For years, the idea of making a phone call and seeing the face of the person you’re calling was restricted to science-fiction and comic strips.
Friends and family would say, “It’s good to hear your voice!”, or “I can’t wait to see you!” As grateful as we were to make contact, it just never quite felt good enough to just hear their voices. We wished there was some way we could see them as well.
Back then, when it came to sales, there were those who used the phone every day for business. I’ve spoken to some veteran sales people about what it was like when they first started. Time and again they mentioned the disadvantages of having to rely on just the voice for engagement. A potential lead might suddenly say to them, “Ya know what? I’ll believe it when I see it,” or “Where are you calling from?” Or “That sounds too good to be true. How do I know this isn’t a scam?” Trying to engage over the phone had its challenges.
After a few of these, you can just picture the salesperson thinking, “Argh! If we could just see each other, this would be a lot easier!” They wished there was some way they could see their leads.
You know what they say, ‘be careful what you wish for!’
Today, as you well know, we can see just about anyone, anywhere in the world, at any time.
So—why aren’t we ecstatic about it?
Funny how things change when our wishes come true. Science fact promptly becomes less sexy than science fiction! Why is this?
Maybe it’s because the excitement of things like Zoom, especially as it relates to business, has now become a responsibility, with expectations from your boss, to sell just as effectively, even more so, now that everyone’s wish to see each other remotely has come true.
So, the greater ease we craved in fantasy, has now become greater pressure in reality.
Speaking of today’s reality—just what do we do about the pressure of a Zoom call? Maybe at first we joke about it, do our best to avoid it, or maybe we think to ourselves, “Hmm, I didn’t sleep so well last night, and I just don’t want to see anyone’s face today!”
Oh sure, you can joke, but, as your boss will not hesitate to tell you, the Zoom call is a fact of life now and it’s not going away, pandemic or no pandemic. As for the phone, a recent article stated that phone-based sales calls aren’t going away either, that as many as 92% of all customer interactions continue to happen over the phone. That same article champions video calls as being “an easy [italics mine] way to stand out from your competition.” But can it really be all that easy, given the “new” pressures? How about this: another article states that over 50% of sales prospects want to see a product demo on the first call—so, right there, Zoom is helping you deal with that part of it. But can you really navigate Zoom any better than you are now? Absolutely.
As with dealing with other challenges in life, the solution to this new-reality pressure is to get psyched about, that is, prepared for it! We won’t get into the exact science of Zoom right here, but we will give you some good, simple tips to improve your presentation:
- Be early for your call. This gives you a chance to test your audio. Adjust your screen. These are all signs of respect that your contact will immediately appreciate.
- Treat eye contact as you would in a real life situation, alternating looking them in the eye with looking away. Just make sure you’re not looking away so often that you appear disengaged.
- Understand camera placement. To clarify that part about looking them in the eye: Don’t look them in the eye as they appear on the screen, as in watching television, rather look at the light at the top of your monitor—that’s where the camera is. This method is used in television broadcast news. Anchorpersons are taught to look at a green light on top of the camera when they deliver the news so they are addressing their audience and not the cue person beside the camera.
Like an anchorperson, you’ve got something important to say to your customer, and the news is good. More than that—once you’ve done this a few times, delivering your “news” can even be fun! Something to look forward to. Imagine that!
Want another solution to the challenges of engagement, right now? Make your wish come true by checking out our Engagify courses on selling online and on-camera!