The democratisation of teleworking and videoconferencing tools within companies over the last few years has been a real change in attitudes, both in terms of the ability to adapt mentally to this new way of working and to remain effective even when working without the usual physical exchanges. You have managed to get an appointment with your prospect thanks to your excellent sales prospecting. It would be a shame to miss it. We have listed for you 5 practical tips to make your remote sales meetings as successful as possible – a key point for boosting your company’s turnover.
1. Set yourself goals
What is the purpose of my meeting? How am I going to succeed?
You must ask yourself these questions, as they are essential for the success of your sales meeting.
For example, ask yourself if you simply want to create a relationship of trust with your prospect. Do you want to leave with a contract at the end of the meeting? Or do you want to have a physical meeting with them? There are an infinite number of objectives when you are in a remote sales meeting.
You can have several for one and the same meeting. But be careful not to get lost! Keep your goals in mind. Prioritise them and structure them in stages. Draw up “guideline” for your interview, list the different steps that should lead you to your main objective.
A successful goal is a new milestone! Great for motivation, isn’t it?
2. Build your pitch
a. Personalise and structure your arguments
This is an essential step in your interview to meeting to increase your chances of achieving your goals.
Videoconferencing allows you to be much more persuasive than by telephone. However, this requires a more careful preparation of your pitch. Preparing your meeting well will give you a professional and credible image. The prospect will see that you have a good knowledge of your subject and will be more attentive to what you are telling them.
Find out as much as possible about your interlocutor before your meeting. Personalise your pitch, your prospect will love it! Also think about defining a guideline and an agenda for your client that you can outline at the beginning of the meeting. This will help you to keep the attention and concentration of your contact.
b. Structuring a sales meeting
First of all, set up an discussion phase with your client so that you can understand their problems, objectives and pain points and then show them how you can meet their needs.
Introduce yourself and prove your added value from the beginning of the video call to engage your client. Show that you are valuable, differentiate yourself from the competition while remaining clear.
Take care of your business presentation. Be precise, clear and concise. Use keywords to capture attention. Be careful to respect the schedule that you set yourself at the beginning!
Prepare the steps that will follow your meeting, give your client visibility.
Plan different conclusions for your interview. Ideally, don’t end your meeting without knowing where your prospect is in their buying process and adapt your conclusion to their maturity. If they are not interested, ask them when they will be interested. If they are not a decision maker, ask them for the contact details of the right decision maker. If they have doubts, deal with their objections. If they are ready to move forward, make them a proposal.
If you plan to send a business proposal after your meeting, tell your customer and do not delay.
c. The essentials of a video sales meeting
You can’t prepare for a video meeting the same way you prepare for a telephone meeting!
It is true that the oral communication is identical to that of a telephone meeting. However, video brings an additional element to take into account for your meeting: non-verbal language. The person sees you, sees your gestures, sees who you are. This is a real advantage that can also quickly become a disadvantage if it is not carefully managed.
So make sure you use the right gestures, you are in front of the camera and part of your pitch will be based on non-verbal communication. Keeping eye contact with your client is essential. FLook straight at your camera so that you can look “into the eyes” of the person you are talking to. Your gestures should be in symbiosis with what you say. The image you project is a key factor in the success of your meeting.
Video conferencing is a real asset for successful remote sales meetings since 55% of the memorization of your message goes through body language, which you cannot experience during a telephone meeting.
3. Prepare your environment
a. Make a good impression during a business meeting
Making a good impression during a sales meeting is essential in the final decision of your prospect! The use of the camera brings a real change in the preparation of your environment. Indeed, you will have to take into account not only what is audibly perceptible but also and especially what is visually perceptible.
To ensure that your remote meeting takes place in the best possible conditions, prepare a suitable environment:
Make sure you have a good stable internet connection
Check if your camera is working properly and if the lighting in your environment is correct
Adjust your position to adopt a professional posture in front of your client
Make you are well and professionally dressed (the client will see that you are truly caring about the meeting)
Stand in front of a blank background or choose a virtual background suitable for your brand
Choose a quiet location
b. Master your commercial pitch and your sales tools
For your remote meeting, use tools that you are familiar with so that you can have a certain fluidity in your speech, your gestures and the visual aids you want to display.
Connect 5 minutes in advance in the virtual meeting room to test your equipment, check the sound, video and chat (a microphone failure when your client arrives would be unwelcome…)
4. Take advantage of the collaborative features of videoconferencing
a. Keep the attention of your client
During your meeting your main challenge will be to keep the attention of your interlocutor. Videoconferencing provides many features that will help you in this task!
Screen sharing is a real asset for your remote meeting. You can use it to demonstrate your product in real time or to present a series of slides with graphs, key figures, documents, interfaces, etc. This will complement what you are saying and help the customer to concentrate and understand.
You can also use the whiteboard. With it, you can take photos of documents or proofs remotely, as well as make annotations that your contact sees in real time.
Instant sharing is a key factor in the success of your remote meetings. When using videoconferencing, you can transfer files in real time (documents, videos, photos, forms to be filled in….) as well as instant messages (in the chat). This is very useful for sharing, for example, URLs with interesting articles related to your sales pitch, the link to a customer portal, a user document, a video or even a link for making an appointment.
Finally, videoconferencing tools often include a recording system. This will allow you to review your meeting at any time, to see if the scenario you planned went well, to measure the KPIs of your meeting and to see if you had enough time to talk to the customer, if you gave him enough room to express themselves (remember to ask for the client’s consent).
b. Be attentive to your customer
Involve them in the meeting and ask for their feedback during the meeting so that you can adapt the materials you present to them.
Don’t neglect this point! Customers increasingly expect their sales representatives to show consideration and empathy towards them. In fact, 53% of people believe that companies that collect feedback from customers do not act in a way to take it into account. This is therefore a key point for the success of your remote sales meeting.
5. Reassure and take care of your customer
Even if videoconferencing is now widely used, it is still important to reassure the client about this new communication channel and to eliminate any obstacles so that they feel as comfortable as if they were in a physical meeting.
Here are a few tips to consider during your meeting:
Take care of the invitation, personalise it as much as possible! Be sure to include the link to the virtual meeting room and, if necessary, instructions on how to connect to it.
If certain documents, articles, videos or other material could be decisive for your prospect, do not hesitate to send them before the meeting and suggest that they consult them. This will save you and your client time.
Make your client feel comfortable by giving them the opportunity to choose how they want to connect, don’t force them to come in with their camera or microphone turned on right from the start. Give them time to get comfortable and then invite them to go on video. Give them time to prepare (take care of their background, clear the area of the room in the video frame, etc.).
Don’t look at the ceiling! Always keep eye contact with your customer to capture their attention and show that you are attentive during your conversation.
Lack of consideration, in other words the feeling of not being valued as a person, is one of the number one customer frustrations. With all these tips, you show your customer that you care and that you empathise with them.
Videoconferencing has become a must for successful sales meetings and for increasing your company’s turnover. With all this advice and a little practice (and yes, it does take a little), you no longer have any reason to fail your remote meetings. At Apizee, we work with our clients each day to help them implement these best practices within their sales department. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want any further information.
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