Meeting online is growing in popularity due to convenience and reduced travel time. It’s also got a positive effect on relationships.
Online meetings are more comfortable, less expensive, and safer than many other ways of conducting business.
Meeting with your colleagues or bosses to discuss issues and concerns can be time-consuming and exhausting. Once you calculate the cost of your meetings, the cost of inefficient meetings becomes evident. That’s one of the biggest reasons why online meetings have become more and more popular over the years.
They are easier to set up than face-to-face ones and could save you valuable time. That’s why it’s important to learn how to conduct them according to ethical behavior standards and in a reasonable manner.
This article talks about online meeting etiquette, and some tips and tricks on how you can persuade others to join your online meeting so that everyone can take away something useful and valuable from it.
Not Preparing Before The Meeting — Especially In A Sales Meeting
One of the biggest don’ts when it comes to online meetings is not preparing before the call — especially in a sales meeting.
This is particularly important if you’re trying to close a deal and need to be on your game.
If you’ve ever been on a conference call with someone who couldn’t tell you what they were talking about and had no idea what questions to ask, then you know how frustrating that can be.
The way you plan and prepare for your meetings will help determine how successful they are. This includes knowing what topics are going to be discussed, how much time you will have, and any specific directions you want your team to follow during the meeting.
If your meeting with an external entity has several people from your team, it is a good idea to jot down the entire agenda of the meeting, all the talking points, and who is responsible for the different charters in your digital workplace platform so that your team appears fully prepared for the discussion.
Also, when meeting with prospects or external stakeholders, it is a good idea to share introductions and the charters they handle beforehand with all other participants so that you can come prepared. If you are the meeting organizer, seek digital business cards from your participants and share it with everyone before the start of the meeting.
If you have a sales meeting and you don’t have a script prepared, then you’re in for a rough ride. Salespeople who are not prepared for an online meeting will likely be seen as being unprepared and unprofessional.
If your team is used to going into sales calls knowing what to do and how to act, then they will be uncomfortable with this new way of conducting business. They may even think that it’s not relevant or important enough for them to prepare for because they know how much time goes into preparing for these types of calls already in their daily lives with their colleagues in other departments within the company.
When it comes to online meetings, we’ve found that many people simply do not prepare ahead of time. They just show up and try to wing it with whatever comes up during the conversation. This is never an effective way to conduct business because it’s too easy for someone else to jump in and take over your session without any warning or notice.
A better approach would be for everyone involved in a meeting (even if only two people) to have an outline or script that outlines their topics so there’s no confusion about what everyone should be talking about at any given time.
Also, if you’re expecting an online meeting, then make sure you have everything ready to go before you connect with your prospect or customer. This includes having all the right files, images and other supporting materials ready to reference during the call.
Keep The Meetings Frequent And Short
It’s better to have frequent short meetings than infrequent long ones. This is one of the most important online meeting etiquettes. It keeps people engaged and focused on what they are doing. If you choose to have a meeting for more than an hour, it should be broken up into smaller segments so that people can leave if they need to.
We’ve seen a lot of online meetings fail because people don’t talk enough or have too much time on their hands to get through all that they need to say during the meeting time.
When you have an important meeting or presentation, it’s important to make sure everyone who has something to contribute is there. If they’re not, they’ll miss out on a lot of information and may never find out about it anyway.
That’s why it’s best to schedule short meetings with people who don’t work at the same time as you do. If you all work in different departments, then having a 1-hour meeting every morning before lunch can be great for everyone involved.
It’s also important to keep the conversation focused on what needs to be done or discussed at hand (rather than getting sidetracked into discussing other things).
There are times when team members from different locations or departments need to meet face-to-face with each other, but this doesn’t mean that these meetings need to be long and drawn out. Shorten them if necessary so that everyone can get what they need from each other in a shorter amount of time.
You can use meeting software to schedule your meetings more easily and quickly. You can make a group of people meet at a specific date and time, and choose which topics you want to discuss in the meeting. This is a very good way to organize your team’s work.
The best thing about this method is that it allows you to keep track of everything that happens during the meeting, so you can get all the necessary information about what was discussed, who said what, and when.
Online meetings are also really useful for exchanging information between different departments within an organization because they allow everyone involved to speak freely without interruption or miscommunication.
Stick To An Agenda To Save Everyone’s Time
When you’re planning a meeting, it’s important to keep in mind that time is money. The more time people spend in meetings, the more they have to pay for it later on.
It’s easy to lose track of time during an online meeting. The problem is that it can be easy to spend more time than you intended. The best way to avoid this is by sticking to a schedule.
Always make sure you have an agenda and stick to it. The worst thing you can do is get distracted by someone who comes in late, wants to talk about something other than what was discussed at the beginning of the meeting, or just doesn’t seem like they care about anything that’s going on around them.
If someone tries to derail the conversation or talks over everyone else, politely ask them to stop speaking so everyone else gets a chance at contributing their two cents’ worth of thought before being interrupted again.
There are also several reasons why it’s important to stick to an agenda:
- It saves everyone’s time and energy. When you know what you’re going to be doing, it makes the whole process run much smoother. You can also avoid wasting everyone’s time by asking for their clarification about something before it happens.
- It ensures that everyone gets their fair share of attention. When everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing — as opposed to just following along with others — there’s less chance of someone being left behind or having their input ignored because people aren’t paying enough attention to them.
- You’ll be able to focus on each person’s unique needs and concerns without being distracted by the whole group as a whole. Everyone will feel comfortable knowing that they have their own space and time with which to address any concerns they may have brought up during the meeting.
Most importantly, this makes your team members feel valued, and also makes them more productive, contributing to a happy team.
Avoid Fake Backgrounds And Filters — They Are Distracting
If you have a background or filter that doesn’t match your business or personality, it will be noticeable when you talk with people. In general, you should avoid using anything that makes you look too much like someone else.
For example, if you’re in a professional-looking office, it can be tempting to use a professional background with lots of white space and clean lines. However, this type of background makes you feel like your meeting is taking place in an empty room instead of on the Internet.
Instead, try using backgrounds featuring natural elements or images that represent where the meeting is taking place.
For example, try using pictures from your office instead of generic white space backgrounds that don’t show where the meeting is actually taking place (and thus make attendees feel like they’re being watched).
Listen Well
One of the worst things that you can do in an online meeting is not listening. It is a clear sign that you are not interested in what others have to say, and it will be interpreted as such.
What is the best thing to do?
Have a question or comment? Speak up! A good way to start a conversation is to ask a question or make some comments about the topic at hand. Often people will respond with something like “I agree,” “I understand,” or “that’s interesting.” If someone does not respond at all, don’t take it personally.
If you’re new to online meetings, here are some tips for making sure it goes well for everyone involved:
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s easy to feel like a fool when someone asks how something works or what they mean by something they said. But remember that everyone else has probably been through this before, so they’re likely used to things going sideways now and again. You don’t want them to have to jump through hoops just because you weren’t paying attention!
- Don’t feel bad if someone asks you to repeat yourself or rephrase something — everyone can understand different languages better than others (especially if they’re not native speakers). So don’t be afraid to take turns speaking when everyone else isn’t sure what the original message meant to convey or what they should do next in the process.
- Don’t talk about yourself too much — people want to solve their own problems and don’t need to be told how to do it. And if they ask questions that seem like they’re just being polite (like “what do you do?”), don’t be offended — just respond briefly and then move on to the next thing.
- Don’t use jargon or technical terms unless absolutely necessary — including acronyms like SEO for search engine optimization, CRO for conversion rate optimization, etc., which sound impressive but aren’t well understood by most people who contact you without knowing what they mean!
Holding an online meeting is as much a skill as it is a process. To get the most effective results and engage your team, it’s important to know the rules of successful online meetings.
So if you are planning to start an online meeting, you need to make sure that the people are on time and active during the meeting. You also have to find a good place to host a meeting. Further, it is your responsibility to keep people on track by making them focus on the agenda and not be distracted by other things they can get online while they are in the meeting.
