Do you remember when websites first came into the business world in the mid-1990’s? Companies felt as though they had to have one, so they bought a URL and threw something together. Many executives thought websites were temporary, but they felt like they had to have one. So, they had a website created at the very minimum effort. Many were terrible, but they didn’t care. After all, these things were a fad that would likely disappear.
I think we all know what happened. Those website things became a thing. Some organizations knew websites weren’t going away and got in front of the curve. Others are still playing catch-up in their online strategies, twenty-five years later. Some didn’t survive because they ignored the significance.
Today, we’re seeing the same dynamic with online video calls. During the last seven months, most salespeople have conducted more online video calls than they had previously done during the rest of their career. However, most of them are brutal. Most salespeople assume this trend will go away when we get past COVID, so they don’t care how bad they look – especially since all the other presentations looks just as bad. Guess what…
- Online video calls are not going away. They’ll decrease over the next 18 months, but they’re going to be used significantly more than they were in 2019.
- The market is going to demand an improvement in the quality of these calls and presentations.
- Certain salespeople are going to get in front of the curve and others are going to be playing catch-up. Some won’t survive.
Moving into 2021, if salespeople want to succeed, then they’ll have to improve their online video calls … bigtime. I don’t just mean their lighting or audio quality. I mean everything. Our audiences were distracted and checking emails when we were presenting in front of them, so imagine how distracted they are now! We’ve got to get them excited before the call, engage them at the beginning of the call, get them to interact through different mediums, get creative in our cameras and screen sharing, and think way, way, way outside of the box. In fact, we need to design a new box and then think outside of that. (I know that makes no sense, but I’m leaving it there to drive home my point.)
I know that most of the online calls today are about as bad as they were in March – maybe a little better since most people bought better lighting. But trust me … the market will demand improvement and once the curve starts shifting upward, the race will be on and you need to get in front of it.
Tune in next week when I discuss Change #3: Your knowledge will differentiate you more than your personality or selling skills.
