Having spent many years in business development, the role of webinars in giving credibility and professionalism to your value proposition cannot be underestimated.
Salespeople and business managers know well that feeling: You’ve met your prospective client, delivered a great pitch for your product, felt a warm and positive reaction, left the meeting, now what? The client is clearly not in a position to sign a contract at that moment, but is very likely to in the future if their feedback is anything to go by. This is where you can really use webinars to fill that hiatus for the following reasons.
They help continue relationship building.
They give you a reason to reach out to the client and continue to build a relationship. Calling your prospective client to discuss the football match last night is clearly wasting their time even if you think it is the most interesting chat in the world. Your client is busy and calling them to invite them to a relevant webinar you are hosting is a legitimate reason to get in touch and remind them of who you are and what you do.
Webinars can help you measure how engaged a lead is.
Measuring how engaged your prospect really is. Most business people are positive, friendly people and will give good feedback when face-to-face. But are they REALLY interested in buying from you. Holding a relevant webinar and asking your prospect to set aside 30 minutes to listen is an investment on both sides and a gauge of future commitment.
Webinars can help you make the right introductions.
Introducing your prospect to the in-house Experts in your business. Sales people tend to evangelise about their product and can behave rather like an overprotective parent when their baby is criticised. Getting real detail and background on your product or service is vital to the client in deciding whether to go ahead or not. Webinars give the perfect opportunity for you to invite your client to hear from your operations or technical experts on issues that they judge as relevant.
Webinars strengthen your position as a thought leader and trusted advisor.
Thought leadership/trusted advisor role. Thought leadership webinars give you a great chance to demonstrate your role as facilitator. Here you are not discussing your own product but rather inviting your client to see how you are part of thought leadership in his or her industry. This gives your business credibility and reinforces your claims to be a market leader.
Webinars can help you share success stories.
Linking your prospect to other clients – you are not alone. Unless your client is an early adopter, most prospects want to know that you have a thriving client base and that they can identify with others who have bought into your service. Webinars give you a great chance to get your clients on line and sharing experiences. You can use forums and live interviews to showcase your relationships with your clients.
You can use webinars to communicate your product updates.
Delivering news on your latest product updates/enhancements. Marketing material in hardcopy or on your website can quickly become out-of-date and can look fairly static. Webinars give you a great opportunity to deliver the very latest information on your product in a dynamic way and to encourage feedback on new developments. Your prospect will feel that you are an exciting and evolving business.
Webinars enable you to reach a global audience.
Getting your deal over the line where the decision maker is in fact a large number of people based in many different countries. In the final stages of closing a deal it is vital that you address any outstanding concerns/questions. This can be very challenging where the stakeholders are spread across the globe. Webinars enable you to deliver your final pitch in a professional and organised way to multiple sites. Getting all parties to invest time in attending your webinar is often the final piece in the jigsaw and important in reaffirming to your prospective client why they are buying from you.
Round-Up
Using Webinars to close deals is about re-enforcing your company’s professionalism and showing innovation. It is also about presenting yourself in the best possible light drawing from all areas of your business. It enables you to reach out to the greatest number of people in the fastest and most cost effective way.
