In Person vs Online? How to choose the best option when selling-In Person vs Online How to choose the best option when selling

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar explored whether virtual or in-person sales meetings are best in today’s post-COVID world. Rebecca Jackson explained three reasons online meetings feel harder: loss of rich sensory information, lag in communication, and increased cognitive load, which can cause fatigue and reduce rapport, empathy, and attention. She outlined online benefits such as speed, flexibility, lower cost, inclusivity, and reduced environmental impact, but noted drawbacks like weaker relationship-building and less intuition.<br /><br />Alison Mathias introduced a practical decision-making framework based on two factors: depth and momentum. In-person meetings are best when a conversation needs trust, emotional intelligence, collaboration, or complex problem-solving. Virtual meetings are better for quick updates, routine check-ins, urgent matters, or formulaic steps in the sales process. They encouraged teams to map their own sales journey and decide which stages should be online or face-to-face.<br /><br />To succeed online, they stressed three essentials: preparation, practice, and presence. This includes clear meeting goals, careful invitations, the right duration, practiced delivery, strong visuals, good lighting, proper tech setup, and planned follow-up actions. The session concluded that a blended, deliberate approach works best.

Keywords

virtual sales meetings

in-person sales meetings

post-COVID sales

online meeting challenges

sales meeting framework

depth and momentum

blended sales approach

remote communication

meeting preparation