Many producers find great success in marketing their services through seminars. But will this technique be effective for you and your practice? Seminars can be a fantastic part of your marketing program, but only if they are well organized and delivered on target.
Just as with other types of marketing initiatives, to achieve success with seminars you need to commit to a series of them. Plan to schedule one seminar each month from January through October, allowing for a break during the year-end holidays in November and December. If you conduct just one or two seminars, you're unlikely to get a decent return on your investment. Why? For the same reasons that other marketing programs need consistent execution. It can take several tries for a prospective client to receive an invitation before they actually attend, either because of scheduling or motivation. While some people need to see an invitation to a seminar just once, others will need to see it five or more times before they commit, so you need to reach out to all of your prospects enough times to consistently fill the room.
Once you commit to a solid seminar program, ask yourself if you can be comfortable in front of a group. Some people are naturally great presenters and have an innate gift for being able to command an audience, while others find they have to work at it more. Just know that whatever your natural capabilities are, all great presenters constantly critique themselves, ask for constructive criticism from others, and practice to improve their skills.
Engage your audience, letting your personality show through. Just as when you take part in a kitchen table conversation, it is imperative that your audience is relaxed and comfortable within the first five minutes of the seminar. Some light jokes or stories are a great way to help people feel at ease with you. Some presenters do better with jokes, while others excel at telling humorous stories. What are some jokes or stories that you might tell? Or not tell? Determine what you do best and what comes most naturally to you. Some people will choose to do business with you just because they like you. If you develop a rapport with them early in your presentation, you will have a much easier time establishing a relationship with them, and breaking the ice early on will go a long way toward helping accomplish this. You also can ask a current client to introduce you, having them tell how you helped make a difference in their life.
Whatever track you decide to take, be sure to work the entire room. Strive to make every person in attendance feel as if you are talking directly to them and that you relate personally with them.
This leads us to one of the most important aspects of hosting seminars: You must, at all times, be authentic and genuine. Don't be a salesperson or try to provide your audience with a product seminar. Your presentation should be topical and provide timely information that will affect your audience. Change your presentations so that each seminar is unique, which will further distinguish you as a problem solver who focuses on identifying and solving the situations that your clients face. Walk them through a presentation that's no longer than an hour, including a question-and-answer session. This will give you enough time to address their needs and drive them to talk one-on-one with you after the seminar.
Aside from the first five minutes, the Q&A part of the seminar is the most critical. Be sure you have an excellent grasp on the issues surrounding the topics that are being addressed and how various products relate to those issues. You must be the recognized authority in the room. Expect and plan for "snipers," attendees who purposely ask tough questions to test your credibility or are relentless in the pursuit of their own agenda. Gracefully handle them by defusing their questions and shifting the conversation to other attendees.
The national conversion average for advisors who do seminars is about 30 percent, which means that 70 percent of seminar attendees don't schedule one-on-one consultations. Your goal should be to convert 60 percent or more of your seminar attendees.
At the end of the seminar, take as much time as possible for sidebar conversations and to schedule one-on-one appointments. Have your staff on hand, as well, to help manage the flow of people, keep them engaged, and schedule appointments.
Just like other types of marketing initiatives, giving seminars essentially boils down to a numbers game when tracking return on investment. It is a step-by-step process, and anytime you improve one of the steps in the process, your success ratio increases. If you can increase your response rate by just a quarter-percent on your invitation mailer, that can transfer to as much as another million dollars a year in production.
At the end of the day, you should be able to track your cost per appointment and cost per client so that you know exactly how many dollars it takes to convert each lead into an actual client. Doing so will allow you to compare the cost of your seminars to other marketing programs. Over time, you will be able to comfortably determine the cost and quality of each appointment and which marketing strategies provide your highest return on investment.
Does giving seminars sound like a good fit for you? It takes less than two months from the time you make your decision to give your first seminar, so you have plenty of time to start the New Year right with a stellar seminar series this coming January.
Michael Poirot is a field marketing manager with GamePlan Financial Marketing. He can be reached at mpoirot@gameplanfinancial.com. 
