Facebook Video Negotiation

I am sorry to report that I've heard a couple of people connected to Sales lately talk down any video future.

Well. There were those who said the car would never catch on.

They couldn't go any faster than a horse. There were no roads. Manoeuvring them was far from simple.

And as this bizarrerie from Google lists, they were also an impractical luxury novelty. Particularly when compared to the bicycle. A creation itself once derided as a mere fad just a handful of years earlier.

Video Meetings for the serious business player? Clearly considered by some today as a prime example of an everyday invention that will fade into obscurity.

One argument I hear against video meetings when selling, is that you can only build true trust - especially on an Enterprise bid - face-to-face.

Sometimes referred to as (you've guessed it) F2F, it remains the gold standard of transaction setting when persuasion and agreement is sought.

I get that. Kinda. As you must factor in that some dialogues are better suited to means other than in-person. Again, for as long as existing, some of these feature the humble phone or email/message. And now, hello video.

Ignore this at your peril.

Lick it, and you will absolutely outshine your competition.

An intriguing angle I discovered as 2022 dawned, was with the prospect that doesn't want to meet with you in-person.

There's likely to be more than you think like that.

Not just don't want to, but won't.

They maybe the quasi-mythical Remote-Onlys.

But they may simply have a dispersed decision team. Now getting used to productive output sitting apart. For whom the age old bluff, '...as I'm in the area' won't chime.

Think you'll be spared such idiosyncrasies?

Consider Facebook.

I learn from an insider that they've just begun a program to ensure Execs know how to do something very specific when 2-D. The name of the course?

Negotiation Over Video.

Even more striking, is that this isn't merely a nice-to-have skill brush-up being offered.

It is the apparent intention to conduct all negotiations with suppliers in such manner.

Negotiation is a specific subset of selling.

One often handed over to a dedicated contracts team.

Yet Negotiation can expand its reach. There's so many facets of the buying process that could come under its auspices. Including all the pre-Legals activity around Proposal scoping, shaping and delivery.

If this example is anything to go by, Sales will be affected in such way.

Are you ready?