Free Seminar Planning Calendar, Timeline, & Checklist

Just finished conducting a webcast for the VARs about how to plan and execute a seminar and I figured I would post a "sanitized" version of the presentation and planning resources here:

1. Slideshare: "How to Plan & Execute a Seminar"
Link: http://www.slideshare.net/bobhebeisen/how-to-plan-execute-a-seminar
Agenda:

• Set Your Objectives & Strategies
• Planning The Date, Location, Topic & Time
• Marketing & Sales Coordination
• Marketing Execution: Registration Form & Invitation
• Seminar Presentation
• Day of the Event Logistics
• After the Event Follow-Through
• Resources
  

2. Planning template: Seminar Planning Calendar + Timeline + Checklist
Link: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwdynuOi-Ji-NTliMjgxMzAtNjQxYy00MjVkLWIyNjEtN2IzOTkxNzdkY2Iy&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
Tab 1: Calendar & Timeline
Tab 2: Day of Event Checklist

Writing Compelling Invitations for Seminars (& Webinars)

Here is an often cited direct marketing maxim:

Sell the offer, not the product.

This is an important distinction, especially in seminar marketing. The objective with your seminar invitation is NOT to close the sale (so in the invitation don't go on and on endlessly about your product). The objective of your invitation is much more short-sighted than that -- it is to get the recipient to register for (and then hopefully to attend) the seminar. Once you get your prospect seated in the room, then you can begin a more in-depth dialog to understand their needs, fully explain your product solution, and to ultimately close the sale.

Sell the offer, not the product -- so what does that mean? The offer, in this case, is the seminar event itself. Your seminar invitation needs to compel the recipient to register and attend. Your seminar invitation needs to...

1. Convey the value of attending -- What will they learn? What credible sources will they learn it from? Is it being held at a cool place?
   
2. Remove reasons for hesitation -- When and where is it? How do I get there? Is there parking? Will I have to skip a meal? Is it really for me?
   

A Template You Can Follow:


Seminar marketing is actually quite formulaic -- it's tried and true, from years of experimentation and testing by marketers.

See this link for the anatomy of a good seminar invitation (or click the graphic on the left). It is an annotated example of a real seminar invitation that drove registrations for a successful seminar we conducted a few years ago. It follows a tried and true outline you can adopt for your own seminar invitations. Here are some best practices identified:

• Create a compelling seminar title
• Create a compelling email subject line
• Include the logistics: date, time, location
• Include a "what you will learn" section -- that is the #1 reason why someone will register, and if they need to get permission from their boss this is what they will show them
  
• Include 3rd party speakers -- shows recipients that it is not just going to be a sales person talking at them
  
• Include a "who should attend" section -- overcomes any hesitation that this seminar might not be the right fit for the recipient of the invitation
  

Other General Tips:

• Keep the content short and punchy (the example I linked above is probably a little too long, the logistics are repeated and the bios are a little longer than they need to be)
  
• Use subheads & bullets to make it easy to read
  
• Keep the tone of the invitation and the subject matter of your seminar educational (nobody wants to show up to a glorified sales presentation)
  
• Use strong language for your call to action (register today)
  
• Stick to half-day seminars because it is probably too much of a commitment for most business people to get out of the office for a full day
  
• Include an exciting door prize if possible

To read more about selling the offer, check out this article: In B2B Direct Mail Lead Generation, Sell Your Offer, Not Your Offering.

Post your comments and let me know if I missed anything!

Avoid Common Pitfalls for More Effective Sales Seminars -- Part 2

In Part 1 of this post, I discussed the importance of having a good sales pipeline, building quality content, and allowing adequate time for promotion. I want to publish a few additional thoughts here.

1. Doing the Little Things Right Can Make a Big Difference
I had an interesting conversation with a regional sales director the other day. He mentioned door prizes, venue selection, and catering. Hey, without a doubt all these "little things" matter and they can add up to make the difference between success and failure. Here are some examples:

A. CATERING:
You can *increase registration* if you mention in your invitation that a meal will be served. For the title of your event, consider naming it a "Breakfast seminar..." and mention that a complimentary meal will be served.

B. DOOR PRIZES:
Including door prizes might increase registration, but it is even more important for *reducing your no-show rate.* Include a note in your confirmation and reminder emails that there will be prizes raffled off or give-aways for each attendee. Be specific about what will be awarded. That way, registrants will realize that if they no-show then they will miss out on something concrete and desirable.

C. REMINDERS AND CONFIRMATIONS:
While we are discussing *reducing your no-show rate*, it is absolutely critical that you remind your registrants of the upcoming seminar and confirm their attendance. Send a reminder email a day or two before the event to every person who has registered. Follow up with phone confirmation to make sure they are still able to come. While you are at it, ask them if anyone else in their organization would be interested in attending, it can be extremely valuable to get other members of the decision-making unit to attend, or at least capture their contact information. During your confirmation activities, be sure to have ready driving directions to the venue, and any information about parking (these are common questions you will get).

D. VENUE SELECTION:
Choose a venue that matches the theme and it may *increase registration.* If you are having an end-user "hands-on workshop" then it is OK to rent a standard function room at Holiday Inn. But that will not cut it for an executive audience. You need to go upscale and exclusive and "cool." Choose a fancy restaurant, or an upscale hotel. Try something unconventional like renting out a museum space or art gallery or sports facility. I once held a seminar in Fenway Park (home of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox) and it was a huge draw. Hold your event at a prominent customer's headquarters. We have hosted seminars at the facilities of customers who are prominent NASCAR competitors and it always helps to draw a crowd.

Any other good examples? Please feel free to post them in the comments section below.

2. Knowing When to Pull The Plug on a Seminar That Will Fail:
I came across a good article called "Seminar Marketing - Seven Tips to Increase Attendance." There's a good discussion of timing your promotion, the importance of coming up with a good seminar title, setting realistic expectations about how many registrations you will get based on the size of the list you are promoting to, etc.

The post starts with this quote "I just delivered one of the best seminar presentations of my life," said the professional. "Too bad only 6 people showed up."

This should NEVER happen. It is not easy to admit failure. But it is sometimes better to gracefully cancel a seminar than to hold a seminar with low attendance.

Monitor your registration list. If you have less than 20 people registered within a week of your event you should strongly consider canceling your seminar. Remember you will have something like a 50% no-show rate, so 20 registrants will yield around 10 attendees. Depending on your room size, less than 10 people in attendance will probably be embarrassing and counterproductive -- an empty room will convey to the audience members that nobody really wants to listen to what you have to say. It will make them question why they fell for it, when nobody else apparently did!

So if you have an unacceptably low registration rate it is better to cancel your seminar. Call up each registrant and make an excuse (our guest speaker had a family crisis and had to cancel, or something like that) and offer to come to them in-person and deliver the content. That is the best way to salvage the sales opportunity, and you might actually be able to recoup some of your event costs too (venue, travel, catering, etc.). That is taking lemons and making lemonade!

Please feel free to post examples of successes or failures, or additional tips.

Avoid Common Pitfalls for More Effective Sales Seminars

I know it is much more "vogue" these days to write articles about social media ;-)! But seminars are real meat-and-potatoes activity for resellers. So when it is not going well, there is a real problem.

Resellers are constantly being pushed by sales management to do more seminars. It seems like a great idea: instead of doing a bunch of one-on-one sales calls, gang-up a bunch of sales calls together at once and call it a seminar. But I've seen enough resellers struggle to achieve good results with seminar marketing to know that it is not always that easy.

Let's take a step back and make sure we understand how seminars fit into the marketing mix and how you can ensure their success:

1. Understand The Objective of a Seminar:
When VAR seminars are unsuccessful, the #1 reason why is that marketers, salespeople, and VAR principals misunderstand the objective of seminars within the marketing mix.

• The objective of a seminar is NOT new lead generation.


• The objective of a seminar is advancing pipeline opportunities already in progress.

A seminar probably won't be your first point of engagement with a prospect, because a cold lead is probably not going to show up for your seminar. If your prospect has never heard of you, never downloaded your white paper, never expressed an interest in your solution, or never received an introductory sales call from you, they are probably not ready to attend your seminar.

2. Check Your Pipeline:
Your sales pipeline is the fuel that makes a seminar go. If you can't name 10 pipeline accounts within 100 miles of your proposed seminar, then don't do a seminar. Instead, do some lead generation marketing activities (rent a list and promote a white paper, demo, or Webcast). I'll cover effective lead generation marketing in subsequent posts.

Remember, the primary objective of a seminar is to advance pipeline opportunities. If you don't have solid pipeline opportunities then first you have to do the *prerequisite* lead generation work to build your pipeline. There's no real shortcut here, folks. Your attendee list for your seminar will be derived primarily from sales calling into your pipeline, not from marketing emails or direct mail or banner promotion or social media posts.

Let me say that again: If you can't name 10 pipeline accounts within 100 miles of your proposed seminar, then don't do a seminar. Do lead generation instead.

3. Build Quality Content:
The days are long gone where you would jam a bunch of prospects into a room and then deliver the same sales presentation you deliver in one-on-one sales meetings. Wouldn't it be great if it was that easy? If that ever worked, it doesn't work today. In a tough economy it is not that easy for your prospects to justify time out of the office for something like this.

Build a quality agenda where the attendees will learn something valuable. Include guest speakers (customer case studies, industry experts, etc.). And make sure your marketing promotions highlight the quality and the value.

4. Begin Execution Well In Advance:
People are busy. Be respectful of that. Calling your sales prospect in a panic 2 days before your event and pleading with them to come to your seminar is not respectful of *their* busy schedule and *their* business priorities. I recommend that you...

• Begin planning your seminar 2 months in advance of the seminar date. Get all the details sorted out: topic, agenda, date, time, & venue. These are the details you need for your marketing promotions.
• Work hard to come up with a good seminar title -- a compelling seminar title is the most important factor in getting people to register. Test it with your sales people, customers, and prospects to make sure it has perceived value.
  
• Create your email. Make sure it highlights your valuable agenda. Include a section entitled "What you will learn" and use at least 3 bullets of key information you will cover. Be sure to mention your guest speakers -- good guest speakers will increase your attendance. An HTML email is good for email blasting, but more importantly, create a OFT version of your email. An OFT email can be used by your sales people to send one-off emails to their individual pipeline contacts to invite them to the event. (If you don't know how to create OFT emails, I'll post a comment below with instructions on how to do it.)
  
• Begin promoting your event at least 1 month in advance of your seminar date. This gives your prospects plenty of time to fit it into their schedule. It also gives you time to send out at least 2 waves of invitations -- sometimes it takes more than one invitation to get the job done.
• I'll write some more about writing effective seminar invitations later.
  

PTC Resellers and Regional Marketers: I have compiled a bunch of helpful tips in our PTC Partner Portal: Log into the Partner Portal, under the Departments tab navigate to the Marketing page, then look for the "How-To / Best Practices" section. There is content here that includes planning guidelines, how to write effective invitations, and even good presentations and content you can leverage to build your seminar agenda.

Now that we are all on the same page about how seminars fit into the mix, PTC has all the tools to help you knock it out of the park!