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TABLE OF CONTENT
1.) Preparing your presentation 2.) How to Conduct a Seminar 3.) Financial Seminar Marketing (seminar articles part 1- part 8) 4.) How to Organize a Seminar 5.) Seminar Marketing Q & A 6.) Seminar Logistics 7.) Seminar systems 8.) Appointment Setting at Your Financial Seminar 9.) Financial Presentation

SEMINAR MARKETING
Conducting a seminar is a great way to communicate your ideas or introduce new technologies. It is useful to know some guidelines when you have to conduct a seminar. I understood the importance of this both as an attendee and a presenter myself.

Preparing your presentation

A successful seminar is the result of careful preparation of your speech and your presentation material. Here is how you can do it. Research your subject If you are called to speak on a topic, probably thats because you are already having some knowledge of it. Even so, you need to reference from at least 2 different books. This helps you address and include points you have not thought about. It also helps you determine a flow for the seminar. Steps to Preparing the presentation Include a presentation. Presentations help the audience to understand the underlying points that the speaker has to say especially if the subject is rather vague.

The presentation should have an Introduction and a conclusion. The introduction can include a summary of the topic and a brief overview of what the speaker will be saying for the rest of the duration of the seminar. The speaker should determine how long the seminar will take and accordingly create the presentation slides. Thumb of rule is approximately 2-3 minutes per slide if the speaker intends to skim through the slides quickly. And around 5 minutes per slide if the speaker intends to explain the slides with small examples. For example, if the seminar is supposed to be 40 minutes long, there should be around 16 slides if the speaker intends to quickly skim the contents of the slide. Make sure the content has a ``flow'' to it. By flow I mean that the content that comes later can depend on the content which comes in first, but not the other way around. This is a common mistake. The speaker tends to explains a point that should have come in later, in the beginning itself. This tends to confuse the attendees because they have not gained enough insight into the topic to be able to grasp the new information. The Look and feel of the presentation is extremely important. Avoid too flashy and too plain presentations. A presentation with extraordinary text effects look naive and detracts from the importance of what the speaker has to say. At the same time, avoid plain presentations as the attendees perceive that the speaker has probably not prepared enough. Use well designed presentation templates which are freely available or at a low cost. The text size of primary points should be uniform as far as possible. Secondary points should have a smaller font size to show its reduced significance. Secondary points are indented under primary points. Include pictures or graphs instead of text wherever possible. Management Guru CK Prahalad, in a seminar on India's innovation possibilities, explained the efficacy of the Jaipur Foot in a picture that showed a physically challenged person running with the Jaipur foot. Though the audience had already heard about the Foot, they were visibly amazed and touched as they saw the picture. The way text is arranged on the presentation slides is also important. Speakers sometimes make the mistake of putting up points and their respective explanations also. Not only does this practice increase the number of slides, but it is a sure shot way to lull the audience into sleep. So thumb of rule is to use minimum text, and make sure whatever text you put up is a point, not an explanation of a point. If you intend

to give out detailed points for reference, do not include them in the slide. It just makes them cluttered and anyway the audience just cannot keep up with the stream of points you list out to them during the seminar. Use handouts instead for such points. It is very important to include within the seminar content, examples and case studies. Examples illustrate the speaker's point in a more interesting way which the audience is immediately able to relate to. Examples and case studies have the power to touch an audience, relate to similar experiences and thereby be eager to learn more. Sometimes small jokes too make the seminar livelier. Handouts The speaker should prepare handouts as well, especially if the audience is small. Handouts will contain all main points of the seminar as well as those detailed points which cannot be included in the seminar slides but are useful for reference later. Include within the handout, a list of any reference books used to prepare for the seminar. This helps the audience to read or followup on the same topic later. Listen to your voice The speaker should listen to his seminar using a Dictaphone( or tape recorder) and play it back. It is possible to immediately detect the parts of the seminar that could be corrected or which don't sound right. If the seminar sounds interesting to the speaker, chances are that others would also feel so. During the seminar Once the seminar is prepared, relax!! Most of the work is done. List out your seminar itinerary The speaker should make sure that the audience knows how long this is going to take. Give a brief idea on the important aspects of your speech so that the audience is aware where they are during the seminar. Then start with an introduction. Many people fail to give out a decent introduction before they delve into the subject, perhaps because they want to be quickly done with the main parts. An introduction helps bring people into sync with the subject. The speaker can also emphasize the benefit the audience will get by hearing the seminar out. It would be something like this "The topic I am going to speak today is about xxxxxx and through this I hope you will be able to gain yyyyyy." Style of speaking The speaker's voice should reach everyone, especially if it is a large audience and if there is no adequate sound system. Not able to clearly hear is probably the first way to lose interest. Similarly the seating should be such where everyone can easily see the speaker and the presentation.

The speaker should be relaxed and should be able to casually bring out examples of as many points he is taking. Examples have the power to immediately make the audience understand the point and be in sync with the speaker. Speaker's attention has to be on the audience. The speaker can probably glance occasionally at the presentation, but remember to make eye contact as often as possible. The general thumb rule in a seminar is for the audience to understand the subject first before asking questions Interactions can be initiated after the seminar. But during the seminar the speaker is the one who has to be strictly speaking. While an interactive seminar may seem livelier for the speaker, in fact it is lively only for the speaker and for the person who is asking questions. Others immediately lose interest. So in the interest of the larger audience, the speaker has to make sure he does not lose grip over the audience even for a minute. That means avoiding asking audiences questions during the seminar or encouraging discussions during the seminar. So how do people ask questions? They should do it after the seminar during a Question answer session. Any questions they have during the seminar should be written down by the audience and asked after the seminar. The speaker could make these rules clear to the audience prior to starting with the seminar. After the seminar After the seminar is over, there could be a question answer session where audience can ask questions. As the audience is more aware of the subject now and not burdened with their own questions, they can easily understand the replies to other questions. Now the speaker could try to get feedback from the audience about your seminar. Of course this applies only if the seminar is conducted within a company or among people who will come back for more seminars. The speaker should try to understand if the subject was interesting to the audience and in particular "useful" to them or their department. This way it is possible to understand whether to continue to build on the details of the same or similar subjects in your next seminar. In Poornam's Development department, we conduct feedback sessions after every seminar to know whether the topic is useful for further implementation within the department. This way we were able to include JAD (Joint Application Development) and Inspection Review methods to our processes. The seminar became an extremely useful method to increase the knowledge level of staff and to improve our processes also. If the feedback session wasn't there, probably people would have forgotten about the seminar and its uses to the department. Remember the speaker is a powerhouse of information on the topic and that knowledge should not go waste if it is useful to the organization.

Conclusion
Finally ensure that seminars are always are conducted in an organization. Besides drastically improving knowledge levels, it brings about an understanding of the immensity of the vast unknowns in our profession or for that matter any profession. This in turn eradicates complacency. Another surprising benefit of conducting seminars within organizations is the increased confidence levels found in the speakers. Generally once a speaker has conducted a seminar, he rarely stops conducting seminars and goes on to become good enough to speak outside the company to a more general audience. As complacency is eradicated, a renewed interest in learning is developed and most speakers turn to writing articles and reading more books. Most importantly, the fresh inflow of new ideas enters the organization as many of these ideas are implemented. The audience which listens to the seminar already know much of what is spoken and are ready to accept changes brought about by the new systems introduced as a result of the new ideas introduced by the speaker. All in all, seminars benefit the organization, the audience and most importantly the speaker.

How to Conduct a Seminar

Three Criteria For Seminar Attendees It amazes me that big insurance companies and securities firms will go to great expense to create ineffective seminar programs to help their reps obtain new clients. Anyone can be effective at conducting a seminar with simple observation of human behavior and measuring what works. Large financial institutions have a great focus on the presentation, the appearance of the slides, the handout materials and all other aspects of what will occur in the seminar room. NONE OF THIS MATTERS--THIS IS NOT HOW TO CONDUCT A SEMINAR THAT MAKES MONEY. The presentation and the handout materials are irrelevant if the seminar room is empty. Filling up the room with qualified candidates must be the absolute priority focus of any successful seminar program. So if you've wasted money on fancy looking seminar slides only to have a dismal failure, know that there is hope when learn how to conduct a seminar correctly and put all of your attention on attendance. Filling up the room is a function of two main factors: * Invite the RIGHT audience * Construct an invitation that is EMOTIONALLY compelling

If you want to conduct a seminar that's profitable, you need to select an audience that will come to a seminar. Note that some target markets will not attend a seminar so you cannot prospect everyone with seminars. For example, if your market is baby boomers, forget public seminars. Successful baby boomers are largely two-income professional couples working 10 hours a day, traveling coast to coast for their job, shuttling their kids to and from ballet, piano and soccer and trying to keep their marriage together. You think they will come to your seminar "How to Plan for a Secure Retirement?" No way--this is not the audience you want to conduct a seminar that produces profit. You've selected the wrong audience who has no time to attend seminars and is not sufficiently motivated. (And why do you want to prospect these people anywayisnt most of their investable wealth locked up in 401k or stock options or their home?) The right seminar audience has these features: * They have the time to attend your seminar * They have some EMOTIONALLY compelling issues that you can address * They have access to their money To conduct a successful seminar, the two groups of immediate fit are seniors and business owners. Seniors have plenty of time and they are EMOTIONALLY compelled to protect their money. Business owners have the timeONLY AT LUNCH, and they are EMOTIONALLY compelled by a number of factors such as keeping their business alive, paying less taxes and having more time with their families. So the first lesson in how to conduct a seminar is inviting the right people! This means you won't make it work if you want to do a "product" seminar or talk about managed money, stocks, annuities, etc. You will fail because you are focusing on the thing you want to sell, rather than a specific, homogeneous, identifiable target market. So concentrate on who you want as new clients, not on what you want to sell. Let's discuss the second critical factor necessary to conduct a seminar that works an emotionally compelling invitation. For our example, let's continue with the title above "How to Plan for a Secure Retirement." This is a boring, unspecific, non-emotionally compelling title. Let's say the same thing in a way that will move people to learn about becoming better savers and investors: * "Avoid the Two Reasons Why 95% of People Must Cut Their Living Standard When They Retire" or * " Why Your Neighbor's Children Can Afford to Attend Harvard and Your Children Can't" * "Study Says People Between 35 and 50 will Never Be Able To Retire-Except for These 10%"

Do you see that by using powerful, emotional language, you can take the same idea and form it into a title that hits between the eyes? Below the title, your invitation should have six EMOTIONALLY compelling sub-titles (bullet points). You're beginning to see that the "how to's" of conducting a successful seminar happen BEFORE the seminar and it's all in the marketing. The third item regarding your target market is that they must have access to money. Retirees do. They have rolled over their retirement plans into a self-directed IRA. Business owners dothey control the investments in their retirement plans as well as their non-qualified assets. Before choosing any market for seminar marketing, make sure they meet the three criteria listed above.

Financial Seminar Marketing

Seminar Articles Prospecting With Seminars-Still a Winning Formula If youve developed the opinion that seminars dont work for building your business, read this article. Seminars dont work when they are done incorrectly. Make a few changes, and you can have 70 people, every month, attend to hear your wisdom. Over the next few weeks, I will discuss a separate seminar tip in each edition. The combined use of these tips will successfully fill up the seminar room and fill your calendar with appointments. The first issue is matching your message to the market. Its a simple idea that many professionals skip over, assuming they know the audience. For example, lets assume you want to market a seminar to people age 60 and over. To develop a winning invitation, you need to know how these people think. You cannot assume that your market thinks like you do. If youre 40 years old, you probably want to know about opportunities to make money. But people over 60 (in most cases) are not motivated to make more money. They care about preserving capital. Their biggest concern is fear of losing principal (their hot button). So is it any wonder that your opportunity-oriented seminar titled, How to Maximize Profits with the Right Mutual Funds, doesnt get much of a response? You could triple your attendance with the right title, such as Six Ways Retirees Ruin Their Finances. This title appeals directly to their fear and will pull in the attendance (I have very successfully tested this title over a dozen times). Whichever target market you choose, you really need to know their most significant emotional concern. If you can title a seminar addressing that concern, youre halfway home. If youre not sure, dont make assumptions. For example, do business be an easy assumption to free time with the kids? cannot be very effective owners care most about more profit (which would make)? Or is their greatest concern having more Until you really know the answer, your marketing because you dont know your markets hot button.

To learn what motivates your market, you need to speak with several members of your audience, one to one. If you find several hot buttons, I will tell you how to use them all next month.

Financial Seminar Marketing

Seminar Articles part 2 Prospecting With SeminarsHow to Fill Up the Seminar Room Every Time Second in a series Want to construct a winning seminar invitation? I have discovered (after 13 years of experiments and $150,000) that a winning seminar invitation one that fills the room with qualified attendees, has three components: * An emotionally grabbing title * Emotionally compelling specific bullet points * Biography of a speaker that attendees want to hear Lets discuss item two, bullet points. While a strong title will capture your readers attention, the bullet points sell your prospect on attending the seminar. The more compelling your bullet points, the larger your audience. Although your invitation will be to attract retail clients, heres an example of some bullet points aimed at financial planners: Title: Open 15 New Accounts Every Month Bullets: * How I Built a $50 Million Book Doing One Seminar a Month * Secrets of Making Your Seminars Consistently Profitable * Pack the Seminar Room Every Time * See More Prospects Face to Face in 90 Minutes than You Can Qualify by Phone in a Month * Know The 6 Critical Factors of Seminar Success * The Error on Your Invitation Which Cuts Attendance in HALF! * One Small Change to Any Invitation Which Boosts Attendance by 25% ! * Seminar Topics to Never Discuss (if you want to close business) * Where to Find The Most Qualified Prospects for the Best Mailing List * How to Avoid the Error in Mailing Which Gets 50% of Your Invitations Tossed In The Trash, Unopened! * How to Close Appointments Right At the Seminar Rather Than Beg for Them on the Phone the Next Day * How to Pack 50-60 People in the Room Every Month Even in Areas Where "Every Broker is Doing Seminars" Its the bullet points that make you want to know more, to take action and attend the seminar. When you can do the same on your seminar invitations for your prospects, you will have a full audience. Each bullet point captures a sub-group. While all of your prospects should be from a qualified list (more about that in a future article), there are groups within the list with distinct concerns.

For example, I deal with financial planners who get good seminar attendance, but do not close appointments. They would respond to the above bullet point, How to close appointments right at the seminar. Another sub group might be planners who get plenty of appointments, but do not have sufficient attendance. They will respond most to the bullet point, One small change in the invitation that boosts attendance by 25%. Therefore, the more relevant bullet points you have, the more sub groups you will capture, the larger your seminar attendance. In fact, if I send 3,000 invitations for an investor seminar, I have calculated that each bullet point is responsible for six buying units in attendance. How can you learn to write bullet points like this? It will take some study, but some excellent references are: The Ultimate Sales Letter - by Dan Kennedy and Words That Bring You Riches - by Ted Nicholas Financial Seminar Marketing Seminar Articles part 3 Prospecting With SeminarsHow to Fill Up the Seminar Room Every Time Third in a series In the previous two articles, I discussed selecting the right market and developing a winning seminar invitation for the selected market. We are now 70% of the way to filling up the room with qualified attendees. We still need to address invitation delivery. There are three ways you can invite people to a seminar: using callers, using direct mail and using newspaper advertising. Here are the pros and cons of each: Using callers consumes a lot of your time in hiring, training and firing. You will also need some office space and additional phones. For each hour of calling, you can expect callers to obtain one attendee that will actually show up (three prospects will say they will attend, but your fallout rate will be 50% to 70%). I paid callers $5 per hour plus $5 per buying unit who attended. The best aspect of using callers is the low cost, the worst aspect is the time you must commit to managing them. Newspaper advertising is far too expensive and ineffective in most metropolitan areas. I have never gotten a good return from newspaper ads. Inserts however (the newspaper will insert your flyer into the fold of the newspaper) are inexpensive and effective. Additionally, you can focus your insert distribution on selected zip codes. For every 10,000 inserts, I obtain 18 buying units to attend my seminar. I spend a total of $500, which yields a cost per attendee of $27. The negative aspect of inserts is that you may have unqualified attendees since you cannot pre-qualify the attendees by other than zip code.

Direct mail is by far the most effective method to use in metropolitan areas. The cost per attendee is the highest, but the quality of the attendees is the highest and the seminar produces more business and the greatest profits. By sending 3,000 invitations to a highly-targeted audience, I typically obtain 35 buying units in attendancea cost of $35 per buying unit. I highly recommend using this more expensive method because it produces the best end-resultsmore qualified, new clients that have money to invest. The above discussion provides a brief review of the major tradeoffs among invitation methods. There are other tradeoffs and issues to consider if you practice in a less populated or rural area. Financial Seminar Marketing Seminar Articles part 4 Prospecting with SeminarsHow to Fill up the Seminar Room Every Time Fourth in a series As a stockbroker, I gathered $50 million of assets in less than five years by doing one seminar a month. Any insurance agent, financial planner or investment advisor can have similar success with seminars. The biggest hurdle for most professionals is filling the room with attendees and my last three articles have covered the issues of writing a compelling invitation and how to best use it (telemarketing, advertising or direct mail). Today, I will cover two additional issuesthe time and location of the seminar. These two variables can have a major impact on attendance. My expertise is in prospecting the senior market (age 60+ retirees). If you apply the following concepts to your market, you will also select the optimal time and location. Seniors (retirees) generally rise early in the morning and schedule golf, tennis, shopping, doctor appointments, dentist appointments, and meetings with the accountant or attorney on weekday mornings. Therefore, I never hold a seminar on a weekday morning because I would be competing with a lot of other activity in my prospects schedule. My seminars are scheduled either for Saturday mornings or weekday afternoons at 3:30 p.m. I also never schedule evening seminars because some seniors tell me that they are reluctant to drive at night as they notice their night vision is not as good. Additionally, single females have a safety concern, making them reluctant to venture out at night. By simply observing my target markets activity pattern, I am able to select the best possible seminar times to maximize attendance. Do you really know the scheduling patterns of your target market? I select a seminar location that is well-known, convenient and in neutral territory. Some financial professionals attempt to hold seminars in their office buildings. Bad idea. This is not neutral territory and some prospective attendees will not come for fear of being trapped in a highpressure sales situation. Think about buying a carwhose turf are you on is it comfortable for you?

Therefore, never use your office as a seminar location. Rather, use a local restaurant that has existed for 20+ yearsa place which everyone in town knows and likes. Its familiar, neutral and well-located. You do not need to feed your audience just because you use a restaurant for your location. Many restaurants are happy to rent an extra room or even open for your seminar at a time when they are normally closed. What about hotels? They are perceived by some prospects as a place for transients and may associate you with the snake-oil salesman who is here today, gone tomorrow. Additionally, some hotels place their conference rooms in a location requiring your prospect to negotiate a maze of hallways. Do you want your prospect to enter your seminar frustrated? A country club location can send the wrong signal. Some people could feel intimidated that the seminar must be for upper class people or some may even misinterpret that the seminar is for club members or golfers. Financial Seminar Marketing Seminar Articles part 5 SeminarsThe Big Difference in Effectiveness Between the Single-session and Multi-Session Models My main prospecting tool has always been seminars. I pack 65 people in a room and raise $1 million per seminar. What could be easier? Over the years I have experimented with the single-session seminar (a 90minute presentation at which I solicit appointments right at the seminar) and the multi-session class style seminar (four-sessions over 4 weeks for 2 hours each). The people who market these multi-session seminar systems explain that the more times you have contact with the prospect, the higher your appointment ratio. Therefore, they contend, you will open more new accounts. While this is true, it ignores the quality issues: * Is the extra presentation time of a multi-session seminar (10 hours vs. 90 minutes) worth the higher appointment and new account ratio? * Is the quality of attendee the same? * Which system brings more qualified appointments and larger new accounts? Having used both systems, I prefer the single-session seminar for these reasons: * I get better quality attendees. I have many people attend my one session seminar with net worth of $1 million to $5 million. These wealthier and often busier people, will not sign up for a multi-session seminar spanning 4 weeks. *

I get more sophisticated attendees. I personally do not want prospects who have little investment experience. I want seasoned clients because they can distinguish between good advice and the run of the mill advice. These people make better clients because they have a better understanding of the game. They do not call every time the market drops. Additionally, I noticed that the information packaged into the multisession systems is basic or introductory. The more experienced, sophisticated investor is not interested in how a mutual fund works. They already know that. * I get more attendance. Many people are busy and will not commit to a four-session class. But I can attract many of these people to a short 90minute, one-time presentation. Therefore, I have more attendees at the one session seminar. * I can do a single-session seminar every week if I desire, but a four-session seminar lasts the entire month. Therefore, the single session model allows me to meet more people during the same time span. Bottom line: I get 23 appointments from the 35 households in attendance with a single-session seminar (65% appointment ratio) as opposed to 18 appointments from 20 households at a multi-session seminar (90% appointment ratio). Therefore, I am getting more appointments from the single- session seminar because I have higher attendance. Additionally, the attendee quality is far higher at the single-session seminar. The people invited to the single-session seminar meet a qualification that they have at least $100,000 to invest. The multi-session seminar, often offered and advertised through an adult school or community college, is open to the public, and the attendee may not be very qualified. Many of these attendees want to know what to do with their $30,000 portfolio.

My seminar experience has taught me this: A single-session seminar requests a short time commitment from the attendees. As a result, you can attract better qualified attendees and more attendees resulting in more assets gathered and larger new accounts. Financial Presentation Seminar Article part 6 Your Financial Seminar Presentation Product or Concept You have two basic choices when giving a seminar presentation it can be focused around product or concept. At the risk of over-simplifying, product seminar presentations work best with a lower-end audience, and concept seminar presentations work best with a high-end audience. I will

arbitrarily define lower-end as people with investment portfolios less than 5200,000 and higher-end as those with more than $500,000. To be even more simplistic, we can label these two groups inexperienced and experienced. Lets look at some examples of various financial presentations. If you want to sell annuities, you can successfully use a seminar presentation to a lower-end audience who will make investments in the $10,000 to $40,000 range. These people have a product orientation, are not looking for an advisor and just want a good investment. To such a group, you can present at them for 90 minutes about product features and provide a financial presentation about simple concepts like tax deferral, risk vs. reward and compounding. So if you look to make product sales, this approach will work. If you seek to develop a high-end audience who puts money under management, is willing to pay you a fee and is looking to bond with an advisor, you cannot give financial product presentations. Such prospects will leave the financial seminar with little or no respect for you because in most cases: * They already understand the basic features of many investments and insurance products * They do not want to be sold a product * They understand basic concepts such as tax deferral and will feel that you are junior league To this group, you must have a concept seminar presentation, ideas such as asset allocation, estate planning, providing for grandchildren, six ways to reduce income taxes, socially conscious investing, using debt to create wealth, ways to dispose of real estate without tax, etc. All of these financial concepts can lead to lucrative relationships where you may indeed sell products or services. But the product will be the tool to implement the concept. The product must be subordinate to the concept. If your seminar results have not been as expected , do you deliver the right message to the wrong market (i.e. a financial presentation on products rather than concepts)? Your Post Seminar Appointment Turning Seminar Attendees Into Post Seminar Appointments--what to do at the first appointment In the other articles, I have covered how to fill up the seminar room and how to set appointments right at the seminar. If you follow the plan, you have 10-20 appointments with qualified prospects. What should you do at the first appointment? To the appointment, get every prospect to bring a copy of their tax return and their list of investments. Tell them to bring these items at the close

of the seminar and you will get 100% compliance. The structure of your first post-seminar appointment is as follows: * * * * * First 10 minutesshmoozing, smiling, rapport building How long have you lived in the area? Do your children live nearby? You have great tans, are you golfers? Next, get down to business.

Give you a brief explanation of what you do (proceed to explain your services in 60 secondsno jargon, explain benefits). Say this early in your post seminar appointment: So that I make sure we cover any questions or concerns you have in our hour together, let me jot them down so we wont forget. Most every prospect has two or three items they want to discuss because you told them at the seminar to jot down their questions or concerns. Its amazing what people will do when you instruct them. Then proceed in your post seminar appointment with fact-finding. Ask questions so that you can put together an income statement and balance sheet right on the yellow pad in front of you. Folks, tell me about your sources of income. * * * * * Are you receiving any pensions? Social Security? Rents? Interest/Dividends? Etc.

Now lets take a look at your investments," (they have brought in their statements or their balance sheet). As you look these over you make some unsettling comments, if appropriate, about their investments. "Do you know what youre really earning on these investments?

How long have you had them? Do you know, off hand, your original investment?" (this will often be on their statement on in the records they brought to our meeting) "How did you come to own these investments?" (the prospect reveals their un-systematic method of investing). "Okay. Let me give you some helpful feedback. You had two concerns that you mentioned in the beginning. Now that I know more about your circumstances, I can tell you this" ( proceed to provide some useful, but unspecific direction or advice). "We can get together

some specific recommendations regarding those issues (e.g. a long term care quotation, analysis of an annuity, review of their trust, etc). With those specific recommendations, you will have precise answers to your questions. Additionally, I would like to print you reports on each of your investments so that you can really see whats going on. Some of these are fine, but some of these quite frankly, are clunkers. (The prospect always agrees saying something like, we know we should have sold some of these but...). Folks, let me propose this. Lets schedule a time to meet next week (same day and time). I want to put together some answers to your questions and lets review the reports I will get on each of your investments (subscribe to Value Line and Morningstar on CD-ROM which gives you the reports you need). This is not a lot of work, but will take me three hours. My normal rate is $150 per hour, so if you think that $450 would be reasonable to isolate which investments you should sell and what you should do about (their two issues), then lets meet next week. If they say they want to think about it, thats great! Because learned NOT to waste your time with these people. If $450 is a proceeding, then goodbye! Ninety percent of the people want to and will ask you, should we pay you now? These are the types you want. you just barrier to meet again of clients

If you are in a situation where you cannot charge fees (i.e. not a Registered Investment Advisor or IAR), it is more difficult to test a prospects seriousness. All you can do is ask, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, when we meet next week, if my recommendations make sense to you and you see that there are ways for you to do better financially, will there be anything that would stop us from doing business together? I dont like to ask this question as I find it presumptuous, but its better than spending three hours putting materials together and then finding out his brother works at Merrill Lynch! Use the first post seminar appointment to fact-find. Be clear that the objective of the first appointment is to schedule a second appointment (assuming you want to work with the prospect). Do not try and close business at the first appointment. This system will result in larger accounts and doing more comprehensive business with new clients. Financial Seminar Marketing Seminar Articles Part 7 Turning Seminar Attendees Into Clients In the previous articles, I have covered how to fill up the seminar room and how to close appointments right at the seminar. (see previous articles listed at seminar articles on marketing and appointment setting). If you follow the plan, you have 20 appointments with qualified prospects. In the last article, I explained what I do on the first appointment. Today, I discuss the second appointment, the closing appointment.

With seniors, do not try and close at the first appointment, unless they ask for a specific product or solution and they are seeking to be closed. In my practice, that occasionally occurs, but I always seek to make the second appointment. It gives me time to make a compelling presentation and close for ALL of their money, not just some of it. At the second appointment, I will typically do the following: regarding their mutual funds, I print out a one-page Morningstar report for each of their funds. I will point out under-performance, excessive fees, duplication of holdings, inappropriate categories or other problems I see with their funds. This hard evidence is usually sufficient to close the business and move the client funds under my management. Of course, if you do not want to sell performance, then develop your own hard evidence why you can do better for the prospect and put it on paper. As to stocks, I subscribe to the Value System on CD-ROM, which allows me to print a nice graph of each stock relative to the S&P performance over the past 10 years. The prospect can easily see which stocks have underperformed the market and we can isolate candidates for sale. Again, I am showing the prospect some hard evidence from an independent source. If you have been attempting to close with just a verbal explanation of your good ideas, you are losing sales. Put it on paper and show evidence for your recommendations. If we are looking to get long-term care insurance, I show the prospect a list of the 10 largest insurers in the U.S. and then I show them quotes from three of these on a small spreadsheet. I also show them policy rankings from Consumer Reports. It's easy to pick out the least-cost company and explain differences between the policies verbally. Most prospects will make their decision based on the Consumer Reports article and the cost. Having 3 companies side-by-side on one spreadsheet and the article makes closing the sale easy for me. Presenting this type of thirdparty hard evidence is a most convincing way to close business. Similarly, if the situation calls for life insurance or other estate planning issues or any other financial issues (e.g. exchanging an existing annuity), I will put some comparison on paper. I do not use any financial planning software as I have never found any program that caters to my clients, age 60 and over. So I use only an Excel spreadsheet and Word as my presentation software (along with Morningstar and Value Line reports as mentioned previously). Appointment Setting at Your Financial Seminar How to Set Appointments With 65% of Attendees Right At Your Seminar In prior articles, I have addressed filling up the seminar room. In those articles, I solve the most frequent problem of financial professionals, getting adequate seminar attendance. In this article, lets discuss appointment setting with your seminar attendees.

My specialty is in dealing with people age 60 and over (theyre the ones with money). In motivating this audience to set appointments, you need to understand their emotional hot buttons and you also need to remove their potential objections. I use this general outline at the close of the seminar as the crux of my appointment setting process: I announce that I need a small favor from them. I need them to complete the evaluation form they received at the beginning of the seminar (and without taking a breath) and that the evaluation form is also their lottery ticket today. Lets face it, most people could care less about filling out evaluation forms, so I give them a reason to do so. They can win something by completing and returning the form. If your appointment setting process is to be successful, there's got to be a payoff for the attendee to participate. My evaluation form gets them warmed up with some specific questions before I offer them the opportunity to set the appointment with me. I never ask for an appointment, rather, I give them the opportunity to request an appointment. This may seem like semantics, but this approach is far more powerful. With the right wording, you will be in the control position if they request the appointment of you, rather than you requesting (begging for) an appointment with them. As a result, people who request the appointment keep it. If you request the appointment of the attendee, you will have large fallout and many will not show up. (if you have this problem, get this CD on ending your appointment cancellations). To further solidify the appointment, the attendees select an appointment time and date right on the evaluation form! Why leave this open and try and nail it down the next day? Or worse, if you cant get the attendee on the phone the next day, your chance of ever having an appointment will fall precipitously. If you don't have a structured appointment setting process to secure a time and date right there, you're sunk. Attendees sign up for the appointment with me because I promise two things: 1. I will make no attempt to sell them anything at that appointment. 2. I will show them at least one significant financial mistake they are making and not even aware of. As a result, I ask for and get 100% of the appointments to bring in their list of investments and tax return. Do you think you could do business with someone who comes to your office with their list of investments and tax return and wants to hear what you have to say? This method of doing seminars and appointment setting right at the seminar is so successful, I cant imagine why any professional would ever make cold calls!

By the way, to end the seminar, I collect and shuffle up the evaluation forms and select a winner. The winner receives a free copy of my book, Retirement Investing! Using the techniques outlined in these articles, I get 10-20 new appointments every month, in my office with qualified prospects. How to Conduct a Seminar Three Criteria For Seminar Attendees It amazes me that big insurance companies and securities firms will go to great expense to create ineffective seminar programs to help their reps obtain new clients. Anyone can be effective at conducting a seminar with simple observation of human behavior and measuring what works. Large financial institutions have a great focus on the presentation, the appearance of the slides, the handout materials and all other aspects of what will occur in the seminar room. NONE OF THIS MATTERS--THIS IS NOT HOW TO CONDUCT A SEMINAR THAT MAKES MONEY. The presentation and the handout materials are irrelevant if the seminar room is empty. Filling up the room with qualified candidates must be the absolute priority focus of any successful seminar program. So if you've wasted money on fancy looking seminar slides only to have a dismal failure, know that there is hope when learn how to conduct a seminar correctly and put all of your attention on attendance. Filling up the room is a function of two main factors: * Invite the RIGHT audience * Construct an invitation that is EMOTIONALLY compelling If you want to conduct a seminar that's profitable, you need to select an audience that will come to a seminar. Note that some target markets will not attend a seminar so you cannot prospect everyone with seminars. For example, if your market is baby boomers, forget public seminars. Successful baby boomers are largely two-income professional couples working 10 hours a day, traveling coast to coast for their job, shuttling their kids to and from ballet, piano and soccer and trying to keep their marriage together. You think they will come to your seminar "How to Plan for a Secure Retirement?" No way--this is not the audience you want to conduct a seminar that produces profit. You've selected the wrong audience who has no time to attend seminars and is not sufficiently motivated. (And why do you want to prospect these people anywayisnt most of their investable wealth locked up in 401k or stock options or their home?) The right seminar audience has these features: * They have the time to attend your seminar * They have some EMOTIONALLY compelling issues that you can address * They have access to their money

To conduct a successful seminar, the two groups of immediate fit are seniors and business owners. Seniors have plenty of time and they are EMOTIONALLY compelled to protect their money. Business owners have the timeONLY AT LUNCH, and they are EMOTIONALLY compelled by a number of factors such as keeping their business alive, paying less taxes and having more time with their families. So the first lesson in how to conduct a seminar is invite the right people! This means you won't make it work if you want to do a "product" seminar or talk about managed money, stocks, annuities, etc. You will fail because you are focusing on the thing you want to sell, rather than a specific, homogeneous, identifiable target market. So concentrate on who you want as new clients, not on what you want to sell. Let's discuss the second critical factor necessary to conduct a seminar that works an emotionally compelling invitation. For our example, let's continue with the title above "How to Plan for a Secure Retirement." This is a boring, unspecific, non-emotionally compelling title. Let's say the same thing in a way that will move people to learn about becoming better savers and investors: * "Avoid the Two Reasons Why 95% of People Must Cut Their Living Standard When They Retire" or * " Why Your Neighbor's Children Can Afford to Attend Harvard and Your Children Can't" * "Study Says People Between 35 and 50 will Never Be Able To Retire-Except for These 10%" Do you see that by using powerful, emotional language, you can take the same idea and form it into a title that hits between the eyes? Below the title, your invitation should have six EMOTIONALLY compelling sub-titles (bullet points). You're beginning to see that the "how to's" of conducting a successful seminar happen BEFORE the seminar and it's all in the marketing. The third item regarding your target market is that they must have access to money. Retirees do. They have rolled over their retirement plans into a self-directed IRA. Business owners dothey control the investments in their retirement plans as well as their non-qualified assets. Before choosing any market for seminar marketing, make sure they meet the three criteria listed above.

Financial Seminar Marketing Seminar Articles part 8 Prospecting With Seminars-Still a Winning Formula If youve developed the opinion that seminars dont work for building your business, read this article. Seminars dont work when they are done incorrectly. Make a few changes, and you can have 70 people, every month, attend to hear your wisdom. Over the next few weeks, I will discuss a separate seminar tip in each edition. The combined use of these tips will successfully fill up the seminar room and fill your calendar with appointments. The first issue is matching your message to the market. Its a simple idea that many professionals skip over, assuming they know the audience. For example, lets assume you want to market a seminar to people age 60 and over. To develop a winning invitation, you need to know how these people think. You cannot assume that your market thinks like you do. If youre 40 years old, you probably want to know about opportunities to make money. But people over 60 (in most cases) are not motivated to make more money. They care about preserving capital. Their biggest concern is fear of losing principal (their hot button). So is it any wonder that your opportunity-oriented seminar titled, How to Maximize Profits with the Right Mutual Funds, doesnt get much of a response? You could triple your attendance with the right title, such as Six Ways Retirees Ruin Their Finances. This title appeals directly to their fear and will pull in the attendance (I have very successfully tested this title over a dozen times). Whichever target market you choose, you really need to know their most significant emotional concern. If you can title a seminar addressing that concern, youre halfway home. If youre not sure, dont make assumptions. For example, do business owners care most about more profit (which would be an easy assumption to make)? Or is their greatest concern having more free time with the kids? Until you really know the answer, your marketing cannot be very effective because you dont know your markets hot button. To learn what motivates your market, you need to speak with several members of your audience, one to one. If you find several hot buttons, I will tell you how to use them all next month.

How to Organize a Seminar

Seminar Logistics When you organize a seminar, these are the issues to attack in order of priority. Make a seminar organization timeline working back from your seminar date so that everything is done on time. What do you want to happene.g. do you want to get 15 appointments from those that attend? If so, assume that you will get appointments with 1/2 of the attendees so you will need 30 buying units in attendance to get 15 appointments. Assume a 1% response to your invitation (if to the public) so you will need to send 3,000 invitations if using direct mail. When you organize a seminar, the economic results are your first priority. At the end of the seminar, what incentive will you give people to meet with you? Also, what will you say to remove their hesitancy (i.e. fear of being sold)? Seminar organization most be designed around how you convert the attendees to appointments (and ultimately clients). Who do you want to attend? This dictates the list that you rent when you organize a seminar. What will the seminar invitation say when you organize a seminar? How will you write the compelling copy? Will you do it yourself or hire a copywriter? If printed, what is the size, format, type of paper and color? (Note that the copy on the invitation is 5x as important as the graphics). Will you use direct mail invitations, newspaper inserts, newspaper advertisements or telemarketers? How far in advance of the seminar will you extend the invitation to optimize the response when you organize your seminar? What day and time will you have the seminar and at what location?

What will you do to entertain the seminar attendees during the presentation so that they have a good time? This is overlooked when most seminars are organized because seminar presenters mistakenly think that they are there to convey information and thereby gain credibility and have attendees think they are knowledgeable. However, attendees will more readily set appointments with people they like than people who are knowledgeable. What information will you present at the seminar? Will you talk extemporaneously or will you use any audio/visual aids such as PowerPoint, overheads or a flip chart? Although the actual content is the least important item when you organize a seminar, many seminar organizers put it first. But the content is least important, because if you don't fill the room with the right people and have an air-tight mechanism to close appointments, then it doesn't matter what you present to an empty room or to a crowd that does not set appointments.

Seminar Marketing Q & A

Financial Advisor Seminar Marketing Where can I get a good seminar attendee list? You need to first know exactly who you want to invite. At the library, find the Standard Research and Data Service (SRDS). It's a catalog of every list you can rent. For simple age and demographic lists both CIS and Americalist are high quality. These are the lists we use for our seminar systems. What's the best way to invite people to a seminar, to market your seminars? Direct mail allows you to target exactly the audience you desire. Also, direct mail produces a higher quality seminar attendee than telemarketing or newspaper ads If my attendance is low, how can I fix that? Most of the time, low attendance results from a non-compelling invitation, i.e. poor seminar marketing. Your invitation must be emotionally compelling. For example, this seminar title will bomb: "Investment Opportunities for 2003." This title has a good chance of succeeding: "How to Avoid the Three Biggest Threats to Your Estatefor Owners of Apartment Buildings." This seminar title is focused on a narrow audience (so when people get the invitation they say "this is for me!") and people are much more motivated to avoid threats (avoid fear) than they are to pursue opportunities (a logical, rather than emotional motivator). You can learn to write better invitations by studying books such as The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy, Magic Words That Bring you Riches by Ted Nicholas, Cash Copy by Jeffery Lant. If you want to excel at seminar marketing, you must learn copy writing or hire someone that has expertise. My attendance is good, but I don't get many appointments. Why is this happening? You maximize your appointments in these ways: 1. Get people to like you 2. Show them that you have their interest as a priority and that other advisors (and their current advisor) does not 3. Understand that your job at a seminar is NOT to educate people. They may get educated as a by-product, but educating people WILL NOT get you

appointments. You get people to like you by telling stories, telling jokes (if you like to), smiling, answering questions succinctly and clearly, becoming a good speaker (join your local Toastmasters Club), being polite, and making friends as attendees arrive. Like them and they will like you. You show your superiority and the fact that you are on the side of the investor by introducing each topic with a phrase like: "I think most advisors don't explain this very well, and maybe on purpose" "As you know from reading the newspapers, Wall Street does not have your best interest in mind. Here's what they seem to leave out when selling you mutual funds" "I think that most investors never get the following explained to them by their advisors.." Your entire seminar marketing effort will be for naught if all you do is stand in front of a room, present some good ideas on slides and recite your memorized script. People are not interested in hiring robots. My attendance is good, but the quality of attendees is not. You need to set your income or net worth criteria on your mailing list higher. If you are using ads or flyers, you must insert a criterion in your ad or flyer like "For investors with investment portfolios of $500,000 or more." I get a fair number of appointments, but almost no new business Your sales skills or sales process needs work. Either take the Dale Carnegie sales course, the Sandler Institute sales course. Why bother to market seminars if your selling skills are not top notch? My attendance used to be good but has declined. Why? The interest and "hot buttons" of your market change, and if you keep sending the same old invitation, it stops working. You must listen closely to your prospects to find out their current "hot buttons" and change the topics or approach of your invitation. One key to successful seminar marketing is to survey your prospects--send a survey or do a focus group or call them on the phone and ask what financial concerns they have. DON'T GUESS. What's the best location? A restaurant is best even if you are not serving food. Plenty of restaurants will rent a room to you or rent a room with coffee only. What's the best time of day and the best day? That depends on your audience. For business owners, it's lunchtime or breakfast Tuesday through Thursday. For seniors, it's during daylight hours and varies based on the area of the country. What's the best way to keep in touch with people after the seminar? Send a monthly newsletter. Any less frequently than monthly is a waste of money as people are too busy to remember you after 90 days. The newsletter must have your picture and be sent monthly. For a newsletter that gets people age 55+ to contact you, see http://www.javelinmarketing.com/newsletter How can I avoid cancellations of post-seminar appointments?

Many advisors have this problem. We recently did a presentation on this topic attended by over 300 advisors. The one-hour presentation with accompanying PowerPoint can still be obtained here. Financial Seminar PowerPoint Presentation The Science of Winning Seminars In this hour-long multimedia presentation, Larry Klein walks you through the most important aspects of successful seminar presentations. Recommended for high-speed internet connections and Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher. Note that while it's not essential to use PowerPoint, unless you are a polished speaker, you want audio-visual assistance. Using overheads or a flip chart looks cheap and unprofessional. DO NOT use PowerPoint to put a bunch of words on each slideuse the slides for charts, tables graphics and illustrations. If you only have a few such illustrations, then only have a few slides. You can have 6 slides or 36 slides for a 75-minute presentation; do not get hung up on the number of PowerPoint slides you have. Likewise, keep flashy transitions and un-needed effects out of your presentation to avoid looking "gimmicky."

Seminar Logistics
Seminar Location seminar location "I have used Javelin Marketing seminar invitation service for several years and have found them highly efficient as well as effective. In my experience, they are actually less expensive, with a better invitation than local and large mail houses and their mailing lists are always up to date. I would recommend anyone to use their services." Matt F., Reno, NV To fill up the room, youve got to make it easy for prospects to attend which means the time of day, the seminar location and the distance that they have to travel have to be convenient for them. In other words, your seminar logistics must fit your prospects. Let's first consider seminar location and distance. Distance is the perceived distance. In a major metropolitan areas, people will generally not drive more than 20 minutes to come to a seminar. Twenty minutes in a big city could be three miles just because of the traffic. So you have to think about not what the actual distance is but how is it perceived. Thats really the big issue when selecting the seminar location and planning your seminar logistics. I have people that live 12 minutes away from me by car down a major interstate freeway. However, those people that are 12 minutes away are on the other side of the tunnel and they are in the next county. And even though they are only 12 minutes away, I can never get them to a seminar in my county, because in their mind, it seems far away. So perceived distance is the issue when selecting seminar location.

How far people will actually drive and consider it to be close or far is a local issue. If you are out in the country, in a rural area, and people drive 30 minutes to go to the supermarket, then you can probably invite them to a seminar location 30 to 40 minutes away and you will fill the room. Invite people in a metropolitan area to drive 30 or 40 minutes; forget it. Its never going to work. So you must know what people consider close and what people consider far when selecting your seminar location. Therefore, distance logistics are a function of your local area. Lets talk about types of seminar locations. If you come from the insurance business, you were probably taught to go sell life insurance policies at the kitchen table. The reason you were taught this is because the kitchen is the favorite room in the house. Its the favorite room in the house because the favorite activity of Americans is eating and thats where you do thatin the kitchen. So its a room they like. Plus, it has all these favorable connotationsits about holiday and family, all that warm, fuzzy American lifestyle stuff happens in the kitchen. So its a really good place for people to generally feel good. Whats the closest seminar location you can use outside of their house that looks like their kitchen? Its a restaurant, because food is served there. Hopefully, you pick a restaurant that theyve been to before. So dont pick a new restaurant in town. Dont pick an obscure restaurant. For your seminar location, pick the restaurant thats on Main and Broadway, the one that's been there for 30 years. Why? Because people will more likely come to a place thats familiar than unfamiliarit's just human nature. When they look at your invitation, they say.wheres this at? Oh, it's over at the Cape Cod House...great!. Thats the reaction you want to get. If they have never heard of your seminar location, you run the risk of them not coming just because they havent heard of it, dont know where it is, and people dont want to make an effort. They dont want to look at a map. They dont want to find out. You may need to drive around some and look for the right seminar location. Optimally, it will be right in the middle of your prospecting area. If you cant think of a good seminar location, call the local Chamber of Commerce, tell them you are doing a seminar and ask them which restaurants or seminar locations they recommend. Be careful of seminar locations that are high-end or low-end. If people perceive the location is low-end, they can likely infer something about the seminar. For example, if you use a school or a library.an adult school, community collegesomething like that, then the richer guy thats an experienced investor will infer that the seminar is too basic. He's the guy that you want to come because hes got all that money but you can't even get him to walk in the door. He looks at the invitation, "Wheres this at?oh, its at the library. Theyre going to be talking about whatmutual funds 101? Ive invested in funds for 30 years, I won't learn anything there." So he assumes just from the seminar location that your conversation is so low-level theres nothing he can get out of it. Same thing with a high-end seminar location. You hold it at the country cluband the guy who gets your invitation is a retired plumber. Hes got a

$3 million net worth, but its all in CDs because he doesnt know about investing money. He gets your invitation. He thinks maybe I go to this and learn something about this. And then he seeswhere Its at the country club. I've got to get all dressed up. I cant coveralls there. You intimidate him with your seminar location so pick a location thats too high-end.

anything should is it? wear my dont

The person you are looking to attend is the Millionaire Next Door" as described in Tom Stanley's book. Hes approaching age 60 or hes a little over. He owns or has owned his own business. He has a $3.7 million net worth. Thats the guy. Then if you invite him to the country club, some of them are going to be intimidated and they just wont feel comfortable there and they wont come. Just as others will feel that the library is a "junior league" seminar location. A well-known restaurant is a neutral location that everybody will feel comfortable coming to. The next question isdo you serve food?

Seminar Logistics II
Time and Day seminar logistics "This was the second time I utilized your turnkey seminar invitation service and it was such a pleasure being able to save time by placing such an important aspect of the seminar process on autopilot! The entire process was elementary from start to finish, not to mention the price was right! I would highly recommend taking advantage of this application versus trying to reinvent the wheel. Thanks again for your support with my seminars!" Steve G., Tucson, AZ A successful seminar requires the right time and day for the attendees, just part of your seminar logistics considerations. Say you're inviting retireesyou have your seminar during the day. Why? Because retirees will tell you as they age, their night time vision fails first. So they try and avoid driving at night. So if you invite seniors at night, you are going to lose about 15 maybe 20 percent of your attendance because people try to avoid things that might harm them. Unless its really important, they will avoid it. You will never know that. Theyre not going to call you up and say I dont drive at night. They just wont show up. So its not like anybody ever tells you this. I guarantee you.pick 10 seniors and call them up and ask them hows your nighttime vision? "Oh, its getting worse every year" theyll tell you. The other thing about seniors is the majority of them are of a particular sex, which is female. And females, at any age and particularly in major cities, have a safety concern about going out at night. So you are going to lose even more people because you are using nighttime hours. So if you are inviting retirees and seniors, please invite them during the day. Daylight hours are when you are going to get your best attendance. Know your target market and get your seminar logistics correct regarding the right time to maximize attendance. Business owners' major constraint is that theyre busy. So you need to invite them during a time when they have allocated for this type of stuff or will take a break. So I said dont serve a mealthis is the exception. You dont need to serve breakfast or lunch to business owners. Meaning you

are using the food as bait. Its that if you dont use those times, they wont come. Those are the times that the average business owner says, "Sure Ill go to a talk. I stop for breakfast every morning anyway. So if I have breakfast at this place and listen to a talk fine," or "Yeah, I always try and meet with a client or take care of some personal business. So sureabsolutelywhy dont I go listen to this talk and Ill have breakfast at the same time?" So for them using breakfast or lunch is a time-saving mechanism, not you waving some advertisements at them or going in for an unsolicited sales pitch. When I did this with business owners, I gave them a sandwich buffet. So I started talking at 12:15 (it was slated to start at noon), they made their own sandwich and were ready to listen. So the point is, it wasnt like I was spending unnecessary amounts of money wooing these people with caviar and delicious lobster bisque. That wasnt the point of the food. The point of the food was that they needed to eat lunch, and all I was doing was facilitating their need for a good meal while giving my talk at the same time. I killed two birds with one stone and serving both party's wants in a non-threatening atmosphere. If you are prospecting a market other than seniors or business owners, youre going to have to find out whats the most convenient time for them, and whatever you do, dont assume. Thats the most dangerous thing you can do is assume. You have to call up 12 of them and ask them if you were going to a talk about finances, insurance or money.issues financialinvestment stuff. What time of day would be most convenient for you? You ask 12 people and if 8, 9, 10 of them say the same time, bingo now you know!. But thats the only way you can find out. Please dont guess at this.

Seminar Logistics III

Meals and Dinner Seminar Marketing dinner seminar marketing "I just want to say that I have been using your seminar and invitation system for nearly one year now. I have to tell you it is great, prompt and professional. I have not had any problems with them at at all, I am not easy to please and my assets under management have increased 300% with no end in sight. I also love the fact that NF Com protects the territory. I am building quite a nice practice with these seminar tools. I don't know what I would do without it. Don't stop Larry!!!" Jeff C., Salon, OH Just because you select a restaurant does not mean you need to provide the attendees with a meal or make it a dinner seminar. Many restaurants will rent you a room for $250. I use a local well-known restaurant on Saturday mornings. This restaurant is normally closed (its open for lunch and dinner), but they are happy to open for me and serve a continental breakfast (I dont consider this a full meal as no one will come just for the juice, muffin and coffee). Even though the restaurant is not making

money to accommodate me, its free advertising for them. I get the whole main dining room; they charge me $7.50 per person. You don't have to do dinner seminars, and you don't even have to serve a meal, but always serve some type of refreshments at minimum. Its your decision if you want to provide meals (a must if you are an NASD licensee, because your invitation cannot contain compelling language). Heres the argument in favor of serving meals and understanding why many advisors employ dinner seminar marketing: 1. You will get twice as many people to attend 2. The additional people that attend because of the dinner are eaters and not motivated to be there for the right reason 3. In the course of our presentation, some of the eaters may decide to meet with you and become a client. So, if you end up feeding 60 people dinner at $15 each, you have spent $900 on meals. Even if you invest $30 per dinner ($1800 total), if even one of those eaters becomes a client and you earn $5,000, then your dinner seminar investment was well worth it. Make sure that your seminar invitation is clear and says "dinner served" or "refreshments" if that's all you're providing. I provide a continental breakfast but NOT because it draws people. After all, who is going to get up, get dressed, and drive to the seminar for some juice, coffee, and sweet rolls? I provide the breakfast for my benefitit gets caffeine and sugar in their bloodstream and puts them in the perky mood that I want. The refreshments are a mood enhancernot a draw. When you use food to draw people you will attract eaters rather than buyers, but as explained above, this may be well worth it. Meal or not, ALWAYS have refreshments. Lets say you have a continental breakfast provided, or you decide to make it a dinner or lunch seminar. DO NOT use a buffet format. If you want attention from the audience, once you start talking NO ONE should be moving around. Make sure the waiters know NOT to enter the room once you start. Coffee, condiments and everything must already be on the table to avoid movement and noise. Talk while they eat dinner or lunch. It is not necessary to wait until they are done eating or have them wait to eat until youre done. By talking while they are eating, you make efficient use of their time and your time. And people are never in a better mood than when they are eating

Seminar Systems
What You Need to Know Most Seminar systems are not actually systems. They are merely a bunch of slides, which are the least important part of a seminar system. The most important part of a complete seminar system is the method to fill the

room. As the ministers say, "you can't save the souls in an empty church." So the first things to look for in a seminar system are the instructions and details on how we will get the room filled with the right people. Fill the room with your seminar system Most seminars system vendors solve this problem by telling you to feed people a meal. If you want to attract "eaters" rather than buyers, serving a meal makes sense. I have never done this and have been one of the most successful seminar producers in the country. The reason that most seminar system vendors tell you to serve a meal is because they don't know anything about marketing. The way to fill the room with the right people is to have a compelling seminar invitation (note: NASD licensees must serve a meal because they will not be permitted to use compelling language). A compelling invitation is always more important than serving food. Compelling means you appeal to people's emotions. To write a seminar invitation that appeals to people's emotions requires that you have studied the science of copy writing. Most seminar vendors have not taken the time to do this so they merely tell you to spend lots of money, feed people, and fill the room that way. Get Appointments at the seminar The next most important aspect of the seminar system is a process for gaining appointments at the seminar. You'll find most seminar systems weak in that regard. The seminar system will most likely include a little card to give the attendees and that card has a little check-off box for appointments. This check off box says something like, "yes I'd like to meet with you." This is a totally insufficient way to get appointments. Why? Because you will spend the next week chasing people to tie them down for a specific meeting time. This is not only a huge waste of your time but it puts you in the "one down" position. In other words, you are the "chaser" and you have the weak position in the relationship. You demean yourself and lose all professional standing. Do you know any doctors, lawyers or accountants that chase prospects for appointments? If the seminar system you are considering does not have a highly structured process to gain appointments, pass. Any worthwhile seminar system will show you how to: 1. Get appointments with firm dates and times right at the seminar. 2. Show you how to take away the attendees' fear and give them an incentive to set an appointment. 3. Show you how to conduct a presentation that is focused solely on maximizing the number of appointments. In closing appointments, you must take away people's fear and give them an incentive. The item that people fear is that they will be trapped in a high-pressure sales situation with you. So you must take away that fear. How do you do that? By telling them, "if you make an appointment to see me, I won't sell you anything, that's not what the appointment is for." Secondly you must give people an incentive, which means you must know what your audience considers a worthy incentive. In most cases, that incentive is not a thing (e.g. a software CD showing how to reduce your mortgage

payments). An incentive is also specific. You do not offer a "free financial review" because people dont know A) what that is, and B) dont know what the benefits are. It is too vague and does not compel them to act. You must provide an emotional incentive because people act emotionally, not logically. In my case, since I prospect seniors, I know that their greatest financial fear is making an irreversible financial mistake. So a huge incentive to seniors is to be shown what financial mistakes they are making that could be very costly. So I tell my seminar attendees if they come to see me, I promise to show them at least one financial mistake they are making that they are unaware of. This is a significant incentive to seniors to come for the appointment, as they fear making financial mistakes. This is a compelling emotional benefit for them. That incentive will of course be different for different niche markets. The presentation But the third part of any seminar system (and the least important) is the actual presentation. Many vendors think that pretty slides or good information make up a good presentation. This is false. You are not there to educate people. I always advise financial advisors that if you educate people, you will never earn more than a school teacher. Your only goal in your presentation is to have people want to make an appointment with you at the end of the seminar. I have found after 18 years' experience, that when employing a quality seminar system, you make attendees want to set an appointment in two ways: First, you have them like you. How do you do that? You entertain them. Look at who we pay the most in our society. We pay entertainers and sports figures the highest salaries. In other words, our culture values being entertained more than anything else. Therefore, if you want people to like you and value you, you entertain them. This is probably different advice than you've ever heard. How do you entertain attendees? Just like entertainers do. You have several choices: 1. You can tell jokes. If you are not a good joke teller then don't tell jokes. 2. You can tell stories. Tell stories from your clients, stories from your family or stories from your own experience. 3. You can play an instrument. You need to compose some simple songs and lyrics with financial topics. Maybe you can write a short song about taxes or investing in the stock market or purchasing insurance. When you play your guitar and sing your songs, people will love it. You endear them to you. 4. Do magic tricks. It's easy to learn half a dozen magic tricks that will illustrate the points you want to make in your seminar. Again, people will really appreciate the length you go to entertain them and make your points in a very clever way. 5. Compose poems. Make up poems about various financial topics and then memorize them. People are always amazed when someone can memorize a lengthy poem.

The other thing you want to accomplish during the presentation is to show people why you are superior to their current advisor. You do this by showing them you are their champion and their advocate. Here's how you do that: during your presentation, you start each topic with a sentence like, "Folks, many advisors do not explain the following to their clients very well. They don't want you know what kind of fees are included in the mutual funds you buy. But I think it's important that you know. So let me show you." Most advisors would never talk about fees in mutual funds because they believe if they do so, the attendees will never want to buy a mutual fund. This is a mistake. In fact, the attendees will never want to buy mutual funds from anyone other than youthe person who tells them the straight story. People are not stupid, they know mutual funds have fees in them. But you'll be the first advisor to ever come clean about this, and show them exactly what fees are included. Or maybe when you're explaining a certain type of insurance you say, "Folks, maybe you've noticed that the insurance companies all have really large buildings. They know how to make a profit. And while insurance is a very important aspect of your financial security, I want you to be smart buyers. Let me give you a few tips that most insurance agents never tell their clients or prospects." So all through your presentation, you point to other advisors or to Wall Street or to the insurance industry or to big corporation executives or to some "bad guy." All throughout, you remain the good guy. You position yourself as the first person to show them "the dirty laundry." The attendees will not only respect you, they will want to deal only with you. From then on, they will want to have you as their advisor as opposed to their current advisor who never explained those issues to them. So, up until now, you thought that a good seminar system was about good facts or good slides with pretty graphics, or educating the attendees. These things certainly make for a solid presentation, but welcome to the reality of what really works. You entertain and show them why you are clearly the superior advisor. The result will be appointments with 60% to 90% of the attendees.

Appointment Setting at Your Financial Seminar

How to Set Appointments With 65% of Attendees Right At Your Seminar In prior articles, I have addressed filling up the seminar room. In those articles, I solve the most frequent problem of financial professionals, getting adequate seminar attendance. In this article, lets discuss appointment setting with your seminar attendees.

My specialty is in dealing with people age 60 and over (theyre the ones with money). In motivating this audience to set appointments, you need to understand their emotional hot buttons and you also need to remove their potential objections. I use this general outline at the close of the seminar as the crux of my appointment setting process: I announce that I need a small favor from them. I need them to complete the evaluation form they received at the beginning of the seminar (and without taking a breath) and that the evaluation form is also their lottery ticket today. Lets face it, most people could care less about filling out evaluation forms, so I give them a reason to do so. They can win something by completing and returning the form. If your appointment setting process is to be successful, there's got to be a payoff for the attendee to participate. My evaluation form gets them warmed up with some specific questions before I offer them the opportunity to set the appointment with me. I never ask for an appointment, rather, I give them the opportunity to request an appointment. This may seem like semantics, but this approach is far more powerful. With the right wording, you will be in the control position if they request the appointment of you, rather than you requesting (begging for) an appointment with them. As a result, people who request the appointment keep it. If you request the appointment of the attendee, you will have large fallout and many will not show up. (if you have this problem, get this CD on ending your appointment cancellations). To further solidify the appointment, the attendees select an appointment time and date right on the evaluation form! Why leave this open and try and nail it down the next day? Or worse, if you cant get the attendee on the phone the next day, your chance of ever having an appointment will fall precipitously. If you don't have a structured appointment setting process to secure a time and date right there, you're sunk. Attendees sign up for the appointment with me because I promise two things: 1. I will make no attempt to sell them anything at that appointment. 2. I will show them at least one significant financial mistake they are making and not even aware of. As a result, I ask for and get 100% of the appointments to bring in their list of investments and tax return. Do you think you could do business with someone who comes to your office with their list of investments and tax return and wants to hear what you have to say? This method of doing seminars and appointment setting right at the seminar is so successful, I cant imagine why any professional would ever make cold calls!

By the way, to end the seminar, I collect and shuffle up the evaluation forms and select a winner. The winner receives a free copy of my book, Retirement Investing! Using the techniques outlined in these articles, I get 10-20 new appointments every month, in my office with qualified prospects. Your Post Seminar Appointment Turning Seminar Attendees Into Post Seminar Appointments--what to do at the first appointment In the other articles, I have covered how to fill up the seminar room and how to set appointments right at the seminar. If you follow the plan, you have 10-20 appointments with qualified prospects. What should you do at the first appointment? To the appointment, get every prospect to bring a copy of their tax return and their list of investments. Tell them to bring these items at the close of the seminar and you will get 100% compliance. The structure of your first post-seminar appointment is as follows: * * * * * First 10 minutesshmoozing, smiling, rapport building How long have you lived in the area? Do your children live nearby? You have great tans, are you golfers? Next, get down to business.

Give you a brief explanation of what you do (proceed to explain your services in 60 secondsno jargon, explain benefits). Say this early in your post seminar appointment: So that I make sure we cover any questions or concerns you have in our hour together, let me jot them down so we wont forget. Most every prospect has two or three items they want to discuss because you told them at the seminar to jot down their questions or concerns. Its amazing what people will do when you instruct them. Then proceed in your post seminar appointment with fact-finding. Ask questions so that you can put together an income statement and balance sheet right on the yellow pad in front of you. Folks, tell me about your sources of income. * * * * * Are you receiving any pensions? Social Security? Rents? Interest/Dividends? Etc.

Now lets take a look at your investments," (they have brought in their statements or their balance sheet).

As you look these over you make some unsettling comments, if appropriate, about their investments. "Do you know what youre really earning on these investments? How long have you had them? Do you know, off hand, your original investment?" (this will often be on their statement on in the records they brought to our meeting) "How did you come to own these investments?" (the prospect reveals their un-systematic method of investing). "Okay. Let me give you some helpful feedback. You had two concerns that you mentioned in the beginning. Now that I know more about your circumstances, I can tell you this" ( proceed to provide some useful, but unspecific direction or advice). "We can get together some specific recommendations regarding those issues (e.g. a long term care quotation, analysis of an annuity, review of their trust, etc). With those specific recommendations, you will have precise answers to your questions. Additionally, I would like to print you reports on each of your investments so that you can really see whats going on. Some of these are fine, but some of these quite frankly, are clunkers. (The prospect always agrees saying something like, we know we should have sold some of these but...). Folks, let me propose this. Lets schedule a time to meet next week (same day and time). I want to put together some answers to your questions and lets review the reports I will get on each of your investments (subscribe to Value Line and Morningstar on CD-ROM which gives you the reports you need). This is not a lot of work, but will take me three hours. My normal rate is $150 per hour, so if you think that $450 would be reasonable to isolate which investments you should sell and what you should do about (their two issues), then lets meet next week. If they say they want to think about it, thats great! Because learned NOT to waste your time with these people. If $450 is a proceeding, then goodbye! Ninety percent of the people want to and will ask you, should we pay you now? These are the types you want. you just barrier to meet again of clients

If you are in a situation where you cannot charge fees (i.e. not a Registered Investment Advisor or IAR), it is more difficult to test a prospects seriousness. All you can do is ask, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, when we meet next week, if my recommendations make sense to you and you see that there are ways for you to do better financially, will their be anything that would stop us from doing business together? I dont like to ask this question as I find it presumptuous, but its better than spending three hours putting materials together and then finding out his brother works at Merrill Lynch! Use the first post seminar appointment to fact-find. Be clear that the objective of the first appointment is to schedule a second appointment

(assuming you want to work with the prospect). Do not try and close business at the first appointment. This system will result in larger accounts and doing more comprehensive business with new clients.

Financial Presentation

What No One Tells You About Seminar Marketing Seminar marketing is a very powerful way to sell professional services. But most everything you read is shallow advice. In this article, lets focus on one aspect in detailhow to convert the maximum number of seminar attendees to clients. I learned this valuable lesson from giving over 200 financial seminars personally and training thousands of financial advisors in financial seminar marketing. (You can find a link to articles that focus on other aspects of seminar marketing at the end). Unfortunately, most seminar presenters have the assumption that they want to accomplish one of these objectives in their seminar: 1. Show the seminar attendees how much they know. These professionals assume that if the seminar attendees see them as well informed, well educated and knowledgeable, the seminar attendees will want to set an individual appointment. But this logic is flawed. These professionals are educators and if you educate people, youll never earn more than a school teacher. Thats because education is not motivation. The seminar presenters job is to motivate the seminar attendees to action. Educators dont do this. Educators are in the business of telling and informing. Motivators are in the business of persuading and enrolling. 2. Confuse the seminar attendees. These professionals believe that if you confuse people, they will seek you out to get clarity. I dont think this is a valid seminar marketing model. The average person is attracted

to someone who explains things in a way to give clarity not obscure clarity. Confusing people can do nothing but alienate them and leave your seminar attendees saying Im more confused now then when I came in. People dont like to be confused. 3. Scare them. Seminar attendees dont like to be confused and they dont like to be sacred. That is unless you share the same market as horror movie producersteenie boppers seeking a thrill. You get an insight into what seminar attendees really want when you look at who we pay the most in our society. We pay entertainers and sports figures the highest salaries. So its clear, that as a society, we want to be entertained. Therefore, if you want to attract people, if you want to maximize the appointments from your seminar presentation, entertain your seminar attendees. Being an anal, information retentive CPA, it took my speech coach a long time to convince mewhen I give a presentation, think Hollywood. She trained me to see that the presentation must have the elements of a blockbuster movie. Seminar presenters need to entertain with stories with humor, with music, with magic, with intrigue, with mystery. What you want to accomplish in the seminar is to get people to LIKE YOU. And you get them to like you if they have a good time, i.e. entertain them. But Im not musical or funny and I cant do magic tricks, you protest. Then you simply need some props to assist your milk toast personality. And those props are NOT a bunch of PowerPoint slides (unless the slides have humorous cartoons sprinkled throughout or embedded music that provide a humorous commentary on your seminar content or video clips of popular movie scenes). You can in fact learn some jokes or learn some magic tricks or learn some humorous stories. If you cannot do this on your own, then simply find a speech coach (your local chapter of the National Speakers Association can help you). But whatever you do, dont invest thousands of dollars in your seminar marketing and then not get a ton of business from the attendees.

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