With remote meetings being the new norm in 2020, I have learnt a huge amount about appearing professional to clients while on camera. In part-1 of this article, I wrote about how to get professional audio and video quality for remote meetings. In this article, I will focus on the other areas to focus on to continue to appear professional to your clients.

Your working environment

Setting up a good working environment is essential to having a professional-looking video call. Consider using a second monitor. Not only are they are inexpensive, improve your posture, and are a good place to put a webcam, but they also allow you to have your presentation view on the second monitor which you can share with your prospects via a video call while still having your presenter mode on your laptop for viewing your notes and selecting the right slides.

Bring your personality into view

But that is just the side of your working environment that you get to see. The next most important part is what’s behind you. I wrote in my last article about not having a window directly behind you to avoid appearing as a silhouette. But there is far more you can do.

Being a Solutions Consultant is all about supporting the sales of your products. A popular adage reminds us that “people buy from people”. One of the most important (though, often-forgotten) parts of this are building a solid relationship with your stakeholders. I find this can be best developed through talking about non-work things.

I recommend showing your personality through what is behind you on a video call as it can often be the catalyst of a conversation which can help build a relationship. For example, some of my colleagues choose to show a bookcase with what they are currently reading. I know someone else who is a passionate musician in their spare time who has their rack of guitars in the background of their shot.

Get Dressed

Personally, one of the biggest challenges of lockdown has been not being able to spend enough time outside of the house. Though I have had to be very careful not to let this impact my work appearance.

I still get dressed as if I am in the office (albeit fairly smart-casual). For client meetings, I will wear a shirt and I will still get changed at the end of the working day.

This allows me to mentally put some distance between work and evening-time even if I remain in the same room. It also gives me a more professional look in front of clients.

Take Breaks

I have found it can be very easy to schedule hours and hours of back to back virtual meetings throughout the day. This isn’t the same as a single 6-hour workshop with a client because of switching topics.

One minute I could be assessing a vendor for a presales automation tool, then working with an account executive on planning an approach with a prospect, then configuring a POC with colleagues for a different client.

There is a great feature in Outlook which allows you to schedule 25 or 50-minute meetings by default rather than a full 30 or 60 minutes. This allows you to take short breaks when needed.

For client meetings, I favour scheduling 45-minute meetings. Not only does this allow me to effectively mentally prepare for the next one, but it also mitigates the risk of an over-running meeting impacting the next one.

Final Words

Having seen the good, the bad and the ugly of video meetings across clients and colleagues, there is clearly room for improvement for many. I have certainly learnt a lot over the last few months from having to go from most of my client meetings being face-to-face to being 100% remote.

What have you learnt from this change and what have I missed? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.  

If you missed the first part of this two-part blog series, you can find it here.