How to improve sales efficiency through video meetings

One of the constant challenges facing SME’s is how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their sales process and sales teams.

Traditionally we have all been taught to push for  face to face meetings. The reasons seemed fair enough, making a personal connection, building trust and rapport etc. But, Face to Face meetings are expensive and redundant. Everyone's a professional, the world's changing, technology is such that we don't need F2F anymore.

The average cost of a face to face appointment to an SME is between $400 - $1000. This is taking into account marketing budgets, the time of appointment setting teams etc. But what is the real cost? Do we effectively measure the cost of travel?

Time spent on the road is the biggest drain on a sales team’s efficiency.

Travel expenses, distance, no shows, appointments where decision makers are not present all add to the ineffectiveness of a face to face sales policy.

Times and attitudes are changing.

There was a time where suggesting a meeting via video would ha

ve been a hard sell; But, with the improvement of video meeting/conferencing tools and more general acceptance of technology, this process has become much easier. Tools like Zoom/Go To Meeting/Google Hangouts don’t require meeting attendees to have special programs or downloads to attend video meetings. Got access to the internet? Great you can join in the meeting.

Improvement in internet connections, attitudes to new technology and the video tools available have made it possible to move to a video meetings policy.

What are the advantages of Video?

1. Open up your marketplace

   Video meetings allow you to broaden the reach of your business by removing the time cost of travel. Distance is no barrier. Get your sales messages to new marketplaces instantly. No need for extensive travel plans. Jump on a video call and get to it.

2. Improve the efficiency by increasing the volume

   Removing the pain of travel allows you to increase the volume of your appointments. Moving to video from F2F allows you to triple the amount of appointments possible in a day. Also if you have a meeting with a an unqualified lead you have saved yourself all the downtime. Simply get onto the next opportunity.

3. Be dynamic

   Video is so much more effective. Get to multiple decision makers from multiple locations in one go. Add meeting attendees at the click of a button, share documents, share screens, show videos and presentations on the fly. Bring in other team members from other locations to add points of view. The possibilities are endless! It also shows you’re a business that is looking forward and always looking to do things in a better, more progressive way.

4. Set appointments more easily

   Decision makers are time poor and getting in front of them is never easy. People find it hard to make time in their day to do F2F meetings and co-ordinating decision makers is like herding cats. Jumping into a video meeting can be done at anytime from anywhere - In a car, at the airport, from home or on holidays.

5. What are you missing?

   If you are sticking with F2F as a meeting policy you are missing opportunities. Opportunities to sell, opportunities to learn and opportunities to showcase your business as and efficient and dynamic machine. Let’s face it, we are all being judged by our handle of tech and the ability to be fluid. If you don't feel comfortable meeting via video or web conferencing you risk being disqualified from the competition, and you're limiting your business’ growth potential by not allowing yourself to engage with innovative, technologically astute suppliers and business partners.

Can Video have the same impact as a F2F?

Can you build rapport via video? Can you make a personal connection? Can you build trust? The answer is of course YES!

People make personal connections on their devices every day and it has become part of our daily lives. Facetime, Snapchat and social media generally have laid the platform for us to sell and spread our messages via video.

The meeting and sales process doesn’t change. Only the platform for delivering the message. So if you're looking to improve the efficiency of your sales team, embrace video, I know we have!