I very easily could have named this post “The Office Environment As We Know It is Dead” – And wouldn’t that be fun?  Today, to declare something “dead” is a great, catchy way to grab your attention, but as we’ve seen more in our lifetimes than any other technology isn’t a killer, but it is a game changer.  As humans and workers we still are trying to accomplish many of the same goals as we did hundreds if not thousands of years ago: we want to provide for our families and develop tools that make providing easier so we have more time to spend with our families. Over the years whether it was a crude stone chisel, the wheel, the automobile, the telephone, the computer, or the internet our basic desire has never wavered: we want to do our jobs and we want to do them as efficiently as possible so we can turn our attention to living life and enjoying our home life.  Oh, and even when we were cave-people we never wanted our cave-boss up in our business!

Never before has a group of people embraced this philosophy than today’s worker.  The next generation of professional has an entirely different view of their work environment.  Gone are the days of “work” manifesting itself in a location and physical form.  The “office” is no longer about a place, but about connectivity, getting things done, and getting things done with the best talent.  Our next generation of worker understands that really there’s no reason for everyone to travel into an office for most jobs.  Our next generation of worker understands that with today’s telecommuting tools that they can work harder, faster, and better from any location that they choose.  Gone are the interruptions, the office politics, staring at a computer monitor acting busy in order to eek out the last 15 minutes of the day.  All that remains is getting more done, better, faster.

The change in office environment doesn’t only benefit employees. Employers are seeing reduction in overhead, flexible schedules, an ability to attract top talent regardless of geographic location, and attract that talent because talented people want to do their work on their terms.  This is the new normal. This is what the new generation of worker expects. It’s no longer a perk, but the way we will all work in the very near future.  It’s already the new normal for many of today’s top companies.

Now there are some things to consider when moving towards a culture that is virtual versus physical. One of the top companies here in Denver, Alpine Access, has a virtual culture with over 4,500 remote employees. Alpine Access realizes there are special considerations (great article in Entrepreneur Magazine here) such as security, equal access to technology, finding employees that fit a virtual culture, etc.

It’s no surprise that we find of the most important considerations when working with remote employees is to make sure everyone has access to collaboration tools.  Workers like their autonomy but they don’t like to feel like they’re on an island.  The ability to have access to their colleagues and management via unified collaboration tools, audio conferencing, and web conferencing allows workers to feel a part of the organization and get more done.

It’s amazing how far we’ve come. The days of work being all about the office, like in the TV show Mad Men, are not that far behind us.  Yet, with today’s technology and collaboration tools the office environment of yesteryear is something our kids will ask us about with curiosity and bewilderment – sort of like they do today with CD’s and Walkman’s.  There’s no doubt that the times are a changing…

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Last week I was sitting in a meeting with one of our customers when the main POC, the Director of Purchasing, when the topic of their marketing team and webconferencing came up.  The customer, a very savvy and informed executive looked at me and asked “What does that guy (in marketing) even do?!”   I found this question to be interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. In many organizations today there is a very sophisticated buying group that is not directly connected to the user group.  Purchasing often times views collaboration solutions as a utilitarian tool.  Marketing and Sales see these solutions as revenue drivers.

2. After a purchasing decision is made there rarely is any sort of evaluation,  measurement, or analysis of webconferencing solution.

It turns out I was the only one in the room (and the only non-employee of this company) that actually knew how the marketing team was using webinars and could articulate it to the group.  Furthermore, I was able to let them know that while the effort was there, the actual use case was a bit misguided.  In order to get my point across I asked the following questions:

1. Do you know what the marketing team is trying to accomplish with their webinars?

2. Who are they inviting and why?

3. What are they presenting in the webinar? How’s the content? Have they been trained on how to create webinar specific content? Have they ever been trained on how to give a webinar?

4. What are they doing after the webinar? How do you (they) know it was successful? How many qualified leads are you getting? How many are you closing? How do you know what leads to follow up on?

5. Does your webinar integrate with your sales CRM and how are you tracking and rating participants?

6. In short, is your webinar strategy (if you have one) working? How do you know?

As you can imagine, the answer to all my questions was “no” or “I don’t know” or “great question!” which lead to the inevitable “can you help us?”  Which led to my inevitable answer “I don’t know…but I’ll take a look.”

We need to remember that web and audio conferencing solutions are just tools. And that with every tool there needs to be thought and training behind that tool.  In addition, there needs to be a cohesive strategy to what I call “Connecting the Dots”.  The data that comes out of a webinar is only good if you know how to connect it back to your goals, internal processes, CRM, and sales efforts.  The next time you’re talking about one of your colleagues and exclaim “What does that guy even do?!” take time to find out or involve someone who can find out.  Odds are there’s a tremendous gap in your business processes that could be fixed with some strategy and webinar know how.

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I was having lunch the other day with my friend (and very smart business person) Townsend.  We were on the subject of advisory services and the value that they provide.  He told me the following story and I thought I’d share it as it illustrates the value of advisory services (and what we’re trying to do at Lighthouse Conferencing) perfectly.

Disclaimer: The following story is allegorical.  It most likely never happened. I haven’t Googled it to see if anything close to this happened, but you’ll get the point.

Back in the old timey days Thomas Edison was working on a new fing-flangeled generator.  No matter what he did he just couldn’t get it to work. Everything looked right on paper and in the prototype but alas, the generator wouldn’t work.

Edison decided to call in his good buddy Nikola Tesla to take a look.  Tesla walked into the shop and over to the generator.  He looked it up and down, scratched his chin, pulled out a big piece of chalk and put a large “X” on one of the access panels.  In his thick Italian accent he said, “Open up that door with the “X”, remove two revolutions of copper wire, and you’re good to go.” And with that he walked out.  As quickly as he arrived he was gone. Edison shrugged his shoulders and ordered his engineers to  follow Tesla’s advice.  Once the access panel was put back into place Edison turned on the generator and to his delight it powered up and worked flawlessly.

About a week later Edison received his invoice from Tesla.  All it said was $20,000.  A bit perplexed as Tesla didn’t spend a ton of time in the shop with the generator, he placed a call to his buddy.

“Tesla, it’s Edison.  Got your invoice.  Not to be cheap, we’ll pay and all, but anyway you can itemize it for me? I’d like to know what I’m paying for.”  Tesla had no problem with this and a week later the itemized invoice arrived at Edison’s shop.  It read:

- 1 piece of chalk to make “X” = $1.00

- Knowing where to place the “X” = $19,999

Edison smiled and reached for his checkbook.

Anybody could have removed the copper wire and made the generator work, but only Tesla knew where to place the “X”.

advisory services · consulting · x

It’s well known that the buyer-seller paradigm is constantly changing.  Salespeople come up with a new methodology, i.e. Solution Selling, that changes the sales game.  It works and instantly every sales organization regardless of product or service is putting their salespeople through a week long boot camp.  Suddenly, regardless of company or service every salesperson is selling the same way. Calling up with the same pitch just inserting their company name, product, and metrics.  That’s where we are today.  And now, buyers are wise to the pitch.  As soon as they hear the script of today’s most popular methodology, their guard goes up, their eyes squint, they get defensive.  I’ll never forget the first quippy sales phrase I was ever taught: People hate to be sold but they love to buy.  I couldn’t agree more.

So in the spirit of total transparency, here’s the Lighthouse Conferencing sales methodology: Let’s Have a Conversation.  Sounds simple? Well it is.  We believe we can’t pitch you or tell you what you need in an initial or follow up call because frankly we don’t know you.  We don’t know what you need, want, what your challenges are, what’s broke (do you know it’s broken?), what might be the best solution and quite possible you may already have the best solution in place and just don’t know it or how to fully leverage it to your advantage.

So let’s have a conversation. Let’s talk about what’s on your mind, what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’d like to accomplish, and what you’re doing today.  Our conversation could take one of millions of possible directions.  So how could I ever tell you in a five minute phone conversation what you need?  We’re looking forward to talking and getting to know you.

advisory · consulting · sales

What kinda of Guarantee does your collaboration provider offer?  At Lighthouse, we want you to be 100% satisfied.  Not just with the technology of your call or webinar but with every aspect of your collaboration experience.  Our guarantee is no-risk and easy to understand:

If you’re not 100% satisfied you don’t pay. It’s that simple.

What else does Lighthouse Conferencing guarantee?

If your collaboration provider doesn’t guarantee their service and their company it’s about time you asked yourself why? What are they afraid of?  If they’re not confident in their ability to provide services are you sure you’re business is covered when it comes to collaboration and conferencing services?  Give us a call. We guarantee you a different kind of conferencing company.

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What?  You don’t have a plan for your conferencing and collaboration services?  Surprisingly, you’re not alone.  Today’s companies have become very adept at realizing a need for collaboration tools like audio and web conferencing.  They are very skilled at constructing RFP’s, spreadsheet check-lists, evaluating providers, and ultimately procuring audio and web services.  Now what?  Most organizations provision their user base with audio and web conferencing accounts and turn them loose.  When I ask executive management “So what’s the plan?” or “What do you hope to accomplish with these services?” I either get a shrug or “increase efficiency” as a response.  Logical next question from me is “How do you know you’re increasing efficiency (or reducing travel expense while maintaining a high close ratio or delivering quality leads, fill in the blank for your collaboration expectations)” then the response is typically a shrug.  Why all the shrugs and “I don’t knows”? Simple – no plan.  It’s a classic case of an organization prescribing a cure before they know what they want to fix.  You don’t walk into the doctor’s office to her saying “I prescribe Penicillin, now tell me what’s wrong”, so why do you spend thousands of dollars on conferencing services without knowing why?  The first step is to think about what you’re trying to accomplish? What problem are you trying to fix?  How are you going to measure improvement and efficiency with audio and web conferencing? Once you have a plan, there’s no limit to what can be accomplished with today’s collaboration tools and services.

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Is webconferencing really better than face-to-face or in person meetings? It’s a question I get asked on almost a daily basis.  As someone who makes their living selling the remote meeting I’m about to say the unthinkable – In most situations I’ve witnessed not only is webconferencing not better than an in person meeting, it’s often times worse! Now stick with me on this one.  Webconferencing has become such an accepted way of communicating among teams and prospects in today’s business environment that it’s part of the standard business tool kit.  IT managers or Sales managers know they need webconferencing, source the technology, and then feel they are enabling and empowering their teams with these tools.  However, most organizations don’t think twice about specific webconferencing training, how to give a proper product demo via webconferencing, what metrics are used to evaluate a successful web demo, and the greatest mistake of all – using the same powerpoint you’d use in an onsite presentation in your web demo.  To put it plainly, most of the web demos I’ve seen are just not good and are probably causing more inefficiencies and lost sales than sales managers realize.

On the flip side, there is nothing quite like a web demo done correctly.  It’s effortless and smooth.  The prospect doesn’t feel like they’re being sold or worse sitting at boring lecture about your services.  A web demo should engage the prospect, make them ask for more, and quickly determine for both buyer and seller if there’s a proper fit for your services.  There should be very distinct metrics and criteria that tell your salespeople if they should continue the sales process or cut bait.  This is the version of webconferencing all these IT managers and Sales managers were sold – the story about massive efficiency gains, faster sales cycles, and a team that collaborates to get things done.  All it usually takes is some analysis of your webconferencing use, some training and simple best practices, and even the worst webconferencing demos can become great.

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Leaving money on the table. It’s one of our biggest fears as salespeople and business owners.  We continually wonder if we’re missing revenue generating opportunities.  How do we increase our business by another 10% this year? We automatically think the solution is to add additional products or services we don’t have today. And in some cases this may be just what is needed to jump start the business.  However, at Lighthouse Conferencing we are finding that a meaningful impact can often times be made with what you do have.  We talk to businesses everyday that already have collaboration services in place: audio, web, and video conferencing.  These are the business that seemingly “get it”.  Yet I am always surprised to find that most executives have no idea how their collaboration services are being used.  And if they are aware, say sales demos or marketing webinars for example, that’s as far as it goes.  Their assumption is that if there are webinars or demos, they are working.  The assumption is that sales people and marketing people know how to use these tools – but when you stop to think about it, it’s absurd.  No one is born a collaboration expert.  Collaboration tools have exploded in today’s business environment.  The growth has happened so quickly that sales, marketing, and IT leaders know they need to supply these tools to their employees.  But the growth and technology improvements have outpaced our ability to educate our end users.  It’s like handing the keys to a race car to a new driver and saying “good luck”.  Of course it’s a car, so you can sort of figure it out, but in order to get the most out of that high performance vehicle it takes years of training and practice to gain a specific expertise.  And imagine what would happen if that new driver revved the engine going into the most dangerous turns without any training?  Disaster, right? Web conferencing is no different.  I’ve witnessed thousands of sales demos and webinars – and while I’m always proud that the technology is being widely embraced it concerns me that there is no training and forethought in how the web tools are used.  Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed countless sales and marketing professions “go into the wall” during their events and it isn’t pretty.  If you’re shaking you’re head in agreement as you read this you most likely don’t have a specific strategy and training around your collaboration tools.  And If you don’t have a specific strategy around your collaboration tools and haven’t trained your team on how to use the tools and then measure that use in a meaningful way…. You’re leaving money on the table.  And as a sales and businessperson I can tell you that hurts more than crashing into a wall.

Collaboration · conferencing · Marketing · sales · sales demos

“I don’t know what I don’t know yet”… and the complimentary “I only know what I know” —  were the favorite catch phrases of a respected colleague from a previous company.  Most of the time when he would utter those phrases I knew what he meant but it’s another thing to really experience the idea that we don’t know everything about our chosen area of expertise.

Since the onset of my career I’ve been using Salesforce.com.  I believe in the service, I swear by the service. I’ve been in flat out shouting matches in boardrooms with someone trying to cut my Salesforce.com budget.  I’ve left great jobs on the condition that Salesforce.com would be implemented and supported.  So, you’d think that I’d know a little something about Salesforce.com.  Well, today I found out, there’s a ton I don’t know about Salesforce.com.  I didn’t know this until I was shown a different way to leverage the tool that was completely new to me.  It literally blew my mind.  It made me realize I didn’t really know how to utilize Salesforce.com to it’s full potential.  More importantly, if someone hadn’t shown me what I was missing, I would have never have known and wouldn’t have been the wiser. For the record, I believe these new insights will have a dramatic positive impact on my business. Isn’t that what every businessperson is looking for?

Think about that for a second — I could have gone the rest of my career without making big improvements in my business with a tool I already paid for and used every day!  Like I said, it blew my mind. Today’s experience also reminded me that Salesforce.com is just a tool.  All the features and functionality  had been there all along but I didn’t know how to leverage them.  And without the proper utilization of your tools you’re coming up short on your most important business processes.

I also find this to be true with most users of webconferencing.  Everyone has audio and webconferencing – it’s rare in today’s business climate to not be utilizing these tools.  But are you getting the most from your sales reps who run demos day in day out?  How do you know? How do you know if web demos are better than face to face meetings?  Are your marketing webinars creating quality leads? What if you could increase the amount of quality leads by 5%, 15%, or even 50% would that help drive your business forward?

As my colleague would often say at this point… You only know what you know and don’t know what you don’t know yet.  Isn’t it time you found out what you’re missing?

Marketing · sales · saleseforce.com · Webconferencing

Our Lighthouse Conferencing webinar coaching program continues to be the fastest growing segment of our business. Our growth continues each year with the help of a few things:

1. Great content and expertise provided by our speakers.
2. Word of Mouth – you (our audience) gaining new and actionable insight from our webinars and spreading the word to colleagues and friends.
3. Social Media networks – we’re persistently tweeting, posting, and linking to groups with the same interests – the gift that keeps on giving!
4. Continually adding our events to new forums and calendars with targeted audiences (and knowing when to do so).

The last one, specifically, is what I’d like to touch on. If you are a webinar host or planner you know that the promotional aspect can make or break your event. So what are some best practices regarding timelines? I’ve included a quick breakdown of each below:

Timeline

6 to 8 weeks prior –
•    Webinar title and description
•    Photo and bios from speaker(s)

4 to 6 weeks prior –
•    Invitations
•    Marketing Campaigns

3 weeks prior –
•    Review Conferencing Technology with your speakers

1 to 2 weeks prior –
•    Finalize Powerpoint Slides

3 to 5 days prior –
•    Speaker Dry-run

Day of Webinar –
•    Live event preliminary action items

Within 3 days of event –
•    Post-event activities

Places to Post – here are a few of places I’ve used to post our customer’s webinar series events:

http://www.eventspan.com/ - Marketers can syndicate web event listings and site users can search for webcasts and webinars by category or speaker. Presenters, industry professionals, and organizations can create profile pages to network and connect.

http://webinarlistings.com/ – This website is a central source for thousands of upcoming webinars, from business to health, from the U.S. to Europe. They list live webinars and recorded (on-demand) events, as well. Search and be searched for.

http://www.webinarbase.com/ - You can think of WebinarBase as a classifieds web site for webinars, webcasts, web conferences and any type of online events. You can list your webinars, browse through articles on how to promote or market your webinars, determine how to price your online events, or simply gain more leads. There are also some advertising options on this site.

http://www.webinarhero.com/home/

http://www.webinarcentral.net/

Facebook Events Tab – Take advantage of this feature on your fan page to post your upcoming webinars and send out invites to all followers or a specific target audience. Share links, photos, and videos and update your fans as the event date approaches.

LinkedIn Groups

To make your webinar a success, you must plan for it and promote just as you would an in-person event. Identify the prospective participants who make the most sense to target, then send invitations that will appeal specifically to them or post the event in forums where you know that type of audience is abundant. This allows you to take full advantage of the meeting itself, as well as leverage web conferencing technology to deliver certain benefits an in-person event can’t match.

Marketing · Webconferencing · webinar