SalesVPI

Request to Webinar Sponsors

I have two simple requests and recommendations that will improve the viewing experience, and through that, the outcomes sponsors seek: please make your webinars easier to consume, and improve the overall webinar quality.

A universal principle that is regularly preached is to make content easy and convenient for the customer to consume and share.

There are well over a dozen webinars backlogged on my "to view" list. Most are from really good thought leaders, people I respect and learn from every time I read or hear them. But who has 45 minutes to devote to viewing streaming webinars, especially during "prime" time. For me, prime time is anytime from 6AM when I begin work to 7PM when I end, but also includes 7-9PM (family time) and most of the weekends (personal, family and work time.)

So, when do I want to consume these programs? How about in my nice new Bose headphones while I'm exercising (OK maybe not the Bose for that), walking the dog, driving, hanging out at gymnastics and swim meets. I just can't devote prime time to the volume of programs I'd like to hear.

So my request is to ask you to post an MP3 version along with the recorded webinar (preferably chapter indexed), and the slides. If you really want to fulfill the principle of making content convenient to consume and share, how about a transcript.

If you could also modularize your content into smaller chunks, edit out intros, outros, Q&A (for some of you it's great content, for most, not so much), that would be a big plus.

I've lost count of the number of times I wanted to forward some interesting points to customers, prospects, and colleagues, but couldn't because the delivery method inhibited that action. Sometimes I wanted to point someone to a 5 minute segment embedded in a 45 minute webinar, archived without chapter indexing as a Go-to-Webinar, Webex or ON24 archive. I have no easy and fast way to direct my colleague to the specific section I want them to view. (Or, maybe I want to blog about it.)

Sometimes the people I want to send to, would prefer to get the segment as text -- especially if they're viewing on a mobile device.

My second, but related request, is for a higher standard of overall program quality. This isn't directed at the relatively few professional presenters and speakers, but the vast majority of amateur (to be kind) presenters who have something valuable to say, but could really use a delivery coach and a good editor before I have to hear it. Our customers tell us they really appreciate the results of a pre-produced process.

My company has been a webinar service provider for 12 years (starting in 1999 when it took about 4-5 people and good luck to run a successful event.) We stopped counting years ago at over 5,000 webinars and webcasts. My colleague has been writing about our view of the evolving state of webinars, and new ideas to improve the user experience.

Take note of my colleague's recommendation for much shorter (try 20 minutes to start) webinars, supported by a microsite of modular content that is available to meet the broad interests of your audience who are in different roles, buying stages, and learning interests.

Let's apply the principles we all read about to this long standing, important delivery method. Please join me in making this request of webinar sponsors you value.

10 Reasons Virtual Shows Fall Short

I'm a big fan of virtual shows. Right now, the experience falls far short for vendors and participants.

Here are 10 reasons I think they fall far short of their potential:

1. They're really uber webcasts. On a continuum between a webcast on the low end of user and vendor experience, and a trade show on the high end, the virtual show experience is much closer to a webcast.
2. Still a static experience -- so what is the difference between a webcast, Twitter, and accessing content on a microsite -- something most people do regularly -- and a virtual show?
3. Overly focused on push messaging. Webcasts and access to content are the predominant communications most participants experience. The booth experience is mostly a joke. Look at the various chat windows in your next show, the conversations are ridiculous.
4. No vendor strategy and training to capitalize on the new medium. The uber webcast mindset carries over. I regularly ask vendors how their strategy for virtual shows differs from webcasts, how they prepare and train booth attendees for the show. Most have their hands full getting set up, providing content and learning operational basics. These activities are relegated to the operational staff, not strategic management.
5. Coordinated primarily by publishing and event producers, in collaboration with platform vendors. Publishers are interested in driving their revenue by leveraging their brand and lists. Virtual shows are a replacement for their dwindling live event revenue.
6. Applied using an old paradigm -- the live event. To paraphrase a famous aphorism (given I have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail) -- given our event and technology business models, here's how we can use this "new" medium. When are we going to capitalize on the real potential of the internet for location (virtual) AND time shifts? Does conducting a "virtual show" for one, maybe two days, between 11:30AM eastern and 6:30PM really make sense? Or, is it just convenient for sponsors and presenters.
7. Doesn't accommodate the reality of how people interact online. For live shows in a physical location, we have little option but to carve out a day or two for the event. Online, we interact intermittently. We expect content on demand. We would like to interact the same way. On Twitter, I tweet when it's convenient, and in short spurts.
8. Redundant investments in virtual show platforms. This relates to the paradigm observation. Why do we need a traveling "show" online? Why wouldn't an industry group establish a permanent, online, 24x7 environment where interested participants could regularly and periodically attend webinars, engage vendors online, and network with people investigating similar issues?
9. They don't capture people's imagination, there's no buzz. Virtual shows have been around for years. I regularly encounter people -- yesterday a marketing person for a vendor sponsor, and the person managing their participation -- who have never attended (or heard of) a show.
10. Does a poor job of facilitating conversations and interactions on a one-to-one basis. Business-to-business selling has moved online. But vendors haven't figured out how to do a much better job than to host and present content. This might be ok to fill the front of the funnel, but we've got a long way to go to realize the full potential.

What have been your experiences with virtual shows? What do you think show organizers and vendor sponsors can do to realize better outcomes?

Watching Webex Webinar on Sales 2.0 Enabled Business

Do you want to see a fantastic topic mangled by inept programming?

Webex Sales2.0 Webinar

Two major points to be made about this webinar:

1) The ideas behind Sales 2.0 are very important for sales professionals and have important implications for the suppot marketing can provide sales

2) This is a classic example of many of the problems with the way webinars are run today

The Sales 2.0 topic will be covered extensively over the next few months.

Let's look at the bigger implications raised by the production issues with this webinar.

We are all going to be incredibly challenged to master communication principles and practices in this new era of web and multimedia communications.

For over 15 years I've been declaring the coming role of the "new producers". People on the front line of business in sales, sales support, marketing, even the executive ranks who will be producing the equivalent of TV or video programs. Well folks, here we are. It's called the webinar.

When communicating through the web, we have to rely on our visuals, our voice and our messages. It's a a completely different experience from live delivery for both presenters and audiences.

While many are challenged to deliver effective live presentations, this medium really ups the ante.

If we don't learn to produce quality programming, we'll kill our opportunities, our brand and ultimately our businesses as we turn off viewers and mangle our messages. If you thought controlling these things in the era of PowerPoint was a challenge, get ready for a multimedia nightmare!

But to not learn and master the effective production of multimedia programming as a marketing or sales professional is to put yourself and your organization at a competitive disadvantage. If you're not working your way -- and your organization's way -- up this learning curve, best get started.

A Few Observations

• A lot of learning about what not to do can be taken from this program:
• Get the audio levels correct before you start the program -- poor audio levels are both distracting and unprofessional
• Have a clear communication paradigm -- is this a monologue by two independent speakers, a phone conversation we're listening in on, or a presentation of ideas?
• Eliminate off the cuff ramblings -- stay focused on a tight outline if not a script
• Structure the program -- the end slides did a better job of explaining what Sales 2.0 is and why I should care, they should have been at the beginning.
• Have slides support commentary -- don't talk for more than a minute on one slide, and certainly not for 12 minutes on slide 1 and 6 minutes on slide 2
• Design the program -- especially when there are multiple speakers, each should know what the other will say and the parameters of the program

A Few Ideas

• A talk show is a lousy communication paradigm -- especially for business webinars. I'm not coming to this program just to be entertained, but to be informed, to learn something.
• I listen at 200 words-per-minute (wpm), but you speak at 100 wpm. Keep it moving! I've got a lot of other things to do. According to Wikipedia:
  • 150-160 words per minute, is the range that people comfortably hear words. Slide presentations tend to be closer to 100 wpm. Conversations are maintained at around 200 wpm.  Wikipedia WPM
• We've all grown up learning how to deliver live presentations. In live presentations we minimize the use of visuals, to avoid "blazing PowerPoints". "You are the message" Roger Ailes has told us.
• But on-line, multimedia communications are a different medium, a different experience. I think we're closer to Marshall McLuhan, "the medium is the message."  What did McLuhan mean?
• Most of us have little, if any, training or experience producing TV or video programs. We need to get some, and work with people who do have this experience, to come up the learning curve quickly, and to avoid mangling our opportunities.
• Rather than using a presentation paradigm when preparing a webinar, I suggest a "virtual video" paradigm. Video was originally 30 frames per second, that is, 30 pictures per second. Turns out, for most applications, you really don't need 30 fps. One picture every 10 to 60 seconds will do. In this medium more is better. Changing pictures engage people's attention. It will also force you to create better visuals. Because we don't see the presenter, all we have are the visuals. The user experience from this medium is akin to watching a video than a presentation.
• Make it easy for me to know where you are in your program, where you are going, and how long it will take you to get there. I am constantly considering my option to discontinue viewing. If you move to an uninteresting or irrelevant topic for me, how will I know it's worth staying?
• Think in terms of "series", as in TV series. Think also of your personal brand as a program host or expert. Are you creating an experience that will have me prioritize you and your programs in my future, limited time inventory?

Watch the webinar. There is good content embedded, and the lessons for producing webinars might be more evident through this experience than through a more professional program.