How One Financial Planner Does His Seminars

I heard about a successful financial planner who specializes in working with retirees and pre-retirees. He used to get mailing lists of retirees in his area and send invitations for everyone to attend a free seminar and dinner. He stopped doing it because they were not paying back well. Instead, he now does lunches and dinners for his clients, whom he calls “members”, has them bring guests and invites prospects who are in his sales funnel.

The seminars have a guest speaker, an expert in an area of concern for his members, but the atmosphere is social. Each event has a theme such as luau, magic or spy. There are raffle prizes and opportunities for members to share experiences and be recognized for personal achievements, such as recently retiring. Guests and prospect who attend these events want to be part of the membership and are eager to become clients.

Different Presentations for One Seminar

A few years ago, I attended a luncheon event put on by the local business journal for corporations and small businesses in the area. I was a friend of one of the corporate sponsors and was invited to also attend a breakfast event just for VIPs. During the breakfast, the keynote speaker gave us a special presentation. He was entertaining and informative, everyone enjoyed listening to him.

Unfortunately, the presentation for keynote later that day was the VERY SAME presentation the speaker had given at breakfast. Those of us who had attended the breakfast looked at each other in shock. Did he not know the same people would be in the audience? One woman commented that she couldn’t believe he only had one presentation; she found it very unprofessional and guessed that he really didn’t know his topic very well.

Are you giving multiple speeches to the possibly the same audience at your own seminar or have you been hired to speak at different sessions at someone else’s event? Make sure you are prepared with different presentations so people view you as an expert in your field and a valuable speaker

Planning a Seminar? - Who is your target market?

One of the first things I ask people who are planning seminars is; “Who is your target audience?” If they tell me “anybody who is retirement age” or “anybody with skin” or “anyone looking to buy as house”; I tell them they will have a difficult time having success with their event. Why? They don’t have a clear idea of who their ideal attendee/client really is and will have trouble creating the message that will bring the right people to their event.

Here are some of the things you might want to know about your target market, no matter what your seminar topic might be:

• Gender
• Age
• Children/No children
  
• Income level
• Level of education
• Profession, field of work
• How they spend their free time
• How they spend their money
• The best way to reach them – e-mail, phone calls, mailer, advertising (Internet, newspaper, magazine, radio, television)
• The organizations they belong to
• The magazines they read
• Other types of seminars they attend
• Level of knowledge about your seminar topic
  
• Little – your seminar will introduce them to this subject
• Moderate – has some knowledge; would attend to have you help them solve problems about the topic
• Expert – they would attend to get latest information and network with other experts

To find out more about your target market, survey your current clients and find out all you can about them. What problems of theirs are you solving? Chances are there are other people just like them who also want what you have to offer.

Planning a Seminar - Be Ready for Anything with an Emergency Resource Kit

Whenever I work on an event, I bring my own box of items I think might be necessary on-site that others might forget. Here are some of the things I include:

• Aspirin


• Band-aids


• Breath mints


• Cough drops


• Duct tape


• Envelopes


• Extension cord


• Flash drive


• Hand sanitizer


• Highlighters


• Kleenex


• Laundry stain remover


• Memo pad


• Mini-Screwdriver


• Name tags


• Packing tape


• Pens


• Permanent marking pens


• Power strip


• Rubber bands


• Safety pins


• Scissors


• Scotch tape


• Sewing kit


• Shipping labels


• Staples and stapler


• Sticky notes


• Swiss Army Knife

In case of any emergencies, you should also bring along a list of contacts for the venue, technical set-up and staff back at the office.

Seminar Presentation Handouts, Part 2

I received an e-mail asking what a good handout might be when you are only giving a short presentation. What I have seen a lot of speakers do is hand out a list of tips, a checklist or a glossary of terms relevant to their area of expertise.

Tip Sheet
Give the audience a list of ideas that will position you as an expert and stimulate their interest in learning more about what you have to offer. For example, a financial planner might have a tip sheet with the headline, “5 Questions You Must Ask Your Financial Advisor”. A CPA might have a handout, “The 7 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Filing Taxes. . . and How to Avoid Them”.

Checklist
Create a checklist for people to use to help them get organized in your area of expertise. For instance - tax preparation checklist, emergency preparedness checklist, checklist of things to do to prepare your home for sale, a party planning checklist, etc.

Glossary
A list of terms, and their definitions, that are commonly used in your area of expertise. Someone speaking about using the Internet in business might have a glossary of terms that include, ‘”social networking”, “blog,” “social bookmarking” and “wiki.” I’ve seen some speakers laminate their glossaries, this gives them a much higher perceived value.

Remember to put your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, website, logo and company information on everything you handout so people can contact you in the future.

Seminar Presentation Handouts

Many speakers today offer to e-mail their presentation to their audience. It saves them the time and cost of printing and is an environmentally good thing to do. But you may feel your audience would get the most benefit from your presentation if they had a paper copy. What do you put in your handouts? Here are 7 tips:

1. Handouts should be attractive, simple and easy-to-read. Use large fonts in a dark colors with a light background.
2. Have a cover page with your name, company name, tag line, phone number, address, e-mail address and the title and date of your presentation. Some people keep things for a long time, you want to make sure people can still reach you long after your seminar is over.
3. Put your name and contact information on the bottom of each page. It keeps your name in front of the audience and should they, for some reason, just keep a page or two of your handout, they will still know how to reach you.
4. Include all of the PowerPoint slides or copies of your overheads. People sometimes have trouble seeing a screen. Print 2 or 3 slides per page and leave room for people to take notes.
5. Have a few blank pages for any additional notes they may want to take. Title one blank page “Action Items” or “Next Steps” and suggest they write down what they plan to do as a result of hearing your presentation.
6. If you sell products and services, include a list of information about the benefits of each.
7. Make the last page an order form that they can easily tear off and take to the back of the room to make their purchases. Or make it a “questions” page and have your staff gather them and bring them back to you to answer from the podium.