Clarity, a provider of Internet-based business solutions, is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. The company focuses on content management and workflow tools and has clients across Canada, the United States and Europe.

The Challenge: Making Sales More Effective and Efficient

Selling Clarity solutions requires frequent meetings with prospective clients, so any tool that makes the sales cycle more efficient is a welcome addition. And Rob Sykes, president of Clarity, understands the power of an effective sales tool. Recently, Sykes purchased Citrix® GoToMeeting™, the easiest and most cost-effective online meeting solution on the market. As a result, Sykes’s company has reduced travel expenses, improved remote training and enhanced communication with clients. “I am quite impressed with GoToMeeting,” he says.

Easily Meet with Global Clients

Sykes uses Citrix GoToMeeting every day to give secure, remote sales presentations and live demonstrations to prospects and clients. The ease and speed of GoToMeeting means that he can rapidly connect with customers and prospects scattered around the world – sometimes in the same day. “Recently I started the morning with a presentation in London, moved on to another presentation in New York, and later that evening I was presenting to Hong Kong,” he recalls. “I had covered two-thirds of the earth, sitting in my office using GoToMeeting.”

The simplicity of GoToMeeting has won over Sykes. “I found GoToMeeting to be quite straightforward,” he says. Using the GoToMeeting features integrated into Microsoft® Outlook®, he can quickly send prospects a meeting invitation complete with a conference call number. With one click, the prospects join his meeting and view his desktop in real-time. “I can effectively walk prospects through our tools.”

Avoid Travel Costs and Boost Sales Team Productivity

Without GoToMeeting, Sykes explains, the cost of conducting presentations at clients’ offices would be tremendous. “We’re based in Alberta, Canada, and most of our customers are anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 miles away,” he says. “Without an online meeting tool, our fallback position would be to conduct presentations in person,” necessitating expenses for airfare and hotels. “That would significantly increase our budget for travel.”

Because Sykes and his sales team can now use GoToMeeting to meet remotely with prospects, Clarity avoids costly travel expenses. The savings add up rapidly: “I estimate we save $5,000 to $10,000 a month in travel costs,” he says. Not only does GoToMeeting help the company save on travel, but it also improves the sales team’s productivity. “We find that by doing an online presentation we’re able to gauge a prospect’s interest and determine if a subsequent trip is justified.”

Improve Training Capacity while Lowering Costs

In addition to the sales team, Clarity’s training team uses GoToMeeting to conduct product training sessions with clients. “We have clients all over the world, and we now use GoToMeeting extensively as a remote training tool,” says Sykes. The result is a more efficient use of time. “We find Web-based training allows us to work very effectively with groups of people,” he says. With GoToMeeting, the trainers can easily pass control of the keyboard to each student to gauge his or her understanding. “It’s a very interactive, hands-on process.”

Using GoToMeeting for training provides significant time and cost savings for both Clarity and its clients. “With GoToMeeting our clients don’t need to leave the normal work environment for a day,” says Sykes. “From our perspective, our people can be more effective and do more training in a shorter period of time,” he says. “It’s a win-win on both sides.”

All-You-Can-Meet Pricing Is Far Superior

GoToMeeting’s flat-fee pricing model was a key benefit for Sykes. “The All-You-Can-Meet pricing literally paid for itself in two months.” Sykes is familiar with other online meeting solutions and their unfriendly pricing methods, which incorporate expensive per-minute fees and overage charges. “With their products the clock was ticking the whole time,” he explains. Because GoToMeeting provides unlimited meetings with no time limits, Clarity users can meet as often and as long as they want. “I find unlimited usage is a far superior model because you’re not as hesitant to use it.”

Although the bottom line is important, customer approval is even more essential. “We have had very good feedback on GoToMeeting from customers,” says Sykes, “Their primary feedback is about flexibility,” he notes, explaining that clients appreciate getting information and training through online meetings. “They save time and can stay in their work environment while you focus on them and the challenges they’re having,” he says. “GoToMeeting has become a core part of our delivery suite for working with clients and training.”

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