 
By
Kip Gregory
It used to be that making a presentation required being physically in front of an audience—on stage, at a conference table or sitting in a prospect’s living room. Thanks to web conferencing technology and the rapid spread of high-speed internet access, today you can deliver your message virtually.
Chances are you’ve already participated in a web conference or “webinar” conducted by your home office, broker-dealer or one of the carriers you work with. It’s fast become the method of choice for conducting new product and service rollouts. But have you ever thought about how you might use web conferencing as a tool for acquiring, retaining and servicing clients and prospects?
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If not, maybe it’s time you did.
Check it out!
Web conferencing services like GoToMeeting, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, WebEx and others offer individual users a powerful set of affordable presentation and collaboration capabilities. The most basic is the ability to share PowerPoint slides with meeting attendees. Other features worth considering include:
- Taking meeting participants on a tour of selected websites (including yours) that they may find useful.
- The flexibility to open a file or an application and share its content—a PDF of a product brochure, a product application or even illustration software.
- The ability to record presentations for later playback at your website—or to be copied on CD for distribution to various groups you work with.
- With the higher end products, the ability to poll participants and track individual answers for later follow-up.
- A webcam tie-in so participants can see you as you present.
Here are some tips for getting started:
- Learn from what others are doing. All of the major providers mentioned above offer archived versions of past presentations. Visit their websites and see what they offer. You'll not only get a flavor for how the service looks from a participant's standpoint, you may very well pick up some ideas on improving your own presentation content.
- Take advantage of the free trial offers to test various services. There's no real substitute for seeing first hand how different programs function. Most offer at least 14 days to try their product, some as much as a full month, at no charge.
- Check with your carrier. Ask your primary carriers that use conferencing technology if they let their top advisors use the service to host meetings. If you write enough business with a particular company, you may not have to spend anything (or as much as you would otherwise).
- Walk before you run. Many services offer both pay-per-use options and flat-rate plans. The difference is cost. Before you commit to anything more than conducting a single event, make certain you’re clear on how you’ll use it.
Interested in digging deeper? There are a number of sites that offer detailed information on what services are available, how those services compare, and how much they cost. One of the most comprehensive is the Web Conferencing Guide maintained by Thinkofit. Try Googling “web conferencing guide” for others.
Kip Gregory, principal of The Gregory Group and author of Winning Clients in a Wired World, is a consultant, trainer and speaker on marketing, sales and technology issues for the financial services industry. Contact him at 202-364-6913 or at www.kipgregory.com.
APRIL 2006
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