If you love selling insurance but prospecting is your least favorite activity, you are not alone. So what can you do to prospect more effectively and generate hot leads? You might consider seminar selling.
Seminars are not simple, but with the right planning, they can run smoothly and be successful. In fact, according to recent producer surveys conducted by Agent Media*, many agents count seminars among the most effective ways to market new products to consumers.
Many inexperienced agents may attempt seminar presentations, but they may end up wasting their time and effort when they gain no additional business. The secret to becoming a seminar selling pro is to focus on what your prospects care about. That's the first step. Following are 10 more tips for making the most of your seminars.
#1: Use your expertise to create customer value
Seminar selling is all about your knowledge and your expertise. To showcase your qualifications, give a bit of essential information to your audience members. It may seem difficult, but seminar attendees need to hear new and practical ideas that they can apply later on. When you provide your audience members with useful information, you'll make them glad that they came to your seminar, and they may be more apt to contact you to learn more. You do not, however, need to tell them the whole story or give them all the details -- just give them enough to pique their interest.
#2: Differentiate your expertise
Many agents and brokers have at least some level of expertise. But what's unique about yours? Do you really understand the challenges that your attendees face? Does your approach engage prospects on an emotional level?
If you can show them that what you offer is unlike anything prospects can find anywhere else, you're able to effectively target them and strike that emotional chord. This makes it much more likely that your seminar will attract those you most want as your future clients.
For example, do you know enough about long term care insurance to offer an entire seminar on the topic? Or perhaps you're aware of the challenges faced by married couples. Whatever your focus is, be sure to choose catchy yet accurate titles for your seminars that will drive potential audience members to find out more.
#3: Target tightly
Say you've put together what you think is the perfect seminar that targets millionaires who have yet to find a trusted advisor. The problem is that every local investment counselor, real estate broker, and insurance agent wants to present to the same millionaires.
Choosing the right audience is essential. They may not all be millionaires, but they should be somebody very few advisors are already targeting. And partnerships that will promote your services to the right people can be worth their weight in gold.
#4: Educate and entertain
Sales seminars are about selling, but you cannot actually sell something until you book private appointments with attendees once the seminar is over. During the seminar itself, your presentation should educate, share knowledge, and provide value. If you cover intriguing topics, attendees will be motivated to find out more about how you can help them with their insurance and financial planning.
Your seminar is about connecting, educating, and entertaining. You must be authentic, have some fun, and elicit a laugh or two. The more entertaining your presentation, the more attention attendees are likely to devote to what you're saying.
If you are not a polished presenter but like the idea of seminar selling, you may want to consider joining a public speaking group such as Toastmasters or find a mentor who can help you improve your presentations. And, in doing so, you might even meet more prospects.
#5: Timing, scheduling, and logistics
Before you even begin promoting your seminar, you need to make sure you're inviting clients with clear financial needs. To attract these consumers, you need a great prospect list. Be sure to send your mailings about three weeks before the event. You may even want to send a second invite or follow up with a phone call about a week to 10 days before the seminar.
Your mailings should match your audience. If you are selling to upscale clients, the invitation should look classy. If you are selling to those with lower incomes, then your prospects would likely appreciate a more budget-conscious mailing.
Once the seminar is under way, offer food and drinks that match your audience members. Providing food and drinks ensures that attendees won't go hungry and that they will be more apt to pay attention to you, but don't serve so much food that they'll just come for the meal.
In addition, your location should be easy to find -- you may even want to include a small map in your invitation.
During the seminar itself, make sure that your visual presentations are easy to read and that the materials you hand out prominently display your phone number.
#6: Create urgency
The good news is that there is always some new law that can help make your seminar particularly timely. It could be some new tax theme, HSAs, Medicare drug benefits, etc. Use this news to create urgency.
#7: Team effort
When you are conducting seminars, consider having somebody there to support and assist you. This can make you the star of the show and help you connect with your prospects using your charm and expertise. This way, your assistant can worry about the logistics of the seminar, the process of collecting the complete email addresses and phone numbers of attendees, and other administrative tasks. If you don't have an assistant, consider hiring a family member, friend, temp, or other agents who you can pay back by assisting at their own seminars.
#8: The money is in the follow up
Create urgency when setting appointments. You should schedule appointments within a week of the seminar so your prospects remember who you are. If you have an assistant, have them call attendees the day after the seminar. If you do not have an assistant, make yourself readily available for at least three to five days after the seminar. The investment you've made for the room where the seminar took place, the food that was served, the invitations, and all your preparation will be lost if you do not make it to the next stage -- setting appointments. You need to make it to the one-on-one meeting to discuss your prospects' needs and apply your expertise to solving their financial challenges and issues.
#9: Referrals
Referrals are the lifeline of your business. Who else do your attendees know who would benefit from attending one of your seminars? Who else do they know who is struggling with the same issues? Can you use the referrer's name when calling on these new prospects? To collect these referrals, remind your prospect or client of the value with which they provided them and reinforce the ways that you may be able to help their colleagues, friends, and family.
#10: Evaluate, revise, and repeat
Don't worry if your seminar is not perfect. Each time you give a presentation, you'll continue to improve. You can recycle the presentation, the process, and even the lists. This does not have to be a one-shot deal.
Nan Andrews Amish is a management consultant, facilitator, and trainer who works with agents and insurers. She can be contacted at 650-560-9800 or nan@bigpictureperspective.com.
*Agent Media is the publisher of the Agent's Sales Journal.
