Conference Call Savings

Web conferencing is having a big effect in the field of sales. Salesmen no longer have to drive out to a customer’s site — or catch a plane — they can quickly and simply set up a web-conference session.

That means reduced costs, faster response-times, and fewer delays. Sales staff can meet with more clients, and sales meetings can be recorded for playback purposes and automatically documented so that management can keep better track of the sales force and provide additional training if necessary. Initial contact no longer needs to occur on the phone since face-to-face meetings are unrestricted. More time can be spent with lower-level staff in web conferences, and this can help the seller obtain a crystal-clear understanding of the buyer’s needs. The delays in closing deals, once generated while the company established customer needs, can now be sharply cut even while the cost of establishing the customer’s requirements is cut to virtually nothing. The time of salespeople can be used more efficiently since they are travelling less, and their activities can easily be monitored by superiors — simply by logging the web conferences automatically.

Markets that were previously inaccessible due to logistics of distance become available, providing an infinite number of new opportunities. Special events and conferences can be staged involving different customers either individually or collectively.

There are, of course, issues that need to be avoided. Customers can easily keep on working at their computer while the sales-person delivers carefully thought-out speeches to nobody in particular, so care needs to be taken to maintain the customer’s interest. Fortunately it is easy to use presentations and deliver documents over the web. Web-conferencing software needs to be reliable and error-free — communication problems will reflect badly on the product and frustrate the customer, so more resources will need to be devoted to technical-performance issues. Attention must be paid to security requirements as security issues are frequently less obvious in the online world while consequences can be just as bad as in the real world.

Using web conferences for dealing with salesmen is also advantageous for the customer. The customer can quickly and easily shut down unwanted salesmen or put an end to their tedious speech. The “foot in the door” is no longer a physical entity forcing them to keep listening. Meetings, of course, are easier to arrange when both parties can stay in the office and both sides can benefit from the ability to record the meeting. It’s harder for salesmen to make promises without delivering when their words are being recorded, yet it is easier to arrange repeat meetings to smooth out issues and lower-level staff can be easily involved to smooth out the details.

Overall, using web-conferencing techniques in sales is a winner: it reduces costs, improves productivity, and cuts decision times for both the customer and sales staff.