Sometimes it isn't convenient or even possible to meet with a client or prospect. Maybe you're out of town, they're out of town, or for whatever reason it just isn't feasible to meet face to face. You can easily host your own meeting over the internet, and save travel time and gas money, and have everything you need right at your own desk.
Assess Your Prospects
Some people just aren't comfortable using computers - so a web meeting is probably not your best option for them. You'll have to feel them out a little on the phone to determine how tech-savvy they are. If you think they're a good fit for a web meeting, then you can move on to setting up your appointment.
Pick Your Meeting Software
There are lots of options, but some work better than others. The one that works best for you depends on what type of meeting you want to have. If you want to simply show them what's on your screen, I recommend join.me because it's so easy to use (and that's what I demonstrate in the video), but there are a hundreds of others, including TeamViewer, Facetime, Skype, Google Hangouts, MeetingBurner, GoToMeeting, and WebEx. Each of these has their pros and cons, and some are more for webinars or video chats than they are for screen sharing.
Join.me is free for their basic plan. They do have paid plans too, but unless you're sharing your screen with dozens of people, you won't need to pay.
Start Your Meeting
Join.me works like this;
- Download their software program
- Open the program and click Share Screen
- Give your prospect the 9 digit code that appears on your screen
- They type that code into the join.me website
- Your screen appears on their computer
Once your meeting has started and your prospect has joined, you can talk to them if they have speakers and a microphone on their PC, or you can call on the phone.
Tips
Be sure to do a practice meeting with a friend or spouse before meeting with prospects. You don't want to look like you've never done this before.
Remember that a web meeting is still a conversation - even if you're presenting to a prospect, encourage them ask questions so it feels less like a seminar and more like they're sitting at their kitchen table next to you.
You can have more than one person in your meeting, so if a spouse is out of town, or your prospect would like her son to listen in, he could join from his own computer.
You can browse to websites, such as Medicare.gov, or open a PowerPoint presentation, or your illustration software, etc. Whatever is on your screen, they will see.
Close your email program, or anything else that might show distracting popups during your meeting.
Final Thoughts
Hosting a web meeting isn't hard, and can save you lots of time, assuming the prospect is a good fit. Give it a shot, and let me know if you need help.
If you've used other software, or would like me to go over one, please let me know in the comments below.
