Selling through seminars

I have been doing seminars for realtors and mortgage brokers with success. You can do the same or any industry and really niche down. The best part is you can usually find someone that will sponsor the event and take care of the promotion too.

For instance, you could go to a top realtor in your area and ask them to invite local business owners to an event you will teach them how to increase their business exposure using the power of the web. This would work for insurance agents or pretty much anyone looking to get local businesses to remember them and refer business to them.

Its a win win for everyone.

Check out this free email course...How To Market Seminars | Discover 31 Secrets to Jumpstart Your Seminar Promotions

She has some really good info and I think I've seen her mentioned through other IM venues...

i am planning a seminar with a non profit organization very soon. i have worked with them in the past, the company i worked for held wine tasting that were sponsored by the group. 100% of the tickets sold were donated to them.

they have agreed to sponsor a seminar with me. 100% of the entrance fee will be collected by them personally. i don't see a penny from the seminar but they paid for the conference hall and some simple food and drinks. also, they have a list of businesses that make regular contributions, so the seminar if sort of a thank you gift for donating. so far 78 seats are full $100 ticket and ill will max out at 100 seats. i am not paid for the seminar/workshop but i should have no trouble landing a few clients during fruit punch time.

one of the main focus is going to be compairing ROI. i will be teaching them how to calculate the exact dollar value per lead. also, how to calculate marketing cost per lead and show how much more ROI can be gained from SEO when compared to more traditional marketing...

try contacting a few organization that will sponsor an event. they benefit a lot from these events. they keep the money from selling tickets and they will most likely collect emails and collect more donations down the line. it's a win-win situation.

Hi InHwan Park

Gives me a lot of food for thought thanks I appreciate you taking time out to help.

I interviewed a friend of mine that specialises in seminars:

Hope it's useful: Create a Memorable Seminar

I also run a monthly seminar to get SEO clients. It works really well. Most of the people that come along I have already connected with on LinkedIn or other means.

I do a seminar at least once a month (in two different businesses), sometimes twice, and personally, I would not buy anything from most people selling a "how to do a seminar" package because most of it is not real world. I have found that most of the sellers of this information are exactly that, people who sell "Seminar How To" information instead of people who give seminars on a regular basis.

Bottomline, doing a seminar is not rocket science, and there should not be an ounce of "sales talk" during the seminar because most people are expecting you to sell them something. Be completely transparent, educate you clients, and you will have more business than you can handle because by being in front of the room, you automatically become the expert. Good luck!

I have also run seminars with success to local businesses.

My advice:

Start small and build up. Start with a smaller room and increase it each time. This will get you comfortable with your delivery, and when trying to filll the room, you are giving yourself the best chances first time with a smaller audience.

There will be nothing worse than lots of empty space.

Secondly, if you dont sell out, ask family and friends to sit in to make the room look full. This is all about impressions! ; )

As for pre seminar and sales!

Pick up the phone.

If it is going to be a free seminar it is really easy to get interest cold calling as you are not selling anything, its FREE! Even if you don't get a YES on the phone arrange to send an email and get them to look over it. By calling first you have more chance of the email being read!

Hope that helps,

GoGetta

P.S Got more tips if you need them, but didn't want to make a book of a post!

Nice tread. The charity option is a great one.

I had thougth of charging $20 upfront (or more) yet giving it back at the start of the conference (just so people show up as they said they would). That won't work in all situations, mostly in low level ones, but free = lots of no shows from my experience.

More professional options = an entrance fee but provide wine & cheese, etc. (and partner up with a provider who gets free advertisement for their part, and no cost to you).

Great information, Thx for the replies. There are a million different ways to do it, but if you offer it for free you will most likely get a lot of people who want free stuff and you will not be able to make as many sales. It is better to filter the audience and make sure that you have people that they are serious and not looking just for free stuff.

Have done a few seminars ,started small via charities and JVs.

If going charity route pick one thats well established on the business networking scene if possible as that wil lalso help them promote the seminar on your behalf .
Else look at JVs with businesses that have your target attendees in their client lists- show them where the attendees will be after attending your seminar (the value) and suggest theyd surely love to be able to offer this to their valued client base at a reduced entrance fee subject to them promoting it to their list on your behalf (if theyre big enough it can be their show) .

Where abouts in the UK are you Dave (and others) ? Im in Cardiff, be great to meet up with many of you

I believe seminars can be extremely useful if presented well.
Otherwise, I wouldn't believe it's a good idea.

As others have said, seminars are great ways of gaining new clients, but there are some rules that if you follow will help you. I have seen and been to seminars which are free, and you have gone knowing that the speakers there are going to pitch you on some latest course.

Now while this is Ok, to new people they could end up buying loads of courses and services they just do not need. This happens because the been pitching are good at it, and it is how they make a lot of their money.

How I think it is best.......................... You put on a seminar, if you can get it sponsored by a Chamber of Trade or business group better as they will also promote it for you. But if you cannot do that, hire a room, contact some businesses in the area and say you will be doing a Free seminar on how to get in to Google Places. (or whatever)

When they come, do that, show them the nuts and bolts on how to go from setting up an account through to clicking submit. Now at the end say you are able and willing to do this and much more and for further details see the website.

Or say as a special offer for the people in this room you will do it for them for £75.00 per business. And handout order forms. (You could have a price on there that says £200, but tell them to cross that out and put £75.00.

Yes some will do it themselves, but others are too busy and will take you up on the offer, and from that simple presentation, you will get some orders, and nothing more. While others will take up your other services, and others still will contact you later to do something for them.

But the main thing is give them the meat that you promised and then the orders will come.

Hope this helps

Just got back from a Trey Smith and Frank Kern event here in San Diego past weekend.
One of the big topics was seminars/webinars. Record a webinar like you were giving a seminar and use this as a marketing method to get leads and new clients.
They suggested using Stealth Seminar | Automated webinar playback and scheduling

Good luck !!!