Are seminars still relevant?

Attract the audience

Giving presentations gets easier with practice, but attracting prospects interested in more than a free meal is always hard work. Moldenhauer works with a marketing firm to coordinate some of the invitation mailings for the two to three programs he does each month; he also invites existing clients each time. "Every time we send an invitation out to the general public within a region where we're doing a seminar, we ask our clients to bring a friend," he says. "I would say that in each month's seminars we have between 80 and 110 potential buying units and about 15 or 20 of them are our clients, who usually bring a friend that they want to refer to our firm."

Phil Batchelder, CFP with Prudential Financial in Jacksonville, Florida has been doing seminars for about 12 years. He used newspaper advertising when he started and eventually started working with a mailing service that handles invitations and responses for his monthly programs. He also invites clients and other potential prospects directly. Another method he's used is to work with product wholesalers to sponsor his presentations.

Kahler prefers to have another organization sponsor his programs, a technique that reduces the time his staff spends on promoting the event. He cites a recent program that was sponsored by a local college as an example: "We had 25 people there and all I had to do was show up, speak and leave. I like that. It's a lot less work. So, today I am more focused on finding a sponsor that will fill the seats rather than me having to fill the seats."

Alfonso takes a similar tack. He doesn't do mass mailings because he doubts their efficacy. Instead he approaches community groups that are willing to host his seminars and whose constituencies have an interest in Social Security planning. The organizations provide the facility, audio-visual equipment and publicize the programs to their members.

Land the clients

Good material and a good turnout are vital; the next step is to convert attendees into prospective clients. Without exception, the advisors cited in this article report that using a hard sell to book post-seminar appointments is not the optimal approach. Batchelder says he takes a very low-key approach because some attendees are not under a tight deadline to find an advisor. The seminars help him build relationships and position him for that time when the prospects must make decisions on their retirement.

Moldenhauer uses what he calls a simple and direct process. At the beginning of the seminar, the speaker tells the audience that if at the end of the seminar they have an interest in booking an immediate appointment, there is a person on-site to handle bookings. "We don't really chase people," he says. "If somebody says no, we say OK. If they say yes, we say great. If they say, yes but not now, we say fine, when do you want us to call you back? I think that people get offended if people chase them too hard. And if we chase them, then all we're doing is telling people that we're desperate and, quite frankly, right now we're not."

Be consistent

These advisors also agreed that seminars are not a one-time proposition. You can't expect to build a book of business from one event, because the results can take time to develop. Moldenhauer's firm usually holds 2 to 3 seminars a month. It's an ongoing process and he emphasizes that it requires a major commitment. Advisors who want to go this route should commit to seminars as their primary marketing process, he believes. "The key is (when) you're going to start out, you need to dedicate a couple of staff people to doing the things necessary to keep your seminars moving forward and organized, or they'll fall flat. And, again, I would say if you're going to do it, you want to do it at least once a month. You don't want to do it once a year."

Batchelder recommends developing a plan with at least a six-month horizon that specifies the topics to be covered, the locations, and the target audience. By sticking with the plan, he says it becomes a turnkey operation over time. The restaurants learn your meal and seating preferences and the newspaper and other advertisers learn the desired ad format—you don't have to start over with each program. "I don't think you can do just one and expect it to all happen," he says. "I think putting together a schedule and following that would probably be the best piece of advice I could give."