Making sense of call reports

Call reports can be a great asset to teleseminar producers.

A good call report shows the time a person came on the call, the time they left and the number of minutes on the call. It might even show the caller's phone number.

You'll see that not everyone stays on the line for the entire call, which prompted one client to wonder if he was doing something wrong.

Maybe. Maybe not.

A client emailed me that he was disappointed that people dropped off his call.

Here's what I wrote:

Don't read anything into this. They might have had a heart attack, gone to the bathroom, taken an important call, originally allocated 30 minutes to the call knowing they would have to run, lost the call because they have a rotten phone company or skype connection. OR, if you look at the start times, you might notice some people didn't get on the call at the beginning. Don't assume they just weren't into you.

OTOH, some people will drop because they aren't getting anything out of it -- and that's okay. Not everyone is going to buy from you. You can use this report to follow up with people and have a good idea of what they heard on the call. All this is positive.

Definitely review call reports to see if you can spot trends. If lots of people are bailing out at a particular time, you might be doing something wrong.

So review the reports and see what you can learn from them.

Dan Janal
www.GreatTeleseminars.com

Should telseminars have professional moderators?

Question: As a broadcast personality/journalist/interviewer with a strong
marketing sense, I wonder if there is an opportunity to serve as co-
host on teleseminars in order to make them more effective. I have
spent countless hours listening to dull and ineffective presentations
and this includes some of the major names in the Internet marketing
industry, and I really believe that I could help to make their
products sound (and sell) better.

I'd like your opinion on whether this idea has any merit, if a ton of
people like me are already doing it (and I'm just not hearing them),
or if marketers wouldn't think twice of paying somebody a percentage
for this kind of service.

Dan Janal replies:

I agree that many people who do teleseminars lack the essential hosting and interviewing skills that can make a teleseminar sound professional, Many sound amateurish.

Unfortunately, many people either don't seem to know the difference, or care. I find the same attitude with recording quality as well. I've heard many teleseminars from top names that offered disturbing sound effects that made me question their professionalism or their concern for their audiences. That's the reason Great Teleseminars Audio Production Company exists--to help people who realize they need to sound good!

So, I agree with your premise: the need for quality interviewing and recording is paramount, but I wonder if you will find a market. People want to do teleseminars on the cheap and they use free conference services that offer quality that is just good enough to get by (although I was a guest on a teleseminar and the free service dropped everyone off the line -- including me, the moderator and 100 paying clients!) .

The short answer is that you have a great idea for a service. But you'll have to market your services superbly to find an audience that will pay for it.

Good luck!

Dan Janal
Founder
Great Teleseminars Audio Production Company
http://www.greatteleseminars.com

Presentation coach Karen Friedman offers several great tips that can be used to start your teleseminar with a bang.

View her short video here:

I plan on using these tips in my next teleseminar!

Does your free conference line suck?

I've had it with free conference lines! They suck!

I used to recommend free services for people who didn't want to rent my lines and get full customer service. If they didn't need my help, that's okay, because free lines were okay.

But now, I'm getting emails from people saying their clients can't onto the call, or their clients get kicked off the call, or there's an echo.

Why?

The quality of these lines stink. They used to be good, but now there's a big court case going on with the telephone companies and the free services (too complicated to go into here), but it appears the quality of the service is dropping fast.

If you want guaranteed, high quality lines, Great Teleseminars rents phone lines for $25 for the first 25 people and $1 per person thereafter. If you are looking for a nearly free solution that includes automatic recording, try this service instead. I've tried it and it works fine. PLUS, they don't use the "free lines" that can bomb out on you.

If your call is valuable, don't trust it to a free service. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Nearly free recording at new teleseminar service

If you're looking for nearly-free recording and no hassles, you'll want to check out Instant Teleminars. You'll also be able to host 200 people on the call. Plus they will be able to send you questions by a web user interface.

You can test this service out for $1 and if you like it, you'll get unlimited service for less than $50. It really is automatic. I tried it and it worked.

There are other features for notifying your guests, etc. Read more about it here.

This is the brainchild of Rick Raddatz, former Microsoft whiz kid who has launched many other marketing and audio programs on the web.

Could your "free conference" call service block your callers?

If your "free" teleconference service provider sends you to a 712-area code phone number in Iowa, your clients might not get through.

Read the story and commentary in an excellent post by Alec Saunder's blog
http://saunderslog.com/2006/10/11/whats-with-the-712-area-code/

The free conference service we recommend is not based in Iowa and would not be affected. If you think your callers could be blocked -- and we don't even want to think of the customer service hassles that will cost you -- then you will want to check out this great free service:

http://www.myfreeteleconference.com/promo/

Conference calls host family reunions

Don’t put family reunions on hold. Conference calling isn’t just for businesses any more!

Once upon a time conference calls were so expensive, only the largest and wealthiest companies could afford them. Now, a number of free conference call services make conference calling easy for far-flung families that want to stay in close touch.

And yes, the cost for the conference line really is zero. Don’t ask me how these companies do it, but they can – and there are no strings attached. Of course everyone has to pay their long distance provider, just as they do when they call Aunt Martha anyway. That doesn’t change. What does change is the big, fat bill you would have paid a telephone company to set up a call for 3, 4 or 99 people!

Here’s how it works.

You sign up with a company that provides this service. I use this one:

http://www.myfreeteleconference.com/promo/

They assign you a phone number that is yours to keep and use. No one else has that number. You won’t be asked to share a line with any other person, or make reservations, like some companies do. It really is yours to keep, as long as you want to use it.

You’ll also get two security codes. One for the “moderator” and one for the “audience.” That’s a hold over from the corporate days. No worries. Until you arrive, all audience members hear music.

When you arrive, the call starts and the fun begins. Everyone can talk to each other just as if they were all in the same room. Of course, as the moderator, you have the ability to go into “lecture mode” and silence everyone else. So you can announce your big news without any interruptions. Or just let everyone talk in “interactive mode.” Don’t get hung up on the terms, just think: I talk and everyone listens, or everyone talks! It is that simple.

When you are done, you just hang up and the call ends. It is as simple as that.

The phone lines are available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without reservations. Just let everyone know you want to hold a conference and they show up. The line is good for up to 100 callers. Of course, if Aunt Minnie puts her call on speaker phone, everyone on that line can listen. So you could really have hundreds of people on the call if your family is gigantic! But only 100 telephone lines can call into the conference call.

You can even record the call on “telephone replay” so any family members who couldn’t make the live call can call in to the conference line and listen to the recording.

The only downside is that your relatives could become jealous of your free line. I’d suggest you let them know they can get their own free conference lines so they can have conferences with their families and friends, too!

Dan Janal is president of Great Teleseminars Audio Production Company that is a one-stop shopping center for experts and companies who want to conduct telephone seminars. He’s investigated all the free conference services to come up his recommendation:

http://www.myfreeteleconference.com/promo/ For more information about professional recording services, visit: http://www.greatteleseminars.com

Phone reviews: Panasonic KX-TG5673

I bought the Panasonic KX-TG5673 phone at Costco simply because it had "voice" caller ID. That means it would say the callers name. Sounded like a great idea.

Unfortunately, it is a horrible implementation.

The benefit would have been that you could hear the phone announce the caller if you were in another room or away from your desk. You wouldn't have to run back to the phone to see who is calling. Instead, you'd be able to hear the caller's name and then decide whether to answer the call from an important client, or leave a telemarketer to be dead in the water.

Unfortunately, this feature is badly done in several ways:

1. The voice is first generation text-to-voice. It sounds like a robotized computer on prozac. It is hard to understand what the phone is saying. It accents the wrong syllables, which makes it even more difficult to understand.

2. It seems that caller ID can't make out many IDs. I thought my previous phone ID'd most callers, but I could be wrong. However, with this phone, it is clear that many numbers don't have names attached to them -- or the phone is not capable of displaying and saying the name. The phone says "number unavailable" which would be okay, expect it says it FOUR TIMES, each time the phone "rings." This is incredibly annoying!

3. There is a way to turn off this so-called feature -- at least in theory. I tried many times but it wouldn't shut up!

As for phone quality, the sound is good on this 5.8 Ghz digital and can be used confidently for recording teleseminars to your computer. It has a nice range, so you can go into another room, or another floor and still get good quality reception.

Unfortunately, the one feature that makes this phone stand out on the sales floor -- voice caller ID -- is the one quality that dooms it. Although I bought the phone only a few months ago, it is destined for the recycle bin.


Dan Janal
Executive Producer
Great Teleseminars Audio Production Company
www.GreatTeleseminars.com

Make more sales with handouts

Do you think people who listen to you on a teleseminar can write as fast as you speak?

Think again.

If you give out your phone number, website address, or affiliate links, chances are you are missing out on sales opportunities because people are not listening with a pencil in their hands!

Or they can't write quickly.

Or they couldn't figure out if you said 15 or 50.

So how can you prevent these lost sales opportunities?

1. Provide a handout with all your contact information and links.
2. Create a web page with all the links and say this page name SLOWLY and REPEAT it several timees. Make the name easy to remember and easy to spell. In fact, why not make two pages: one with the word in singular and the second page as the work with a plural, for example: handout.htm and handouts.htm
3. If your webmaster can design a page without the .htm extension, so much the better. It just introduces another chance for a typo!
4. Put your web address, email and phone number the CD label of your teleseminar.
5. Handouts with the outline of your presentation are great keepsakes for attendees. Plus it gives you a chance to put in a sales message and a call-to-action order form!

If you follow these simple tips, you'll find more traffic going to your site and more sales as well.

Dan Janal
Executive Producer
Great Teleseminars Audio Production Service
www.GreatTeleseminars.com
952-380-1554