8/14/2024-Make ’em turn on their camera!

You can juggle tennis balls or hand out money…but it won’t provide an easy fix to the engagement challenge you have on your video calls. Learn to share the meeting with your clients.

"Umm, can you turn your video camera on, please?"

Sometimes, you summon the courage to ask that question in a video pitch meeting; sometimes, you don’t.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. (You can’t change all buyers who were raised by wolves, eh?)

Maybe there’s a better way to ask for engagement. And maybe you have figured it out and have success with it.

But if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ask, then give them a good reason why they should turn it on.

Don’t accept standard behavior!

Today, experiement with some lines that may get a few cameras turned on.

Try levity: "Hey everyone, literally there is cat poop, dirty laundry and toys all over this room I’m in, but I’m just gonna ignore it and focus on how good it is to see you. Would it be possible to actually SEE YOU?"

Or maybe something more tempered, "My pledge is to make this meeting engaging and valuable…and who knows, maybe a bit fun too! What helps me is when you turn your camera on…I feed on it."

Today…create your line…and start using it. You can’t fall off the floor!

The way you run a video meeting versus an in-person meeting is different; each has similar yet unique rules of engagement.

And that’s a good thing because the current business environment forces you to think more strategically about your customer and what they want and need from your interactions.

You don’t need to host a variety show or a Broadway production to drive engagement, but you do need to think about how you’re going to get ’em talking and doing stuff.

There are facts of life that will never change: death, taxes, high quotas, and prospects who won’t turn their cameras on….even when you ask politely. So it’s your job to change it up and create meetings that go against the grain of how you’ve managed in-person meetings.

One thing’s for sure…keep your video meetings short. It’s hard to keep balls in the air for long periods of time.

At the very least, create an agenda where standard business items can be covered, and roundtable discussions or collaborative group conversations can flourish.

Yesssss, this sketch comedy clip of a video meeting is cliche…but it is very funny!

It’s a good reminder that you should always push for in-person pitch meetings with your customers.