Episode #205: Virtual Selling: Engaging Decision Making Teams

In a virtual call, what is the maximum number of people who should be joining on the buyer side, to make the meeting effective? There is a correlation between the number in the group and the number who will contribute during the meeting. The more people on the call, the greater tendency for people to become less engaged. Research by the Rain Group says that with up to four people on the call, the level of engagement can be quite good. Once we get over five buyers, it becomes much more difficult.

The virtual world revolves around both camera and audio based communication. If there are multiple attendees on the buyer side, there is also a strong chance that not all will turn their cameras on. This is a downer because you now have no chance of reading their body language, fraught as that might have been anyway.

This is not so different to the face to face world though, when there are many on the Japanese buying side in the room. The most senior people are either actually sleeping or are sitting there with their eyes closed, doing a spectacular job of pretending to be sleeping. Usually, there will only be around three people who will even speak up. Everyone is there because they have to protect their turf and want to influence the outcome of the meeting. They are expecting you to make your pitch. Their shotgun breeches are duly snapped shut and then they drill your pitch full of holes, exposing what a travesty it is.

The online world will be the same and with the exposure to all of the multi-tasking going on in the background, because their cameras are turned off. Normally, it is extremely hard to get Japanese buyers to do anything for you in a sales meeting. They think they are there to listen, then critique everything you just said. Online it is even worse. We have to go beyond using the communication platform as a tool to speak to each other and must use it to facilitate an experience. If we were having a face to face meeting and the buyer was highly engaged, asking questions, seeking more detail, then there would be a pretty good chance they would buy. We need that same level of engagement in the online world.

How do we get them to participate online? Remember, the buyers all see themselves as God and we are just pesky, unwashed salespeople. We need to direct the buyers and guide them to take certain actions, which will allow us to engage with them. We need to tell them what we want them to do and then tell them how to do it. We next ask for a response, using a follow up question.

This is where the preparation is critical. For example, if with a flourish, we magically pull up a whiteboard on screen and expect a bunch of Japanese buyers to grab the text tool or the arrow tool and start interacting with us, their complete lack of response will be debilitating. If it was just a one to one online meeting, they might feel some pressure to take some action, but as a collective, they will just sit there and completely and shamelessly ignore us. They are totally happy to let hell freeze over, before they make a move for any tool. They will blank you and force you back to giving your pitch. If you have already given it, they will rip into your pitch, telling you why it is crap.

We need to be super well organised and anticipate their resistance. For example, we have slides that have options numbered on screen. We need to set up the participation. “There are many of us on the call today, so we really appreciate everyone joining us. To make this meeting as effective as possible would you please give me some feedback on these four options. The best way to do that is go to the chat box, under the participant panel and write in the number of the option you think would generate the most value for your part of the business?”. Their names will appear in the chat showing the number chosen. We just refer to them by name and thank them for selecting their option. This is a way of encouraging the remainder to follow suit. For those who don’t participate, the “I am not here to do anything” brigade, we need to draw them out by name. “Tanaka san, would you mind sharing your selection with everyone please, because we really value your insights?. I would really appreciate it”.

We can then ask individuals to share their thinking behind their selection. “Murayama san, I see you chose option three. Thank you for doing that. Would you please come off mute and help me to understand why this is important to you. That will really help me to better understand how we can serve you best, so please share your thoughts with us. Thank you Maruyama san”. We try and do this with a number of the participants on the call, but it must be done in a deferential, “we are really trying to help you” way or resistance will be major and unmerciful.

Following this we might ask a further expansion question to the group. “Could I ask everyone else to give me a green check please if they think we have sufficiently understood your situation. If you think we have missed something important, please choose the red cross. The green check and the red cross are located in the little panel, just below the participant list in the right hand panel on your screen. Please choose green check or red cross”.

Don’t expect to get everyone involved. You wouldn’t get that in a face to meeting either, so it is an even more outlandish idea for the virtual world. But you will get engagement if you are properly prepared. Anticipate you will draw God’s wrath and prepare accordingly. Make it super easy to get engagement with you in the sales call. If you can do that, then your chances of making a sale go up dramatically. Your rivals won’t have a clue about any of this and will be drowning in their own blood as the buyers cut their pitch to ribbons, as usual.