Commando Consulting: February 2008 - 11 Tips To Increase Attendance For Your Lead Generation Educational Seminars

by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur

Summary: There is now overwhelming proof that small-scale facilitated discussions are one of the best way of generating high calibre sales leads for consulting firms, but somehow many firms are still obsessed with organising and running "sage from the stage" type large scale training seminars. What causes this? Is it that their ego has to be satisfied by dispensing a certain amount of self-aggrandisement every month? Is it the sense that they have to prove themselves? It can be either, but they both only show that all they have is unstable sense of security in themselves. But small, intimate, highly interactive discussions. Can create incredible results. These programmes create value-focused prospects who can later lead to lots of repeat- and referral business. Audio Version (MP3): 50 minutes

Small-scale educational seminars are one of the best ways of generating qualified sales leads for consulting firms. And although I use the word "training seminar", these events are really workshop facilitations among all participants. They are highly interactive. The mistake many consulting firms make is that they put a partner in front of the room, the sage on the stage, with a microphone and, to make it even worse, with a lectern, which they can lean on, and these partners start the relentless self-aggrandisement and pompous pontification about their firms and their services.

And after about two hours of passive listening and casual catnapping either of two things happens...

1. The seminar presenter puts a hard sale on the audience members (yes, some are that dumb) and the attendees high-tail out of the room


2. The seminar presenter doesn't do a hard sale but also forgets to suggest a next step like signing up for the firm's a newsletter or request a free white paper

So, then the audience members stand up, put up their friendliest smiles, leave and probably never contact the firm again.

And of course, next time when these people are invited to "business training seminars", they will be extra cautious about attending.

And this can happen even to firms that have earth-shattering stuff to present to their target markets. They have great stuff to share but don't have a great structure within which they could present it.

The next problem is the accountability of who actually organises these educational seminars. I know many people, both partners and non-partners, want to speak at these events, but they do their best to abdicate the donkeywork of organising the events to their receptionists and various administrative assistants. I use the word "abdicate" because the delegation process sounds like this...

"You're responsible for organising this event but every decision must come through and from me. I must personally authorise every budgetary decision and every purchase, including every paperclip."

So, now you have sent your petite, fragile and powerless receptionist into the ring against some heavyweight wrestling champions, a proverbial bulldozer and bone-crusher. Well, that is, high-level decision-makers of other companies. And of course, for good measure you also tie one of her hands behind her back and shackle her ankles together. If she wins and brings in some serious decision-makers to the next seminar, that's great. If she loses, then she's fired and the next secretary is hired. Then the process is repeated.

But of course, she has almost zero chance to pull off the seminar. There will be major problems along the way, which she is not even authorised to deal with. Well, it's a pretty retarded scenario.

And since no one can organise educational seminars this way, after a few tries many firms decide that...

"Our industry is unique and this seminar stuff doesn't work in it."

Well, the industry does work that way, and seminars do work, but if and only if they are organised and marketed correctly. So, you don't have to ditch the seminar idea altogether; just to modify the process a tad. Let's see what we can do to make things better...

1. Making Your Seminar Very Specific

For most people one of the reasons they don't respond to seminar invitation is because they are far too vague. I'm thinking of seminar titles like...

"How To Grow Your Business"

"How To Reduce Your Taxes"

"Marketing Your Business"

While these titles may invite us to exciting and highly valuable seminars, the titles are dead boring and too generic. But now look at these titles...

"How To Use Your Pricing Strategy To Eliminate Price Objections In Your Solo Accounting Practice"

"Seven Ways Of Reducing Taxes In Your Coffin Making Business"

"11 Direct Response Marketing Strategies To Attract Better Clients For IT Consulting Firms In The $5-25 Million Annual Revenue Range"

I believe if you want to improve both response rate and the quality of respondents, you have to make your seminars very very specific. So, make them specific.

2. Getting Clear On The Target Market

The first differentiation here is whether your business works business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C). End users (consumers) buy completely differently from buyers who represent businesses. The biggest difference is that in the case of B2B there is no emotional tie between the buyer and the business. Here are some further questions you should know about your target market...

• Demographics: The factual information on the market


• Psychographics: The behavioural information on the market


• Technographics: The technical savvy level of the market (Do they use computers or abacus?)

Most burning problems: What are the 2-4 biggest problems this market segment is struggling with?

End results sought: What are the end results this market segment is seeking?

Ideal Client Profile: Consider the Ideal Client from three different angles: 1) the ideal buyer, 2) the ideal company and 3) the ideal project or engagement.

3. Titling Your Seminar

Many firms make the mistake of using silly buzzwords for their event titles. I think by now most people know that the more buzzwords they can read in promo pieces, the more the piece is riddled with bullshit and the less value they can expect to receive for their money. I believe in simple "How to..." titles. So, using the previous landlord example, I can imagine a title like, "How To use These Seven Overlooked Strategies To Be A Better Landlord: Better To Your Tenants And Better To Your Bank Account." And of course there are bullet points that explain the title in more detail, but even the title is pretty descriptive.

Create a couple of title ideas...

• The Top 10 Reasons Condo Landlords End Up With Sub-Par Tenants And Strained Bank Accounts


• A Simple Solution For Condo Landlords To Improve The Quality Of Their Tenants And Their Cashflow


• How Doing These Seven Things Can Turn You Into Top Earning Headache-Free Landlord

4. Improving The Timing Of Your Marketing

There are two interesting phenomena in this area: Most firms don't give themselves enough "concept-to-seminar" time. They have their seminar ideas, and next morning they start marketing it without any serious consideration. According to seminar marketing specialist, Jenny Hamby of Hamby Communications, in the case of well-organised and executed seminars, there is a six-month ramp-up time between coming up with the concept and running the seminar itself.

So, where is the problem here? There is not enough time given to develop the seminar, that is, the six-month window is drastically shrunk and the audience starts receiving the promotional materials far too early.

This is based on the mistaken belief that the sooner the market learns about the seminar, the higher response rate the organisers receive. This is fair within a certain promotional window. But when this window is too long, response rate can significantly dwindle.

So, the final verdict is that you have to give yourself about six months from concept to seminar, but as far as promotion goes, the shorter your seminar, the shorter your promotion window can be. For a short evening seminar this promo window can be 3-5 weeks. For full-day seminars, it can be 6-10 weeks.

Also, make sure that it's not a one-off promo event but a sequence.

5. Improving The Quality Of Your List

The list from where you're acquiring the attendees makes a huge difference. You can buy lists if yours is a very young firm, but I also believe that nothing can outperform and in-house list. These people already know you through your newsletter and website, so they already have a certain level of trust in you.

So, wherever you're in your business, growing your own list must be a prime tactic to fulfil your marketing strategy.

This is what I would do with a start-up firm. I would write a white paper that addresses the target market's main problems. The white paper (bait) would also gently "sell" the firm's monthly email newsletter (the stay in touch vehicle). Actually that would be the final call for action in the white paper.

Then I would stay in touch with my subscribers on a regular basis. No pitching but good valuable information. And after 4-6 touch points I would promote (gently with that promotion though) a $20-30 CD or DVD.

And then the CD or DVD would gently promote the live evening seminar, so now people know about the existence of this seminar. They can also have their names added to a "next seminar" announcement list.

Now with this sequence you can expect to develop a pretty responsive list. Paraphrasing the hooker's wisdom to the shy sailor...

"Boy, it's not the size of your tool but how well you can use it that matters."

Lists are the same. It's not how big they are, but how responsive they are to opportunities.

6. Improving Response Rate

The typical response rate to direct mail campaigns is around 2%. Now when you use this to seminars, it also means that you get 2% response (interest) rate to your programme, but by the time it comes to registration, your response rate can drop down to 0.5% or even lower.

Well, that's pretty dismal, so let's see how we can improve that.

I think it's a mistake to start a new relationship by inviting the prospects to a seminar, even if the seminar is free. The reason is that a seminar is a large time investment for prospects, and since they don't know you yet, they are hesitant. At this stage of your relationship with this prospect, your seminar is of low priority, and even the smallest of unplanned events can deter your prospects from attending. This is why the now-show rate for free seminars is pretty astronomical.

I suggest my clients that they start new relationships with free white papers or tip sheets that are written around their target markets biggest problems. Using fishing language, this is the bait. And you use a very specific bait to attract very specific buyers. This fist step decides whether you get flooded with price-obsessed strugglers or value and quality-focused savvy buyers. As you fine-tune your white paper, you can tweak the quality of your prospects.

Do you feel the difference between...

"Top 10 Renting Mistakes Landlords Of Luxury Single-Dwelling Rental Properties Make In Southern California."

And...

"Top 10 Renting Mistakes Landlords of Rental Condo Complexes Make In Southern California."

If you promote the condo version, you also get lots of landlords who are renting half-collapsed dump heaps.

So, you start the relationship with the free white paper and then start staying in touch with the market through your newsletter. And after only 8-12 touch points you invite them to your seminar. By then, if your stuff is good and valuable, your name is a household name, and your invitation is likely to be accepted.

But now it's no longer a free seminar. It can be a three-hour evening seminar for, let's say, $99. Since the programme is pre-paid, now-shows are minimum, and you can expect good response rate from your in-house list of people who already know you. I've recently helped a client, a 47-person HR consulting firm in Germany, to implement this touch point sequence for a seminar, and the response rate for their seminar from their in-house list was 47%. And by the end of the seminar - well, this was a really a highly interactive workshop - the client "half" closed $430,000 worth of project work. While my client didn't hold anything back at the workshop, their clients realised that they had never done this before and hired my client basically on the spot to help to pull it off.

This event was almost three weeks ago, and the enquiries for future work are still coming in. So, we know this firm will have the sales pipeline pretty full for months to come.

So, start with the white paper which gently "sells" the free email newsletter. Then the newsletter gently promotes a CD or DVD at $20-30. Then the CD or DVD invites people to the evening workshop at $80-120 with full satisfaction money back guarantee.

Let's just remember the words of sales expert, John Graham...

"It's not what you want to sell and when you want to sell it that matters today. It's what the customer wants to buy and when the customer wants to buy it that counts."

So, you can't push people forward in your sales funnel. All you can do is to your name on the top of their minds so when they decide to address the kind of problems your firm remedies, they remember you.

7. Selecting The Promo Piece

Here many people would easily say: Email. After all, it's cheap and easy. Yes, it is, and most people instantly delete most of their incoming messages. And there is a strong chance that your message can expect the same gloomy fate.

I believe when it comes to the very first piece to announce a seminar, nothing can beat direct mail. That's it, a pedestrian garden-variety sales letter in an envelope. If you make it a "bulky" mail, it's even better. You can send a toothbrush with a message, "Brush up your landlording skills and learn how to recognise and avoid undesirable tenants."

Now this may seem tacky or unprofessional on the surface, but it certainly breaks readers' preoccupation, and they can fully focus on your message. Besides, your message stands out like a piccolo player in a heavy metal band. And actually this bulky mail thing is more widely used by consulting firms than most people think. More widely, meaning that a few are using it, which is quite a bit in such a hyper-conservative and risk-allergic area as management consulting firms. So, give it a try. It may just work out nicely.

8. Using Marketing Partners

This is the joint venture part of the show. You probably have some trusted peers who serve the same target market as you do but with different services. You may offer marketing services for law firms and a peer firm offers IT consulting to law firms. You can easily market to each other's list, provided you can explicitly trust each other.

Let's say Firm A wants to market to Firm B's list. Firm B sends out an endorsed mailing to its list. The mailing is paid by Firm A and Firm A creates all the materials to be sent out. Firm B has no expenses whatsoever.

Then Firm A shares the seminar revenue with Firm B 50-50 (Front end). And for every ensuing business from this endorsed mailing, Firm B receives 20% of the gross revenue (Back end).

You may say this is too high, but firms don't promote others to their databases for peanuts. Firm B has already paid a small fortune to build this list of trusting subscribers.

I'm amazed when firms approach me for "partnership", want to market to my list and then offer me a mere 5% of the net profits. It's not about greed, but about the hundreds of hours of work I've invested over the years to write this stuff and build my trusting subscribers.

Of course, I have the integrity not to offer my subscribers shit just because I get paid for it. But if I deem them to be good and helpful to my readers, I ask them to drop me a percentage for the favour.

9. Giving Enough Ramp-Up Time

As a rule of thumb, you may want to give yourself six months of ramp-up time as you're organising your seminar. This is important since people won't flock to your seminar after sending out one single invitation.

They are busy as they are. Life is firing at them point blank every day. They have fires to put out, demanding clients to deal with and other proverbial bullets to dodge. Attending a seminar is not exactly the way they plan to spend their days. And this is where the quality of your promotional copy comes into the equation. It will have a major impact on the success of your programme.

10. Running Your Seminars For Free Or For A Fee

People split on this topic, but I believe that if your seminar has real value, after all, what's the other reason to hold it, then it shouldn't be free. Besides, people know what they can expect at free seminars: A little content and lots of pitching.

There are some other considerations: Paid events attract higher calibre people than free events. Paid events attract buyers who understand the problems you address at the seminar, identify with those problems and are keen on solving them in the very near future. If I don't own rental properties and don't intend to buy any in the near future, it's unlikely I attend a paid seminar on practical landlording strategies. I may show up at a free seminar, but I'm not a serious prospect but only a tyre-kicker at this moment.

Pre-registered and pre-paid events have fewer absent participants. Many people simply just don't turn up at free events. Hey, they have nothing to lose. So, if it turns out that there is a hockey game or a good movie on the telly, they just change their plans and stay at home.

People attending free events know that there is lots of pitching and they have the defences up high. They make sure they don't get too involved in case someone tries to hit on them with a sales pitch. They know what's coming and brace themselves for the first pitch wave.

The other thing you can do to make your seminars attractive is to offer a good guarantee on them. Using the previous example...

"If, by the end of the seminar, you don't feel that you have the knowledge to become a better landlord, being able to attract premium tenants and charge premium rent for your properties, then you pay us what you think the seminar is worth, including nothing."

Value is a subjective thing, and only the buy can perceive it. But with a carefully designed and implemented seminar, we can improve the perception, that is, the perceived value of the seminar.

What could also help is that, before your paid seminar, you run a free teleconference that relates to the seminar's topics. Then, besides your seminar sales materials, you can use the teleconference too to "gently" sell your live seminar.

11. Getting Rid Of Image Marketing

This is a huge issue for many firms. Instead of focusing on results, they put their ego into the marketing mix, and soon all practical promotional materials are replaced with image marketing gimmicks, screaming "Me, me, me", "Our unique approach", "Our leaders" or "See how cute we are".

The two-page sales letter is replaced with a bloody expensive full-colour brochure, with the managing partners grinning at the readers like demented Cheshire cats. There is a special web page designed for the seminar... in full Flash. And after the Flash stuff there is a registration page. There is no sales copy because some creative folks usually buy into the idea that a Flash animation is more than enough to make people flock to the registration page and hand over their hard-earned money.

This approach is also good for the people who market the seminars because they can always say, "You can't measure your marketing".

The alternative of course is results-accountable direct response marketing where response rates are constantly tracked and approaches are constantly tweaked for better response. But this takes quite a bit of work, so no one wants to do it. However, this is the only way of making sure you get the biggest bang for your marketing bucks.

Summary

Seminars are a great way of attracting savvy clients. It's a great way of deepening the trust your other materials have already started building. But you have to remember something vital. At the seminar it's time to serve not to sell. Your market knows the way you sell is the way you serve. And the other way round too. So, the key is that you remove traditional salesmanship tactics from your seminar. You don't try to close since this is not a sales presentation.

And one more thing. Don't compare your seminar to a public seminars for consumers. Most consumer seminars are covert sales pitches because many people don't have the sales skills to recognise them. They are full of emotional hot-button pounding from the stage.

You're in the business-to-business world, selling sophisticated solutions to savvy experts. You have to be more logical than emotional. After all, I hope your services don't qualify as impulse purchases.

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Recommended Reading

High Value Consulting: Managing and Maximizing External and Internal Consultants for Massive Added Value

by Tom Lambert

I've just read somewhere that some 80% of the Fortune 500 companies have 2.8 consulting firms working with them at any one time. The consulting firms may change from project to project, but the number of 2.8 is pretty permanent. Why do these companies invest millions of dollars on consulting help? Some people may cynically say that their CEOs want to brag about using consultants just as many people love bragging about hiring their life coaches and psychiatrists. But the big difference is that most of the F500 CEOs actually know how to get great value from consultants. They know how to leverage the extra value they bring to the table by using their brainpower. Smaller companies try to use consultants as extra pairs of hands to do some dirty work the company's own people don't weant to dirty their hands with. They often hire consultants and give them the instructions...

Do it for me but leave me out of the process; I'm far too busy. And remember, I'm in charge here but you're fully responsible for the results.

In these traditional structures, the ability to delegate responsibility and authority is a treasured characteristic. Haven't we all heard the old wartime jokes about top military commanders telling their troops, "Go get 'em, boys! We'll be observing you through heavy lenses from that mountaintop over there!"

There is a way of getting great value from consultants and great ways of providing that value for clients. And this is what this book is all about. I think it's a must read both for consultants and consulting clients in order to avoid such a consulting disaster Figgie International went through in the early 90s, which just about bankrupted the company.

Here is the story from James Madigan and Charles O'Shea's book, Dangerous Company: The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save and Ruin...

In 1989 Figgie International was a conglomerate with sales of $1.3 billion and profits of $63 million. It had 17,000 employees spread across its 87 companies and divisions. It was doing well, but in the eyes of its founder Harry Figgie, Jr it could and should be doing better. Mr Figgie ought to know - he had been a consultant before building a business empire.

By 1994 Figgie had spent an estimated $75 million on consultancy fees. Sales had fallen to $319 million and losses for the year totalled $166 million. The corporation had downsized to 6000 employees and had sold seven divisions to raise money to pay off its debts. So how could spending $75 million on advice take a relatively healthy company to the brink of bankruptcy?

Place your order with Amazon.com for High Value Consulting. You'll be glad you did.

Value Pricing Assault Course... ...has 2 openings for August and 5 for September 2008. Click here to continue to the fiendish details.