Seminar Success?
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Was having success doing some seminars but lately I am not getting as many appointments. The Seminar goes great, feedback is very good, participants aer into it and ask questions but lately I am getting the "We will call you" or "Not right now" types of answsers. Any thoughts on how to improve or have prospects gone into hibernation with all the bad econ news in the media?
Yeah, I’ve been doing them for years and seeing the exact same thing. It could be that your area (and mine) are “seminared” out. Either that or we’re not giving them a good enough reason to want to meet with us. In the old days, it was good enough to be a nice guy from a good firm. Today, I think you have to bring the WOW factor.
I have stopped seminars. Very time consuming, expensive and no quality response. Even with so called response card marketing lists. People are all just scared right now.
I have found teaching classes and doing seminars with current clients and guests (ie. invite clients to dinner and ask them to bring friends) work the best. It lends the most credibility and you don’t spend fortunes on mailers, ads, etc. And, no plate-lickers. You have a captive audience that already has a certain degree of respect for you.
Seminars need a very strong “Call to Action”. In other words you need a response from your audience right after the seminar. If you wait even to the next day the emotion is gone and the results will be disappointing. My recommendation is get the appointment that day or night of the seminar.
An example is a seminar on retirement. Call to action could be "Interest rates are dropping and if you want to secure an income investment with a decent return you need to act now. I still have a few appointments available this week so please get with me after the seminar so you can still get into these limited investments". If it is tax savings then again use the tax deadline as your call to action. Also make sure your seminar is scheduled so that time is limited to act (close to tax deadline). I have always had good luck with seminars but only when I got the appointment right after the presentation.[quote=advisorman]Seminars need a very strong “Call to Action”. In other words you need a response from your audience right after the seminar. If you wait even to the next day the emotion is gone and the results will be disappointing. My recommendation is get the appointment that day or night of the seminar.
An example is a seminar on retirement. Call to action could be "Interest rates are dropping and if you want to secure an income investment with a decent return you need to act now. I still have a few appointments available this week so please get with me after the seminar so you can still get into these limited investments". If it is tax savings then again use the tax deadline as your call to action. Also make sure your seminar is scheduled so that time is limited to act (close to tax deadline). I have always had good luck with seminars but only when I got the appointment right after the presentation.[/quote] Thanks for the input we really need your advice on EVERYTHING................NOT[quote=compliancejerk]
Thanks for the input we really need your advice on EVERYTHING................NOT[/quote] This is a useless post. Everyone needs to click on "post options", then "report post" , and report this ass to the moderators. Below is the comment I included in my report. Please follow suit. Then ignore him/her. In fact, it just hit me - compliancejerk is NancyBased on the date of your post and that you're in Ohio I would guess it's the time of year and the proximity to Christmas/New Years. I've done seminars for awhile and have stopped doing them from January to April 15 as too many people have other things on their minds or are gone for the winter months. I'm also in the midwest - all the rich people are down south or out west in my market.
Don't give up on seminars - they still work and as more people drop them the better off you'll be. If you're seminar is the same and invitation is the same as competitors, this may also have negative effects. In my area there are a ton of seminars, but they're typically from index annuity agents posing as senior financial advisors. As long as your message is clearly different than theirs you should have success simply from the refreshing nature of an anti annuity angle. Dateline is actually in the progress of sitting in on seminars such as these as well as secretly taping the meetings to do a huge expose' of the idiot annuity con artists that are roaming the country. Once it airs it should hopefully shake the marketing up a little and make fee based/only advisors in much higher demand - specifically those speaking from the podium and clearing any doubts of your intent.