during a video call.?
(1) You do not want your listener distracted by reading something while speaking. You want to control the dialogue, tempo, and attention of the person you are communicating with. Sending them links during the call relinquishes this control.
(2) All chat and links within your conferencing application disappear once the call has ended. If you send the link after the call via email, you are not putting the responsibility on your customer to write it down.
(3) Sending informational links is a great way to frame a follow-up email so your client can read through it when they have the time and extend the interaction of the virtual call with a strong follow-up email.
If you have vital information to share during the call, use screen share. Let your client know you will send them a link as a follow-up and flash the page over screen share so they can understand what you will send them. This way, you can control the flow of the dialogue.
Meeting Flow
Arrive Early: Always be the first person in the meeting to show your prospect they are important. And if someone on the prospect side also arrives early, it will allow you to have some personal chit-chat to start building a relationship. Also, always be the last person to sign off on the call to show respect.
Video: Keep your video off until your client arrives. First impressions are everything, so you must be prepared to look into the camera and say hello once your client is logged in. This will help you be ready to make a great first impression. Think of yourself as about to go live on TV; you want the camera to cut to you when you are ready.
Introductions: Make sure that everyone on the call has an opportunity to introduce themselves. You want to warm up your audience before jumping right into the agenda and knowing what role they are playing so you can address individual needs and wants. This is also an excellent time for a relaxed conversation and to point out some things you have in common with your customers.
Confirm Agenda: If you have a confirmed agenda in writing ahead of time, refer to it at the start of the meeting to confirm that your prospect agrees upon the agenda and sequence of topics. In addition, confirm that the issues important to your prospect will be covered.
Screen Share: When screen sharing, do not share your entire desktop; only share the specific document or browser tab. This will make it easier for your audience to read and de-risk the possibility of seeing something on your desktop that you may not want them to see, such as a private message or a personal document.
Time Management: Once the meeting starts, remind the group how much time is allocated for the meeting, so everyone is attentive to time management when speaking. For example, you may want to have the first half of the discussion focused on technical questions and the second part of the meeting on business terms. And let the group know upfront that you would like to leave at least five minutes or more at the end to make sure you have time to define and agree upon the next steps.
Time Checks: To avoid going down rabbit holes and wasting time, intervene with a friendly time check if needed to ensure you have enough time to get to the essential topics of the meeting. Sometimes someone might take over the conversation and go on a tangent, speaking in-depth about an unimportant matter. If the topic being discussed is not adding value to the group or not helping to move the conversation forward, it is OK to politely do a time check and remind the group that you only have a certain amount of time left for the call. Then, politely suggest you can go deeper into the topic on your next call or over email.
Ending Early: If you cover the topics in less time than is allocated for the call, there is no need to prolong the meeting. Instead, your client will appreciate your efficiency and give them some time back in their day.
Next Steps: Defining and agreeing on the next steps is key to moving the sales process forward. However, this part of the call is often rushed and needs the proper time and attention it deserves. In the last ten minutes, switch the conversation to the next steps. Confirm action items on both sides, summarize the next steps, and who is responsible for the action items on each side. Also, confirm the follow-up meeting with an agreed-upon time and date. The best time to lock in the follow-up meeting is when you have everyone live on the call so they can check their calendars and confirm.
Use Names Often: In an in-person meeting, you can look at a person, and they will know that you are addressing them. In a virtual call, nobody knows whom you are looking at because you are just looking into a camera. Use names often when speaking directly to a specific person, so they know they are being addressed. You can also use this method when asking questions. For example, you want the most senior person to speak the most, so instead of asking a question to the group, ask the question directly to the person that you would like to answer the question.
Summarize: There is a propensity to misinterpret critical information on virtual calls. Therefore, it is good practice to summarize often what you heard back to the individual to confirm your understanding."So, to summarize, you are saying that your existing vendor is not giving you the support you and your team need to be successful?" This also lets the prospect know you are a good listener and are paying attention to them, which they will appreciate.?
Etiquette
Video On/Off: By default, you should always be prepared to have your video on. However, if your counterpart has their video off, it can be awkward speaking into a camera without any non-verbal feedback from your client. Therefore, if your client has their video off,?you can start with your video on for the first couple of minutes to start so you can make a better connection with them. However, turning off your video after the first few minutes is acceptable if that is your preference.
Interrupting: You want your client to speak as much as possible, at least 50% of the time. The more they talk, the more you will learn about their business challenges. However, occasionally you may need to interrupt your client to correct an error, point out a value lever, or stop someone from going down a rabbit hole and wasting valuable time on a topic that is not important.
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Interrupting smoothly and politely is much harder in a virtual meeting because the person you are speaking with cannot see the visual cues we typically give when you want to interject. One method you can use in a virtual meeting is to raise your hand slightly to provide a non-verbal cue that you want to say something. Another approach is to use the person's name for the intervention. "John, one thing I would like to point out." When a person hears their name, they will automatically pause, allowing you to jump in and shift the conversation or make a needed point.
The Follow Up
Follow-Up Invite: If you have an agreed-upon day and time for the next meeting, send out the invite ASAP before someone's calendar gets booked.
LinkedIn: If there were new people on the call you did not anticipate joining, send them a LinkedIn invite with a personalized message as a follow-up. You want to establish relationships with everyone on the buying team, including all users and influencers. Sending a LinkedIn invite is an easy way to establish a 1-1 communication and let the person know you value their time and support.
Follow-Up Email: The follow-up email is essential to confirm new information and outline the next steps and action items. Assume your email will be forwarded to other executives in the company who are part of the buying group, so ensure all your email communication is crisp and professional. Take your time to write the perfect follow-up but sending it out the same day is good practice.
Email Subject: In the follow-up email, ensure you have a descriptive easy-to-read email subject so you and your client can easily search for the email in the future. Examples:
Address One Person: It is best to address a single person in your follow-up email so they will be accountable for the next steps or action items. If your email is addressed to "Team" or "All," nobody is responsible for responding and acting. One person may think another is taking care of the follow-up and vice versa.
Meeting Notes: In your follow-up, list a summary of new information learned, preferably in bulleted format for ease of consumption and understanding. Also, include the next steps with timelines, if applicable, so everyone is on the same page and knows the next steps and timelines needed to progress the deal forward.
Action Items: If there are action items from the meeting, assign which person or company is responsible for the action item. This way, you can refer to the action item list in your next meeting to confirm they have been done and by whom. Also, include completion target dates so you can follow up and nudge people to get things done by referring back to the original email.
Hyperlinks: If during the meeting you referred to any documentation, presentations, or blog posts, make sure you include them in your summary using hyperlinks embedded in the text describing what the link is referring to. This will make the email easy to read for your client. Never send raw links. It looks messy and makes your email more difficult to read.
Attachments: Try to stay away from attachments when possible. For example, send them a hyperlink embedded in your text to the PDF instead of sending a PDF. This will help disseminate and retain information when emails are forwarded or replied to because the link stays with the email, but attachments are dropped. In addition, and as mentioned, embed the link using a hyperlink within a descriptive title of the collateral or documentation.
Questions: Always put any questions you may have at the end of your email, or they will be missed if buried within the body of the email. Questions can also be used to elicit a response to confirm that they have read your email. For example, "Do our notes accurately capture our next steps?" "Can you get back to us by next Monday?"
Mobile Follow-Up: Always strive to establish a texting relationship with your important clients. A text follow-up is an excellent opportunity to develop such a relationship. In addition to your email, send them a quick text sharing your contact information and let them know to reach out to you anytime. It lets the client know you are always available in real-time moving forward and is a more personal way to interact.
To make it easy for your client to store your contact information on their phone, create a contact for yourself in your phone's address book and then share that contact with them. This way, they don't have to type the information into their phone.
Multiple Email Follow-Ups: In some cases, there may be action items agreed upon that fall within the responsibility of different people on the client's side. For example, there might be follow-ups needed by both procurement and the technical team.
If you bury multiple action items for different people within one email, the action item could be forgotten and missed by the individual responsible. To avoid this, you can send out two separate follow-up emails (and copy all) with different subject headings addressed to the two individuals responsible for the action items. This will create better accountability and make it easier for you to push each individual as needed and keep them accountable if they need to follow up on the assigned action item.
I hope you found some new ideas or best practices in these articles. We are all still adapting and learning how to perform at our best with this new way of doing business. Each incremental improvement in our day-to-day remote selling activities will pay dividends in the future.?
Happy B2B selling!
If you have not read them yet, please see Part 1 and Part 2 in this series:
?About the Author
Thank you for reading my article. I have a passion for B2B Software Sales, and I am constantly looking for ways to level up my performance. If you have any questions or insights to share, please feel free to contact me via my open LinkedIn profile.
Andrew Paulsen – [email protected] / +1 415.269.7350
Integrity, Truth, Efficient, Effective, Enthusiastic!
5 个月Andrew Paulsen, I am just beginning to use Zoom to communicate with others and present the benefits of products and services. Thank you for taking time to write a detailed and useful three part article to help make the Zoom call an essential and successful tool in selling.
Director - Foreign Exchange Corporate Sales at GPS Capital Markets, Inc.
10 个月There are some excellent best practices here. I became lazy and had forgotten some of them. This was a good refresher.