Why are participants not sharing their webcam in virtual meetings?

Ryan DohrnPresident/Founder, Brain Swell Media · Keynote Speaker - Emmy Winner - Billion Dollar Sales Coach - Niche Media Conference Owner - Media Revenue Strategist

Virtual Meetings | Ryan Dohrn - Q&A Sales Training Tips and Sales Advice

29 Sept 2022 · 3 min

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2:53

In this short Q&A video, sales coach Ryan Dohrn answers a listener’s question about why many people keep their webcams off during virtual meetings. He explains that participants may hide their cameras due to personal discomfort, messy backgrounds, or simply not being in a position to share video. Ryan emphasizes that the visual content you share (slides, screen share) is more important than seeing the other person’s face, and that most people understand information better when they can see visual cues. He advises salespeople not to get frustrated if a prospect’s camera is off, to politely ask if they’re trying to turn it on, and then move on if it’s not working. Ryan also points out that long meetings encourage multitasking, so he recommends scheduling 10‑20‑minute meetings. If a participant still doesn’t turn on their camera, he suggests inviting them but not making it a deal‑breaker. To re‑engage attention while screen‑sharing, Ryan unshares his screen periodically so his face reappears, allowing him to ask questions and maintain charisma. The overall message is to focus on delivering clear visual content, keep meetings short, and use brief face‑time to re‑capture attention, rather than obsess over webcam usage.

Questions this video answers

They may be uncomfortable, have messy backgrounds, not be in a position to turn on video, or simply prefer not to share. Ryan advises accepting this, focusing on clear visual content, keeping meetings short, and briefly unsharing the screen to re‑engage with your face.

Chapters

Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here, your global sales coach. Hope you're having a great week out there in sales land. Today we're answering listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. And friends, I love your listener questions. I love them. So, all right, let's kick things off. Uh, here's a question from Tiffany in New York City. Hey Ryan, I'm having a lot of virtual meetings and people are not willing to share their webcam. What gives? Any advice is appreciated. So Tiffany, super common problem out there in sales land. A lot of people are virtually bored, quite honestly. They're— where's my— I wrote about it here in my new sales book called Selling Forward that you can get on Amazon. Wink wink. The kids need some food, so buy the book, right? When you think about it— that's a joke. When you think about it, there's a couple reasons people don't share their webcams. Sorry, that was funny to me. They don't share their webcams. One might be they're just, they're not in a position to share it. So maybe they're at home, there's a mess in the background, their hair's not done, maybe they just don't want to share it. So I think we just need to recognize that a lot of it is about the visuals that we're going to share to them. Whether I can see them or not is not irrelevant, but it's not the important piece of the puzzle. Remember, the vast majority of people interpret and understand things better when they can see them. So what we're really hoping for is for them to actually look at the screen. So don't worry about it. What I say sometimes though is Oh hey, are you trying to show your webcam? I don't see you on the screen. And they'll say, oh no, you know, I'm here or I'm there or I can't get it to work or whatever. Just move on and don't worry about it. Now Tiffany, I know why you and I want to see their face because we can interpret what they're saying, you know, better and things like that. So I wouldn't necessarily worry about it. There could be another reason though, and that is because the meeting you've set is too long. So they're going to be multitasking throughout the meeting. So the way to correct that would be set shorter meetings. So, I typically am requesting 10, 20-minute meetings. If they're not sharing their camera, I'll invite them. If they don't, it's not a big deal. But I unshare my screen a lot because I want to reengage. So, if you are putting a presentation up on the screen, it's going to take up the whole screen, right? Then what I want to do is unshare so that my face pops back up to better reengage with them, to ask questions and things like that. So, also be thinking about that as well. So, Tiffany, great question. Don't be frustrated. Just remember, as long as they're seeing you, to get your charisma and stuff like that. As long as they're seeing what you're sharing, that really is the most important part of the puzzle. All right, friends, keep your questions coming to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Love to speak at your sales conferences, things like that. Reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. All right, friends, we will give you another tip next week.