Sell More Goods and Services With EnterConference® Audio and Web Conferencing

How Your Business Can Use Web Conferencing to Deepen Customer Relationships and

Sell More Goods and Services

Deliver a Highly Persuasive Sales Proposition

The number of ways that web conferencing can be used in marketing are limited only by a marketer's imagination. And since the Internet is the backbone of web conferencing it is now possible to deliver a highly persuasive sales proposition at a much lower cost than with traditional in-person sales calls.

Some marketers have begun referring to web conferencing as the ultimate “UMV”, or Unmanned Marketing Vehicle, in the way that a sales team can now deliver a powerful selling message to their customers without actually being in front of the customer.

Aside from the “whiz-bang” technology, marketers are more focused on one highly strategic benefit of web conferencing.

Deepen Customer Relationships

While web conferencing represents an exciting technology to marketers, those who have been using it as a strategic part of their marketing mix have been more focused on how the technology gives sales teams the ability to further deepen relationships their customers – never mind that this is being done at significantly lower costs.

Sales people are now able to “meet” with customers on a more regular basis – if not quite on a more personal level – than was ever possible with traditional face-to-face visits.

Meet With Customers More Frequently

Customers are discovering that n take place at any time, anywhere, and within minutes as long as the customer has an Internet connection. This flexibility has made it much easier for sales teams to quickly sell more “add-on” products to existing clients.

Occasionally, a scheduled web conference is not convenient with a customer's own busy schedule. In those cases the customer can view a recorded version of a web conference at a later date.

Just like TiVOing a favorite program on television at home, a customer can have a link to a recorded web conference emailed to him and ready to view at a later date.

Shorten the Sales Cycle

Customers also like this technology because the most effective web conferences tend to get to the point quickly and shorten the sales cycle. Well-planned web conferences waste little time with unproductive small-talk and can take full advantage of online video, audio, and other multimedia tools to deliver an interesting and informative message to the customer.

Capture Vital Customer Data While Online

Web conferencing can mesh well with a company's online marketing strategy in this effort to enhance customer relationships. Online connections with prospects and customers make possible a whole new set of web-enabled processes which give marketers the ability to capture prospect/customer information during an online event.

Information Conserves Marketing Dollars

The more information a company has about a prospect/customer the easier – and less expensive – it becomes to sell to that person. Highly targeted marketing – powered by a robust customer database – takes the place of less-targeted, less predictable methods of marketing.

●	Web Conferencing As a Strategic Marketing Tool
●	Web Conferencing As a Strategic Training Tool
●	How to Choose the Right Solution

Why Web Conferencing Should Be a

Strategic Marketing Tool for Your Company

Web and audio conferencing are two of the most powerful tools for marketing your business since the invention of email. While audio conferencing (also referred to as “teleconferencing”) is the granddaddy of remote meeting technologies, web conferencing is rapidly becoming the most popular form of remote conferencing for even the smallest of businesses.

Many small- and medium-size businesses are already using web conferencing and consider it to be a strategic requirement for remaining competitive. The reasons for this are compelling.

	Web conferencing reduces selling and marketing costs. If goods and services can be effectively marketed by a company's sales team without involving airlines, hotels, rental cars, and expensive meeting rooms then you are instantly ahead of the game.
	Web conferencing allows a company to have all selling assets available in one place. If an important customer wants to meet the person in charge of R&D, Marketing, or some other department then the appropriate personnel can simply log-in to the web conference in progress, “meet” prospective customers, answer questions, and then log-out.
	Web conferencing significantly reduces the average sales cycle. When a sales person no longer has to coordinate sales calls with travel schedules and itineraries then purchasing decisions can be reached sooner.
	Successful web conferences can be easily recorded and then reused on demand. Videos or audios of conferences can be uploaded to the company website or distributed as a link in an email marketing campaign.
	Web conferencing removes selling barriers. This technology allows small and mid-size businesses an affordable way to carve out market share in places where they may have no on-the-ground presence. Recent studies indicate that web conferencing among small and mid-size businesses will grow by about 24% by 2011.
	Web conferencing is more environmentally-friendly. Web conferencing allows companies to demonstrate their concern for the environment to customers, investors, and employees by reducing the need to travel from one place to another. Increasingly, customers are favoring goods and services providers who are taking genuine steps to reduce their impact on the environment in the course of doing business.

Why Web Conferencing Should Be a

Strategic Training Tool for Your Company

Web conferencing not only enhances the overall marketing effort of an organization, but it also improves the ability to provide training services to employees and customers alike. For that matter, being able to provide highly cost-effective training is how most companies came to use web conferencing services initially.

A recent study conducted by Wainhouse Research (2007), an independent market research firm, focused on the benefits of web conferencing as a training medium. This study resulted in the following conclusions:

	Training via web conferencing has been increasing by double-digit percentages since the Wainhouse study began in December 2006. These increases directly correspond to nearly equal percentage reductions in in-person training of customers and employees.
	The ability to save travel costs is the top reason why people use web conferencing. Over 79% of companies surveyed agree that web conferencing enabled them to reach more learners.
	Web conferencing enables more learners to be included in training sessions. Over 63% of companies surveyed by Wainhouse reported an increase in participation in training sessions when web conferencing was the training medium.
	Web conferencing is just as effective as in-person training. More than half of the companies surveyed by Wainhouse believe that the web conferencing is just as effective as in-person training. Another 36% believe that it is almost as effective.
	Web conferencing is more effective than self-paced training. Fully 70% of respondents believe that web conferencing is more than -- or just as effective -- as self-paced (asynchronous) training. Another 18% believe that web conferencing is almost as effective.
	The value of web conferencing for training is high. Almost three in five respondents (57%) believe that the value returned by web conferencing for training is high (39%) or very high (18%). Only 14% said that the value was marginal.
	Web conferencing is more environmentally-friendly. Web conferencing allows companies to demonstrate their concern for the environment to customers, investors, and employees by reducing the need to travel from one place to another. Increasingly, customers are favoring goods and services providers who are taking genuine steps to reduce their impact on the environment in the course of doing business.
	Web conferencing facilitates more consistent, centralized training. Training via web conferencing can be rolled out to more people at one time from a central source. This makes training more consistent when the same trainers, using the same training resources, are presenting to larger numbers of people. Discrepancies in training methodology or information provided are greatly reduced.

How to Choose the Right Web Conferencing Solution for Your Company

If you've made the decision to integrate web conferencing into your organization's marketing and/or training plan then we have some good news ... and some bad news for you.

The Good News

You have lot's of choices in terms of web conferencing capabilities and costs.

The Bad News

You may become hopelessly confused by all the choices!

Your Checklist to Avoid Confusion

Here's a checklist that we hope you'll find helpful to avoid making the wrong choice for your organization's web conferencing solution. Pinpointing the right software that most closely meets your company's needs and budget may take a little time, but it will be a wise investment.

	Understand the technology. Web conferencing doesn't require a degree in Rocket Science, but you should acquire a basic understanding of how things work. Schedule a demo (EnterConference® is a good place to start!), study websites, and review any available printed materials to learn the concepts.
	Outline your organization's specific needs. Do you want to: - Reduce employee training costs without sacrificing quality? - Communicate more effectively with investors? - Deepen relationships with customers? - Launch a new product into distant market? - Offer real-time communications with new prospects who visit the company website?
	Consider whether a "pay-as-you-go" or "hosted-seats" solution is the best option for you. EnterConference® has both options on most platforms and can advise you in this area.
	Assess your web conferencing assets. You should take a look at your existing workstations, your networking capability, the availability of webcams, desktop graphics capabilities, and network broadband speeds for supporting web and audio conferencing.
	Seek advice and gain "buy-in" from employees who will be expected to use a new web conferencing solution. The best conferencing technology in the world is of no use if people in your organization don't use it. Invite suggestions and opinions on what the new system should -- and should not -- offer. Make it clear that employees are an integral part of a successful solution.
	Plan a staged deployment. Roll your new web conferencing solution out in stages. That way you can train employees in phases and deal with troubleshooting that won't overwhelm you.
	Run a pilot. Don't wait until the day of a mission-critical web conference to test the technology. A series of tests conducted by staff members will help you identify any glitches that need resolving.
	Insist on "live" help. Make sure that when you need help -- even during an actual conference -- that you have access to a live person from your service provider. An FAQ page on the provider's website might be fine when the pressure's not on, but live assistance should always be available on demand when you need it in a hurry.

Web conferencing has a the potential to boost revenue, build strong customer relationships and enhance employee productivity.

Conversely, a poorly planned web conference can result in a frustrating, embarrassing, and money-losing catastrophe. Take the time to do your homework and you will be pleased with the results.