Virtual meetings enable participants to discover the world of a brand and certain products interactively, while interacting live with the salesperson. To ensure the best possible experience, SellingAtHome offers a few tips on how to run your virtual meetings.
How to make a success of your virtual meetings ?
1. Choosing the ideal time slot
A virtual meeting has to be planned at the right time. You are the main element of your meeting, but it’s your community that influences your organization. It’s up to you to choose the ideal time slot to get the desired number of participants. Bear in mind that some slots are not very well suited to live events, and may not attract a large audience :
• at the beginning of the week,
• at the beginning of the day.
Sunday is a day to be avoided, as it is often reserved for time with family, friends, outings, etc. According to DIGITAD, the best days are Wednesday and Thursday. When it comes to scheduling, we advise you to hold your meeting :
• after work, around 5.30/6 p.m,
• after dinner, between 8pm and 10pm.
Avoid scheduling your meeting during working hours, as this may considerably restrict your audience.
2. Determining the concept
To get the most out of your audience, it’s important to develop a concept. To do this, you need to ask yourself several questions before launching :
• Will I be presenting one or more products ?
• Will I give a live demonstration ?
• Will I be doing a live tutorial ?
• Will I be presenting just one product/range, or my entire catalog ?
• What do I want to highlight in my demonstration (brand, product, composition, etc.) ?
All these questions will help to establish a guiding line and a framework for your meeting. Live shopping encourages interaction and excitement between your customers, leading to well-considered purchases. This type of sales channel generally results in a higher average shopping basket than an ordinary distribution channel. This fusion of live meeting and teleshopping offers your customers a unique experience. Be sure to highlight the loyalty program to generate enthusiasm for your customers’ purchases.
3. Prepare a good communications and events plan
Good live shopping means marking the audience before, during and after the meeting.
BEFORE
The first step is to promote your live event through effective communication. To do this, you need to develop a communication campaign designed to arouse the curiosity of your network.
For successful communication, create suspense a few days before the event by launching, for example, a countdown on social networks, such as “Something’s coming up in a few days…” or “D-3 before the discovery of our new range…”.
Announce the theme of your meeting and share details of the content, whether it’s exclusive offers or the presentation of a new range to your customers. By mentioning upcoming “surprises“, you arouse the interest of your network.
It’s essential to strike a balance in your communication to avoid disappointing your customers, as over-communication for minimal results can lead to disappointment.
Don’t hesitate to draw up a plan for your live broadcast, so as to have a clear structure and define a strategy for your meeting. In particular, be sure to prepare your presentation in such a way that your product becomes a must-have for your customers.
DURING
During your virtual meeting, you need to captivate your audience. Be aware that the people who are present during your meeting aren’t there just for the products and promotions, they’re also there for you and to find out who you are. So don’t forget to regularly thank participants for attending, as this will create a certain closeness.
It’s important that your audience doesn’t drop out of your meeting, so make them active during the meeting, create interaction by asking them questions and, above all, don’t hesitate to ask them. For example, you could ask a loyal customer to share his or her feedback on one of your products. This can boost your presentation and encourage participants to buy.
Finally, make them feel privileged by giving them exclusive offers to thank them for attending: this will increase sales.
AFTER
After your live shopping session, it’s important to debrief by asking yourself the right questions :
• What were the positives and negatives ?
• What could I improve ?
• Which product sold best? At what point ?
• Which product sold the least? When did it sell out ?
These questions are aimed at improving the customer experience at your next meetings, which will translate into an increase in future orders. It’s also essential to take into account your audience’s feedback – their opinions, concerns, suggestions, etc. – in order to improve the quality of your next sessions.
Don’t forget to maintain a link with your meeting participants by maintaining the closeness established during the virtual meeting, which will help build loyalty.
4. Preparing your audience's experience
To ensure a memorable experience for your participants, it’s essential to define the meeting context and conditions :
• Choose the place for your live event, and prepare a special decor to create a unique world that reflects your image and will be recognizable for years to come.
• Have a stable Internet connection. A temporary bug can be fatal ! You could lose your audience because of your absence.
• Pay attention to the battery level of your cell phone or computer, so as not to be interrupted in the middle of an interaction during the meeting.
• Be organized by drafting your presentation in advance.
• Have products to hand in the desired order (size, capacity, price, etc.).
• Have access at all times to a brief description of each of your products, so you can respond instantly to questions.
It’s very important to be punctual, starting the virtual meeting on time. You only need to be a few minutes late to lose your audience.
5. Training: lives and more lives !
Before launching your first virtual meeting, there’s nothing like a good workout !
With practice, you’ll be able to identify the ideal conditions for your meeting and make adjustments to optimize your virtual meeting. For example, you may find that one room creates more echoes than another, or that one location receives networks less well.
Despite all these adjustments, it’s important to understand that excellence in your virtual meetings won’t come from the first time; it’s the experience that will enable you to reach the highest level of quality.
In fact, this new sales channel needs to be used on a regular basis, as it’s a tool for building customer loyalty by offering weekly or monthly meetings.
6. Challenging yourself to become better ...
Nobody’s perfect, so you might not get the perfect virtual meeting right the first time. Experience is important, and the more live meetings you run, the better they’ll be.
After your sessions, don’t hesitate to ask your participants for feedback. Be a good listener, read the comments carefully and take note of them to improve your future meetings.
It’s essential to understand that sometimes live broadcasts won’t necessarily lead to your audience placing orders. It’s important to remember that all is not lost. These liveshows maintain links, create contacts and reinforce loyalty, increasing the chances that your customers will return on future occasions.
Now you know everything, it’s up to you !