Seminar Tools

This section is devoted to providing you with a suite of seminar tools. Below you will find a series of letters which you can use as templates when inviting clients to your own Seminar. Feel free to use these letters as they are, or to add a touch or your own style and flair.

To make a seminar successful, you need your response rate to be as high as possible and your 'drop-out rate' (no shows) to be as low as possible. The best way to do this is make people feel that your invite is personal. Word your letter very gently, but in a way where they will not only ring to confirm they can make the event, but will also ring to say they are unavailable instead of just ignoring the letter.

Below you will find the steps we suggest. You don't need to follow all of these, but the more you do, the higher the response rate and the lower the drop-out rate. If you would like help, the Liontamer team will work with you to tailor the letter.

Step 1: Invite the clients
Different business have different styles, so you will find two approaches in the letters attached :
a. Soft approach presenting the Seminar as an opportunity to learn more
b. A more 'salesy' approach where the Seminar is positioned as finding out about a new investment opportunity

Including a separate invite card also makes the client feel like this is a real event and the invite deserves their attention and a response. That's why even the single page letters have an invite panel included. Your own company logo can be added to this card and options are available to print in colour or black and white.

	Seminar invite - pre-Christmas
	Seminar invite - New Year
	Seminar invite more salesy with invite card

Step 2: Send acceptance letter
While you might think this is an unnecessary amount of admin, it increases peoples 'buy-in' of an event. They gave a commitment to attend and you confirmed their commitment in writing. This is another signal that you are taking the seminar very seriously and value their time.

Seminar acceptance letter

Step 3: Send a letter to attendees
Most people have quite busy lives and it's very easy to forget that you committed to an event. The original invite may have been lost. Sending a reminder letter a few days before the event is a really useful reminder to many people. It's also good to give little tips about where to park, or directions as simple things like this can worry people.

Seminar reminder (respondents)

Step 4: Send a reminder letter to those that didn't respond
Many people assume that if someone doesn't respond the first time then they weren't interested, but one of the first rules of marketing is that you need to 'repeat'. People forget, the invite gets lost under a pile of bills etc. A nicely worded reminder makes them realise you were really hoping they could attend.

Seminar reminder (non-respondents)

 

Ten Tips for running a good Seminar

The cold hard fact is this: Coronation Street? Or, turning up to a financial seminar? We may as well face it, we're up there with the dentists! While we live and breathe finance, most of our clients don't, so we need to employ some pretty convincing tactics to get them out from in front of their tellys. It all comes down to good marketing.

Below you'll find a fairly comprehensive list of things to consider. For those of you who have run seminars before, there might be one or two tips you'll still pick up:

1. Decide on your theme
   
2. Appoint a Project Manager
   
3. First impressions - it's got to appear 'up market'
   
4. Invite, ONCE, TWICE, and THREE times!
   
5. Location
   
6. Technology
   
7. What's the objective - Servicing, Education, Selling ?
   
8. Be the host, add a personal touch and independence
   
9. 'Call to action'
   
10. Follow up, follow up and more following up
    

1.Decide on your theme
There are many ideas which Liontamer can assist you with: make it topical and relevant to your clients' concerns and needs.

"Reducing risk, but keeping great returns"
"Protecting your savings"
"New investment innovations"
"Investing in the sharemarket without risking your savings"
"Managing and reducing risk"
"New investment opportunity - capital protected sharemarket investments"
"Insuring your investments" - now possible with capital protection"

2. Appoint a Project Manager
The art of any good event is delegation. Appoint an official project manager from within your business. This person should be a good communicator (and preferably not an adviser). Never try and run a seminar on your own, no matter how easy it seems, these things pile up on you. Plus, to get buy-in from your other colleagues, a team approach gets other people interested and excited. Hold a meeting and make joint decisions.

Who is?

• Booking the hotel, arranging drinks/nibbles, seating plan, screen, liaising with the hotel's function manager on the night?
• Writing, printing, posting invites, writing a reminder letter and making follow up calls to special clients who you feel should attend?
• Keeping a list of respondents who accept the invites and sending out a 'thank you for accepting' letter
• Contacting speakers and liaising over presentations, content and allocated timings?
• In charge of technology? Having presentations on powerpoint and responsibility for setting this up on the night.
• Making name tags for clients, other colleagues and presenters - this adds professionalism and makes life easier for initiating chit-chat. Make sure you have spare blank badges for last minute friends and family who tag along
• Representing your business on the night? This is a great chance to introduce clients to other staff in your business, especially those who help with admin
• Running a registration desk on the night? Even if you only have 10 clients, this gives them a focal point when they arrive

3. First impressions - whether it's for 10 people or 100 people, it's got to appear 'up market'.
Remember, you are competing for their time and the event has to appear more attractive than 1-2 hours of charts, graphs and financial speak. That doesn't mean having to spend a lot of money; it's all about how you sell it. Your choice of words and the style of your invite are crucial.

• Pay for a small conference room in a well respected hotel - it adds a touch of prestige. People like to tell their friends they are going to a function at the XYZ Hotel tonight. Put it in 'lights' on the invite
• Or, have it in your office, but announce that it's in the "Board Room"
• Offer the choice of two dates if it's possible to run two seminars. Therefore it's more difficult for clients to decline
• Give the seminar a name and a theme
• Announce on the invite who your speaker/s are
• Buy a few bottles of wine, so your invite can say "join us for a glass of wine at 7.00pm
• Seminar to begin at 7.30pm ". Clients will drink very little and many will prefer the tea and coffee, but it adds a social tone to the invite. If the budget allows, include a NZ cheese selection or a few nibbles
• Talk about a prize draw or quick competition to be held at the end with a bottle of bubbly/whiskey as the prize. Run an in-house raffle at each seminar with proceeds to a charity you support. Mention this on the invite
• As well as an investment theme, try to add a 'time of year' theme to your seminar - this could be sporting, festivity related e.g. Christmas, New Year, Easter or a seasonal theme 'mid winter'. This helps add some colour to the language you use, or the drinks and nibbles you provide can be based on the theme
• If you only have one investment company speaking there may be room for a non-investment speaker. A local celebrity etc to lighten the evening
  

While some of these things may appear slightly costly, or perhaps too relaxed for the world of financial services, stop and think again. In the real world 'finance' is relatively unappealing. The more you can do to add humour and colour, the higher your response rate and future attendance will be. Make it boring and they'll never come to another seminar.

4. Invite, ONCE, TWICE, and THREE times!
The more personal the invite, the higher the response rate. A mention in the corner of a newsletter will spark some interest, but it won't make clients feel like a personal invite was extended.

• A newsletter mention is great as a starter, especially if you have a large client base and can't afford to write to each of them
• Try to write a personally addressed letter to a key group of clients
• Include a separate card or half page paper invite with the letter. This invite should have all the key details on it. Clients like to have an 'official' invitation in their hands
• Don't just leave it at that, or give up when only a few people respond. People need prompting. Get on the phone and call key clients. All clients who phone in, should be prompted by reception "did you get our invite?"
• Send a follow up 'reminder' letter a week before the event, saying "we were hoping to hear from you about our seminar"
• Once people confirm, have a standard letter prepared to acknowledge they will be attending. This reduces the chances of 'no shows', as the client feels like a commitment has been acknowledged. Remind clients to bring friends or family on this letter

This does involve a bit of work, but the results will be hugely improved if everyone in the business gets enthusiastic about inviting clients.

5. Location
As discussed already, the location adds to the atmosphere and professionalism of the event. Whether you decide to hold the seminar in a local hotel or your 'Board Room', remember the following:

• Make sure the directions from reception are clear and someone is on hand to ensure clients reach the right room
• Ensure the room is not too big or small. Large rooms can really spoil the atmosphere
• Get to the location early and look at the detail - white table cloths on tables, matching chairs, lighting is good etc
• Have your brand prominent. If you can make up large signs with your logo, have these around the walls. Have the powerpoint screen set to your company logo with a message for clients "Welcome to the XYZ Client Seminar" and projected onto the wall

6. Technology
Powerpoint displays are the most widely used, but if you don't have the projector to use for a formal presentation, don't worry. Most investment companies can bring their own equipment and many hotels will provide this.

The key with technology is to get it all set up at least an hour before the clients arrive and have a practice run through so there are no surprises.

7. What's the objective - Servicing, Education, Selling?
Don't make the mistake of turning the Seminar into a "selling feast". There should be 3 key objectives to a good seminar - servicing, education and selling. If clients walk away feeling like they've discovered something new or interesting, the sale will follow naturally. This is a key point to get across to your speakers from investment companies. Make sure they combine some general education into the information they impart.

Servicing:

• This is your chance to provide clients with a great servicing opportunity. A chance to add value, to make them realise that paying a fee or brokerage for advice is worthwhile, because of the add-ons they get
• Introduce the theme for the evening and talk about why you felt it was so important to run a seminar on this topic
• Give an update on your business
• Give a small presentation about the market, themes, the problems investors face, positives out there, what to watch out for
• Introduce other colleagues and give their backgrounds. Put a face to the name
• At the end, close down with a short presentation about the lessons we can learn from the discussion how these investments can be fitted into portfolios and how this broad category of investment is now gathering speed, rising in popularity and is set to change the way portfolios are managed
• Talk about how you and other colleagues will want to review portfolios and discuss these opportunities with them in personal meetings

Education:

• Ensure all speakers include a good element of education in their presentations
• Take time to explain terminology or teach clients about the workings behind an investment
• Have some education on the current market backdrop and history to it
• Make sure 'question time' is allowed for and plant a couple of questions in the audience to start things off

Selling:

• Of course it's important; just don't over-do it or under-do it. Clients like hearing about new investment opportunities, but they don't want to walk away feeling like that was the only reason for the seminar

8. Be the host, add a personal touch and independence

• Looking like you are in charge of the seminar is crucial. Do more than a quick intro and handover to the speaker/s. Get other colleagues involved by doing a quick spot on a topic of importance
• Add a personal touch with news about colleagues who have had children, grandchildren, got married, had an overseas holiday etc - clients like to feel they are involved at a personal level
  Always be independent - demonstrate this by asking the speaker a couple of 'tricky' questions. Present the business as 'consumer champions'

9. 'Call to action'
All is lost if you don't ask for feedback. Always bear in mind your ultimate goal - to set up appointments and introduce clients to new investment opportunities. Take the first step with a feedback form.

• Hand out a 'feedback form' and provide pens as people often arrive without them
• Ask if they were interested in particular investments. Get feedback on the most informative parts of the seminar
• Ask if they currently have any needs in other areas outside of investments, just in case you pick up a cross sale opportunity
• Make the feedback form as easy as possible, tick boxes, yes/no with just a couple of personal comment areas
• Make sure you include a space for name, email and phone number in case you have friends of clients who turn up

10. Follow up, follow up and more following up

• Send each client a 'thank you for attending' letter
• Make sure every attendee is rung personally to prospect for new opportunities