. Web Conferencing 101 – a Solution for the Entire Sales Cycle To deliver a consistent message to current clients as well as prospects, the sales team has to play from the same sheet of music. With vast distances separating territories and team members, that may seem like a tall order. The new age of cost-effective and easy-to-use Web conferencing, however, can bring everyone into the fold – and on message. Whether it’s a sales message that management wants to get out to the field, new product briefings the team has to share with customers, presentations to prospects to get new business in or bringing everyone together to troubleshoot and share stories, Web conferencing makes sense. Using Macromedia Breeze technology makes even more sense. This Internet-based technology enables sales managers to train their sales force and empowers salespeople to create customizable presentations for each and every customer. All this – with literally no travel costs and a fraction of the time investment it takes to coordinate and hold face-to-face meetings – makes Web conferencing the tool of choice. Web conferencing takes the day-to-day tasks of a sales force and makes them more effective and efficient. It is a tool designed to help salespeople – and companies – achieve their goals. Here’s how Web conferencing can make your sales force more successful: Instead of holding a company-wide training session that takes salespeople out of their territories for days at a time, coordinate a Web conference. In this way, the sales force will spend only hours in training – and not have to incur any travel expenses – and they’ll still be trained together. New sales reps can be trained more quickly than ever, and current salespeople can be updated on new products and policies just as efficiently. Because they are attending the same conference, meeting coordinators can be assured that all attendees receive the same message. With Web conferencing, it also doesn’t take weeks or months to schedule a meeting that the entire sales force can attend. Web conferences are easy to attend – no matter where attendees are located. They’re also easy to schedule –invitations and registrations may be done via email. Breeze makes it simple for meeting moderators to keep track of who attended the meetings through a participant-management tool. You may also use Breeze to present quizzes, polls and analytic devices to attendees to gauge the effectiveness of the training and attendees’ level of retention. Training materials are available online to all attendees after the meeting, so they can review the information at their convenience. Web conferencing enables salespeople to cover more ground. They can schedule several meetings in one day (because the time and financial constraints caused by travel have been lifted), and there is no limit to how many customers may “attend” a meeting. Because of this, the sales cycle is automatically shortened. With Web conferencing, the interactivity and feel of a face-to-face meeting remains intact. Whiteboards and chat capabilities offered through Breeze allow for interaction throughout a meeting. An application-sharing program allows attendees to view additional documents at the same time, much like in-person handouts. Web-conferencing technology provides salespeople a tool to create a more personalized presentation for their customer base. A more customized and relevant sales pitch can only help close the deal. Breeze is completely customizable – users may tailor presentations to the exact needs of each customer, while maintaining their company’s mandatory look and feel. The presentations can even be customized with audio. Sales managers may rest assured that each presentation reflects the proper image of the organization. When the presentation ends, prospects and customers may access meeting materials at any time, which can only help keep that meeting top of mind when they’re making their purchasing decisions. Using the Web-conferencing technology of Macromedia Breeze requires no more than basic computer skills – knowledge of a Web browser, PowerPoint and Macromedia Flash is all that’s necessary. Meetings may be scheduled through Microsoft Outlook, and only basic Web browser knowledge is necessary to host a meeting. It takes no longer for salespeople to prepare for a customer meeting using Breeze than it does for a traditional sales call. Web conferencing is a solution that works for the entire sales cycle – from training new representatives and providing continuing education to current reps to delivering the most compelling, relevant presentation to prospects and current customers. This technology enables sales forces to efficiently and effectively educate themselves and their customers.