Get motivated!

Yesterday was the day the “Get Motivated” seminar rolled through Kansas City. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go but it was very well attended to the extent that it snarled traffic in downtown KC. I have heard good things about it and it is a good time, with the current economy, to hear some upbeat messages. There is a wider point here and that involves the use of seminars as a marketing tool. How effective is it? What should the expectations be when giving a seminar?

Make sure you have done the preparation work

Remember that seminars are a marketing tool, and we have talked here before about the dangers of starting with the tools! So, some planning is required: Who is your target audience? What message will be of most value to them? What do you want them to do as a result of attending? What, and how clear is the call to action?

Most people are savvy enough to realize that their world is not going to be made 100% OK by attending a seminar. However they are looking for some useful information of real value, and certainly don’t expect a full 90 minutes of a hard sell. This principles of marketing apply therefore: You need to grab attention, develop trust, give value, and have a call to action. With all these things in place your attendees will expect some selling - that is part of the call to action. However they will also expect value, useful information and a clear way to opt out of the selling phase.

So what is the challenge?

Seminars are really fun to do ASSUMING YOU LIKE PRESENTING. If you don’t, make a commitment to yourself to get into a positive mindset and practice/train yourself. Often the challenges is to make the material relevant so that if an attendee never talks to you again, they still get value from the material. Be generous with the information you give and don’t worry you are giving away too much.

There is a challenge in getting people there. That is a big subject in itself that I will tackle in another post! Perhaps the most common problem I see (and yes, I have done this myself) is assuming that giving great information will be enough to have people flocking to you at the end to give you their cards and/or hire you. The key thing is:

Having a clear way forward

Go back to your planning phase and ask yourself again: “What do I want people to do? What is the point of the seminar?” It may be to get a list of folks to follow up with. Perhaps you have a program in which you want them to register interest. It could be that the seminar is purely to establish you as a speaker. Whatever it is, make sure that you tell them what to do if they want to explore your ideas further, and how to opt out if they don’t. THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO HARD SELL THEM or lock the door preventing them leaving until they surrender a card.

Keep in the marketing flow of your business - if you want them to give you a card, what will they get? What is your promise to them? Many times I have presented and it went well and then all the energy faded and interest didn’t turn into action. Make sure you are clear how seminars fit into your overall strategy and then they can be a great and fun tool!