Planning a seminar? Don’t spray and pray, hope and cope
By Rita Coco
Spraying tons of product and service information on your audience and praying that they "get it," is the DDT approach of yesteryear; it kills off a perfectly good audience and you, the presenter, as well. Hopes of high returns on your investment fade, and... you are left coping with less-than-satisfactory results. Your desired business goal has not been met, and you’ve got to tell the boss the bad news. Or maybe you are the boss. In either case, you’ll put more sweat into the seminar the next time. Next time it will be better - you hope.
Why hope and cope? Here are three planning tips to achieve your business goals.
Pick one goal
Select one achievable and measurable business goal for the seminar. Achieving your goal will depend on several elements - your market, where your prospects are in your sales cycle, and how many touch points you establish before and after the seminar. Realizing where your seminar falls in your sales cycle is key to accomplishing your goal, and determines whether you will develop an educational, market or sales seminar.
Measurable goals could be: generate five leads, close one prospect, sell $300 of product, or determine what percentage of your audience is your market and has an unmet need for your business. The following are not measurable goals: I want to reach more people, I need to sell my new service, I need to gain some visibility - these are desires which, with planning, could turn into achievable business goals.
Target the market, then the message
Have one market in mind when planning your seminar, and know the message you want to get across to that market. Your product and service features and functions are not your message. Good market messages are value-laden, and a good seminar demonstrates the value. For example, a service business states they can reduce an insurance bill by 25 percent; they show how during the seminar. A product business says their widget is three times faster than the competition’s; they prove it at the seminar.
Unknowingly, presenters often bog down their seminars with information about their business. To avoid this content trap, determine the ratio of product information to emotion-based market messages to impact statements you will use. Hint: the more dissemination of information you do prior to the seminar, the better.
Methodize your madness
Speakers have unbridled enthusiasm for their product or service. They are mad about their business - and that’s good. But an enthusiastic speaker is not necessarily a natural speaker. There are charismatic speakers who grace the seminar circuit, but the vast majority of seminar presenters are business-savvy first, and public speakers second.
So, methodizing your madness will work to your advantage. The right seminar design and engagement techniques can augment your speaking abilities. Simple structural methods, like the well-known TTT - Tell them what you are going to tell them, Tell them, Tell them you told them - can keep you on-course and focused. More advanced seminar design methods involve less information dissemination and more audience participation. These methods increase your investment returns. How? Audience activities move your market faster along your sales cycle, which is the best seminar result you can accomplish.
The plan and design of your seminar will make or break your business goal. Take your time with both. The good news is that the delivery of your seminar will be easier with a good foundation.
Bonus tips! Request a copy of Public Speaking TOP 10 tips in planning and design of seminars and presentations from the Round Pond Group.
Rita Coco, owner of Rita Coco Consulting, is a consulting professional with the Round Pond Group LLC, www.roundpondgroupllc.com, a Central Mass. firm that assists businesses and organizations through development, change and challenge.
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