Introduction

Working from home is not entirely new – it is an approach that has been growing gradually in recent years. In 2017, 5.2% of US workers worked from home. A year later, the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US reported that 23.7% of the working population worked at home for some hours.

With the COVID-19 global pandemic, these numbers are likely to multiply this year. The highly infectious nature of COVID-19 has caused radical changes in the world of work and caused remote work to become the new normal. Countries across the world have placed a limit on how many people can gather together and introduced social distancing requirements in a bid to curb its spread.

In the wake of COVID-19, companies are asking their employees to work from home. Most companies feel they have tools to enable their employees to work remotely seamlessly. However, it is slowly dawning that more needs to be done to provide employees with tools that are properly aligned to their functions.

Sales is one of the departments that has unique needs for working remotely. By nature, this work is highly interactive – sales reps spend most of their time meeting and communicating with customers and prospects. From the home environment, this can pose a challenge.

But there is a way out – if you are a sales rep working from home, you can leverage technology virtual meetings to keep things moving. In this article, we look at 10 web conferencing and cloud-based meeting solutions that can help you run sales meetings effectively from the comfort of your home:

#1. Join.me

This easy-to-use, highly adaptable tool that you can upload on any device – tablet, smartphone, laptop or desktop computer – and begin holding sales meetings right away. With Join.me, you can hold a meeting with your team as it allows at least 5 people to see your screen at a go. Join.me comes with useful features that make it ideal for sales meetings – especially if you need to make presentations, sales demos or generate ideas. These include:

• Video and audio conferencing
• Screen sharing
• Presenter swap
• Whiteboarding
• Meeting scheduler
• Personalization features including branding
• Powerful integrations

Join.me offers three different plans – lite, pro and business with pricing starting at $10 per month.

Also Read : Covid-19 (Coronavirus): Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal for Effective Work from Home

#2. Fuze

This is a cloud communication program designed to connect the remote employees by providing collaboration tools to empower employees to work from home. A highly intuitive tool, Fuze can empower you to communicate from any place, at any time and through any digital device. It is a highly versatile tool that modernizes communication by allowing users to transition seamlessly between meetings, calling, sharing and chatting on any digital device. Some features that make fuze an ideal tool for running sales meetings from home include:

• High definition video conferencing and calling
• Content sharing
• Contact center
• Integrated chatting
• Automatic audio and video adjustments
• Unmetered calls
• Dynamic screen
• Powerful integrations

Fuze has four different plans with pricing starting at $15.

#3. AIRA

AIRA is a meeting assistant that eliminates the need to take notes in meetings. This intuitive AI-powered voice platform is designed to help with in-person meetings, online meetings and conference calls. AIRA does this by recording and transcribing meeting discussions automatically – effectively removing the headache of assembling notes after a meeting. AIRA does it for you and places your deliberations in a single place.

If you have multiple meetings going on simultaneously, AIRA can connect and make a record of both. All you need to do is call your number and have it start recording the meeting automatically. When your meeting is over, AIRA transcribes the recordings – highlighting keywords, action points and emails them for sharing with other team members.  Some top features that make AIRA a great tool to bring to every virtual sales meeting include:

• Analytics dashboard
• Note sharing
• Cloud based
• Calendar integration
• Autodialing into meetings

#4. gs

When people work remotely, it can be challenging to get people to meet online at the same time. Meetin.gs helps solve this problem. This scheduling platform simplifies the process of scheduling online meetings. It integrates well with calendar apps to fine-tune the availability of participants. Everyone who needs to attend the meeting gets to pick their preferred time on the scheduler. Meetin.gs also shares a scheduling page on web or email taglines to fast-track meeting scheduling.

For sales reps who want to schedule meetings with customers from home, this tool makes this possible by allowing them to set meetings through platforms like LinkedIn that  customers use. If a customer proposes to a meeting via chat, email or social media, sales reps can use the ‘schedule meeting’ feature to quickly send a meeting invite. Other important features that make Meetin.gs an important tool for sales reps working from home include:

• Calendar and contact integrations
• Accessing meetings through mobile
• Live communication tools
• Uploading and commenting on meeting materials
• Tracking meeting timelines

Meetin.gs has two pricing plans, monthly and annual, starting at $12 per month per organizer.

#5. GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting is a virtual meeting tool that enables employees to hold meetings with virtually anyone from home. A highly flexible meeting application, GoToMeeting comes with all the tools necessary to run successful meetings online.

From HD video conferencing, integrated voice-over-IP to shared screens and a responsive design that allows you to run meetings on any device, GoToMeeting is an easy to use tool designed to foster collaboration among people who work together. With this tool, sales people can initiate meetings from their phone or tablet, record meeting deliberations. Some key features that make GoToMeeting an ideal tool to run sales meetings from home include:

• Conference Calls
• Video and mobile conferencing
• Screen sharing
• Recording and transcribing meetings

#6. Skype

This video conferencing tool enables users to chat and collaborate with ease. Skype has been around for a long time and used by millions of people across the world every day. It is a highly versatile tool that can be installed on all devices including television. With its  high definition video calls, sales people can  hold meetings with up to 25 people. It can also support group chats and sharing of files and photos.

The cost of running Skype calls is very low – with Skype to Skype calls costing nothing across the world. Other features that make Skype a great tool for running sales meetings include:

• HD video and audio calls
• Smart messaging
• Call recording
• Live subtitles
• Screen sharing
• Private conversations
• File gallery

#7. WebEx

This is an efficient, cloud-based video conferencing and collaboration application that makes it easy for teams to work remotely. WebEx offers users high quality videos that make it feel like every person in the call is in the same room. Collaborating with other people is enhanced by useful features such as group messaging and whiteboarding.

Collaboration on WebEx is further enhanced by machine learning and AI capabilities that make the tool highly intuitive. The application is highly versatile and can be downloaded and used on any device. More features that make WebEx an ideal tool for sales people who need to run meeting include:

• Screen sharing
• File sharing
• Contact center
• Cloud calling

#8. Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing tool that comes with many unique features to facilitate online meetings with small and big groups of people. The tool has inbuilt collaboration tools that make virtual meetings highly interactive. Zoom uses end-to-end encryption to secure virtual meetings and users have an option to record the meetings on the cloud or locally.

It supports business meeting scheduling via Gmail, Outlook and iCal. It has a searchable chat function that is integrated with file sharing. Salespeople who choose to use this tool to host meetings will find these additional features useful:

• Screen sharing
• Screen annotation
• Recording and transcripts.
• Phone system
• Use on any device
• Choose between private or public meeting

#9. Intermedia AnyMeeting

This is a cloud communication application that makes online meetings a breeze for businesses of any size. Intermedia Any Meeting is an easy to use application and users can run it on their mobile devices and desktops anytime and from anywhere. It provides users with smarter, engaging and faster virtual meeting experiences with high quality videos and audios. Other features that sales reps will find useful in this tool include:

• Third party integrations
• Screen sharing
• Screen annotation
• Custom branding
• Recording meetings
• Meeting notes / transcripts

#10. FaceTime

For Apple users, FaceTime is a great tool to hold meetings from home. This easy to use tool allows users who have a great connection to make high quality video calls by just making a simple tap. However, this tool works well for one to one call, If the meeting needs to be attended by more people, it would mean gathering around one gadget – which might not be ideal.

Also, FaceTime is not compatible with non-Apple gadgets – users can only call fellow Apple users.  Top features that make this tool great for sales meetings include:

• Clear videos
• High audio quality
• Elegant and intuitive interface

Final Thoughts

COVID-19 has caused a shift in the way companies operate and how employees work.  In recent months, the pandemic has pushed corporates to embrace remote work. While it is not clear how long the current situation will last, it is almost certain that there will be a permanent shift in the world of work. This shift will be defined by the strategies that corporates and employees craft to keep operations running during this global crisis.

Technology is at the heart of these strategies. Looking at the tools discussed above, there are many ways that companies and their employees can leverage technology to increase employee engagement and keep things moving. keep things moving. If you are a salesperson working from home, identify a tool that meets your needs from this list and start running sales meetings from your home today.