Better Prospecting: The Art Of Marketing By Seminars

 This article was originally published in Life Insurance Selling magazine on 11/3/2009 by KIM MAGDALEIN

Last month’s article emphasized the use of numbers to accomplish your prospecting goals. With the use of electronic communications, it’s a new world that we live in. Some agents may be uncomfortable using e-mail and e-marketing, but if you wish to keep up, then it will be necessary to get on board. I’m 57 years old and it’s been an ordeal to get up to speed in the latest and greatest communication devices.

Because I have personally presented my practice over 930 times to the public and have coached the production of thousands of seminars for other producers, it would be appropriate to discuss my feelings about using public seminars as a marketing method in your practice.

When I started presenting to the public back in 2001, and for many years since, it was relatively easy to get a great attendance and gorge my calendar with appointments. We have experienced a maturing of the seminar method. Attendance dropped dramatically during 2008, but we have seen a resurgence in attendance in most areas of the country in 2009.

In previous years we were able to “skim the cream,” so to speak, and I’m afraid we were a little spoiled. It was not unusual to get a 10- or 15-to-1 return on investment in seminars in years past. Now it is closer to a 5- or 7-to-1 return. Still very good, but not what it was.

As our economic environment improves, we are seeing a steady increase in seminar attendance and response. My practice did so much business that we didn’t follow up on anyone who did not make an appointment. How foolish. I’m guilty. Today, all attendees go into a database of drip e-mail, e-newsletter and snail-mail marketing for continuous follow-up.

How about those seminars? First of all, seminars continue to work well. With the advent of compliance issues and suitability concerns, many agents have shied away from seminars. That’s not a good idea. Seminars bring very large numbers of prospects. People who come to seminars, by and large, are concerned about their financial retirement issues.

I never give attendees solutions or product explanations at a seminar. That should be done at the conference table in my office. There is only one purpose for the seminar: Get the appointment. What your attendees want to know is that you have good bedside manner, you’re capable at your profession and possibly trustworthy. You would want them to make an appointment to discover if any of these things are true.

Greg, a producer, called me recently to say that he had tried seminars in the past with disappointing results. After some coaching, his renewed confidence encouraged him to make a commitment to present his practice with seminars. After his second one, he reported that he was very excited about the results. His attendance was higher and the appointment ratio improved. Greg has scheduled several more seminars.

It is easy to get discouraged. Seminars are an expensive project. I would suggest that any inexperienced seminar presenter get as much coaching and training as possible before venturing into the seminar waters. Also, you must be confident in your presentation skills or at least confident in your ability to improve.

Seminars can be an extremely effective method of filling your prospect list, but you should know how to produce and present seminars correctly for optimum performance.

Kim L. Magdalein is a producer and owner of PresentYourPractice.com. He entered the industry in 1985, and went into private practice in 2001 serving the Jacksonville, Fla., retirement community. He has personally presented hundreds of seminars and created a thriving practice. He created Present Your Practice in 2004 to serve producers with seminar productions and methods for optimizing seminar attendance with qualified prospects. He can be reached at (800)909-9894.