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Consultants rely on interplay to bring value to their clients, and it’s no surprise that web conferencing would become an attractive tool for online consulting. Consultants so often need to be in more than one place at a time, sometimes at a moment’s notice, and web conferencing takes their greatest assets and distributes those assets across time and space. Traditional business consulting requires brainpower and often frequent presence at a client’s location, and requires both sales & marketing and knowledge transfer efforts. Online consulting calls for these but changes the mix. The traditional approach requires a large investment of time with every client and is not very scaleable. Even business consultants with discrete products (e.g., books, software, financial instruments) lament that there are only so many hours in the day. And traditional consulting accentuates that scarcity of time because of the significant loss of productivity based on travel time, and the downtime that occurs when one engagement concludes before another begins. The result: high costs, lost productivity, and the need to always be “selling” even while delivering consulting services.
Online consulting takes a different approach by enabling the multi-tasker extraordinaire. It lets a business be wherever it needs to be. It allows just-in-time and scheduled delivery of whatever a service or product needs to be effectively sold, delivered, learned, and understood. Some of the benefits of online consulting are obvious; the top three are increased productivity and geographic reach with lower costs. Other benefits uncovered in our interviews are more subtle. One mentioned the accomplishment of work that otherwise could not be performed, while another reinforced that web-based sessions were less intimidating to the customer than attending in person. Some find value in a greater sophistication of message delivery. Another believes the technology enables them to better serve their customers, which raises their value, creates satisfied customers, and brings in more business. For many the benefits are so profound that the technology now plays a critical role in their sales and delivery of services.
When it comes to making the transition, our interviews revealed that there were two different strands of behavior as represented by two types of organizations. One group, which we call “Planners,” takes pre-determined steps, both large and small, such as holding demonstrations and training to ensure success.
The other group, the “Divers,” fearlessly dive into applying the technology, quickly integrating it into the workflow by using it aggressively (and typically needing to get burned once before understanding the importance of practice). We believe neither approach is right for all situations, but instead that one will be preferred depending on the company’s existing technical skills and culture.
Most companies start small by obtaining a few licenses with the goal of gaining an understanding of how web conferencing will fit into their processes – and whether being a “Planner” or a “Diver” works for them. Early success is then built upon. A Wainhouse Research survey of 1,500 small business users revealed that the most important web conferencing features were ease of use, ease of booking and starting a meeting, and screen performance and speed. These findings were reinforced by our interviews.
The ability to pass meeting control is important for multipresenter seminars, while remote control can help with hand-holding customers through a hands-on demonstration. In addition to the listed features, “all-you-can-eat” pricing that is charged on a per seat basis gives your staff the ability to use web conferencing at any time without worrying about any cost penalties. Web conferencing is not about simply “replacing” time with clients. It is a different tool with its own set of unique advantages. Implemented correctly, the result can aid you as a consultant — especially in decreasing process time and involving the people with the right expertise regardless of where they are located. The net result is increased customer satisfaction.
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