Webinars: the new age speak-easy; Webinars are gaining momentum and generating more leads.

Imagine this scenario: More than 300 people gather to learn about the newest upgrade to their accounting software and they haven't had to spend hundreds of dollars traveling to attend the class. In fact, they're still at their desks in front of their computers.

As Internet usage continues to thrive and many still worry about the economy, accounting vendors and resellers' clients and prospects are taking advantage of online classes. Webinars--seminars conducted via the Web--are everywhere, it seems.

No wonder. Seminars, one of the staples of the sales business, aren't drawing attendees as they used to. In the last 10 months, getting clients and prospects to live events has been a challenge for Tectura, a Phoenix-based Microsoft and Exact Software reseller with an increasingly national presence.

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"We can't get people's behinds in the seats. Whether it's due to economic drivers or seasonal reasons, online events are drawing more attention," says Chandra Petrzelka, national marketing director for Tectura.

Tectura is leveraging Webinars in the following ways:

* Hosting Webinars to get the company's message out. These are usually focused on Microsoft's product information and vision. "This allows us to take our message and span it across the U.S., and it gets information in front of prospects faster," says Petrzelka.

* One-on-one prospect-facing Webinars. Tectura has project teams spread throughout the U.S., and these sessions enable them to come together with clients.

* Internal-training Webinars. Tectura has 15 widely dispersed offices. Webinars help in the conduct of sales and product training. For example, when the firm rolled out Microsoft CRM internally, it used a Webinar to train the staff.

The firm holds one major national prospecting Webinar, several one-on-ones, and approximately four smaller internal sessions per quarter. Attendance has ranged from 60 to 300 people each. "People used to believe that participants in Webinars weren't serious buyers or strong leads, but we've found we're closing more leads through Webinars than in our live events," says Petrzelka.

Tectura's experience illustrates what many accounting resellers and vendors such as Best, Intuit, Accpac, and AccountantsWorld are finding to be true--interactive Webinars are engaging, and provide hands-on tips that help their clients and staff reach and maintain goals for business.

"We started conducting Webinars because our accountants wanted information before their clients got it, and Webinars are a perfect fit for this," says Trae Harris, Intuit training specialist.

Taylor Macdonald, Best's senior vice president for business partners, agrees. "Webinars are becoming the norm because you can't get to every city with live seminars. And our partners are finding Webinars invaluable because they reach a geographical client base they wouldn't have been able to reach."

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