Using seminars to sell your services

Seminar selling is not new and many industries use seminars or workshops to market their products or services. Some companies use the medium as their main source of new business leads yet others remain reluctant to adopt this specialised form of selling.

A reluctance to use such a public platform for selling your services can be for a number of quite valid reasons – it may be an understandable nervousness about speaking in public; it could be a concern about the effort required to organise the event; or, it could possibly be the perceived costs and benefits of holding a seminar.

If you are worried about public speaking, here's our top 6 tips

1. Know your material

2. Use personal stories in your presentation

3. Practice. Practice. Practice!

4. Rehearse out loud with all the equipment you plan on using.

5. Know your audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.

6. Arrive early and familiarise yourself with your surroundings

A successful seminar offers an opportunity to present your services to an invited audience of interested prospects. They will be there because they want to find out more about the topic you are presenting and they will be there without many of the usual barriers you come up against with some of the more traditional forms of selling.

A successful seminar enables you to impart far more information than any brochure or website could do and you’ll be in a position to answer questions or address concerns immediately. Your clients can experience you, and your service, in action and make valuable judgements about your personality and the culture of your business.

Furthermore, the content of your seminar has the potential to boost interest in your business and the messages you want to get across – the successful seminar presenter will have a real ability to inspire people to buy from them.

It is worth remembering that some people are reluctant to ask questions and would rather remain anonymous. They may be more comfortable when they are part of a crowd and will respond much more positively to you. They may dislike one to one sales situations which could make them feel under pressure to buy. Let your delegates listen to you whilst sitting with friends, family or colleagues – or with complete strangers but people who share their needs and aspirations – and it will comfort them and as a result you may find that you have much warmer prospects. Your seminar will offer them the chance to listen and to observe the reactions of other people in the audience allowing them to form their opinions with no pressure.

Seminar Selling can be extremely cost effective if you compare it with the cost of traditional prospecting. To secure an audience of 20, 30 or more interested prospects in one room at the same time, offers a highly attractive business opportunity indeed.

So, if you're looking for something different - why not try the seminar?

The Marketing Manager has many years experience of helping companies market their services via seminars - why not get in touch if you'd like to know more?

Should I advertise?

We are sometimes asked by clients, "Do I need to advertise my business?"

For sure the process of advertising can be expensive and it can take up resources that may be better applied in other parts of the buisnes. So, we say, it's almost like converting to a new religion - only do it if you're absolutely sure it's right for you.

To help you, consider this question - who could use your services now?

1. People who’ve never heard of you.
2. People who use your competitors.
3. People who use your competitor, but have also used your services.

Everybody uses advertising – and not just in business life. We have all had to be deft practitioners in the art of advertising, be it to look for a job, buy or sell a home or find a car. We are exposed to hundreds of advertising images every day, promoting products or services or imparting information. Add to these images – some of them subliminal – the commercials we see, listen to and read, it’s easy to appreciate just how much advertising is such an integral part of our every day lives.

But it is one heck of a crowded environment and whilst we can usually recall some of these messages, the majority will just pass us by. That’s why communication through advertising is not as easy as the armchair advertiser would have you believe!

So, if you’ve decided that your business could benefit from advertising, what should your priorities be?

Well, you should begin your planning by deciding what it is you want to say and ensuring that you know exactly what you want your advertising to achieve. Your advertising needs to be tailored precisely to your audience – remember though that your message is unlikely to appeal to everybody who is exposed to it.

So, you might decide to create messages designed:

1. For those who don't know of you or your services. Your message should be designed to stimulate an initial interest
2. For existing clients to persuade them to buy more from you and less from a competitor. Your message should be designed to help develop their loyalty
3. For your competitors clients. Your message should be designed to help encouraging change
4. For existing clients to reassure them that they’ve made the right purchase decision. To the theorists, this is called cognitive dissonance – to the rest of us, it’s designed to encourage your customers to remain loyal!

So, we'd say to answer that 'should I advertise?' question - think about it carefully, think about what you want to achieve - and then talk it through with an expert!