Web Conferences Can Help With the Economic Slowdown
On Thursday October 16th, CNBC’s The Big Idea had a spectacular guest, Jim Cramer, an investment guru who provides great assistance to average, blue-collar individual investors. What Jim made clear throughout the program was that this looming recession will be deep and lengthy. A few callers during the program really stood out, however. Without going into details, Mr. Cramer’s message came across quite clearly: fight with everything to keep your American Dream alive. Quote Stork Solutions provides more than just surface motivation or product recommendations; it provides tangible solutions to help you keep your Dream alive.
One caller from the show noted that this year’s revenue would come in at only 20% of forecast, which means decades of strong sales have been wiped in a single year. For this caller, this has resulted in deep cuts to payroll, heavy layoffs, and reduced expenses. While Quote Stork recommends Reducing expenses in its 3-tranche model, this exercise has heightened importance at times like this when long-term survival is an actual goal for an enterprise.
However, Reducing expenses alone will not keep your business alive. Your business like any other needs one important component at the end of a recession: customers. So how do you pursue business development objectives and reach a wide range of prospects and existing clients when the economy encourages deep reductions?
Through a web conference of course. A lot of small businesses and entrepreneurs might have previously hosted seminars for new and existing customers and may still be putting on such events. These might have taken the shape of an open house, an information night, or other group meeting at some central location (hotel ballrooms are common for larger events).
Web conferences provide great cost savings compared to the traditional seminar. With the right service, you can eliminate the expenses associated with a hotel ballroom rental. And forget about booking those rooms weeks or months in advance. And also forget about losing your deposit should your event fall through. Web conferences cost nothing more than a monthly fee that, annualized, is less than a single room deposit for a traditional seminar.
And what about that gut-wrenching feeling when only half a dozen people attend your seminar? Not only does poor attendance increase the per unit cost of hosting such an event, but it reduces the likelihood of closing a sale — making the whole event a complete a waste of time and money.
The easiest to use web conference provider on the market today is GoToMeeting which allows you to host up to 15 attendees for as little as $39 per month. This provider uses 128-bit encryption making your meetings extremely secure and safe from prying competitor eyes. The way it works is you send attendees an invitation (GoToMeeting integrates Outlook and Instant Messenger) and then the link to your web conference. Attendees sign in and listen to and watch your desk-top presentation on their computer. At your choice, you can allow interaction. GoToMeeting gives you unlimited meetings and can be accessed from any web-enabled computer. For larger groups, GoToWebinar by the same company can host up to 1,500 attendees for a slightly higher price.
Currently, you can enjoy a free trial of GoToMeeting and through ProBusinessReview and QuoteStork.com, you can enjoy an additional $10 off. For web conferences of groups greater than 15, you should consider GoToWebinar by the same provider.
Filed under: Sales