Giving Good Webinar
Here are lessons learned that any company looking at this approach to communicating with prospects and customers needs to keep in mind:
· No Wimps on Webinars. Don’t torture your audience with a terrible speaker just because they have an impressive title, even if that title has a “C” in it – yes even your CEO may stink at Webinars and he or she needs to know that. Monotone speaking, and the cardinal sin – lack of passion – means that person should be not giving a Webinar. Be strong and tell the truth, because your prospects will eventually hand you the truth anyway. Respect the attendees time and only put your best presenters on these Webinars.
· Don’t live just for the A Leads. Any given seminar will get only 30% attendance from the registrants and of those attending 1 in 10 are typically ready to buy. If you get 200 registrants and go through these assumptions you will end up six solid A leads. Too often the 194 other registrants are tossed. You can gain a competitive advantage by going after that other set of registrants and mining them.
· You are there to solve the customer’s pain not talk about how great your company, your product or you are. Put company, product and self-promotion in the backseat and focus on your participant’s pain and talk in their terms. Honestly focus on how to solve their problems, even give away insights that will help them with their problems that they dialed in looking for assistance with. You may recoil and say “why will they buy then?” but in building a relationship with prospects begins when you realize you get what you give, so why not overbalance the scales in service to prospects and customers? Makes sense and works.
· Offer a recorded option quickly after the Webinar is done. This is critical for the other registrants that may have had something come up at the last minute and they could not attend. Be sure to include the visual portion of the Webinar as well, even an Adobe Acrobat PDF file of the slides as well.
· Evaluations and ROI. Many companies quickly do the math of cost per attendee when cost per cost sale is the most important one. The focus on solving pain is critical and will grow future attendance because you’ll be earning the trust of prospects. All things being equal get in the mindset that a Webinar is not a closing event but one that feeds the beginning of your pipeline and most importantly, educates the prospect. In that vein do evaluations using SurveyMonkey.com or any other web-based survey website to get results quickly, within 24 hours would be best as the Webinar is fresh in the minds of the attendees.
· Webinars and Weddings: Timing Is Everything. A short-sighted friend gave two weeks notice to everyone, including immediate family, for his wedding. We were all bachelors at the time and noted that he was really giving his free-wheeling and wild oats days two weeks notice. The same holds true for a Webinar. Give 30 days notice and avoid Mondays, Fridays and anytime around a holiday or trade show. Common sense but planners get so close to their events they forget about the rest of the world.
In summary, Webinars are a powerful way to connect with prospects and underscore your companies’ credibility. Focus on educating and delivering insightful content and you’ll win fans in the pipeline and in your customer base alike.
Posted by LOUISCOLUMBUS on November 16, 2005 at 10:37 PM in Customer Dialogue | Permalink
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