How to Choose the Best Web Conferencing Solution for Your Sales Department

An in-depth web conferencing comparison and buying guide.

So you’re looking to buy the perfect web conferencing product for your sales team?  You’ve come to the right place!   This series of posts was designed with you in mind.

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Part 1:  Why do you need a new web conferencing solution?

First, I have I have some bad news. There isn’t a “best” web conferencing solution.  You can stop looking now.

Each one has strengths and limitations.  The best product is the one that helps your team achieve their meeting objectives – the product that helps your team close deals in the most effective way possible.

Even the most highly rated piece of technology with all the bells and whistles can hinder you if the features don’t help you achieve your objectives.

On the surface two products may look very similar. They both offer screen sharing. They both offer video. They both offer mobile apps.   But underneath that list of features is the fact that they each work very differently and those differences can have a great effect on your meeting objectives.

Example:

A and B both offer screen sharing, but A used a lot of recourses to develop crisp, high functioning and reliable screen sharing while B’s screen sharing is fuzzy and fails from time to time.

 

A and B both offer a free mobile app, but B’s mobile app is much more reliable and easy to use.

Your workforce is mobile and always taking meetings from their mobile devices. They screen share from time to time, but it’s not a common tool they need to meet their objectives.  You may want to sacrifice the high quality screen share for a better mobile product if product B is best for your common meeting objectives.

For this reason, it’s important to look beyond the features of a web conferencing product and think about how your team will use the product to achieve their objectives.

Start by asking yourself why you are looking to buy a web conferencing product in the first place.

Is your current product too cumbersome to use?

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Ease of use is a very important conferencing function when it comes to sales departments.          

When a conferencing product is easy to use – no downloads, easy one-click access from a computer or phone, easy to navigate, one-click scheduling, etc. – it limits barriers between your sales folks and their prospects.  This allows them to communicate effectively without having to deal with the technology.

Ease of use limits the time your sales people spend on the administrate tasks associated with setting up meetings. This frees them up to find new opportunities, convert leads and increase revenue.  

Is your current product difficult to use on-the-go?

 

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A mobile friendly conferencing product is a must for sales teams who spend a lot of time out of the office.

Many web conferencing programs fail the mobile friendly test.  Do you have a highly mobile work force?  When you hold staff conference calls, how many people show up late?  How many people miss the call completely?  This issue isn’t surprising when you think about how most audio and web conference meetings operate. 

When you send an invite with just a web conferencing number and a long conference code, what happens to your sales person if she is trying to enter the conference while on-the-go? 

1. She has to to look up the info on the calendar invite. 
2. She may be able to click on the number and dial directly but odds are she had to go back and forth between the invite and the dialer to dial the number.
3. She has to go back to the invite to view the code and then back to the dialer to enter the code.
4. The code is pretty long so she might mis-enter it or she’ll have to continue to track back and forth between the invite and the dialer to enter the code because she can’t remember more then 3-5 numbers at a time. 

 Think about what happens to your meetings when your staff can click one button on the invite and be entered into the conference immediately.   If you think this may help solve your problems, make mobile friendly a priority when selecting a web conferencing product.

 Is the adoption rate of your current conferencing product too low?

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If you are responsible for your department’s budget, you are always looking for ways to make things more effective.   Unused tools are a waste.  Low adoption rates may be linked to the problems listed above, audio quality, support, or ineffective on boarding. 

To increase adoption rates and ensure your purchases are not going to waste, make sure you purchase a product your team will be likely to use.

1. Ease of use and scheduling – Look for conferencing product that includes free add-ons like an Outlook tool bar or mobile apps.  These integrate the conferencing tool into applications your team already uses on a daily basis. These convenient one-click entering and scheduling tools ensure they choose the tool you have provided for them.  
2. Audio Quality – If the audio quality of your web or audio conferencing tool is bad, your team will be reluctant to use the tool.  High Audio Quality is a key component to high user adoption.
3. Support – Not all conferencing software has quality support.  Without it, your team is likely to ditch the product at the first issue they encounter. With it, they will get the support they need and continue to use the product in the future.
4. Ineffective On boarding – Many people are overwhelmed when faced with technological change. It’s easier to continue with past behaviors then use something new and risk messing up.  With proper on boarding, you can ensure your team adopts the tools you select.   The meeting service you choose should offer custom on boarding that will ensure your team knows how to use the tools in a way that helps them achieve their meeting objectives.

 Is your current product able to help your team achieve their meeting objectives?

 

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Each meeting has a unique objective, but for sales we can classify those objectives into the following common categories.

• Meetings that coach and train;
• Meetings that present to customers and prospects; globalmeet
• Discovery meetings that build sales-prospect relationships; imeet
• Internal sales meetings;
• Internal meetings with operations;
• And Webinars or Webcasts to drive leads.

Each of these meeting objectives may require a different product in order to be 100% effective.   Your most common objectives should dictate which product or products you purchase.

Example:

Look at your sales process.  Does your process involve more presentation or information gathering?   If your process hinges on presentations, you’ll want a traditional web conferencing platform. You’ll want easy and robust screen sharing and presentation capabilities.  

If your process is based on discovery and relationship building, you might want a simple, easy to use solution that allows for effective communication and face-to-face video capabilities for multiple users.

Many web conferencing solutions claim to have both – which is true – but how well they work very much depends on what objectives the developers focused on while making the product.  You’ll want to select the product that works best for your most common objectives. 

You also might want to consider purchasing multiple products.   The meetings you have with your team are very different from the meetings they have with prospects. Those are very different from account management meetings.  And those are different from coaching and training meetings.   One size never fits all and web conferencing products are no different. 

To coach and train, you may need more features but with an increase in features, you also increase complexity and price.  The entire team doesn’t need a complex meeting tool designed for training.  They need something simple.  So buy the complex web conferencing license for the one or two people who need it for coaching and training and buy simpler (less expensive) web conferencing license focused on presentation for the rest of the team.   Then maybe buy a license for a product designed to help increase collaboration and teambuilding for you to use during team meetings.   This strategy will save you time, money and frustration in the long run.

Now that you’re in a good comparison frame of mind you can move on to the next article in this series . Here we’ll review common objectives and compare which meeting products work best for those objectives.

You can skip the reading part by requesting a Free Conferencing Consultation with one of our Productivity Offers. They can help identity your meeting objectives, meeting setbacks and outline ways to improve your meeting through technology selection. 

 

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