Making a Positive First Impression in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

Although these days meetings can occur in many different formats, one constant is the need to make a favourable first impression. The first impression you create has an enormous impact on business performance, as it largely determines what ideas potential clients may subsequently form about you and your products or services. Favourable initial impression opens the way to a fruitful business relationship, whereas a negative initial impression may place hurdles in the way of doing business that prove impossible to overcome. Since many initial meetings now occur online, there is a need to understand how to come across well in virtual meetings. This is the subject of the current chapter, which covers the best techniques to use. Whilst there is an understandable temptation to dress down when business is being conducted from your home office with you sitting at the keyboard all day, this is not an ideal way to create a positive impression. Clothes that are stained and frayed convey the impression that you are not taking business fully seriously. In F2F meetings, formal or otherwise, it is rarely necessary to consider in detail what the room behind you looks like. With videoconferenced meetings, however, the backdrop assumes far greater importance, and this is something that you will definitely have to pay attention to.