Web Conference Call as a Cost-effective Selling Tool

Articles on Conferencing | Topics: conferencing, conference

by Addison Pollard

Almost fifty percent of ABC Company's overhead is spent for the training of sales people, transportation costs to and from meetings and conferences and for client sales and marketing calls. Most often, than not, the conferences they have scheduled with potential customers encounter glitches due to delays in getting from the office to the conference area. Sometimes, they face reservations problem as when the conference is timed during peak season. The successful sales they do get from marketing and sales calls are sometimes lost on their budget for calling on their clients and maintaining company contacts with customers.

Compare this with XYZ Company. While it has allotted a budget for conference, sales and marketing calls, most of the budget allotment is usually considered a savings. Unlike ABC Company, it need not send its sales force to an expensive hotel or venue to attend a sales conference. It need not pay more for dining expenses just so it could wine and dine its clients. Most often, the sales trainings and conferences scheduled by XYZ Company are conducted in a professional and orderly manner, sans the problems with traffic, reservations and the likes. So what's the catch?

ABC Company is a traditional company suffering from the ill-effects of traditional methods of conducting conferences and seminars. XYZ Company on the other hand, is a company that is taking advantage of the conveniences and advantages offered by technology----web conferencing.

Web conferencing is now considered by many as a cost-effective way not only of selling one's products. It is also considered as a strategic mode of selling products and of training the sales force. Some even use web conferencing not only to snare clients but also to maintain clients.

To the uninformed, web conferencing may look like an alien from space. However, web conferencing started as far back as the 1990s. However, it has not been widely used during the past decade because web conferencing then was much more complicated and expensive.

Today, sellers of web conferencing products have found ways to make it easier and simpler by incorporating web conferencing features and shortcuts in their email programs. Users can choose from a variety of web conferencing products which vary not only in prices but also in their features.

Among the popular web products that can be availed of right now are Elluminate Live, Citrix Go To Meeting, WebEx, Convaq ASAP Pro and Microsoft's Live Meeting. These products offer a variety of features to choose from including but not limited to: slide and PowerPoint presentations, instant messaging, white boards where the attendees can create diagrams, spreadsheets and a survey of conference attendees.

Bit of History

Leadership in today’s world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table.

—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)

The price a company has to pay for web conferencing services also vary. One can opt to buy a certain number of minutes or by the number of persons attending the conference. Recently, Microsoft came up with a less expensive charging mode by enabling companies to pay a certain amount for each employee, with discounts depending on the number of employees they pay for. Citrix Go To Meeting is however charging only a certain fee for meeting organizers, which means one can have unlimited number of attendees.

Despite the innovations in web conferencing over the years, people are still hesitant to use it as an effective way of communicating to people and selling their products. Others believe it is still too expensive while others believe the procedures in web conferencing are too technical and complicated for them. But the common denominator among non users of web conferencing is their attitude and bias against technology.

While web conferencing may be a bit expensive since one has to have a computer, the web conferencing products and other equipment, it appears that the advantages are way above the disadvantages of using web conferencing.

Considering the greater number of people it can reach at a lesser number of hours and resources, web conferencing is an ideal tool for marketing and actual selling of products. It can even be used to conduct a virtual sales training of a company's sales force.

Those who are already using web conferencing claim they do not only save travel expenses but they also save precious time, which is often lost due to traffic and delays. The time factor is one of the most important factors in sales and this is where web conferencing has its advantage. Through web conferencing, a ready made presentation can be shown to clients, and the latter can even be guided on a website tour, without extra cost. Small companies with a few people on its marketing and sales staff can also benefit from web conferencing by making their sales pitch effective to a greater number of people, on a lesser budget.

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Web Conference Call as a Cost-effective Selling Tool" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by WebDesignConferencing.com.

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