THE WORLD HAS CHANGED
We used to present to clients all together in a room. Now we meet all together in remote rooms.
Remote work has quickly become much more widely accepted. This means that more and more of your clients may prefer virtual presentations in the future. Your success is dependent on how well you are able to adapt to this new reality.
We used to go to great lengths to meet with clients face-to-face because we were able to communicate, build trust, and bond in a way that came naturally. Gathering remotely isn’t the same because technology cannot replicate the richness of in-person meetings. Running effective virtual meetings requires that you be aware of the differences and develop new strategies to lead and engage.
Regardless of where we are physically located, sales conversations should be just that — conversations. In a virtual world, it is more important than ever that you have thought-provoking, highly engaging conversations that allow you to meaningfully connect with your clients.
OBJECTIVES
- Hold the client's attention and make it easy for them to follow along with you and understand how your solutions will solve their challenges.
- Fully engage them by making them listen, think, and talk.
- Make them care enough to do something.
CHALLENGES
- In a virtual world, your clients are more distracted than ever. You are competing with everything that is on their desk, on their mind, and on their desktop.
- 100% of your clients are multi-tasking when the meeting begins, and 65% of them will continue to multi-task throughout the meeting even though only 2% of the population are able to do so effectively. As a result, you have to work much harder to repeatedly spike their attention and keep them engaged.
- Your clients assume, right from the start, that this meeting will be no different than all the virtual ones before you — a one-way presentation, not a conversation. This, in part, explains why they are multi-tasking.
- As the presenter, it is very tempting to get on a roll and keep plowing ahead, hoping for the best. Your natural tendency is to just keep talking because it is difficult for you to see your clients’ expressions and nearly impossible to gauge their reactions to your message. The problem with this approach is that you allow the client to unconsciously adopt an observer’s role rather than being an active participant in the meeting. Don’t let this happen.
- Virtual meetings make natural conversation flow nearly impossible. Humans rely on non-verbal cues to converse. We read each other’s faces, eyes, and expressions to know when we can chime in.
A gallery of 2-inch tiles on a laptop screen is not conducive to natural conversation. As a result, it is difficult for your client to know when they can jump in with questions or comments. They cannot see when someone is about to talk or when someone is finished with what they are saying. Plus, they do not want to interrupt you or talk over someone else, so they are less likely to speak up when they have something to say.
- Clients have a perception of anonymity in a virtual meeting because the technology lets them “hide”, and their ability to hide increases with every person who joins the meeting. The more anonymous the client feels, the more likely they are to disengage, and the harder it is to draw them in. Some clients may even put themselves on mute or turn off their cameras, further distancing themselves and disconnecting their brains.
- In a virtual meeting, you no longer dominate the space, your slides do. At an in-person meeting, you sat across the table from the client and could easily control the room, read the audience, and manage your peers. Your slides supported you and your story. In a virtual meeting, your slides take up 80% of the screen. You have lost your ability to use your physical presence to your advantage.
- Your clients are now more likely to read your slides than listen to you. It is scientifically proven that it is easier to read than to listen. Listening requires your client to focus and grasp what you are saying almost instantaneously. In contrast, when they are reading, they can go at their own speed and re-read the words on your slides as many times as they want. When they are reading, they are NOT listening to you.
- Your data-rich presentations, intended for face-to-face meetings, are now a losing proposition. Your clients will get trapped in your slides, reading your words and trying to figure out what it all means. When this happens, your slides no longer just support your story, they compete with your story.
TECHNIQUES
This lesson focuses on three techniques that are the foundation for running effective virtual meetings. You will find more nuanced techniques in Presenting Virtually — Build Your Story, and Presenting Virtually — Ensure the Best Possible Outcome.
A. Grab their attention in the first 180 seconds
Within the first 3 minutes, your client is deciding, consciously or subconsciously, whether this meeting is worth their full attention. Your first imperative is to pull them away from whatever they are doing and get them listening to you and your message.
The best way to grab their attention is to quickly show them that you are focused on them and their challenges, and make it clear that they will gain helpful information by the end of the call.
1. Welcome everyone to the call.
- Introduce the sales team by describing what each person will be covering, what value they will add to the conversation, and how the client will benefit.
TIP: Dispense with titles, they are of little importance to your client.
- Confirm who is on the call from the client’s side, both so that they feel acknowledged and to inform your team.
2. Do a time check.
- Confirm how how much time the client has or by what time the meeting should end. While the meeting may have been scheduled for an hour, you always want to check-in at the beginning in the event something has changed.
Example:
““I think you said you were good until 2 pm. Does that still work for you?”
This allows you to adjust if you need to, and it reminds your team how long you have. As importantly, this simple courtesy shows respect for the client and makes the meeting about THEM, not you.
You now have 180 seconds to get them to mentally commit to this meeting.
3. Share what you want the client to get out of the meeting.
Be bold, be specific, make it all about them, not you.
Example:
“Obviously, we are in uncharted waters. We want to talk through where we see the market today, how we are approaching your portfolio during the short term and how we see the opportunities for you in the long-run.”
Prepare this headline in advance. Keep it concise and focused on their challenges and opportunities. Be thought-provoking and intriguing so they want to hear more.
4. Share the flow of the meeting.
- Review what you will be talking about today and in what order. Start by giving them a heads up that you will be asking for their input — this will wake them up!
Example:
“I’d like to start by sharing with you how we’ve structured today’s meeting and then I’ll ask you for input to see if it’s in line with your expectations. As we prepared for today’s meeting …we thought it would be helpful to focus on…We’ll start with…then move on to...and finish with…”
- Ask them for feedback immediately to see if they have any other expectations. Use an open-ended question that requires a response.
Examples:
“How does that sound to you?”
“How does that align with what you want to cover today?”
Asking for their input makes it clear that you are interested in them and care about what is important to them. And it provides you with insight into what is on their mind and of greatest interest or concern.
The earlier the client hears their own voice in the meeting the more likely they are to continue to engage.
- Ask them to elaborate. Keep it natural and conversational.
Example:
“Tell me a little bit more about that.”
In most cases, how they elaborate will be better articulated because they’ve now had more time to rethink and gain clarity. Ultimately, whatever they say is what you will need to address during the meeting.
Once the client knows where they are going, they can relax and focus on you and your message.
5. Help them buy in to their challenge.
You cannot engage a client in solving challenges they are not feeling. Do something in these first few minutes to help them experience it.
Instead of asking a stale question like, “What are your challenges?” offer an eye-opening statistic or anecdote that anticipates how their business might be changing or dramatizes the challenge they may be facing.
This creates a conversation starter. It gives them something to react to rather than having to respond to a big and potentially sensitive question before they know how much they trust you. Asking this first meaningful question primes the pump for future questions. It warms them up to being an active participant in the meeting.
Here are three ways to get the client to talk openly about their challenges:
Option A Share what other clients are experiencing.
Example:
“One of the biggest challenges we hear from our clients is X. That is something we are very focused on. What are you seeing around this?”
Option B Offer a bold, thought-provoking observation and ask them to react.
This can be a statistic or something about the current state of their market
Example:
“Experts predict a 24% increase in X over the next 5 years. What are your thoughts about this?”
Option C Summarize what you know about their situation and ask for input.
Example:
“From the research we have done in anticipation of today’s meeting, we learned… and …and …How does that fit with what you are experiencing?”
- Listen to their response. Clear your head of everything else. Do not rush them.
It does not matter if they challenge, agree, or have not ever even thought about what you just said. These are all positive responses because it gets them talking, thinking, and engaged.
- Restate their response in a slightly different way and check in with them to see if you got it right. Better yet, rephrase what they said in the form of a challenge or opportunity they have and confirm with them that you heard right.
By helping them buy into their challenge, you both benefit. They get to see that this presentation is about them and that you genuinely want to hear from them. At the same time, you learn more about their situation that will help you align what you do uniquely well with what they need.
You now have their attention!
B. Make it easy for them to keep listening
Once you have the client’s attention, your next challenge in a virtual meeting is to KEEP their attention. Without your physical presence to draw them in, and with the slides now taking up 80% of the screen, it’s no wonder your clients default to reading. You want them listening to you instead.
1. Animate your slides.
Before the meeting, apply simple animation to your more complex slides so you can click through and speak to one chunk of information at a time. This will help you hold the client’s attention and keep them listening, not reading.
Use the ‘Appear’ and ‘Fade’ animations in PowerPoint. Both are clean and simple.
TIP: Resist trying out other animation effects because they can seriously detract from the quality of your presentation. Leave those to the professional designers.
Learn more about how to design your slides in Presenting Virtually—Build Your Story.
2. Clear each slide.
Tell them in 1-2 sentences what they are looking at before diving into the details of the slide.
Examples:
“As you look at this slide, I want to talk about X with a focus on how this can add significant value by… ”
“There are four points we want to discuss, 1., 2., 3., 4.,…Let’s look at #3 because… ”
Once the client knows what they are looking at, they will pull back from reading and are more likely to relax and follow along with you as you take them through the details. You have freed them from being stuck inside your slide!
3. Clear your graphs and charts.
When you have graphs, charts, or some other data visual, tell them in a simple sentence what they are looking at before you walk them through it.
Example:
“What you are looking at is a graph of X which represents …The horizontal axis tells us…and the vertical axis is…Let me take you through it.”
At first, clearing your slides may feel like you are stating the obvious, but it’s exactly what your clients need you to do. Keep in mind, while you know your slides and your story inside and out, this is the first time your client is hearing your story and they have never seen your slides before.
They will default to reading unless you tell them — succinctly — what they are looking at. Only then will they relax and listen to you as you take them through the details of the slide.
To learn more, refer to Working with the Slides.
C. Engage the client in conversation
It is challenging to engage your client in any meeting, and especially difficult when they are not in the same room. Even so, whether in-person or virtual, your client will only be engaged when one of these three things is happening:
- They are talking.
- You are talking about them.
- You are making them think.
Everything you do should try to get to one of these three.
1. Apply the ‘nowhere to hide rule’.
- Create an opportunity to engage your client at least every five minutes.
This sets an expectation of participation that will prevent them from retreating into an observer role because when this happens, you have to work twice as hard to bring them back.
2. Ask questions.
- Use questions to invite the client into the conversation more often than you usually would. This will make them an active participant.
- Use open-ended questions. These typically start with ‘what’ or ‘how’. Do not ask questions that can be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ because you want them talking.
Through their responses, you will learn what’s important to them and how they are thinking about their challenges, both of which will help you guide the rest of the conversation.
TIP: Avoid asking ‘why’ questions, because it puts the client on the defensive.
3. Check-in when you are transitioning from one slide or topic to another.
- Transitions are opportune times to engage the client. Tell them what’s coming in headline form. Intrigue them so they want to know more.
- Close each topic with a one sentence summary of what they just heard and check in with them to see what questions or comments they have.
Example:
“Before we move on to X, what questions do you have?”
- Pause regularly to let them jump in with whatever is on their mind.
4. Use their name, it’s a nice personal touch.
Example:
“Mike, that is a good question”.
5. Ask follow-up questions.
- If they ask a simple question, answer it, but then ask a follow-up question to draw them out. If the question is more complex, ask a follow-up question before answering to get them to tell you more about what they are asking. You will find that they often elaborate on their original question giving you more insight into what's important to them.
- Restate or rephrase their new question and ask for confirmation before responding.
To learn more, refer to Asking Questions and Listening and Responding.
ADVANTAGES TO YOU
- You break the pattern clients expect of a virtual presentation by getting their attention and keeping them engaged.
- The more you keep their attention, and the more they talk, the more you know you are on the right path and on target to have them fully appreciate your value.
- You develop trusting relationships despite the barriers presented by being virtual.
ADVANTAGES TO THE CLIENT
- You make it easy for the client to listen and absorb what you are saying. They do not have to work too hard to understand your message.
- Frequently inviting them into the conversation allows the client to think out loud and get their questions in. The discussion flows more naturally.
- The client is fully engaged because the meeting is all about them.
EXERCISES
ROLE-PLAY
The best way to prepare for a virtual presentation is to practice with a colleague. This is a valuable way to work out your anxiety and get comfortable with your content. When you are comfortable with your content, you will come across as natural and confident to the client.
You will have the headspace to engage in dialogue with your client because your content does not require your full attention. You will be able to ask questions, listen, rephrase, and ask follow-up questions with more ease and fluidity. How naturally and effectively you handle questions turns a good meeting into a great meeting!
Practice using one or both of these two approaches:
1. Role-play with a colleague virtually.
Ask your colleague to take on the role of the client. Be specific about the feedback you want. Here are some ideas:
- How strong is your opening?
- Do you get their attention and help them understand how the meeting will flow?
- Do they feel like the meeting is about them, not you?
- How genuinely interested do you seem to be in them?
- Are you projecting the right amount of energy?
- How well do you keep their attention?
- How well do you clear your slides?
- How effectively do you engage them?
- How conversational are you?
2. Record yourself.
Videotape yourself using your videoconference service (GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, Zoom).
Assess your own performance. We are our own worst critics, so be sure to celebrate what you do well while you work on what you can do better.
RELATED LESSONS:
Presenting Virtually — Build Your Story
Presenting Virtually — Ensure the Best Possible Outcome
Available upon request at info@thebardgroupllc.com
The precondition for effective meetings — virtual or otherwise — is voluntary engagement.
HBR, Justin Hale and Joseph Grenny