Summary: In our recent podcast series, we've been discussing pandemic and post pandemic selling skills. How many of these do you have working in your business right now?<br> <br> <br> <br> David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In the last couple of podcast episodes, Chris and I were talking about prospecting using social media that led to discussions about Facebook and LinkedIn and video, and I guess we're just going to sort of pick up where we left off. Welcome back Chris.<br> <br> Chris: Hi David. Thanks for having me back and I am really pleased to talk about something that I've been doing for almost 20 years now, which is online meetings. You know, we talk about the idea of using video. Well, one of the things that I've been doing for almost 20 years is online meetings. I've had meetings with agencies between -- I'm in Napa and New York, back in the day, and I have online meetings now almost every day and frankly that's how we do this, isn't it?<br> <br> David: It is. We're having one right now, in fact.<br> <br> Chris: Yes we are. Although we're not looking in each other's eyes. Because we're not using video, and that is certainly not a requirement. But let's talk about, as a starting point, how well this has worked. You know, we're on our 36th podcast right now together.<br> <br> David: Right.<br> <br> Chris: And we never looked at each other in the eye have we?<br> <br> David: We've never met. No.<br> <br> Chris: And that's probably best that you're not seeing me. But no, I'm kidding. But it's amazing to me how quickly our relationship, in terms of being able to go back and forth, and really do this in a way that I think is compelling happened almost immediately, didn't it?<br> <br> David: It did. Yeah. From the very first episode. And that's the type of thing that can and should happen, ideally, in every meeting. In every online meeting between a prospect and a client, the whole purpose of being able to utilize online video or video conferencing is to be able to establish relationships and be able to foster those relationships in a meaningful way. So, yeah, absolutely. In our last podcast, we were talking about video, using it as a one-to-many marketing medium. So we can put together a video, get it in front of a lot of people, and be impacting a lot of people all at once. But what we're talking about now, with video conferencing or even audio conferencing, as we're doing right now, it's just to be able to have a meaningful conversation with another person to be able to advance the sales dialogue and move things forward.<br> <br> Chris: And I think it's so critical that people understand that the level of scripting that you and I have in these conversations is almost none. There's a beginning, and maybe a few points to cover, and then a wrap up, but the rest of it is all genuine conversation. And so one of the things I think is really important for the audience to consider is "how can I have a conversation with somebody that will help me to bring out the best of myself?" And what I find is that I've done hundreds of radio interviews over the years, and I can count three or 400 interviews I've done. Gotta be less than 10 that I've been like, "how am I going to get through this?" I'm always shocked, number one, at how good people are at doing it and number two, how surprised they are that they're able to be that articulate.<br> <br> David: Yeah. You and I both have radio backgrounds. I worked in radio from the time I was 15, so when you were talking about not seeing each other face to face, the old adage of "I've got a face built for radio" immediately leaps to mind. But it's a very comfortable medium and I think that's why podcasts have been so popular. Because you can listen to a conversation between two people talking about a topic of interest and it makes perfect sense. Now when we adapt this to selling in today's environment,
