Remember the old days of training?

It seems like a lifetime ago when my role as a training manager was to “get butts in chairs”, as my boss would tell me. It was that simple. Fill the chairs with people and get the training session under way. Filling the chairs used to be easy! People would come from all over the U.S. to attend training programs….it’s not the same anymore. As all businesses and all industries are doing more with less, we find ourselves looking for ways to get the work done at a fraction of the cost. Efficiency is the name of the game now.

If you find yourself needing to train employees who are located across the country or needing to communicate information quickly and consistently, consider using audio and web conferencing technology. You’ll save thousands of dollars! Many people think of this technology to be used just for conference calls or to share slides in a presentation. Yes, it can be used for that, however, audio and web conferencing technology can offer great benefits to your organization. Consider adding webinars to your communication and training mix and watch your return on investment (ROI) grow.

Back to training; modern-day training scenario. Save thousands of dollars by avoiding the costly venue prices, food, beverage, service charges, transportation and airfare. When using conferencing technology to train a group of people, it’s important to apply the same techniques as when training in person. Here are some tips and things to consider to help you get started:

1. The invitation needs to wet the appetite of your audience. Add your logo, a speaker bio and speaker photo to the electronic invitation. Having a customizable invitation is a must when sparking the interest of a participant, regardless if they are employees, colleagues or prospects.
2. Clearly state the WIFFM – What’s In It For Me. The invitation content should focus on the benefit the participant will receive by attending your training program.
3. Make it easy to reply and accept your invitation. With unique registration links built into your invitation, your audience can confirm their seat with simple clicks of the mouse. Having a built-in calendar plug-in (such as Outlook) available, upon a participant registering, will increase your attendance rate. Again, make it easy to say “yes – I’ll be there!” and help them to show up with the option of a calendar plug-in.
4. Customize the registration data you want to collect. Traditionally, asking for name, company and contact information has been the expected information needed when registering for any training program. Consider asking for more strategic information to help you gauge your audience’s interests, such as what they want to get out of the program, future topics of interest, other programs they have attended recently, etc. If you want to know what is of value to your audience – now is the time to ask them. It’s important to keep the registration brief to avoid attrition, so focus on the 2 most important pieces of information you’d like to gather.
5. Registration confirmation. Once someone raises their hand and registers to attend your event, send them a confirmation email and any pre-session materials they might need, by way of attachments. Automated registration confirmations can be set up to trigger at the moment a participant confirms attendance or is approved to attend. What a time saver! Set this up once and this time-saving tool will communicate on your behalf as people sign up for your program.
6. Reminder emails. A simple step, yet, a critical one. With so much going on each day, we all forget about commitments we’ve made. Set up an automated email to remind invitees of your upcoming webinar.
7. Customize the post-meeting survey for feedback on the program and another opportunity to ask your audience what is important to them. Again, keep it short and simple for best results.
8. Create a post-meeting web page with additional resources and/or the recording of the training program. This is a great way to communicate with those who may have missed the original session, yet tried to access the program at a later date. Your messaging can continue long after the event has taken place.
9. Recording your training event is an ideal (and low-cost) way to capture the content and make it available over and over again. Recorded content can be shared via email, social media, web sites, electronic newsletters or CD. Maximize your training efforts by recording and re-purposing the content. It’s a cost-effective and versatile way to get the biggest bang for the buck.
10. How many people will you be training? Do you want to facilitate the event yourself or would you prefer an operator to assist with the event. Would you prefer your audience listen to your presentation by phone or over their computer? Either way, you can achieve profitable results.

If you need help, just call on our ReadyTalk team of experts, who can answer any questions you may have and help you get started. Chat live (on the left-hand navigation) or call 1.800.843.9166. For more helpful “how to” documents and recordings, including a free best practice whitepaper on Training Successfully with Webinars, visit the ReadyTalk Resource Center.

After six months of preparation, the time finally came to leave. After many well wishes and sad goodbyes to my family (oh, my wife is now 6 months pregnant with boy #2), I’m set for 2.5 days of traveling. I arrive in Kathmandu and meet my teammates, 7 climbers, 1 guide, 4 Sherpas and 5 yaks.

Kathmandu is as real as a city gets – busy, dirty, colorful, full of life. We toured Hindu and Buddhist temples, but I could not keep my mind off of the climbing that I actually came to do. We finally started our adventure on day three. The Nepalese, specifically the Sherpa people, are the most gentle and truly happy people I’ve ever come across. They even out charm the Fijians. If you’ve been there, you know it hard to out-nice Fijians.

Island Peak is roughly 30 miles and 12,000 vertical feet from our starting point, Lukla. But first, we’re going to hike to Everest Base camp (17,400 ft.) and climb a bump called Kala Pattar (18,500 ft) to get the best views of Everest (29,028 ft.) and Nuptse (25,801 ft.). It takes roughly 16 days to hike this circuit, mostly due to the elevation gain and lack of oxygen. By day three, the giant peaks started to show themselves. My personal favorite was Ama Dablam (22,349 ft.). A stunning chunk of rock and snow. We followed the normal route to Everest base camp from Lukla:

• Phadking (9,000 ft.),
• Khumjung (12,100 ft.),
• Tengboche (12,350 ft.),
• Pheriche (14,000 ft.),
• Lobuche (16,100 ft.),
• Gorak Shep (16,900 ft.),
• Kala Pattar (18,500 ft.),
• down to Dingboche (14,100 ft.),
• up to Chukkung (15,000 ft.),
• finishing at Island Peak Base Camp (16,700 ft.).

The one exception to following the normal route was a detour to the small village of Thame. Thame is a special place as it’s home to some of the strongest and most famous Sherpa climbers. There we met Lapka Rita Sherpa, he’s done Everest twelve times. We were honored to have tea with his parents.

Along the way our group became great friends, stepped in yak dung, got sick, sat with chanting Buddhist monks, got a special blessing from the Lama Gieshe, played hacky sack and cards. We visited the hospital and the school built by Sir Edmond Hilary and were continually awed by sights of new peaks around every corner.

ReadyTalk and the AMA have partnered to bring you an exciting new webcast series on the practical applications of new media. The webinars will feature speakers who are implementing exciting strategies involving the new media tools of the 21st century. From using Twitter at 35,000 ft.; identifying brand influencers beyond keywords; using FaceBook to market your brand, this series will cover a lot of ground.

Our first event is this Wednesday Sept 9th entitled “The Influencer ID Advantage in Social Media”. Moving from monitoring keywords to tracking influencers is a critical shift for any organization seeking to effectively implement, maintain and grow a presence in social media. While listening is an important first step, engagement is a critical step to success. James Clark, Co-Founder of the social media agency room214, provides an overview of what an influencer is, how to ID them, and insights into the ‘Influencer – Trust – Loyalty’ process.

The second webcast on Oct 14th will be done by Dennis Yu of BlitzLocal. The webcast entitled “Facebook Marketing Tactics: How to Monetize Your Brand Through Facebook” will focus on using Facebook to create search campaigns, user targeting, track performance and take advantage of the viral loop.

The third webcast on Nov 11th is by Porter Gale, VP of Marketing, for Virgin America entitled “Twittering from 35,000 ft.” In this webcast, hear how in-flight Wi-Fi changed the social media landscape for start-up airline Virgin America. Listen to stories of real-time service recovery in the skies, the impact of tweeting brand fans, using social media to amplify press and more. Porter will share details on how a lean team monitors, manages and responds to tweets and Facebook postings.

If you are tired of listening to social media theory and want some real tactics, this is the series for you. Each speaker has immense experience in implementing new media strategies for their clients and brands. If you are serious about using new media as a marketing tool, this series cannot be missed. Register for one or for all of them, the webcasts are free of charge.

Brian Carrol has a nice post over at his B2B blog. His first point to settle upon a universal lead definition with the sales team is a good one. We went through that process sometime ago and I wanted to share my thoughts.

In our effort to break down a qualified leads and easily measure them, we came up with two categories for these leads. We called them actively and passively qualified leads. An actively qualified lead is defined as an action that a prospect takes to “raise their hand” and signify interest in your products or services. Our sales people decided that if a prospect “raises their hand”, they are a qualified lead and warrant a call. Some of the ways a prospect can actively qualify themselves are (some are quite obvious):

Filling out a form with a pricing offer
Requesting a free trial or live demo
Inbound phone call or email
Tradeshow booth visit and card received/conversation with salesperson
Referred by a partner/customer/employee
Asking for more info at one of our webinars

Passively qualified leads are done through our lead score algorithm. These leads come in through various sources some of which are:

Whitepapers/Case Study/Testimonial downloads
Registering/Attending web seminars
Opt-in lists
Trade show lists (double opt-in)
Networking attendee lists (double opt-in)
A visit to our pricing page (with duration of stay)

These leads are not considered qualified until we gather 5 critical pieces of information on them. For the sales team, those pieces are:
Name
Email
Phone
Company
Time frame for purchasing decision

Marketing is in charge of getting these pieces of information gradually through our lead nurturing programs.

This is how our sales team has decided to define a qualified lead. We did it this way to be able to easily measure the leads and provide metrics to marketing on how many qualified leads we are supplying sales. In the next blog, I will talk about how we measure these leads.

What does “going green” mean? Does it mean saving all of your money for months on end to go out and buy solar panels, an electric car, or “off the grid” kitchen appliances (when all you really wanted was that special 60 inch flat screen TV)? Does it mean only taking a shower every 3 days instead of 2 twice daily? Does it mean only consuming locally produced food for the rest of you life, and thus never being able to eat those delicious peaches that only grow in Georgia?

All of these things do, in fact, contribute to conservation, but most of us tend to outweigh the environmental benefits with the personal sacrifice—I mean, it is understandable! When faced with the decision of: “hmmm should I eat the measly lettuce salad that came from the 2 foot by 2 foot garden in my back yard, or should I drive to a restaurant and eat their delicious steak imported from across the country?” Most of us know what the answer would be to that question; and the tree growing in our backyard would cringe at the answer. This is the problem with “going green” today and it applies to many businesses too. Saving our planet and boosting our environmentally friendly morals should not be looked on as a huge sacrifice that will devour our paychecks and inconveniences, but rather a process that will actually benefit us financially as well as saving time and effort. In my next blog, I will uncover how going green doesn’t have to be giving up an arm and a leg, but rather saving time, money and energy.