As a small business owner, there may be a few instances when you would use video conferencing to make your initial sales calls. Larger companies do use it with much success for demos and sales calls to remote clients. The ability to video conference with a client when issues come up, or if further explanation is needed on a sales proposal, gives you a sophisticated appearance that might give you the advantage over your closest competitors. In addition, video conferencing could be a tool used by your service team to help troubleshoot issues, which may alleviate the need for a service call. This method to stay in contact with your clients will become mainstream as companies become more tech-savvy. Becoming comfortable with it now will put you ahead of the curve for future trends.
In addition to the sales and service benefits of video conferencing, many corporations use it for training. A fellow member of a business organization works for a company with multiple locations. His company recently adopted a policy that all sales training be conducted by video conferencing. Before, all salespeople would convene in one location every quarter for a day of sales training. This took many salespeople out of the field for two to three days; plus, the company would spend thousands of travel expense dollars each quarter to conduct the training. He said that after a short period of adjustment, it appears to be working well.
