"Your topic must emotionally resonate with potential clients. Start by asking existing clients about what keeps them up at night."

Speak and Be Heard

By Patricia J. Abram

Group presentations can give legs to your overall “pull” marketing campaign and prove an effective way to reach your niche market, especially if you plan such events properly, practice diligently and persevere in your follow-through.

Do group presentations really make a difference? Nearly one-third of higher-income advisors and almost 43 percent of middle-income advisors use seminars as part of their overall marketing program. Plus, 18.5 percent of affluent clients—nearly one in five—prefer to be contacted via seminars and conferences, industry research shows.

As with other pull marketing strategies (such as generating referrals from satisfied clients or developing strategic relationships), successful presentations must showcase your superior service and unique value proposition—so that prospects who fit your ideal client profile are drawn to you. This brings us back to the beginning: proper planning.

Blueprint for Success

A big part of success in any venture is having a good plan and working it diligently. When building or remodeling a house, you’ll spend far less time (and money) working through changes during construction, if you spend more time up-front on a good blueprint. The blueprint for an effective group presentation includes these elements:

• Bringing together the right audience;
• Picking a relevant emotionally compelling topic and title;
• Practicing your delivery ahead of time; and
• Following-through with everyone you invited.

The Right Audience

The wealth management paradigm holds that both clients and advisors do better when advisors have fewer, more affluent clients. This way, a highly personalized client experience can be delivered. Ideally, advisors should focus on specific client niches and develop world-class expertise, services and strategic partners to meet the challenges of niche customers.

Putting an ad in the paper that offers a free pubic seminar for anyone who shows up, or giving presentations at local FPA meetings (a highly unlikely place to find potential clients), doesn't work. Instead, find an appropriate professional organization or affinity group and offer a free no-obligations presentation of great interest to group members.

As a niche expert, you want to land group presentations at niche gatherings. If you want to work with executives, give presentations at the Young Presidents Club in your community; if it’s radiologists, aim for being on the podium at a radiology convention.

Topic and Title

Your presentation's main objective is to draw qualified prospects into the initial part of your one-on-one consultative process. Thus, you must differentiate yourself from other advisors in the minds of your audience. Since most advisors incessantly talk about product, focus instead on precisely how you work with clients to add value to their lives.

Your topic must emotionally resonate with potential clients. Start by asking existing clients about what keeps them up at night. Suppose your clients are concerned about the finances of parents whose memories and ability to function are fading. Your topic? "Aging Parents: Five Steps to Take Today to Avoid Heartaches Tomorrow."

Perhaps your clients and prospects are losing sleep over the financial and practical implications of a natural disaster such as a hurricane, flood or earthquake. You could gather some materials from the Red Cross and local disaster-planning agencies, speak to some insurance experts and then give a talk: “Ensuring Your Physical and Financial Safety against Natural Disasters.” By delivering valuable information on such emotionally charged topics, you position yourself as a trusted advisor whose credibility will draw people to you.

Next, develop your detailed presentation several weeks in advance. Remember that the best speakers are great storytellers. Your story is the story of your practice: how the profound value you add to your clients’ lives differentiates you from other advisors. Also, near the end of your talk, offer attendees a complimentary, no-strings-attached portfolio diagnostic. This makes it easy for them to say “yes” and take the next step towards engaging you.

Finally, leave only a limited time for questions at the end. Open-ended question sessions often degenerate into long-winded specifics about individuals. This often makes the presentation lose its focus and punch. And remember, be respectful of everyone’s time by always starting and ending on time.

Practice Your Delivery

Now it's time to practice. Start in front of a video camera. After practicing alone, put together a “test” audience (others from your firm or friends and family). Make your practice session as realistic as possible and focus on establishing eye contact with each member of the audience.

Review the recorded presentation at least three times. First, turn off the sound and watch five to 10 minutes of the recording in fast-forward mode, so any annoying physical habits or motions will jump right out at you. Second, turn away from the picture and listen to some of the presentation to desensitize yourself to the sound of your own voice.

Third, listen and watch the entire presentation—via audio and video—from start to finish. Note any mistakes, evaluate your voice quality and delivery, and be aware of how well you make eye contact.

Avoid presenting too much detail: You're there to motivate attendees to take the next step, not to over-educate them. Also watch out for jargon, acronyms and other technical terms. You’re addressing a group of potential clients, not investment professionals. Stop the tape each time you use jargon, make note of it and write out a better term that your audience will understand.

When you're done, record yourself again (ideally in front of another test audience) and then review this performance. Great speakers become great by practicing, honestly evaluating themselves and being coached.

A thorough review of your presentation may easily take one or two hours. But the more you practice, the better you'll get.

The Follow-Up

As your presentation ends, repeat the offer of a free portfolio diagnosis, have copies of highly credible information to distribute (ideally a white paper or an article that you have authored, not coasters or refrigerator magnets!) and pass out evaluation cards and pens. The evaluation card should ask attendees to rate the presentation and to share their views about any unanswered questions or omitted material. It also should inquire about their interest in a free portfolio analysis, including a space for them to jot down their contact information and the best time to reach them.

Of course, you'll want to respond quickly to everyone who accepts the free diagnostic offer. And be sure to contact everyone who was invited but was unable to attend. You might say, for example, "I know you’re very busy, and we're sorry you couldn't join us. Here are the three main points we covered ..." (Mention, again, the informational piece you shared and the free diagnostic offer.)

Also, follow up with those who chose not to accept the offer of a free consultation. See if anything on the evaluation card gives you an entrée for conversation, or just thank them for attending and let them know that you are always available to speak with them.

Did your presentation succeed? Even if only a dozen people show up and only one or two agree to a meeting, if they are qualified prospects in your niche, this is certainly a success as you build a wealth management practice for a small number of affluent clients.

In short, have faith in the process: Invite the right attendees, give a persuasive presentation and follow through diligently. Also, be sure to record and watch the tape of your live presentation, analyze your mistakes and successes and start planning your next—even more successful—presentation.

Reprinted from: RESEARCH MAGAZINE