Commando Consulting: February 2009 - Eight Pointers To Increase The Success Of Your Small-Scale In-House Management Educational Seminars - Part 2

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur

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Now, I use the word "seminar" just to give the event a name, but strictly speaking, seminars are the big hotel events with hundreds of attendees. And while you may hold these seminars in hotels, you want to have rather fewer participants than more.

The whole idea is not that we bring in lots of prospects, but that we bring in a few and create an intimate environment in which prospects an engage in open discussions about their frustrations and the biggest dreams.

Before The Seminar

When you can be certain about which prospects attend your event, then you can start doing detailed research on each attendee. And here try to be as thorough as possible. Research everything that is available, and if necessary you may even contact the company for information.

But when you contact the company and speak to the people who plan to attend, introduce your request by using the word "appropriate", and let those people decide whether or not they deem your request appropriate. In my experience, when people are given a chance to decline a request, they usually accept it.

Organise your people to digest the all the material and then prepare a briefing (6-10 pages) on each attendant.

During the event, your people act as facilitators of the small groups as they are doing their interactive activities. Every facilitator has a group of five attendees, and they must be pretty up top speed on their business affairs.

Then it's the facilitators' job to bring themselves up to speed on the companies whose representatives they facilitate.

I prefer to keep the number of attendees to five for each facilitator. Otherwise the facilitators can't get deep enough into the material on their group members.

The number of people you can invite depends on the number of people in your firm both with significant content expertise and excellent diagnostic and communication skills to interact with attendees.

You may notice I don't even mention selling skills. This is why.

I believe in letting prospects self-select. We offer them valuable information and diagnose their situations, but we let them decide what they want to do. If they need help, we'll help. If they say they do it in-house, that's fine too.

But the other side of the same coin is that your automated lead generation system should filter prospects such that your attendees should be people who are seeking solutions and haven't found them in-house. So, they're seeking outside help, and they come to your seminar to see whether or not your firm is the firm that can help them.

That is, they've already made their buying decisions that they need this specific service, and now they're in the stage of selecting the right firm to provide the help.

Instead of the fancy Powerpoint, I prefer flipcharts or overhead projectors. The reason for that is that when I write/draw something on the flipchart or on the blank overhead film, so do the attendees. Our communication is in synch.

When I speak they listen. When I write, they write too. Just imagine the clash when I speak and no one listens because the attendees are busy writing. It's moronic, but so many firms do it.

I've attended several personal development programmes with a local guy called T. Harv Eker. He can captivate a room of 1,000 plus people with one single flipchart and a few coloured markers. And when I listen to the audios of his programmes, I still visualise the drawings he made at the seminars, although the seminars were held 6-8 years ago. That's memorable. That's quite something.

At another seminar with Anna Christensen of Inner Adventures, Anna was talking about how the brain works. Then we had to stand up and play out in small groups how different parts of our brains control our lives. It was amazing.

We did a similar thing on how muscles work, when I did my personal training certification with Andre Noel Potvin of InfoFit.

What made these seminars so great was the synergy if auditory, visual and kinaesthetic experience.

The other advantage of using flipcharts is that you can keep the lights on all the time.

So, I set up one flipchart on my left and another flipchart or overhead projector on my right. And the presenter can walk between the two.

Use lots of bright colours. Colours stimulate the creative right brain which promotes better thinking. When attending business seminars, most people expect left brain activities, so they often switch of their creative right brains. Colours help here a lot.

To use or not to use microphone. It really depends on your voice. But in order not to overstrain your vocal cords, it's a good idea to use one.

I prefer a cordless lapel mike, so my hands are free and can be somewhat animated. Then the mike goes into a recording device, so the whole event can be recorded and made available for participants for further listening.

Seminar Seating

I prefer to use either round tables or no tables at all. Round tables create a "We're all equal here" environment where, so people can feel at ease.

But if you can, get rid of the tables altogether. Tables present barriers between people. They may feel equal, but there is still a barrier.

My most preferred way is having the small groups sitting in circles. And each group includes the firm's representative as a facilitator for the exercises.

Starting the Seminar

Many years ago Roy Disney said...

"Decisions are easy when values are clear."

So, we can start the seminar by clarifying the participants' values.

"I know you wouldn't have come here today if you weren't serious about making smart choices about your business's success. So, instead of me lecturing to you, let me get your perspective on a very important question: What's important about success to you?"

Then walk to the flipchart on your left and write "Success" in the centre.

After asking your questions, attendees start shouting out what's important to them. You keep writing them down in different colours.

Don't write in order but write all over the sheet.

If the responses are not coming, then encourage people...

"This is the participatory part of the event and there is no right or wrong answer. In order for you to get the most value out of our time together, I need to understand this, so the more you give me now, the more valuable I can make your experience for the rest of the event."

As you write in different colours, attendees can recognise themselves in the words they shouted out. This activity will keep them tuned in for the rest of the event.

The kind of responses you're likely to get is: Security, fulfilment, freedom, being a role model for my kids, family, self-esteem, happiness, being an exemplar for my colleagues, making a difference, making the world a better place.

This seminar is no longer about increasing profitability or some other business "nonsense". It's about how they can fulfil their deepest values through their businesses and with your help.

And the reason you need two flipchart because this "values chart" stays in front of the attendees throughout the seminar.

As people keep looking at that flipchart, they keep re-connecting with their own values which reinforce their 100% participation and eagerness to make the most of their attendance.

Then you can say...

"So, suppose in this seminar we come up with ideas so that you can _____ and _____ and ______ (reading all values they gave you and that you wrote on the flip chart), would you say attending event is a good investment?"

The response will be "Yes".

Then mention...

"There will be lots of participation in this event. Each group will be doing specific exercises facilitated by my colleagues. In each group sits a black sheep, and those black sheep are my colleagues. Please don't beat them up, poison their dinners or wire their cars. They've spent the last 6 weeks studying the materials you've sent us to prepare for this event and make it most relevant and valuable to you."

Then explain how you run the programme.

"So, this is how we will work… I put out a concept and summarise it in 10-15 minutes. Then you start working in your little group facilitated by my colleagues."

"Then we get together again, and groups are encouraged to share what they've learnt. This is an event of self-discovery and self-exploration. As Socrates said many years ago, 'I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think'. That's what we try to do here. Then I present the next concept in 10-15 minutes."

Then the regular seminar starts.

The main presenter presents the first 10-15 minute chunk, and then the small groups break out and start working on their own with the guidance of the firm's representative. They can do an exercise that is relevant to their own situations and then participants can share within their groups.

Then when groups return from the breakout sessions, they can share with the whole audience. It's a pretty neat experience.

"As you may remember, at the beginning of this seminar we established the two things that have to happen for you to get maximum value out of our time together. One is showing up. As Woody Allen once said, '80% of success is showing up'. You've done that."

"By a show of hands, how many of you feel time we shared today/tonight was a good use of your time and will help you make better choices regarding the future of your business? Would anyone share with the whole group how s/he's received valuable insights?"

"So the next thing you need to do is to find out how all this stuff works for you. Knowing marketing (subject matter like marketing, leadership, sales, or whatever your topic of the seminar is) intellectually is one thing but understanding what it can do for your business is a drastically different ballgame. Intellectually many people know how to play golf. Tiger Woods understands what a good golf game can do for him, so he practises 10 plus hours every day."

Then you can offer ongoing help and support in a soft-selling way...

"And although our time together here is over, for some of you it may not be the end. Some of you may realise, "Gee, I could use some help and support on my journey to implement all this.' We don't know who is who. We need to talk to determine whether or not we can help at all, and how."

This takes the pressure off because people are thinking they are the ones who don't need any help.

"And to establish that, we offer a complimentary diagnosis session on your current situation [in the area of the topic of the seminar]. We do this because we've found over the years that when people diagnose their own situations, they get stuck on symptoms and almost never address the real cause of the problem. So, they keep giving themselves more "organisational Tylenol" to cover up the symptoms but never eliminate the real cause. Actually doctors can go to prison for prescribing medication based on patients' own self-diagnoses."

"Everything we discuss is top secret and 100% confidential. The diagnosis is complimentary. Also, during this session we establish whether or not we're meant to do any more work together. If we are, it will be obvious for both of us. If we are not, that will be equally obvious."

One main point here. What holds people back is the fear of being sold to. People are scared of "clever" salespeople who try to push them into a corner and take their money. So, you have to create a perception that there is no hard sell. Everything you do is based on mutual decisions.

And as the last act of the seminar, take the appointments for the diagnosis session.

On Summary

Holding small scale seminars is a great way of attracting clients who fall into your Perfect Client profile. Yes, it takes some preparation, but I think it's worth the effort.

And in the worst case, even no one accepts the invitation for the diagnosis session, a good number of potential clients have been exposed to your expertise.

And at this stage, they may well be ready to subscribe to your newsletter, so they end up in your sales funnel anyway. From then on, they can become clients at any time whenever they decide.

There is no rush here. What I've found is that if I push people because I want them to become clients is one thing, but when people push me because they want to work with me is a completely different and better thing.

So, we want to maintain attraction for potential Perfect Clients but never to click over into heard-core sales mode.

So, go and check out what these small scale seminars can do for your firm. I believe your people find the experience to be a great learning process and your firm will benefit from it too.

"Dynamic Duo" Mentor Programme... ...has 2 openings for February and 4 for March 2010. Click here to continue to the fiendish details.

Recommended Reading

How to Develop and Promote Successful Seminars and Workshops

"The Definitive Guide to Creating and Marketing Seminars, Workshops, Classes, and Conferences"

By Howard L. Shenson

The late Howard Shenson was also called the "Consultant's Consultant." And while I don't agree with him on everything, I've read lots of his stuff, and he's certainly made a huge positive impact both on my work and on the consulting industry in general.

In this book, Howard outlines the ins and outs of running seminars and workshops. And I believe it's important for every consulting firm to develop strong facilitating muscles because this is a great way for potential clients to "sample" what the firm can do.

Yes, there are some upfront costs and efforts, but they dwarf next to the costs and efforts firms are expending in pursuit of RFPs.

The book gives you a clear roadmap to the whole seminar process. How to prepare for them, how to run them and how to follow up after them. Among other it goes into the details of...

• Selecting the right seminar topic


• Writing marketing materials and promoting your seminar


• How to structure the invitation process


• How to advertise your seminars


• How to work with hotels


• How to price your events


• How to embed gentle upselling in your programmes

Place your order with Amazon.com for How to Develop and Promote Successful Seminars and Workshops. You'll be glad you did.