201: Virtual Selling - How To Master The First Impression Online

<p>We now sell in the Age of Distraction and the Era of Cynicism.  When the client is talking to us online, they can be so easily distracted and can be secretly multi-tasking in the background, not paying any great attention to what we are saying.  There has always been a lot of client scepticism about salespeople claims, but with the “fake news” catch phrase being tossed around with wild abandon, buyer cynicism is being added to, rather than diminished.  So for our first impression, when we come online to meet the client for the first time, it is critical to grab, keep and deepen their attention.  How do we do that?</p> <p>When the meeting starts, I will assume you have the proper logistics in place. The camera lens on your laptop is slightly above eye line height, that the lighting is such that you are easy to see and that you are wearing a headset, with a microphone attachment, to compensate for the poor quality audio these online platforms provide.  Naturally you are sitting up straight, leaning in about 15 degrees, rather than slumped back in your chair.</p> <p>Please, please, please do not open with “how are you today”.  This type of fake interest in the buyer’s well being has zero impact and makes you sound like those sleazy telephone sales dogs calling buyers at weird hours, trying to sell them weird stuff. Start with some appreciation instead and say something intelligent and meaningful like, “Covid-19 has really added a lot of stress to everyone’s workloads, so let me begin by thanking you for making time to speak with me today”.  That is a highly credible opening statement that shows we are all in this together, you understand their world and you are appreciative of them.  You continue by adding value, “The object of my call today is to understand whether the results we have been able to achieve for other clients are also possible for your firm.  I have no idea if that will be the case or not, but I am very keen to see if we can be of some meaningful assistance to you”.  We are telling them that we hav