What happens when globally renowned keynote speaker and efficiency expert Juliet Funt sits down with Outside Sales Talk host Steve Benson to talk virtual selling?

You get a masterclass in the stuff most sales trainers never think to cover - the production, the presence, the psychology, and the practical tricks that separate "good enough" from genuinely great on camera.

Juliet Funt didn't just share theory; she gave Steve - and by extension, every outside salesperson tuning in - a concrete, actionable playbook for showing up better in every virtual room they enter, and we've distilled the best of it right here.

Want to take a look at the full interview for even more Juliet Funt sales gems? Listen to the full Outside Sales Talk episode Nailing Your Virtual Presentations with Juliet Funt or find it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube.

Juliet Funt Insight #1 - How to Stop Settling for "Good Enough" in Virtual Sales

"What happened during the pandemic was we all got shoved into this medium, and everyone settled at this 'good enough' level. We started good enough, froze there, and now the whole world lives at good enough. That's a problem because it doesn't allow salespeople to differentiate or play their best game for their biggest clients."

Juliet's opening salvo is a wake-up call: most sales professionals are operating at a level of virtual competence they established in a crisis - and never improved from. The good news is that the bar is low, which means the upside for anyone willing to put in the work is enormous.

• Virtual and in-person are two different languages: Juliet compares them to cooking and baking - related but distinct skills. Being great at face-to-face doesn't automatically make you effective on camera, and assuming it does is one of the most common and costly mistakes salespeople make.

• Every virtual conversation is a lead worth protecting: As Juliet puts it, settling for "good enough" in your virtual calls is like deliberately setting fire to 25% of your leads. Every conversation - long or short, big or small - deserves intentional effort. This mindset shift alone separates top performers from the rest, as any student of sales performance metrics knows.

•  The learning curve is real, but so is the payoff: Juliet notes that salespeople who master virtual skills often return to in-person meetings better than before - more intentional, more focused, more energized - because the discipline required by the camera carries over.

Why This Works: In a world where every competitor is also stuck at "good enough," the salesperson who invests in genuine virtual mastery has an asymmetric advantage. You're not just getting better at Zoom - you're differentiating yourself in the moments that matter most.

Juliet Funt Insight #2 - How to Use Production Quality to Make a Powerful First Impression

"The most important thing about production values is intentionality - don't slide into sloppiness. The pandemic birthed this beautiful authenticity where we were thrust into each other's lives, but a lot of sales professionals confused that intimacy with sloppiness."

Before you say a single word in a virtual sales call, your camera angle, lighting, audio, and background have already made an impression. Juliet's framework here is simple: every production choice should be deliberate, not accidental.

• Frame yourself like the star of the meeting: Your face should fill most of the frame - a small slice of headroom above, your eyes and smile prominent. If you're only occupying the bottom half of the screen, you're shrinking your most powerful human connection tools: your face and your eyes.

• Audio is your most intimate tool - spend money there first: Before upgrading your camera, invest in an external USB microphone like a Blue Yeti, or at minimum a wired headset. As Juliet explains, audio is the intimacy with which you reach someone - it's how they feel like they're with you, and tinny built-in mics undermine that feeling instantly.

• Your background signals status, whether you intend it to or not: A styled physical background - even something as simple as a $120 abstract print from iStock - reads as higher status than a virtual background, which can create a subtle halo effect and make you look like an apparition as you move. When you can't control your environment on the road, the blurred background is Juliet's preferred compromise.

Why This Works: Buyers make subconscious status assessments in the first few seconds of a call. A clean, well-lit, well-framed setup doesn't just look professional - it signals that you're someone who pays attention to details, which is exactly the impression you want to make before your sales pitch even begins.

Production quality is just one piece of showing up powerfully in a sales conversation. For a deeper look at how nonverbal signals - even on camera - affect how buyers perceive you, check out Mark Bowden’s Sales Success Through Body Language & Nonverbal Communication.

Juliet Funt Insight #3 - How to Use the ABC Framework to Protect Your Energy on Video

"If we don't talk about levels, people think 'I'll get good at virtual' and put the same effort into every conversation. It's exhausting - this is an exhausting medium."

Zoom fatigue is real, and Juliet has a practical antidote: a three-tier framework that helps salespeople calibrate exactly how much energy and production effort each type of virtual interaction actually deserves.

• C is conversation - keep it casual: Internal check-ins, casual client chats, familiar relationships - these require no production setup and minimal performance energy. Pick up the laptop, grab your coffee, relax. Spending A-level energy on C-level calls is a fast path to burnout.

• B is goal-oriented - ratchet it up: When you have a specific outcome or relationship to build, step up your intentionality. Think of it as a panel discussion rather than a keynote - engaged and prepared, but not in full performance mode.

• A is the big pitch - bring everything: Your most important prospects, your biggest clients, your career-defining calls - these deserve full production setup, thorough preparation, and maximum presence. This is your keynote. Treat it like one.

Why This Works: Field salespeople who've spent years on the road already understand energy management intuitively - you don't give a formal pitch to someone you're just checking in with. Juliet's ABC framework simply applies that same instinct to the virtual world, helping you manage your sales productivity without running on empty.

Juliet Funt Insight #4 - How to Set Up for Success When You're Selling on the Road

"I walk into the room and start the 360 spin - looking for the best options in the room. Find your best spot, then start stacking."

For outside salespeople, the challenge isn't just mastering virtual calls at a home office - it's pulling off a credible, professional virtual meeting from a hotel room in Tulsa at 7 a.m. Juliet has done this enough times to turn it into a repeatable system.

• Do the 360 spin immediately upon entering your room: Rotate your laptop to assess every wall - which direction gives you the cleanest background, best natural light, no bed or bathroom in frame? Find your corner before you unpack, not five minutes before the call.

• Stack whatever you have to get the camera at eye level: Hotel desks are almost always too low. Use your rolling suitcase, a stack of towels, an ice bucket - whatever it takes to bring the camera up to eye level. Juliet's Instagram posts of her road setups have gone viral precisely because the improvisation is both real and effective.

• Travel with the right three tools: A Blue Yeti mic, two clip-on gooseneck lights with alligator clips, and - when you can get it - a hard-wired ethernet connection. For the latter, Juliet's pro tip is to ask at hotel check-in for a room closest to the router. A small ask with a potentially meaningful impact on call quality!

Why This Works: Field sales reps spend their lives adapting to environments they don't control. Juliet's road framework turns that adaptability into a system - so that no matter where you are, you walk into a virtual meeting looking and sounding like someone worth doing business with.

PRO RESOURCE: Staying sharp and productive while constantly on the move is one of the defining challenges of field sales. See how Jeb Blount's 8 Time Management Secrets can help you build the habits that keep you at your best, wherever you are.

Juliet Funt Insight #5 - How to Make a Strong First Impression and Keep Attention in a Virtual Room

"One of the biggest mistakes people make entering the virtual room is skipping the handshake. They put slides up while the person's in the waiting room. When they enter, they meet you as a tiny thumbnail with a big slide - no moment to say hi, look at the camera, let them look at you, shake hands virtually."

The opening moments of a virtual sales call set the tone for everything that follows - and most salespeople are blowing them. Juliet offers a handful of high-impact, easy-to-implement fixes that make an immediate difference.

• Always do the virtual handshake: Be in frame and camera-ready when your prospect enters the call. Smile before they appear - so when they arrive, the first thing they see is a warm, engaged human being, not a slide deck or a blank stare. As Juliet says, you're the host; they're entering your room.

• Use the "bird's tail" to stop reading off the screen: Arrange small Post-it notes in a semicircle around your monitor - each with a one- or two-word cue for your talking points. Your eyes flick naturally around the frame as if you're thinking, not reading. It forces preparation and creates the appearance of effortless fluency.

• Use a verbal highlighter to make your message land: Juliet's favorite technique is to identify the single most important word or phrase in each key sentence and give it deliberate vocal emphasis. Not everything can be highlighted - but if nothing is, your message goes flat. Pick the words that deserve weight, and let the rest support them.

Why This Works: Attention is scarce in virtual meetings - your prospect may have just come from five other calls and has three browser tabs open. A strong opening, natural eye movement, and crisp vocal emphasis are the tools that break through passive "receiving mode" and create the kind of effective sales communication that actually sticks.

First impressions in sales go beyond the virtual room. For a deep dive into how the best closers use story, tone, and structure to captivate from the first sentence, check out Paul Smith’s Guide to Selling With a Story.

Steve Benson Bonus - What a Virtual Talk to 75 Employees Taught Steve About Selling Into the Void

As Steve shares with Juliet during the interview, one of the most persistent frustrations of virtual communication isn't the technology - it's the silence.

On the very morning of their conversation, Steve had given a company-wide talk to 75 Badger Maps employees across multiple continents - and experienced firsthand what Juliet had been describing: "It's hard with groups, speaking into a void of mutes: 'Is this on? Are you with me?' You get smiles in person - here, you just get nothing. Terrible."

The exchange that follows is one of the most honest moments in the interview. Steve admits he craves the feedback loop - the laugh, the nod, the leaning forward - that tells him something is landing. Juliet's response is blunt and clarifying: in this medium, you have to let go of that need.

• Silence doesn't mean disengagement: Juliet reminds Steve that audiences in virtual settings are still processing, still reacting - they're just not performing their reactions the way they would in person. Assume the positive.

• The void is the new normal for virtual leaders: Whether you're presenting to 75 employees or pitching a five-person buying committee, the feedback loop is broken by design. The salespeople who thrive here are the ones who stop waiting for it and keep their energy up regardless.

• Prep is your only real protection: Steve's insight, reinforced by Juliet, is that the best antidote to the void is walking in so prepared and so clear on your message that external feedback becomes less necessary - you already know what you're doing and why it matters.

Why This Works: The desire for real-time validation is deeply human - and deeply counterproductive in virtual sales. The sooner a salesperson accepts that the feedback they're used to simply won't come through the screen, the sooner they can redirect that energy into preparation, presence, and performance.

Final Takeaways

Juliet Funt's framework for virtual selling is built on one core idea: intentionality beats improvisation, every time.

So start today: pick one of Juliet Funt’s sales presentation tips, and plug it in to your process! Whether it's your camera angle, your energy level, your slide density, or the way you open a call, every element of a virtual presentation either helps or hurts your ability to connect - and very little of it happens by accident. Know your ABC level before every call, do the 360 spin in every hotel room, give the virtual handshake every single time, and stop waiting for the audience feedback that isn't coming.

Bottom line: The salespeople who master the virtual sales medium will have a meaningful edge over the colleagues still living at "good enough."

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