For most companies, online meetings are now a crucial part of the sales cycle. Although face-to-face meetings have the advantage of helping to build a relationship in person, online demos are often more efficient for both the salesperson and the prospect, and they can make a meeting possible when geography makes it impossible or impractical to be in the same place.
At LoopUp, we provide a conference call and online meetings product, and so we are in the somewhat unusual position of being able to use our product to demo our product. This means that when a LoopUp salesperson hosts an online demo it has the advantage of giving the prospect a real-life experience of using the product as a participant. We have a lot of experience giving online demos, and here are a few things we’ve learned about how best to use online meetings and screen sharing for selling.
Make it easy for them to know what to do
As soon as a prospect agrees to a meeting, we send out an invite to reserve this time in their calendar. To minimize the burden on our prospects, we make sure this invite is really simple and doesn’t require them to think about what to do when it’s time for them to join our meeting. Thankfully for us this is as easy as including a link to join the call. Instead of dealing with dial-in numbers and access codes, our guest simply clicks the link and enters their phone number – and LoopUp calls them to join them to the meeting.
Quick Tip:
Make sure the service you’re using allows you to send out simple invites that don’t require the prospect to think or wonder how to join the meeting.
Join the meeting early
It’s best practice to join an online meeting before your prospect joins so that they’re not waiting around for you. We always join the call at least a couple of minutes before it’s scheduled to start so that we can greet the prospect as soon as they join. However, we also receive an alert on our computer and smartphone when our first guest joins, so if they do join early we know about it and can easily get on the call right away.
Quick Tip:
Whether or not you receive an alert when your first guest joins your call, make sure you are on the line at least a couple of minutes before the meeting is due to start.
Make it easy for them to join and see content you’re sharing
A difficult experience joining the meeting can be difficult to recover from, so keep this step as easy as possible for your guests. If the conferencing service you use requires your participant to download anything to join your meeting, this increases the risk of them not being able to join or view what you’re sharing, so make sure you know how the service you’re using works. For our salespeople it’s pretty simple because LoopUp doesn’t require participants to download anything. Once our guest clicks the link in the invite and enters their phone number, LoopUp calls them on their phone and then opens the meeting in their web browser. They don’t have to join separate audio and web systems (which can be a headache), and they can automatically see what we’re sharing – all without downloading anything.
Quick Tip:
As soon as your prospect joins, make sure they have joined correctly and can see what you’re sharing. If your prospects regularly have problems joining or viewing your screen, explore other providers who don’t require participants to download anything to take part in the meeting.
Keep it focused; solve their problems
Lots of people talk about solution-based selling, and we wholeheartedly agree that it’s crucial to focus on the prospect’s pain points and address their issues with the product or service that you’re offering. It’s also extremely important to show the benefits of your solution in action, rather just relying on your narrative to explain the benefits to them. So, use a screen sharing tool to give you the opportunity to showcase your solution; the visuals will help convey far more than your words alone. By tailoring your demo to show how you can help solve their problems, you will be able to keep the demo really focused and relevant to their needs.
Quick Tip:
Keep the demo focused on solving their problems and show your product or service in action to maximize the impact of your meeting.
These four considerations have helped our sales teams have smooth, successful online demos. Make sure to follow these 4 tips on your upcoming online sales meetings and see if they help you and your sales teams too. Happy selling!
Interested in screen sharing for other functions? See how screen sharing is useful for lawyers, too.
If you’d like to experience LoopUp for yourself and see how it works, request a live demo.
