Keys to Success in Seminar Selling

Finding clients through seminars has taken center stage in today's do-not-call environment.

By Peter Bates

In the film Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, is the ultimate optimist. He builds a baseball diamond in a cornfield at a remote rural location, believing that “if you build it, they will come.” Many agents feel the same way about giving seminars to attract the public to their products and services. Simply advertise the seminar, and they will come. But will they? And if they do, will they buy?

In the year since the do-not-call list became law, agents have found it crucial to reach clients using other methods. Putting on seminars has become attractive as a way of establishing contact with prospects, answering questions, and turning them into clients. But what is the first step?

It is realizing what you’re getting into. It’s just not the same as one-on-one contact, either by phone or in person. Ron Hagelman, the CEO of Hagelman Consulting in New Braunfels, Texas, says that a good seminar presenter first has to have a flair for the dramatic. “It’s show business,” he says. “Sometimes it’s even like stand-up comedy. You’re going to have good and bad nights. And on the bad nights, you’re not going to be able to read the crowd.”

THE FIRST STEP IS REALIZING WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO WITH SEMINAR SELLING

Hagelman came to seminar selling after years of public speaking engagements. He and other industry experts suggest that if you are interested in pursuing seminar selling, you should first take a few public-speaking courses. Learn how to stand in front of a crowd, establish and maintain eye contact, keep up the interest level and deal with hecklers and skeptics. “Right along with cold calling, seminar selling is the hardest part of our business. You’ve got to know how to work the crowd,” he advises.

You might also want to take seminars about seminar selling. While these are not cheap, they are viable options for those looking for turnkey solutions providing everything from course materials to names of reputable mailing list companies, when the time comes for bulk mailings.

Joseph Herkert is the president, marketer and sales associate of Herkert & Associates Inc. of Cedarburg, Wis, and a member of NAIFA-Southeast Wisconsin. He received his seminar course from a colleague. The course includes an illustrated, 200-page manual that “helps you inform, persuade and motivate,” he says. While he uses many of the techniques from this course, he also relies on a few of his own that he learned from experience.

THE ART OF SEMINAR SELLING Know what you are getting into. Polish your public-speaking skills. Choose your venue carefully. Market the seminar. Establish a high level of trust and comfort with attendees. Develop an effective follow-up and sign-up plan.

Other agents create their own seminars. Alan Kifer, vice president of education for the Creative Marketing International Corporation, explains why he developed his own course. “I first went to freebie seminars, the ones advertised in newspaper inserts,” he says. “Then I took seminars with some of the industry gurus. I bought tapes and went to trade shows. I saw what they were doing, found out what everyone else was buying, and I went in an entirely different direction. While the gurus presented product seminars on, for example, long-term care insurance or annuities, I created my own presentation about the five biggest retirement-planning mistakes older Americans make and how they can avoid them.”

Presenting seminars
Once you obtain or create a seminar, it’s time to find a venue. This task is not as easy as it sounds. Do you rent a hall or a restaurant? Do you hold the seminar at an educational institution? Do you serve food? If so, when? Kifer, a member of NAIFA-South Puget Sound, gives his 9 a.m.-11 a.m. brunch seminars at the Old Country Buffet, a chain restaurant in the greater Seattle, Wash., area. He uses several of the restaurant’s facilities within a 40-mile radius but never uses the same one more frequently than every four months. Typically, about 45 people attend, mostly Social Security recipients. On rare occasions, he does a “super wow event” for 150 people at a Marriott Hotel, but admits the follow-up can be difficult with that many people.

Location, location, location
Herkert came up with a venue he believes is still relatively untapped. After achieving fairly good results from giving seminars at corporate credit unions, he tried the school system. “I started giving a few at continuing education programs at local high schools and they worked pretty well. Then I contacted the continuing education division of the University of Wisconsin. I showed them the course and said I wanted to offer it to the community.” The seminar takes place over three nights, three hours each night. Attendees pay $110, including the cost of the book. “Having them pay,” says Herkert, “creates a commitment and makes them obligated to attend all three sessions. It also establishes you as a professional and lets you stand out in the marketplace.” There is another big benefit from using the university as a venue: It helps with marketing.

Doug McDermott, CLU, ChFC, CSA, president, CEO and founder of the Annuity Store in Sacramento, Calif., agrees that venue matters a great deal. “We train our students on how to scope out a venue to make sure it is the ideal one for a seminar. There are so many aspects to consider, such as parking. You shouldn’t expect a Social Security recipient to walk many blocks to attend the seminar that you give in a busy city. Also, do you know of other events happening on the same day?”

McDermott relates the horror story of two agents whose organization claimed it had an ideal venue. However, it didn’t check with the restaurant owners to find out what else was scheduled. As he says, “It turned out that a local beer distributors association was having a party in the next room the same time the agents were hosting an event for Social Security recipients!”

You should consider other issues such as food and special diets. What happens if someone is a diabetic? It doesn’t matter if your audience consists of Social Security recipients or Baby Boomers; you have to find out what services they need and provide them.

Marketing that works
Once you’ve established your venue, you should then determine how to market your seminar. None of the agents we spoke with suggest placing ads in local newspapers. “You might,” says McDermott, “get a lot of ‘plate lickers’—people who show up just for a free meal.” He recommends using a reputable national mailing list company. By using a company whose lists are current (and many aren’t), and employing the right demographic targeting methods, McDermott claims agents can raise their response substantially. By specifying the correct age group, income level and homeownership factor, a presenter should be able to tune his attendance response to fit the number of people desired. To increase attendance, he states the need for the five-touch approach.

Kifer writes his own invitation letter and sends out two series of follow-up postcards to about 3,600 people. “I outsourced my marketing to a mailing-list outfit in Houston,” he says. “I gave them the demographics—people over 65, with $40,000-plus income, and who own their own home. The firm compiled the census numbers for the ZIP codes I supplied,” he says. He is very careful about designing his direct mail envelopes. Since the address and local-return address are printed in a special handwritten font and the envelope uses a first-class stamp, the item doesn’t look like direct mail. There are no cellophane windows, free tickets or slick color inserts.

ONCE YOU’VE ESTABLISHED YOUR VENUE, DETERMINE HOW TO MARKET YOUR SEMINAR.

Creating your list
Hagelman doesn’t believe in tapping demographic mailing list companies to build rosters of possible attendees. “You build the direct-mail list from your own contacts, people you’ve serviced and their relatives and friends,” he says. “Do you belong to the Rotary club or the Kiwanis? Send it out to them and their branches in other nearby cities. Use your local chamber of commerce.”

Once you have a list and have sent out your invitations, you should establish a follow-up system to ensure attendance. The cards you send out should have several methods of confirmation: A phone number and a tear-off card for attendees to mail back to you are good choices. Then Hagelman uses a technique he learned from experience. “After you’ve gotten responses from those cards you sent out,” he says, “how do you contact them to remind them of the event? Do you and your staff call them? I did that once. Never again!”

He hires a firm to call prospective attendees to find out if they’re attending and to remind them of the date. He learned that Boomers and Social Security recipients frequently want to ask questions before the seminar. “They want to kick tires about long-term care insurance.” Using a call-back firm avoids this free-advice quagmire and saves hours of phone time. “The firm doesn’t know anything, so they can’t answer any questions, except the time and location of the seminar,” he adds.

Since Herkert teaches continuing education, the university’s course catalog serves as his marketing tool. It is mailed out every season free of charge to the community he wants to reach. Sometimes his seminar is even mentioned in local newspapers. He also makes sure that he offers the course three times for each catalog publication.

The don’ts of seminar selling
What mistakes have these presenters made that you could learn from? “When giving your seminar,” Herkert advises, “be patient with people. Don’t just rattle off canned responses. While their questions may sound alike, each person’s concerns are different.”

Kifer gets better responses from his audience by using a low-tech approach. “I use an overhead slide projector with very simple slides,” he says. I do not use a PowerPoint presentation, because I am the product, not pictures with moving titles. I want to address them in an easy conversational style unencumbered by technology. I want to allow questions from the audience. Interaction does not appear genuine with PowerPoint.”

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PURSUING SEMINAR SELLING, YOU SHOULD FIRST TAKE A FEW PUBLIC-SPEAKING COURSES

His overhead slides are simple. One contains his biography, two display the front and back of a 1040 tax form and the rest include items like discussion topics and the seminar evaluation sheet that he carefully walks attendees through.

McDermott also believes in keeping it simple. He does not flood his audience with handouts. “We hand out one piece of paper and a pen,” he says. “It simultaneously functions as a sign-in sheet, an information page (in question-and-answer format) and an appointment setter. We distribute one handout, but only after the presentation.”

Other caveats
McDermott also cautions against presenting a seminar alone. “We believe you need to have three people at every seminar,” he says. “The first one presents before the break, then the second person presents. A third person functions as an assistant. You then bring the first person back to do the review and answer any questions.”

He also advises against serving the meal before or during the presentation. He tells agents to use the meal as yet another marketing opportunity. “Have the presenters stay during the meal and learn to serve the audience further,” he says. “For example, if some people don’t fill out their contact forms, talk to them and see if they have any questions. You always pick up more contacts if you talk to them during the meal. Servicing is the key to finishing on a high note for your attendees.”

Following up
Multiple presenters may work for McDermott but not for Hagelman. He believes that unless you’re part of a father-and-son or husband-and-wife team, you work alone for the most part. “Transference doesn’t ordinarily work. If I’m giving the presentation, I’m selling myself. They want to see me in the follow-up appointment, not an assistant,” he says.

Of course the follow-up and sign-up stage is the most important part of any presentation. “Always remember,” advises Hagelman, “you’re not there to sell insurance; you’re there to get appointments.”

During this phase, Herkert uses a highly effective system. “In the first session, I get my students to complete a homework assignment, a data form. If I can get them to do that, they turn into clients. I create a financial plan for them, then ask them to come to my office, where I go over the plan with them and my co-presenter, a financial planning attorney. There are no freebies in the classroom. If they want the financial plan, they have to come to my office to get it after the course.”

Kifer believes it is important to encourage referrals at this point. “People attending the seminars often ask when the next one is so they can refer their friends. Some of them attend several presentations of the same seminar while making a decision. These are the skeptics, making sure I’m not running a fly-by-night operation. “One of the keys to seminar success is making people comfortable with you,” he says. “They have to believe you are going to be around servicing them for a long time.”

Peter Bates is a contributor to Advisor Today.