Even when presenters intend only to educate or inform, they are selling a point of view. But moving a sale forward takes one more online step. Webinars offer a powerful way to sell a viewpoint or a product. But unlike a persuasive face-to-face encounter, a one-way webinar doesn’t offer an opportunity to bring people forward to take action.

The most effective sales professionals present an idea or a product and then solicit feedback. They test their potential prospects with qualifiers like, “Does this solution work for you?” “Are you ready to take the next step on this?” To add an effective qualifier to an online presentation, presenters need an interactive slide.

The presenter using the example above speaks to audiences of 25 or more and keeps them engaged as she explains a business arrangement. She then displays this slide as her qualifier. It’s a new form of the question “Are you ready to take the next step on this?” She instead asks all audience members to rate their interest level on a scale of 1 to 10.

Taking this approach, she accomplishes more than she would by asking the more traditional question. By moving the slider, each viewer becomes self-classified as a hot prospect, a potential prospect, or a non-prospect. The presentation system files each of these responses in a database, enabling the presenter to create a report that she can sort for follow-up actions.

All attendees who have rated their interest at 9 or 10 become immediate prospects, to be contacted as soon as possible following the presentation. People who have rated themselves in the midrange—5 to 8 may receive fresh marketing efforts. However they are not ready to enter closed agreements. People at the bottom range—0 to 4—are unlikely ever to become genuine prospects, and are therefore excluded from follow-up efforts.

By using an interactive slide in this way, sales presenters can get more out of their online PowerPoint presentations. PowerPoint slides often require more than good design and presentation skills. In this scenario, an interactive slide becomes part of a strong sales closing application.

People who can’t attend a scheduled online presentation can still view an on-demand version which is available 24 x 7. Offering an on-demand version therefore extends the audience. It not only reaches local people whose schedules don’t fit, but expands listenership across time zones. It even offers presenters the opportunity to be viewed globally.

On-demand webinars can also be embedded into a presenter’s website, so that they draw web traffic, and potentially create new sales leads. When viewed from a web page they can be surrounded onscreen with purchase links or additional offers.

Many audience members prefer on-demand versions. Pre-recorded programs enable viewers to control the presentation. They can start and stop as needed, and in many cases instantly back-space and repeat slides. And they can usually enjoy a program that wastes no time and has been optimized for quality.

Presenters who offer on-demand programs however, must create a presentation that’s different from record-and-playback of a live webinar. Viewers who know that presentations have been pre-recorded expect to hear highly professional programs. The quality level of a live webinar conference call or conferencing by VoIP (voice-over internet) is seldom good enough to maintain program credibility. When presenters offer live webinars, their programs typically include long pauses, mispronunciations, conversational fillers, and self-corrections. These are acceptable to viewers of live webinars since they are common in adlibbed conversation. Viewers of on-demand presentations however, expect them to be more deliberately paced, error-free, and less casual.

Presenters of on-demand presentations therefore, must prepare a version offline. Many record directly into PowerPoint. Others create small audio files and embed them into their slides. This process of course permits presenters to work from a script, listen to the results, and re-take any recording that doesn’t sound quite right.

Salespeople know that there are only three TRUE criteria for qualification:

1. prospects must be interested in speaking with them;
2. the product must meet the prospect’s needs;
3. and the sales contact must have the capability to make or drive a buying decision.

Unfortunately, these criteria can only be defined by prospects themselves, not by database searches or even by sales rep call reports.

The most successful sales of any product or service are those that occur when a potential buyer informs a sales organization that he or she is ready for serious discussions. The success of Webinars as lead generators has grown exponentially for that reason, but Webinars alone aren’t the full answer. The fact that a potential prospect attended a Webinar is indeed an indication of some level of interest, but the overwhelming majority of attendees are not prospects, having participated for a variety of reasons other than buying interest.

Webinars on PresenterNet however, add the most important element for qualifying a true sales lead. By providing InterActors on slides that enable attendees to respond onscreen to various questions during a Webinar, they capture information directly from the potential prospect. These are the kinds of questions that a salesperson would want to ask if given the opportunity to speak candidly:

“Would you like us to call you for an appointment?”

“Do you have a need for the kind of product we sell?”

“Are you the decision maker, or should we contact another person in your organization?”

“Do you currently have funding to commit to this area?”

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how interested are you?”

“How do you see our product potentially fitting into your company’s plans?”

Answers to questions like these help sales people to find and close the very best opportunities. Interactive slides with these capabilities therefore become the missing links to making Webinars the top business drivers available to any sales organization worldwide.