Giving Seminars To Local Business Owners

14 replies
Hi there, are there any internet consultants here who are giving seminars to local business owners?

I had an idea to do seminars but some doubts about it. I was thinking should I

(A) charge for the 1 time seminar and sell it through newspaper ads

OR

(B) hire a commission only sales team which would sell the seminar plus consulting for a much higher fee?

Any ideas would help!
#business #giving #local #owners #seminars
  • Profile picture of the author jtchaschowy
    I haven't done a seminar myself but I have read something that answers your second question, and this is what I would do if I were going to go about holding one myself.

    The consultant went to a school, it could also be a church for these purposes. He went there and told the administrators about what his plan was, that he was an expert internet marketer and that he wanted to sell seats to a seminar.

    The consultant offered a deal for them, that each seat they sold they would get a percentage to keep and use to benefit their establishment. And that the children of the school/church would do the selling of the tickets to family or in their own neighborhood knocking on doors.

    I'm pretty sure the consultant agreed to host the meeting on their grounds so that's a free presentation area and a group of cute faces pushing your seminar, if that sounds good to you.
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    • Profile picture of the author DesmondTan
      Originally Posted by jtchaschowy View Post

      I haven't done a seminar myself but I have read something that answers your second question, and this is what I would do if I were going to go about holding one myself.

      The consultant went to a school, it could also be a church for these purposes. He went there and told the administrators about what his plan was, that he was an expert internet marketer and that he wanted to sell seats to a seminar.

      The consultant offered a deal for them, that each seat they sold they would get a percentage to keep and use to benefit their establishment. And that the children of the school/church would do the selling of the tickets to family or in their own neighborhood knocking on doors.

      I'm pretty sure the consultant agreed to host the meeting on their grounds so that's a free presentation area and a group of cute faces pushing your seminar, if that sounds good to you.
      WOW, that sounds like a good idea, joint venturing with other people...

      Thanks for contributing!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacer
    Connect with David Preston. He knows more about putting on these seminars than anyone I know. He is the real deal.
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    • Profile picture of the author DesmondTan
      Originally Posted by Jacer View Post

      Connect with David Preston. He knows more about putting on these seminars than anyone I know. He is the real deal.

      Thank you for the introduction, i will do so:-)
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  • Profile picture of the author mjbmedia
    whats your backend on this seminar? ie can you aim to upsell at the end or is the seminar itself the money making strategy
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    • Profile picture of the author DesmondTan
      Originally Posted by mjbmedia View Post

      whats your backend on this seminar? ie can you aim to upsell at the end or is the seminar itself the money making strategy
      I might upsell at the end of the events if the ticket price is low, but i was also thinking of selling a done for you package for a high fee and then providing them the service.

      Thanks for the advice!
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Originally Posted by DesmondTan View Post

        I might upsell at the end of the events if the ticket price is low, but i was also thinking of selling a done for you package for a high fee and then providing them the service.

        Thanks for the advice!
        This is exactly what I do. I speak to sell a Done-for-you local online marketing package.

        If you want to sell directly from the seminar, make it free. It takes some promotion even for a free seminar, but you just want local business owners in the chairs. Right?

        I went the "got to a school to fill a program" route. It fills the room with everyone except local small business owners.

        Don't use newspapers. The ad will go to everyone, of which 99.9999% are not who you want. I scraped the business owners contact information with Local Scraper. The ones that already advertise online are the best leads.

        You can call them on the phone to offer a "Free 2 Hour Report On Local Online Advertising Trends" and say it's only for small businesses that advertise online locally. (or anything that makes them part of a select group.)

        You can hire people from the Philippines for a few dollars an hour to make the calls. You can invite them in person, or by invitation. In person is best if you are dealing with small numbers (less than 100 in a given city)

        If you charge for the talk, it will cut the response by 90%.

        I even offer a gift for attendance. I give a copy of a book I wrote. I used to buy lunch.

        Do NOT hold it in a place that is dimly lit, or serves alcohol. It's the kiss of death.

        Hiring people to sell tickets is a completely different route.
        Tom Hopkins (a well known sales trainer) used to have guys go to small businesses and sell tickets to a three hour training for $100. The rep got $50.

        But they were selling to the reps of sales organizations, not the owners of small businesses.

        Me? would hire people to fill the seats. Make the tickets free and pay $20 for each business owners that showed up. That will keep them from throwing away the tickets ad giving you fake names. You may end up paying $100 per small business owner for them to show up. But if you can sell, it's a bargain.

        It's fairly easy to fill a community meeting room, or library meeting room with 20-30 people. You can use a better restaurant if you want to feed them.


        At the end of the meeting, I have them sign up for my service. It's a very abbreviated form that just gets contact information and their credit card info. To them, they bought. Then I make an appointment (in the next few days) for create videos at their location. But the sale is made at the event when their interest is at the peak.

        jtchaschowy had a great idea with having churches raise money by selling tickets. But be sure they know you want the business owner, not the stock boy.

        Hope that helps.

        Added later; The key here is how you present. I deliver real content about 1) Why online? 2)Where online? 3) What's needed (website, videos, social networking, lead gen)

        The entire theme is Why online is the way to market your business...Show them that it's an involved process (while showing them what they need to do)....that they really need someone to do this for them...and that I'm the guy to do it.

        Then I say that I only accept one client per city per business. In a crowd of 30 business owners, I'll always get a client or three.

        Once you get the RSVP, give them information that sells YOU before they show up. I send them a few articles, a copy of a book I wrote, and e-mails with links to video testimonials from previous attendees. You want them showing up thinking "He's the Go To Guy". And intro video before you speak setting yourself up as an expert (or promoting local internet marketing in general) will also make you a minor celebrity. It makes a huge difference when you ask for the order.

        Good luck to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bayo
    Originally Posted by DesmondTan View Post

    Hi there, are there any internet consultants here who are giving seminars to local business owners?

    I had an idea to do seminars but some doubts about it. I was thinking should I

    (A) charge for the 1 time seminar and sell it through newspaper ads

    OR

    (B) hire a commission only sales team which would sell the seminar plus consulting for a much higher fee?

    Any ideas would help!
    What your business model is should be the first thing you consider. Why do you want to run seminars. Your answers will guide you in the right direction that's best for you (as opposed to what anyone else may be doing).

    For instance..
    1. Are you planning on using the seminars to increase your visibility?
    2. Is it to position yourself as a local expert?
    3. Is it lead generation?
    4. Is it to convert prospects into paying clients?
    5. Are you seeking partnerships?
    6. Are you going to sell directly from your events?
    7. Are you going to charge for it and focus heavily on what happens after the event?
    8. Are you trying to reach a broader audience in a new or existing target market?
    9. Is it for some other reason based on a specialty offering you have?
    These are just a few considerations and your answer should be based on what you want to get out of it as opposed to what others may have done or be doing in their business.

    I run in person local seminar events and also virtual events i.e. webinars and teleseminars in a number of target markets. The goal of each one is very specific and many of them are setup to run on automated platforms. The reason we can do this is because of the goal of the events and how they fit into an overall plan.

    The overall plan is to get business owners into a selling conversation, as opposed to trying to make sales during these seminars.

    Hope this helps.

    You can do it!

    Bayo
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  • Profile picture of the author kebertt
    I've heard of individuals giving seminars to local business owners to help them get their business established online. A lot of times they charge for the seminar, and then have them use their affiliate links when creating their websites. If you can get 20-30 people per seminar you can make a pretty nice profit (eg: being a HostGator affiliate)
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  • Profile picture of the author Sander Zaydman
    This will help you...

    7 Steps How to Get Business Owners to Come to You Hey Warriors,

    This community has helped me out a lot when i was just getting started out
    internet marketing, so I wanted to give back a little.

    Here is a 7 step guide to get business owners to contact you instead of wasting a lot of time, money, energy, and effort chasing down business owners.

    Step 1:

    Find a Local Charity in your Area.
    It could be a variety of charities: animal shelter, a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen, a church, any type of kid's organizations.
    Go online and do a search of your local area.

    Step2:

    Assist the Charity. The key is you are not going to charge a consulting fee.
    You will simply offer your marketing expertise. You are going to make a lot
    more after you get the owner's business cards.

    Step3:

    Say this to your Charity: "Look, I want to help raise money. I
    want to do some fundraising with the charity, and here's what I do. I'm an
    internet marketing expert. I help businesses understand the power of the
    internet and how they can utilize the internet to better market their business.”
    Setup a 2 hour internet marketing work shop. Just the "Basics."
    Cover the different ways local business owners can harness the power
    of the internet: Social Media, SEO,Blogs, Forums, Videos, Podcasts, Autoresponders, Craigslist, Groupon, etc...
    The charity will invite local business owners and charge either $47 or $97 dollars for the work shop.

    Step 4:

    Collect The business owners business cards:
    Put a bowl in front of the room and say you are going to give away a
    grand prize at the end of the presentation. At the end of the presentation there's going to be a $1000 giveaway, or whatever the price is, a $250 giveaway", so what they do is they all put their business cards in. You gather all their business cards and then you have a grand prize. Let's say you're going to give a one hour consultation. Your time is worth, let's say $250 an hour. So you're going to give a one hour consultation of $250 value, that's the grand prize. Somebody's going to win that in the crowd. It's only an hour of your time, it's not like you're physically handing somebody $250, but you're attracting people to want to put their business card in.

    Step 5:
    Create an envelope for the Grand Prize and say that you want everybody to leave here with a prize,so you will be having a free 15 minute consultation with you the expert. This plants the seed that allows you to call them in a couple of days.

    Step 6:
    Collect all the data and statistic and get a press release written for how much money you helped a charity raise.

    Step 7:
    Collect checks and be happy that you dont have to work a 9-5 job

    Enjoy...

    If you liked this post, please click the thank you button

    Going to be posting more posts in the next couple of days.
    I want to provide only my best stuff for you.

    Is there anything you want to learn in particular about offline
    marketing...


    Thanks,
    Sander
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    Now sure how much to charge for your local marketing services?
    Add me on Facebook and I'll give you access to my Local Marketing Consultant Group....

    www.facebook.com/sander.zaydman

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  • Profile picture of the author xlfutur1
    I just picked up a salon owner as a client and it turns out she is President of the local business association. she asked me to do a 35 minute presentation on mobile marketing in January. They have a speaker at every meeting.

    I think alot of business associations would love to have people like us speak what we know - stuff that can help their business. We just have to ask. You probably should have a website and have some local clients for credibility, but this kind of thing is a goldmine waiting to be tapped.
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  • Profile picture of the author focusedlife
    Good job on going for the local seminar route. I'm sure doing the first one will be your toughest, but its nice to see a healthy conversation going on about getting this put together.

    Would love to see your results once you've thrown caution to the wind.
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    • Profile picture of the author MichealEmeka
      what a fantastic opportunity. Business Gateway will be a great help, as well as that look out for any local business seminars, they can be helpful too. Try and make connections with other business owners and they may well just help too.
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Eventually, if you actually sell consistently at these talks, you can joint venture with promoters that put on marketing bootcamps for business owners.

        You will get paid 50% of the money you generate. The other half goes to the promoter. You can create several clients in one 60 minute speech that way. But first, you have to work out all the bugs in your talk and get experienced in front of a room of prospects.

        This isn't for everyone. In fact most people bomb at it. But it's where the real money is being made.


        If you go the "Lunch talk for the Chamber of Commerce" route, I would use it to sell a joint venture with the chamber. Split the door with them, and then sell your little heart out. But don't pitch at the short talk. I've never seen it allowed.

        Pitching another seminar that will bring money into the Chamber? Sure.

        I have only done this type of talk once. I didn't repeat it because it only generated one sale, and there are quicker ways to make sales.

        But for most speakers? Absolute gold. Mike Rounds (look it up on Amazon) has a program that completely covers how to speak at these local Chamber, Kiwanas, Rotary type events.
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        What if they're not stars? What if they are holes poked in the top of a container so we can breath?
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