From the day the first caveman tried to convince his cohorts how great saber-tooth tiger tasted once it had been cooked over a fire, humans have been “selling” their ideas to each other. The practice of sharing with and educating others hasn’t changed. We just have a whole lot more options when it comes to choosing the medium these days.
With the ready availability of low-cost (or no-cost) long-distance service and conference call lines, Webinars and/or Teleseminars have become increasingly popular.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars traveling to give an in-person presentation, you can meet your customers and prospects right where they are – online in their own office. Sometimes this is a better option when you look at logistics.
Webinars and Teleseminars are becoming intermingled as to their meaning. Typically, Telesminars are audio only, you will be listening on the phone (on online via Skype) whereas a Webinar can be a combination of audio (phone) and the Internet, or online only.
Essentially they are a platform online where you can connect yourself via phone or the Internet to ‘meet’ people. You talk via the phone or computer mic and the systems allow you to speak with your audience, they can see your screen and follow a presentation – or as I do – follow you online and you train and show them via the Internet exactly what you mean! A Teleseminar tends to reference a platform where there is no video or screen sharing as webinar will almost always have the host sharing a PowerPoint or other items via desktop screen viewing.
What can you do on a webinar?
- Introduce new products
- Get known in a new market — and get to know that market in turn
- Explain how a product or service works
- Interview experts and share their knowledge with your audience
- Answer questions about your area of expertise
- Teach and lead by example – allowing the audience to see everything you are recommending
In addition, teleseminars can help you do the following:
- Sell more. By presenting a sales presentation over the phone, you offer much more interactivity and a stronger personal connection than you can through a website or direct mail piece.
- Create products. The calls themselves can be turned into products or classes. You can sell access to your live events, or you can record them and sell them later as CDs or audio downloads. And that’s just for starters.
- Get to know your audience. Being able to interact with your audience in real time allows an unprecedented level of market research, right in the moment.
- Establish yourself. If you interview experts in your area, you will quickly be seen as an expert by association.
- Build your list. Webinars are popular ways to introduce yourself to a new market. It’s easy to invite people to your free events — and as they sign up, they become part of your list.
- Create trust. Trust is crucial when you want to do business online. And one of the best ways to build trust with your audience is to interact with them directly. As they hear your voice live on the call — and as they ask questions and get answers right then and there — you become “real” to them and they’ll be able to bond with you. This is something that’s much harder to accomplish through sales letters and emails.
But what about skills? Don’t you have to have some kind of “skill” to host a webinar or teleseminar? Stop wondering! If you have enough experience to start a business, you have enough experience to produce and host a teleseminar. You may need assistance but it is possible.
If you have been looking at ways to expand… maybe this type of experience would be something that could benefit your business. There are all sorts of systems out there and many with a free trial period – maybe it’s time you tried something new!
Think about the different things you can do if you could have a ‘presentation’ or do a ‘live session’ with an audience. Technology has made the possibilities quite endless.
The ‘About’ page on a website … a very familiar page on any website but one of high importance when it comes to having a service based business. Believe it or not this page can help make or break your connection to visitors on your site, especially if you are a solopreneur.
People have been selling their ideas to others for years… Sometimes it seems we are inundated with sales pitches all day long on social media, in our inbox and while surfing the web – but take one look at TV or radio commercials – which haven’t really changed a ton in the past few years, and you realize – the online world has just caught up with other methods of selling. 
Okay… so we have come to the day where I may have a little rant. It happens once in a while so bear with me. 
Anyone who has heard me talk knows that, after working for a Bank for years, I quit after having my third child. The cost of childcare for 3 kids under 4 was not worth what I netted after paying for work-related expenses and childcare costs. I would have been working 80 hours every two weeks to pay someone $150 – I really would not have been earning anything.
