10 Simple Steps to Seminar Success

Non-hard-sell seminars designed to educate people about the federal government's Social Security program and how to manage their Social Security benefits have become a go-to marketing tool for Joe Elsasser, CFP, founder of SocialSecurityTiming. com and Sequent Planning, LLC, in Omaha, Neb. "It's hard to gauge ROI exactly, but I get anywhere from two to four new clients from among the 20 to 30 people who attend each seminar," he says. "There's not been a seminar where I haven't covered the cost of putting on the event."

How can you stand out in a crowded (some would say oversaturated) seminar field and generate a stellar ROI in the process? While every advisor ultimately must find his or her own formula for success, here are some proven tactics for standing out on the seminar circuit.

See also: 5 Ways to Increase Your Seminar ROI

1. Make enriching attendees through education your top priority, not enriching yourself.

"A lot of seminars that claim to be 'educational' are self-serving," observes Elsasser. "My goal is truly to educate people — to give them the framework for making decisions by showing them the trade-offs involved in those decisions."

According to Schlossberg, new clients — and the added revenues they bring — tend to flow naturally from seminars where attendees sense there is no overt sales agenda. "Success comes when you truly deliver information that is of benefit to the audience, without any effort to sell anything," he says. Schlossberg added an extra wrinkle to the educational thrust of his seminars by charging attendees a tuition fee of $69 for the two-day workshops that proved so successful for him five years ago.

2. Find a seminar topic that appeals to your target audience.

A subject such as Social Security, for example, intrigues a broad range of seniors.

3. Align with a well-respected organization or institution.

Both Schlossberg and Elsasser have had success holding seminars at local universities. It's more receptive to attending a seminar when the invitation bears the name of a local college as a kind of implied endorsement. Before sending out invitations that bear an educational institution's name, be sure they have been approved by officials at the institution, adds Schlossberg. 

Leveraging organizational and professional relationships to build interest in a seminar is an effective way to get qualified attendees and weed out non-qualified ones, according to John Freiburger, CLU, AEP, ChFC, CFP, principal at Partners Wealth Management in Naperville, Ill. "Our experience is that in the affluent, high-net-worth marketplace, general marketing to the public just doesn't work anymore. We would rather have an endorsement from some other organization, or even better, from a law firm or an accounting firm."

4. Build a well-rounded, multidisciplinary program that includes other professionals who complement your skills and services.

"It has worked very well for us to bring in one or more advisors, like a CPA or an estate planning attorney, to speak," explains Freiburger. "It's a way, I think, to legitimize an event and to make it more comprehensive. It also demonstrates [to attendees] that this is how we work—that on their behalf, we are willing to work as a team with other advisors who have expertise in a specific field."

Cross-pollination of clients is another benefit of teaming with other professional advisors on a seminar, adds Freiburger. Such an event can expose the sponsoring advisor to another participating advisor's clients or prospects "in a very low-key way."

What's more, in the name of cost efficiency, the advisors and firms involved in a seminar also can share the cost of putting on the event.