There is no question that video conferencing is an instrumental way for us to conduct business, not just communicate. Business development is one of those activities we all are focused on. Our clients’ decision making, purchasing behaviors and expectations are changing. With that we have to be working on proactive responses to maintain the trust and loyalty of our customers. How we interact and communicate with our target market will impact our future viability and relevance. You have opportunities to make more use of your next Zoom meeting to further your business development activities and communicate in diverse ways. 

Record a Client Testimonial

When was the last time you hired someone or bought something without asking for a recommendation or reading reviews? It is in our culture to verify what other people have to say, and visuals are even more appealing. Ask your client for a testimonial of your services. Give them the 2-3 questions you will ask in advance so they can plan their remarks; no more than that, otherwise the video will get too long for people to view. Ask your client to use their web cam, and be mindful of their backdrop (most of us are aware of this now). In your recording settings chose to only record the “active speaker” this way it focuses on your client when they are speaking. Scheduling a 30 minute call will provide enough time to record a few times; this way you can pick the best recording. Editing the video is easy as well. You may need to edit out discussion at the beginning or end. You may also want to create shorter versions of the video for Twitter or other social media posts.

To take this a step further, Zoom recommends Rev as a tool to transcribe the recording into a Word document so you can turn the testimonial into a blog, or pull quotes for your website or marketing materials. Generate multiple business develop pieces from 1 activity. 

Create an FAQ

We recently took a weekend road trip to get OUT OF THE HOUSE for a couple days. We knew we needed to be flexible in our plans as some businesses wouldn’t be open or would have modified schedules. We tried using company websites to gather information before visiting their location. We were very disappointed to find little or inaccurate information. The rate of change is intimidating, but a simple FAQ can be an effective way to communicate with clients, no matter what industry or profession you are in. How does Zoom help?

Hosting a webinar is a quick way to answer client questions. Another effective technique is to create an FAQ, but Zoom can help you with that too. Before your next meeting, webinar, or training turn on the setting to save your Chat history. During the webinar encourage attendees to submit questions via the Chat. After the session, you can open the Chat report and build an FAQ out of the questions you received. Most likely there are questions you hadn’t thought to address, so it is a nice follow-up piece for those that attended and share with those that won’t sit through an entire webinar. FAQs are easy to keep up to date and distribute. Through this one business development activity you are able to create 2 pieces of collateral. 

Podcasts

You may feel this is too techie for you to do, but with Zoom it is really quite easy. You don’t have to go overboard in production to start, the key is just start. 55% of the US population has listened to podcasts. The top 3 topics are comedy, education and news. I work primarily with accounting professionals, so marketing through thought leadership (education) is key to their success. By recording the audio only portion of a Zoom session, you can create a podcast. If this feels daunting, start with a goal of a 10 minute recording; you will be surprised how quickly that will go by. Post the podcast on social media pr your website. Once you have a library of podcasts get a channel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or which ever platforms you want to use. The key is to plan out the flow, have a guest to make it more dynamic with 2 voices, and give the listener an idea of where they can learn more. 

There are many other uses of video conferencing tools. These ideas can also be leveraged for internal trainings. There is no denying the way we communicate and interact is continuing to change. Now is our time to get creative in ways we effectively educate, celebrate, and drive business. As I have shared with clients for years, if we take a new tool and apply old processes we don’t get the full ROI; the move to video conferencing is no different. We are always looking to gain efficiency and grow revenues. Leverage your video conferencing tool to move your business development activities forward. 

How are you using Zoom, or similar platforms, to support your business initiatives?

Be sure to check out Samantha Mansfield at the INCPAS Convention on December 2–3. Visit incpas.org/convention to register.