WFH tips: The key minutes that determine your success in an online sales meeting

Our series ‘Working from home tips’ is all about useful hacks for working from home. We will give you tips from how to find your workflow when working from home to how to keep the team-bond from a distance.

"Those first five minutes set you up for success"

Our Director of Sales puts it that simply. The first five minutes in an online sales meeting determines whether you will get that customer.

In the past eight years that Caleb Robertson has worked as a salesperson, the sales meetings have always been virtual. Now, as Director of Sales at Whereby he shares some of the go-to tips he uses in his own online sales meeting.

And the recipe for success starts in the first five minutes.

How to create credibility in an online sales meetings

Being able to establish credibility both as a person, product, and company is the very first thing you have to do in an online sales meeting.

“It is important to come across as credible, otherwise there is no chance to build rapport. Building rapport is what you want because people are more likely to buy from people they like and trust,” Caleb says.

The trust and credibility needs to take shape in the first minutes of the virtual sales meeting.

“When you don’t meet in person it can be more challenging to establish,” Caleb says. But that doesn’t stop him from having a couple of tricks up his sleeve to help you out.

Let the potential customers drive the meeting

Knowing your company, product, and customers are vital to establishing credibility. However, that doesn’t mean that you should go into a long monologue about your product right from the get-go.

If you want potential customers to be more involved in the online sales meeting, you should let them drive the call, Caleb explains:

“They are more engaged if you talk about what they want and need, and what drove them to the meeting,” he says.

Look people in the eyes

In an online meeting, it can be difficult to read the room as you can’t see the whole body language of the other person. There are certain body language behaviors that you can adopt in order to get a better understanding of the other person during the call.

“Look into the camera so it seems like you look them in the eyes. It’s one of the typical keys we shouldn’t forget,” Caleb says.

Use location in your online sales meetings

An easy way to get people to like you in virtual sales meetings is to use something everyone can relate to - geography. This is a topic that everyone can talk about, and it’s always a good conversation starter.

In Caleb’s display name, he always has a pushpin emoji with the name of the city he is currently in. This makes it easy for him to talk about where he lives and asks customers where they are located.

Besides geography creating comfortable small talk and a good atmosphere in the meeting, it can also serve another important purpose in the virtual sales meeting.

“It can also help establish credibility if you can refer to other customers you have in the same area as the people you’re having a meeting with,” Caleb explains.

Be genuine

One of the reasons that Caleb uses locations and geography to make a connection with customers in online sales meetings is because it genuinely interests him. Finding topics that can help you form a connection is one of the first things you should think about. Because having  a genuine conversation will build credibility and trust.

“Some use the question ‘are you batman or spiderman?’. Not me. I won’t be genuine if we talk about that, and I want to come across as being that,” Caleb says.

You want to be trusted and likeable when you’re in an online sales meeting. These four tips from our Director of Sales can help you have a successful first five minutes in your online sales meeting.