Teleprompters have become required equipment in various industries for decades. Where once speakers had to memorize statements or read them off paper, teleprompters can feed them their lines so they land key points, maintain eye contact with the audience, and appear honest and competent.
In the virtual sphere, teleprompters can be just as useful for many of the same reasons. In fact, they can be even more important virtually because interactions are far more limited online. Your sales team needs every advantage they can get because of these limitations, and teleprompters can be their solution.
In this article, we’ll explain the benefits of a teleprompter tool for sales and actionable advice on how they can be sales accelerators.
We've all been there. You’re on a roll, making your points with confidence and poise, and you can see the close on the horizon. Then, your brain stutters. You lose your train of thought or, worse, fail to make some of the key points of your carefully memorized pitch. Suddenly, your sure thing has turned into a stumbling, hesitant pitch that’s doing more to turn your potential client off than make the deal.
These are nightmare situations that salespeople can face, and they are exactly the kinds of situations virtual teleprompter apps can assist with. Most teleprompter apps—and VODIUM in specific—allow you to upload key points and full sales scripts to your teleprompter to ensure that you never get off-point again, even during the worst scenarios.
It also allows you to speak precisely, following your pre-planned script as it scrolls over the window without having to remember exact turns of phrase. This allows you to appear more confident and competent in your presentation. Also, because you’re speaking on-point and confidently without appearing to consult written notes, you appear more natural and spontaneous.
One of the key benefits of teleprompter software is that it frees your attention from focusing on a memorized sales pitch, or from constantly grappling for the next right word, and allows you to focus on how you present yourself physically.
Body language and eye contact are vital points of communication in any space, physical or virtual. Sending the right non-verbal cues to your client can be the difference between seeming trustworthy and seeming inept.
Teleprompter software, with pre-loaded scripts and notes, allows you to focus on sending those cues effectively. And, similarly, teleprompter software allows you to maintain consistent and effective eye contact with your potential client, allowing you to appear self-confident and personable.
When you can spend less time focusing on what you are trying to say, you’re able to take that time and invest it into how you’re saying it.
It can be hard going into a sales call knowing how long it will take or what the correct pacing will be. With memorized pitches, this means you always have to be on the ball, gauging whether you're going too fast or too slow, and then having to expend extra effort to tailor the pacing of your presentation to the situation at hand. This can put an extra strain on your abilities and take valuable focus away from the client.
Teleprompter software, however, can be a godsend when it comes to controlling pacing. Not only will it place your pre-uploaded sales script over the video call, but most of them also offer automatic scrolling features that you can adjust on the fly to control the pacing of your script. VODIUM also offers manual scrolling options for those virtual meetings that are more conversational than presentational.
You’ll also have the ability to include notes to yourself regarding intonation and pitch at certain points, allowing you to emphasize or draw attention more effectively to specific sections of your script through vocal cues.
Writing and uploading a script to a teleprompter app allows you to have the pitch in front of you in the moment, but you can also practice and optimize the script to make sure you have the perfect approach for your client. Doing so will help you land more of your points and close the deal easier than if you had to rely on memory or hand-written notes to yourself.
More than that, a teleprompter app will allow you to standardize your approach across your entire sales force. Not only can you script out your own words and responses, but you can also do so for your entire team on a virtual call or meeting, allowing you all to appear in sync with each other at all times.
This in turn presents the appearance of competence and solidarity that goes beyond just yourself and takes into account your entire team and, by proxy, your entire company. And that appearance will likely be a factor in your client's decision to continue or come on board with your company in a positive way.
We've talked about how using body language and eye contact can make you seem more competent and confident, but it also can make you seem more trustworthy and genuine. Almost every approach to sales out there suggests that forming bonds and relationships with potential clients is the best way to establish a lasting business relationship.
Teleprompter apps, as we've mentioned, allow you to appear more genuine and relaxed--more personable--thanks to not having to worry as much about remembering your sales pitch. This, in turn, can help you become both an effective communicator and a respected associate to a lead or client. This can be key to improving your virtual sales efforts.
If a client likes and respects you, they're more likely to purchase what you're selling and continue doing so in the future as well.
This is perhaps the greatest benefit of using a teleprompter app in your business. Without software like VODIUM on your computer, you would have to rely on memory or notes. And to look at those notes, you’d have to look away from the audience, making it obvious you are consulting notes or reaching for half-remembered information.
With a teleprompter app, all that pertinent information is right there at your fingertips, pre-loaded and overlaid on the video window so you never have to look away from your client. This allows you to appear calm and prepared, answering questions with apparent ease and with the information right at the forefront of your mind. With these advantages, you appear consummately professional.
This can also help mitigate pushback from clients. If you’re able to answer their questions quickly, confidently, and correctly, that may help reduce the friction in your pitch and alleviate concerns they have about your competence or credibility.
Now that you know the benefits of a teleprompter tool as a sales accelerator, you’ll need to decide what tool is the best for you. VODIUM is a prime example of a teleprompter app that can help take your company and sales force to the next level.
Whether you’re looking to use it individually or integrate it across your sales team, VODIUM is here to help you close more deals efficiently. Features like automatic scrolling, transparency controls, and locking all serve your needs from a teleprompter, and it works on all popular video conferencing platforms. It’s the perfect app for accelerating sales virtually.
See how VODIUM can help your business today by trying out a demo for yourself today!