People are ripe to attend a webinar if they have a high confidence factor that they will gain special value in helping them deal with some business pain points that are caused by market disruptions and other changes, or if they are actively looking for a new take on a solution that ultimately will lead to better business outcomes for them and their organization.
That’s why we were able to beat our most realistic registration and attendance projections by over 200% for MPi. You can read the case study article here.
Now as the webinar host or sponsor, it’s your responsibility meets or beats your attendees’ expectations by giving them the business value they were looking for.
Here Are 3 Reasons Why MPi Gained an 87% Approval Rating For Their Latest Webinar
Reason #1: MPi provided a solution for a disruptive industry
Car dealerships, a longtime retail staple, and the status quo have been forever changed. Think about it, what other industry has seen so much disruption in how and where consumers buy. The internet has changed everything and made car buyers more knowledgeable and in control of the sale and as a result car dealerships are spending more money to get more people inside their dealerships.
The webinar showed retail car dealerships how they can utilize a new technology and a customer quality assurance process to sell more cars from the service drive. This process has enabled MPi’s clients to close 3% to 5% of their service customers into a new car sale (without having to spend additional money to get them inside the dealership since they were there already for maintenance or repairs.) So MPi provided a solution for a challenge that car dealers, service managers and sales managers are experiencing right now.
Reason #2: MPi did not just give a product demo and overt sales pitch on EDGE WorldClass
Rather than create a webinar that would be an overt sales pitch on EDGE WorldClass, MPi instead chose to educate and inform an audience of automotive sales and service professionals. Well-known top automotive sales industry expert, Jim Ziegler, provided an overview that showed car dealerships why the actions they are taking right now aren’t working. He gave an online quiz that drove home the point that car dealerships need to start looking at their service departments as a built-in source of revenue. The results showed that 51% of the audience believed that 35% of their service customers bought their cars elsewhere.
Plus he provided some other topical ideas that goes against conventional wisdom or the status quo on how to improve sales.
Reason #3: The webinar was case study driven
After Jim educated the audience, the focus shifted to a case study, that was presented by one of their peers, Terry Longmore a GM of a well-known dealership in Pennsylvania. While the case study section did mention EDGE WorldClass, it was a tutorial based on first-hand experience from an actual user.
Terry explained what his challenges were including a tighter advertising budget and a lack of buy-in to the idea of selling from the service drive. He fully described his options to overcoming the challenges, what his car dealership actually implemented and how the business results and outcomes improved their ability to turn service leads into sales. Plus he discussed some best practices, lessons learned on what worked and what didn’t, and most importantly, he gave tips on how to get started.
After Jim and Terry’s portion were delivered, the webinar shifted to an open forum of Q/A, where Jim, Terry and MPi’s VP of Strategic Initiatives, Randy Kobat fielded questions from the audience.
The End Results…
More than 85% of the webinar attendees were still on the webinar at the start of the Q/A. Voluntary participation in several online polls were over 60%, and the results of the post webinar survey (also voluntary) showed that there was an 87% approval rating – with most of the attendees saying that the webinar well-exceeded their expectations.
Achieving an 87% approval rating happened because this webinar was case study driven (not an overt sales pitch that dealt with product features or pricing) and they had credible and passionate speakers who told a believable and exciting story about how they dealt with a disruptive market, and were willing to go against the status quo to deploy a disruptive solution that helped them achieve one of their primary challenges. They showed how a car dealer became the #1 car dealer in the Lehigh Valley while staying within their advertising budget and expense constraints.
The Ultimate Result…
Ten (10) minutes after the webinar, MPi received a phone call requesting more information about their MPi EDGE WordClass solution.
Now, if you want to increase your engagement with your webinar attendees so you get a 87% approval rating – and prospects calling you after watching your webinars, then grab my FREE Ebook: “WebinarReady”, where I show you the actions you need to take before, during and after the webinar to create positive and predictable outcomes.