The Meeting Coach
InterCall's Monthly Newsletter

Is Air Travel Bringing You Down?
See our recommendations for how and why you can do more business without the hassle.

This season, more business travelers waste time, productivity and money waiting at the gate as their flights are delayed over and over again.
In a survey conducted by Wainhouse Research and sponsored by InterCall, reducing travel is the number three reason people use conferencing and is preferred by workers to help them be more productive and save time and money.

You've no doubt heard from your budget police, "Fly less, travel more", but how do you really make the most of integrating conferencing into your business and still keep your connections strong and efficient?

• Keeping Teams Connected:  Keep distant teams in the loop with regular group meetings via audio conference. This keeps everyone working on the same priorites when you can't be looking over each others' shoulders or stopping in for a hallway chat. Using conferencing reduces the time for you to communicate with remote teams and creates a more efficient way to stay in touch when you can't be together...so you get used to not waiting for the next trip to discuss important issues.
 
• Sales Presentations:  Yes, sometimes you really do need to be there for your client in spirit, mind AND body. But this is where we also recommend you step up to using web conferencing. Instead of dropping everything to run out to a client location or trying to find the right times for face-to-face interaction, you could reduce a sales process from 3-4 trips to just one visit for the big presentation. Using the web, you can easily handle needs analysis, contract reviews and implementation plans. The customer has what they need to see right in front of them, and you are able to respond quickly to their feedback by tapping into teams from your home base.
      
• Project Management:  Using web conferencing to develop a project plan and timeline with the entire group is key to starting off a project with everyone's buy-in and understanding of the scope of work. Continuing to monitor your project can be done with weekly check-in meetings which can be performed from anywhere, to quickly make sure you're still on track. During the progress of your project, using application sharing and other tools allows you to demonstrate software or view a presentation and speed the approval process.
• Getting Face Time: When you need to meet face-to-face but really just can't stand taking another trip, video conferencing provides that next best thing. This is a great alternative when you need to meet with high-level executives or VIP customers, interview job candidates in remote locations or overcome cultural differences that make communication difficult. When it's crucial to make the right connection with your audience through face time or communicate more clearly with body language, we recommend you make video your top choice for conferencing.

Visit us at www.intercall.com or contact your sales representative to see how you can cut your travel costs and pains, without sacrificing your relationships.