Communication Secrets for Selling in a Virtual World

Summary:

• In virtual meetings, how you look is crucial—clear visuals, good lighting, and a non-distracting background build credibility and reduce distractions.
• Start with a strong, purpose-driven opening that grabs attention, shows relevance, and sets up the conversation's direction.
• Use questions, call prospects by name, and leverage platform tools like polls to maintain prospect engagement throughout the presentation.
• Keep slides simple, visual, and engaging to recapture attention—aim for one clear message per slide.
• Integrating a power dialer like PhoneBurner with your video platform can make it easier to dial and follow up after virtual calls, so your agents can spend more energy on the contents of their conversations.

The years since COVID-19 have seen the world change in many ways—not the least of which has been the shift towards meeting and working in virtual environments. While this has brought benefits like increased flexibility and reduced commuting time for many people, it’s also changed the way we communicate.

Communication changes also mean sales teams need to change their approach—especially the ones who rely primarily on calling prospects to close deals. So here’s a list of communication secrets to help you sell better in the new virtual landscape.

This information comes from a webinar we hosted with sales expert Diane West of 2Connect. Read on to find out what she (and we) recommend to level up your virtual sales team.

How PhoneBurner Supports Virtual Sales Meetings

We developed our power dialer to help sales teams connect with more prospects—over the phone or on video calls using Zoom and other popular platforms. Here are some of the ways we can help:

• Get over 200+ integrations with video calling platforms like Zoom and other popular apps
• Reach up to 4x as many prospects in a given time period
• Streamline post-call follow-up tasks with workflow automations

Try PhoneBurner for free here and see how it can help, then keep reading to learn how you can present successfully when you reach prospects or clients for virtual meetings.

Zoom Calling Is the New Normal

In December 2019, just before the pandemic became widespread, an average of 10 million people per day used Zoom meetings. By March 2020, that number had jumped to approximately 200 million.

By April, it was 300 million. And since many people have continued working remote or in hybrid environments since the end of the pandemic, those numbers likely haven’t gone down. If anything, they’ve probably climbed.

When this shift started, there was what you might call a “grace period”—when people understood that we were all adjusting to the new normal together. But that time is over, and successful sales agents now need to be comfortable in virtual environments in order to reach their performance goals.

Top Priorities for Virtual Selling

How Do I Look Good?

As Diane West explains, 48% of virtual communicators are more concerned with how they look during sales presentations than with what their content is about. And while no amount of fancy lighting or backgrounds can replace the content of a pitch, it’s important to bear in mind that video calls are primarily a visual medium. So like it or not, the way you look matters.

Imagine you’re watching a pitch from this presenter:

What goes through your mind as you look at this image? What questions do you have about them? Here are some real responses from team members who we showed this image to:

• Who is this person? They’re backlit, which makes them difficult to see and makes the connection feel less authentic.
• Do they ever check their screen? If they did, they’d see that their video is blurry and they’re in a poor location for the call.
• Are they inexperienced? There’s nothing about the image that specifically suggests this, but because they don’t look polished and put together, it’s easy to make assumptions about their value. This is a great example of how the wrong look can tank a sales call before it even begins.

Now here’s the same presenter on a video call that’s been set up a little better:

You can see that this person still isn’t in a professional studio—but they don’t actually need to be. We all understand that most people are working from home these days. The most important thing is that she’s now clearly visible, well-lit, and against a background that isn’t distracting.

So creating the right appearance during a video call not only lends more polish and credibility to what you’re saying—it also reduces potential distractions that can get in the way of your message. Here’s how you can elevate your virtual presence:

• Make sure your video is in focus and your internet connection is strong
• Light yourself evenly and from the front so that your face doesn’t have too many shadows
• Frame yourself to capture from your mid-chest up to a couple of inches above your head
• Position the camera height at about eye level to avoid distorting facial features
• Position yourself against a consistent and neutral backdrop without too many distractions

How Do I Engage Prospects?

It’s much more difficult to engage a prospect when you don’t have the opportunity for a face-to-face interaction. Zoom fatigue is real, so your sales team needs to frame conversations to cut through the noise as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Openings Are Important

Think of your content like a story. Good stories always have purposeful openings. You want to meet the needs of the audience and pull them in. There are three steps to doing this effectively:

Gain Their Interest

People aren’t thinking about you or your product when they start a meeting. They’re thinking about the tasks left on their to-do list. So try using a compelling data point or rhetorical question to frame the conversation quickly.

Example: “I want to share a number with you: 40%. That number represents the difference in weight between aluminum and composite materials, which are 40% lighter. And we’re in the business of manufacturing composite aircraft.”

Make Them Care

It’s always a mistake to assume that people can see the value in what you’re selling for themselves. “I’m here to talk about the weight of aircraft materials” is a bit boring—because it doesn’t make it clear why people should care. You have to make the connection for them.

Example: “Using composite materials allows you to reduce manufacturing and operating costs, as well as emissions—giving you a competitive advantage in the market.”

Tell Them What to Do Next

A good opening also sets up the ask—what you want the audience to do. Waiting until the end of your presentation to do this is giving away an opportunity to influence the audience and help them know how to evaluate your content.

Putting the ask up front conditions prospects to ask the right questions and think more receptively about what you’re proposing. It also prevents them from feeling blindsided if you ask for something at the end of the pitch that they weren’t prepared to consider.

Example: “What I’d like to do is walk you through a little bit more about our company—and at the end, I’d like to invite you to a second meeting so we can tell you more about our technology and how it works.”

Lay Out the Road Map

Once you’ve done the above, you can transition into the rest of your presentation by summarizing what you’ll talk about and why. Your prospect is now primed for the rest of the conversation.

Example: “So today, the three things I thought it would be helpful to cover are…”

Re-Engaging Throughout a Presentation

Getting your prospect’s attention once at the start of your virtual presentation isn’t enough—you also have to keep them in the game. Here are some easy ways to re-engage them after your opening:

• Ask purposeful questions and pause to let them answer. Avoid questions with yes or no answers, where you either lose them or don’t drive the conversation forward. And leave ample room for them to answer, since video calls sometimes have a delay.
• Use verbal cues—encourage them to take notes or direct their attention to a slide. These simple invitations encourage the prospect to interact. Calling people by name is also helpful; it makes them feel seen and heard.
• Use platform tools. Chats, polls, and other interactive tools can help drive engagement during virtual meetings. The key here is to use them with purpose to avoid distracting your prospects.

Using Slides & Visual Aids

During in-person meetings, it’s often not recommended to use too many slides because you want to keep the focus on you and what you’re saying. But in virtual meetings, slides become an engagement tool, as long as they’re done well.

Whenever a slide changes, your prospect has another reason to look up and put their attention back on you if it’s been wandering. Here are some tips for creating compelling visual aids.

Tips

• Avoid too much text—it fatigues the prospect and splits their attention so they’re reading instead of listening to you.
• Use images and pictures wherever possible. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, it’s true.
• Think visual aid, not reference material. Reference material has all the details and doesn’t require a presenter. A visual aid is more like a billboard—it grabs attention, but still requires a presenter to give it context.
• Try to tell one story per slide. If you were to put a headline on each slide, what would it be? This helps you avoid being too general, or trying to work too much information into each slide at once.
• Use the 1-to-1 ratio. In-person, we’d recommend no more than 1 slide for every 2 minutes of talk time—but in virtual environments, there are more opportunities to use visuals. 1 per minute is totally fine if you keep them simple and follow the guidelines above.

Make Seamless Virtual Sales with the Right Tools

The tips above can prime your sales agents to present more effectively and close more details when calling prospects over Zoom. And integrating your video calling software with a power dialer like PhoneBurner can make it more efficient to have these conversations and move them forward.

Start your free trial of PhoneBurner today. With our help, it’s easier than ever to adjust to selling in virtual environments and keep crushing your sales goals.

‍