10 Tips To Elevate Your Next Sales Presentation Over Zoom

(MODIFIED TRANSCRIPT)

One of the questions we hear most often in our classes, our workshops, and one-on-ones is, how can I sell over video conferencing more effectively? How can I use Zoom to sell like a pro? Are there any zoom tips to share?

We've got you covered — 10 Zoom tips to help you sell like a pro! But before we dive in, why does this even matter? I'm going to share some stats, and these numbers, they're going to blow your mind!

The Rise In Video Conferencing

First off, we all know that COVID saw a massive increase in the amount of video conferencing and video on the internet. And no, it wasn't just people chilling at home, watching Netflix. It was for business purposes, for work purposes.

We know that from the folks over at TrustRadius. They can tell us that there was over a 500% increase in the amount of business transactions for video software.

Not only that but if we take a look at specific companies, we can take a look at what Bloomberg lets us know. Companies like Zoom saw almost a 3,000% increase in the number of daily active users over a four-month period.

Now, that's huge, but is this really a good thing? Are we going to go back to how they were, or is this the new normal?

So, no, this is the new normal. We need to be selling online using video.

But what does that mean for you as a sales rep? It can be daunting. It can be intimidating. And the first few times you're running a demo, you're running a presentation remotely, those fumbles can be embarrassing and harm your closing rates.

So, here we go; 10 Zoom tips to make you more effective and more confident when selling!

1 - The Mute Button

The mute button, use it like lives depend on it. Not only is it going to improve the experience for everyone else, but it'll save you those embarrassing moments if someone walks in, or the phone rings, or an alert pops. Use it, and it will make you more professional.

Moreover, you don't need to worry about forgetting about it. We've all been in those meetings where people start talking, and everyone reminds them, "Oh, you're on mute." Save yourself that embarrassment by using this trick; the space bar.

While you're in a Zoom meeting, you can hold the space bar to talk, and it'll temporarily unmute you. So, not only can you save everybody else on the line, but you can imagine you're using an old walkie-talkie while you're at it.

2 - The Camera Angle

Take the time to get the camera angle at eye level so it's looking at you like a person would. If you're speaking to somebody, you wouldn't have them looking up your nose or looking down at you from above. So, get it straight at, and it'll feel like a more human and a more effective experience.

3 - The Audio Quality

Pay attention to audio quality. People forgive laggy, choppy video, low resolution, choppy graphics. But if the audio's bad, that will end the call like nothing else. Try to avoid using the built-in audio because it often comes across as really tinny.

Take the time to add a headset, a very inexpensive cabled headset, or over-the-head earphones will work. All of those will improve the quality of your audio. And if you're in a space where you can't avoid background noises, there are inexpensive tools like krisp.ai. There's a link in the description. That can actually automatically remove that background noise. Pay attention to the audio, and that'll immediately level up the quality of your calls.

These 3 are the zoom tips above are the ones that make a BIG difference!

4 - Be Deliberate About Sharing

Be deliberate in what you're sharing. Often, when you share your screen, the first option is your whole screen, but that includes everything like your task bar, your menu bar, your alerts, your messy desktop.

If you're sharing for a demo or to share information, share just the application or just the tab in your browser to make sure people are seeing an uncluttered view, and you have no embarrassing moments like you're sharing something you didn't intend to.

The last thing you want to do is accidentally share a sensitive customer email while you're sitting in a video conference with others. So, take the time to be careful of your share.

As well, keep in mind, people will be using different devices. They might be on their phone, an iPad, their computer. If you take the time to share a window that's sized appropriately, people will be able to see the right information. If you're sharing your whole screen and you have a massive monitor, that's going to be really hard for people who are joining from smaller devices. Sharing a screen like a pro is going to make you look really good.

5 - Consider Your Background

Consider your background and your surroundings. No, you don't have to have an incredible studio with a green screen. That means to take time and be deliberate.

Zoom / Microsoft Teams, all of them have virtual backgrounds so you can put what you want behind you. That might be your branding, it might be a photo, one of your favorite locations. Or if you're using your own space, think about how it'll come across.

For example, my background gives me an amazing opportunity to speak about my travel, my family. I can't count the number of times people have asked me about the painting I have behind me or the Lego figurines. Think about your surroundings as a way to show off your personality, to put yourself forward in the best light. And consider how people will be seeing it because that's the most important.

6 - Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Use your keyboard shortcuts. In the description, we link to one of our articles where we go through a number of the most popular ones. But even knowing a couple, like how to quickly stop sharing your screen, we've all been in a situation where we've got three or four Zoom windows open: the chat, the participants, the screen share, and you notice that something pops up, you need to quickly get back to it.

Being able to quickly use those keyboard shortcuts to shop sharing, to turn off your video. Those are great escape hatch moments so you don't have to worry about clicking around to find those links.

7 - Use The Pause Button

Use that pause button. This is often overlooked. When you're sharing your screen, that "Stop Sharing" button, right beside it, has a pause sharing. When you click that button, whatever you had on your screen is frozen, available for everybody while you can go and move on to other things. This is fantastic if you need to look something up, if you need to get a piece of information. You don't need to let everyone see you hunting around in your emails or your folders.

Just pause the screen while you look for it. When you come back and unpause it, they'll catch up with where you are. Great way to hide the messiness of what you're working on while you put your best foot forward to your audience.

8 - Review Your Security Settings

Take the time to be deliberate about which security settings you use for which meetings. For example, one-click login. That's best for internal meetings that are happening on a recurring basis. Your weekly kickoffs, close outs, all-hand meetings. It makes it very easy for your team to click the link and get in. Zoom can be set up to whitelist email domains. So, if you have people who are joining your Zoom regularly, you can add them to the whitelist so that they don't need to sit in the waiting room or enter a passcode, which brings me to the other two settings.

The second option is the waiting room, be sure to enable that. And that, way you can make sure that as you're letting people in, you know who they are and you're avoiding any of that Zoom bombing.

The third option, the passcode is really best when you need that extra layer of security. You could share that password, like "Kickoff," ahead of events so that people who are coming in aren't just who you think they are, but they know what you've shared in advance.

9 - Adding Link To Calendar

Be sure to add the Zoom details to your calendar invitations. The easiest way to do that is to use the meeting link, and put that in as the location in your calendar.

If you're using the Zoom Chrome extension, and you're using webmail, it'll actually do that for you automatically. When you create a meeting, and you click "Make It a Zoom Meeting," it'll put it right there in that location. That way, anytime somebody opens up the event, they've got the link right there, and you can go even further by customizing the body.

Instead of just using that plain wall of texts that Zoom and any conference app give you, put in a short agenda for the meeting right at the top. And that way, anytime someone's opening the event or at the start of the event, you and they can refer to it.

10 - Setting Personal Meeting ID

You can configure your personal meeting ID. Zoom can set you up with an individual meeting room that's always available so you can just stand it up. Now, it's a randomly generated 9 to 11 digit code by default, but you can change that.

A clever hack is to set it to your phone number. So, if you're ever in those situations where you need to quickly stand up a room, you could tell people, "Load up Zoom. Here's the meeting number," and just rhyme off your phone number. You never need to worry about forgetting it. These zoom tips save you a TON of time.

11 - Disabling Your Personal Meeting ID

Bonus Zoom tips, choose when to disable your personal meeting ID. You can see here in these options, I've turned it off so that I'm not using my personal meeting ID when I schedule meetings.

The reason for that is when I book meetings for customers, partners, students, anyone, especially when they're booked back-to-back, every meeting gets a unique code. So, you'll never have a situation where someone crashes one of your meetings early because you used the same code for multiple sessions. So, yes, your personal ID can be a lifesaver, but be sure not to use it when you're scheduling meetings.

More Tips And Resources:

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