My recent article on, Measuring Webinar Effectives Beyond CPL or Cost Per Lead generated a ton of conversation inside the different LinkedIn groups and communities that I belong to. Within the article I discuss additional outcomes (including shortening the sales cycle) that B2B organizations and publishers should be focusing on.

The article and discussions spurred questions like:

  • How do webinars help move the customer through the next series of toll gates in their decision process?
  • How should a webinar align their content to match the buyers journey?

Let me provide you with some examples, on how webinars move the customer through the next series of toll gates.

Example #1: One example is from a client that offers sales training and consulting to retailers. Our client has a very unique approach around using culture and other techniques to increase sales, which they presented during the webinar.

Now, unknown to our client was that a special executive task force from a big box retailer attended the webinar. They were so impressed by what they heard, as it was exactly what they were looking for to deal with some painful disruptions in their own organization, that after the webinar, they requested a meeting. This led to them negotiating a pilot program that resulted in a one million dollar consulting engagement.  In this case, the webinar helped our client bypass all of the toll gates.
Example #2: Using a case study as presented by one of client’s partners, we were able to use a webinar to educate prospects on how our client’s solution for separating oil and water in industrial processing plants, would help not organizations do this more cost effectively, but would ensure that they would be fully compliant with certain federal regulations.

After the webinar a prospect contacted our client’s company, and they entered into a sales conversation.  While the sale took close to a year to close, the webinar was a definite tactic to assist the buyer on their journey and get through the “toll gates” to make a purchase that was over seven figures

Example #3: A buyer was interested in moving from an in premise call center to a virtual call center. She hadn’t yet been convinced of which provider she should choose as she was researching several, and felt she had some more due diligence to do. No matter how many conversations our client had with the prospect, no action was being taken.

Now after attending our client’s webinar, she was so convinced by the featured case study that she requested a demo and signed a contract two weeks later.

For more information on how to use webinars to get through the next series of toll keepers, watch my Supercharging Your Demand Generation Outcomes – From Show to Sale Webinar at: https://webattract.com/pages/webinars_tls.shtml