Suddenly Virtual. Karin M. Reed

compassion, attraction, but also occasional contempt (e.g. a Red Sox fan disheartened to realize his coworker is a diehard Yankees fan) (Curtis, Rhoades, and Waguespack Jr 2012; Zagefka, Noor, and Brown 2013; Rindfleisch and Inman 1998). In one study, researchers found that knowledge of disaster areas increased willingness to donate, suggesting that familiarity bred compassion behavior. While the adage states that to know a person, one must walk a mile in their shoes, perhaps getting a glimpse of their book collection will suffice in helping us understand them a bit more.

In so many ways, we were all in this together, and the impacts on relationships with our coworkers are still being evaluated and analyzed today.

The Value of Video for External Meetings

      Perhaps no team within an organization was more deeply affected by the stay‐at‐home dictates than the sales force. While some companies were exclusively selling virtually, most were not, and that pivot for some organizations felt akin to turning a giant cruise ship. It can be done but not without a lot of effort and forethought. Sales folks, by their very nature, crave face‐to‐face interaction. Without being able to begin a sales call with a handshake, what was the best alternative?

       The Virtual Sales Call

      Since the pandemic began, almost 90% of business‐to‐business (B2B) sales have moved to a remote model, whether that be videoconferencing or phone. Certain sectors – technology, media, and telecom especially – are leading the way, but according to McKinsey, “Sales leaders are already moving quickly to navigate the crisis, with the best ones focusing on how to make targeted changes that help their businesses weather the storm and start preparing for the recovery” (Gavin et al. 2020).

While digital sales channels (think mobile apps, social media channels, and online communities) are gaining in importance, the person‐to‐person experience is still one of the cornerstones of sales strategy. COVID‐19 forced sales leaders to determine what that would look like in the new normal. For many organizations, person‐to‐person became video‐image‐to‐video‐image, and they were pleasantly surprised by the results and the impact on the bottom line. According to Gong, the #1 remote sales platform, prior to the pandemic, 41% more deals were won when the webcam was on during virtual sales calls, which is unsurprising, considering what a video‐enabled meeting offers. Video humanizes the message, allows you to deeply connect and build and foster relationships – all powerful tools in any sales strategy (Orlob 2019).

      While some organizations are just dipping their toes into using video on sales calls, other companies are going beyond real‐time videoconferencing and embracing asynchronous video for email outreach. Platforms like BombBomb and Vidyard allow sales professionals to create personalized videos to send out to prospects. With shifts in how humans consume information, betting on video to cut through the noise seems like a pretty safe bet. Research by Wyzowl, a video marketing firm, shows that 66% of consumers prefer watching a video to reading about a product (Santora 2020). Video in an email is surely a differentiator from the typical text‐only (PDF attached) version, and it delivers a message in a way that most people prefer.

      The exploration of new ways of selling came at a critical time for many businesses. For example, in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, product launches planned for years needed to be mapped out using virtual strategies never imagined prior to the pandemic. Savvy sales leaders recognized that their sales forces needed to be equally as competent and confident on camera as they were in person because their go‐to market strategy might be completely virtual, totally in‐person, or a combination of the two.

      Those who try to wait it out for a return to “normalcy” do so at their own peril. According to McKinsey, “B2B sales operations going forward will look fundamentally different from what they were before the pandemic.” With video as a core component of the sales process, best‐in‐class organizations are moving to create best‐in‐class virtual communicators and investing in the technology and training to stand out (Gavin et al. 2020).

Conclusion

By June 2020, videoconferencing had been fully embraced and entrenched in corporate America. According to a survey conducted by Demand Metric in the spring of that year, 95% of respondents reported using video meetings regularly for work, with 87% of them saying they use it more than ever before. However, the accelerated adoption due to work from home, travel restrictions, and social distancing has not been without some speedbumps (Metric 2020).

      A full 94% of those who were engaging in virtual video meetings encountered barriers in using the tools effectively. The top three were video quality issues, video call fatigue, and technical issues (with keeping people's attention a close fourth). Furthermore, even if they manage to overcome the barriers, very few people have been trained on how to optimize those meetings. As it turns out, following meeting science and video communication best practices can go a long way in making virtual meetings work. We will look at both in Section 2 (The Meeting Scientist Perspective) and Section 3 (The On‐Camera Coach Perspective).

Chapter Takeaways

       As the nation responded to the pandemic, “Stay at Home” largely became “Stay on Zoom” with the video meeting app rising to number one on Apple's app store for free videoconferencing options by early April 2020.

       Broad usage of personal video chat leads to explosive adoption of video collaboration tools in the workplace, with a variety of platforms being used, often simultaneously, within organizations.

       With a shift toward a “webcam‐on” culture, businesses begin to see the benefits of video in virtual meetings – the potential to form deeper connections, less opportunity for participants to multitask, and the ability to read body language to develop a clearer understanding of the intent and impact of messages being conveyed.

       Video meetings are enhancing team cohesion, performance, and productivity while also reshaping the way coworkers view each other.

       No longer are teammates defined by just their roles; the video portal created by “work from home” provided a fuller picture of their coworkers.

       Video is a core component of virtual sales strategy as organizations seek new ways to build relationships, humanize their messages, and take the anonymity out of a sales process that used to rely upon face‐to‐face interactions.

References

      1 Allen, Joseph, Michael Yoerger, and Johanna Jones Lehmann‐Willenbrock. 2015. “Would you please stop that!?: The relationship between counterproductive meeting behaviors, employee voice, and trust.” Journal of Management Development 34 (10): 1272–1287.

      2 Angle, Keane. 2020. “Working from home? Overcome audience attention spans with these virtual presentation tips.” Deliverable Coaching.com. https://www.deliverablecoaching.com/post/working-from-home-overcome-audience-attention-spans-with-these-virtual-presentation-tips.

      3 Bary, Emily. 2020. “Zoom, Microsoft Teams usage are rocketing during coronavirus pandemic, new data show.” MarketWatch. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/zoom-microsoft-cloud-usage-are-rocketing-during-coronavirus-pandemic-new-data-show-2020-03-30.

      4 Baumeister, Roy F., and Mark R. Leary. 1995. “The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental