How to Make Semiinar Appoiintments Stiick and Conduct a Wiinniing Fiirst Appoiintment

How to Make Seminar Appointments Stick and Conduct a Winning First Appointment

How to Make Seminar Appointments Stick and Conduct a Winning First Appointment Wouldn’t it be great to schedule appointments with ⅔ of your seminar attendees, have all of them actually show up, and close at least half on the second appointment? With some planning, which starts with how you invite people, you will have a higher quality of appointments that stick.

Why Did They Come? If you have people cancel before the appointment, the first place to look is how you invited them to the seminar. Don’t telemarket to fill up your seminar. People who respond to telemarketing were persuaded to attend. They generally don’t take action on their own and will have to be convinced to do something, including keeping an appointment with you, and are most likely to cancel. On the other hand, people who turn up because they received an invitation in the mail or saw an insert in the newspaper have made a conscious decision to hear what you have to say. They are inclined to do things; they are proactive. They are the ones who want help and will take action. And forget the meal. When you feed people, half of your attendees will be there for the free meal. They were bribed, were not serious to begin with, and often cancel appointments with you. If you want the maximum, quality appointments, use direct mail and do not serve a meal (refreshments or continental breakfast is fine).

Whom Are You Inviting? Younger people tend to have a higher cancellation rate than retirees and business owners. This is because they’re working and have a lot of things going in their lives, such as children and jobs, that can lead to them canceling or just not showing up for appointments. Additionally, younger people do not find it important to keep their commitments as older people do. Older people have been brought up to keep their word, and business owners usually wouldn’t waste their time even making an appointment unless they are prepared to take action.

Seminars are Not about Educating People Education does not motivate people. They want solutions to their problems, but first you must get them to like you by 

Smiling

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Speaking clearly

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Dressing conservatively

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Avoiding technical jargon

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Personally greeting each attendee

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Telling stories that they can relate to

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Show That You are Their Friend and Others are the Enemy

In other words, people make and keep appointments because of YOU, not our presentation or content. If you just tell them lots of interesting stuff, they are not motivated to follow through. Motivation is about 2 issues: giving them an incentive and removing their fear. One incentive is to show them that their current financial advisor has not told them the full story or the truth. For example, I always talk about mutual fund fees at seminars because I know that other advisors don’t want to ever disclose these onerous layers of costs. When attendees see this they think, “My advisor never told me I was paying that much.” This isn’t competition bashing but rather about why you’re a better financial advisor than anybody else out there. Here’s how you’re going to do it. Each topic that you discuss, lead in with a sentence that sounds like: You know folks, I don’t know why this is but many advisors don’t explain this very well to their clients, but it’s important for you to know how this really works. Then you explain it. This will subtly position you as the first person to tell them the straight story, and you will become their trusted friend.

Make Appointments at the Seminar Include in your handouts, a form listing several dates and times for appointments (see attached form in this report). Ask attendees to check off a specific one, thereby making a commitment. Tell them what to expect at the meeting and promise not to sell anything. However, provide an incentive, such as offering to find a way to reduce income taxes.

Request that attendees bring tax returns and investment statements to the appointment. Forget about asking them to fill out a financial profile—another distraction that can keep them from keeping the appointment. Start at 8:00 am on the next business day after the seminar and call to confirm the appointment. You must make the call. It’s important not to delegate this task. Prospects must know that you, the speaker whom they came to know, care enough to make a personal call. They respect you but they won’t respect your assistant. The same day, send a written confirmation. Then the day prior to the appointment, you or your assistant can call to confirm. Goal at the First Appointment is to set a Second Appointment (details on conducting the first appointment are in our separate report, “Close at the 2nd Appointment.” Follow These Steps and You’ll have fewer cancellations, more face-to-face meetings and more income. To employ marketing systems that employ these strategies, see www.javelinmarketing.com/seminars.

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