Live or Virtual Meeting? Cisco Salespeople Prefer...
The question many companies are asking today is this - as they contain costs while at the same time maintaining great results from the sales team: which is more effective and cost effective -- a live or virtual meeting, or a hybrid of both?
A recent article in SuccessfulMeetings.com, featuring an interview with Angie Smith, Manager, Global Sales Experience at Cisco, reveals quite a bit! For 20 years, technology giant Cisco Systems, Inc. has held its annual global sales meeting in Las Vegas, with 14,000 sales people. With trends at cost cutting, Smith tells about the largest virtual program that Cisco put on in 2009 for 22,000 employees from 104 countries.
They focused on competition with a buzz-worthy game called 'The Threshold', a Chat zone, the General Sessions, as well as a prominent Sales Recognition Zone that continually scrolled pictures of sales award winners. This certainly represented tremendous innovation!
By many measures, the virtual conference was a huge success: the salesforce education sessions were rated as well or better than at live events and participants could view segments they missed via a video-on-demand feature.
Cost savings? Yes, substantial. Cisco saved a staggering 90 percent of the cost of holding a live event.
Carlos Dominguez, Cisco's Senior Vice President of US Service Provider Sales, wrote in his company blog that, "gaming and [alternate reality games] will play a significant role in the way we learn in the future... I don't think we'll ever be able to replace the human need for live interaction but at 10 percent of the cost, I have a feeling a lot more people will take this kind of technology for a spin."
Event Producer George P. Johnson's Chris Meyer, Senior Vice President of Client Services and General Manager, agrees. "The feedback was we need the face-to-face recognition and motivation," he says. "I think going forward, all events will be hybrids of live and virtual. Virtual extends your reach and your contact - you get more out of your budget and expand your audience."