4 creative ways to use screen sharing

Screen sharing software can help make your meetings more efficient and productive. However, that’s not all it can do. Increasing engagement between meeting participants is also a key benefit of a screen sharing solution.

Traditional conference calls can often be one-dimensional. All you get is a voice on the other side of the line. With screen sharing, visual elements are also brought into play, which naturally leads to a more engaging meeting format. Presenting a report on the phone with nothing but your voice to 10 other attendees is much different from doing the same with the advantages of screen sharing. Bottom line, screen sharing can streamline workflows and empower your workforce. There are a number of creative screen sharing uses that can provide these benefits, and here are a few of them:

1. An interactive sales demo

Sales on-boarding can be a difficult task, especially when your teams might need to educate clients over the phone. It’s crucial that clients realize value or return on investment as quickly as possible — that means ensuring clients are up to speed on how to use a SaaS solution or other service or product. Being in the same room as the end user would be ideal for training, but often, is not the case.

Instead, screen sharing can help replicate those conditions and support an interactive experience for the presenter and the client. At a basic level, it’s clear to see how valuable it is to be able to look at the screen of the sales rep as they navigate a solution, following along in real time to understand the ins and outs of the product. 

Beyond that, it’s possible to present remote control onto the client so they can replicate the same task right after they’ve seen it demonstrated, which can help improve retention of learning. If the client has the solution running on their device, the sales rep can pass presenter credentials and offer advice and guidance as they both watch the new user in real time. This allows for instant troubleshooting during the on-boarding process, which can help resolve user problems that may have otherwise surfaced and hindered an important company implementation.

2. A remote tour of the office

A tour of the office is a staple of recruiting, as well as in the sales process. Taking an applicant or prospective buyer around the headquarters is about impressing them, but not every potential hire or customer is always available for a tour, which can sometimes cinch deals and hiring decision. Here, screen sharing can come in handy in a creative way.

A guided tour of the office can be shared with the applicant across the country, or the world. Easily, and without moving from their computer, they can get a picture of what the work environment is like, or visualize any perks or notable building features. Through video conferencing, you can even get current employees to answer questions an applicant has. Similarly, a sales lead could be entertained by a tour of your office, which helps nurture the sales relationship. 

Using a screen sharing mobile app could further heighten the experience, and a tour could be given in real time. Whoever leads the tour can use a mobile device to effortlessly walk about the office and show potential hires and customers all the sights. 

3. Collaboration on a creative project 

Creative teams often need more nuanced modes of communication than what a traditional conference call format can offer. Explaining a visual concept, for instance, can be difficult when none of the other meeting participants can see what the designer sketches out, or what the ad campaign manager is imagining.

Screen sharing makes that all possible by facilitating collaboration in real time between creative teams and stakeholders. A graphic designer with present credentials can open a drawing or modeling program on their device and cast the image they come up with to other meeting participants. In the same vein, a videographer may use screen sharing tools to play a reel for a producer or other team member who’s at a different shoot location. They can edit together in real time instead of having to work through email and attachments.

4. Illustrating numbers and data

Lastly, presentations with a lot of numbers and data points can be hard to sit through, especially over the phone. Capturing the attention of the meeting can be done with screen sharing. You can present slides that contain animations or other visual elements that bring the numbers to life in a dynamic data plot or an interactive graph. Such presentation features are engaging and keep meeting audiences attentive; they also improve the comprehension of key data trends or insights your presentation is trying to convey. 

There are many other creative uses for screen sharing software, which users can discover on their own as they use such tools. The right screen sharing platform can help facilitate meeting efficiency and innovation. Looking for a solution to drive this performance and value? Cisco Webex has a reliable screen sharing solution to facilitate better sales calls. Get started with a free plan today.