A Captive Audience

By John Bowen

Many advisors tell me they are spending thousands of dollars each year preparing, advertising and conducting public seminars. This is a substantial amount of money, but one that could easily be justified if the seminars were profitable and highly effective at drawing in qualified affluent prospects.

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Unfortunately, most of these advisors are having only marginal success. Their seminars are working—sort of—but still are yielding mostly disappointing results, considering the tremendous amount of time and effort required.

Presented well—and to the right audiences—seminars clearly have the potential to make a significant difference in your practice. In fact, they can become your most important source of new, affluent clients. For your seminars to be profitable, however, you need to take a highly systematic approach that ensures that you receive the greatest possible benefit from your efforts.

Begin with the end in mind. Most financial advisors who have attempted to market themselves through group presentations have experienced the phenomenon of "post-seminar letdown." You probably know the feeling: You've just conducted what you consider a successful seminar, and you feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. But after that initial glow fades, you realize you didn't really do any significant business. Something went wrong, but you're not sure what. All you know is that you failed to turn qualified prospects into clients.

Why? Because most advisors have only a vague idea that they want more clients and get so caught up in the event that they forget why they're there. By beginning with the end in mind, you will never lose sight of the purpose of your seminars, which should be to create an ongoing stream of pre-qualified prospects who have a high likelihood of becoming clients.

Many advisors mistakenly believe their presentations should be designed to provide an educational experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, your program should be designed to achieve the desired outcome—signing on profitable clients.

In order to do this—while avoiding the perception of a hard sell—take care to define the specific results that you want to achieve. Identify the key characteristics of the group so that you can attract the right participants and fully customize your materials to meet their specific needs.

Attract the right audience. Many advisors claim that their specific market is "seminared out." There is no question that many seminars have been offered to investors, but the vast majority have little to offer affluent individuals. The key is to distinguish your presentation from the mediocre ones aimed at ordinary investors by effectively marketing yourself to an affluent audience.

In short, you need the right people at your seminars. Remember that you're not looking for warm bodies to fill the seats; you want true prospects who are highly qualified for your offering.

Avoid both direct mail and print advertising, which are extremely ineffective for attracting qualified affluent prospects. Instead, reach out directly to those you want to attend. These include referrals from your client base and from strategic partners' client bases, members of associations that serve your target market and employees of the companies within your target market. To have these investors attend your seminars, send them personalized invitations.

These invitations should describe exactly how people will gain by attending your seminar. Spell out what they will learn and how that will benefit their investments. Emphasize that the seminar will provide an opportunity for them to receive a second opinion on their current portfolio at no cost or obligation.

Ideally, you should ensure that your seminars are endorsed by an individual or an organization from your target market or by another professional who works in the market. If you conduct your seminars in corporate settings, for example, you will want an endorsement from the head of human resources. Likewise, you might work with an attorney with whom you have a strategic alliance to conduct presentations.

In addition, time your seminars to attract attention in your target market. Meet with editors of the publications in your niche and walk them through your presentation. Editors are always looking for story ideas; your encounter may generate potential articles for publication. At a minimum, the publications may include a listing for your program.

Implement an effective registration process. A crucial moment—which will determine to a great extent whether your seminars are profitable—is the initial point of contact between a potential attendee and your office. Therefore, it is important for your staff to handle each incoming telephone registration call in an extremely professional manner. In fact, every prospective point of client contact influences whether the investor will eventually choose to work with you or not.

To ensure a smooth process that is carried out consistently, give your staff a registration interview guide. This guide should ask for complete contact information on all the attendees, how they heard about the seminar, and whether there is any particular information they would like to learn about at the seminar. Employees should also offer to answer any questions.

Follow up each registration with a confirmation letter that verifies attendance, reiterates the date and location of the seminar, and includes a map of the location. Two days before the seminar, have your staff call everyone who has registered to confirm their attendance. This will significantly reduce the number of no-shows.

Keep audiences small. More is not better. In nearly every case, it's best to limit your audiences to no more than 30 people. This will create an intimate, comfortable atmosphere that suggests exclusivity, which is just not possible when you have a larger group. A smaller group will also mean more opportunity for you to address individual questions from the audience and to make personal contact with attendees after the presentation.

Build in a call to action. Because your goal with every seminar is to turn qualified prospects into clients, incorporate a call to action that creates excitement and motivates participants to meet with you. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't provide excellent fundamental information about your topic area. However, it should be used to prompt attendees to take the desired action.

Offer attendees something that usually only the largest pension plans provide—an investment plan that addresses their unique goals and provides sound recommendations. This strategy creates a win-win situation of substantial value to both you and attendees. It gives you the chance to introduce the prospect to your firm and to prove your mettle as an advisor. And it provides the participants with a complimentary investment plan—something they will find difficult to turn down.

Make it easier for attendees to act by asking them to complete a confidential response form at the end of each seminar. This response form should ask what they liked about the presentation, what they found most valuable, and whether they are interested in the free follow-up investment consultation you are offering.

Design content to meet specific needs of your audience. The information you present should be focused on explaining how investing can achieve the particular goals and solve the specific challenges of your target market. Incorporate your knowledge of your audience's financial issues in order to design the presentation to speak directly to them. Avoid general investing topics, highly technical topics, or any discussion of specific investment products.

Invest in quality handouts. Your attendees' perception of the value of your presentation will greatly increase if you give them something tangible to take home with them. Reiterate your call to action in your handout materials so they are encouraged again to act when they re-read your materials.

Many advisors feel they need to distribute several pieces of collateral marketing material at seminars. A much more effective strategy is to hand out only two pieces: a seminar workbook of your presentation (ideally in a well-designed spiral-bound format) and the response form.

The workbook should begin with an executive summary and then provide the content of your presentation in a clear and straightforward way. Illustrate the points with your charts, including at least one chart on each page. End with a brief conclusion. Throughout the body of the workbook, make clear your call to action—scheduling a complimentary discovery session with your firm itself.

Don't forget to include your contact information at the end of the handout. This should include short bios of you and anyone else prospects are likely to meet with at your firm, as well as an overview of the firm.

Make your seminars repeatable. Don't even consider creating a presentation unless you will have multiple uses for it. To be profitable, you must find ways to leverage the time and energy you invest in putting together the program. In addition, repeated use will allow you to fine-tune the presentation over time, dramatically increasing its effectiveness in bringing new and qualified prospective clients to your firm.

Implement effective follow-up. Begin making the follow-up calls the day after each seminar. Go over each attendee's response sheet before placing the call so that you have a good idea of the type of person you will be speaking with. Call the "yeses" first and then the "maybes," but don't bother calling the "nos." Make it clear in your follow-up calls that you would like to meet in order to determine how you can add value to their financial lives and that, as promised, you would be happy to prepare a personal investment plan for them.

As an advisor in today's highly competitive marketplace, you need to rise above the rest in order to succeed. Seminars—provided they have the essential ingredients that will make them succeed with affluent investors—will go far toward differentiating your firm from your competitors.