Seminars and Workshops: A Failing Model

There are fewer prospects willing to invest the precious time out of their busy schedules to stay with your process for that long – especially if it involves physically attending meetings.

With a multi-step process like the seminar model, any chance where momentum can be lost, it will be lost.

And if you lose momentum, you lose the sale.

The second reason seminars are losing their effectiveness is because information has been commoditized.

Only a few years ago there were fewer channels, fewer voices, and less noise.

People listened to and trusted both the information and the person providing it.

But our culture has permanently shifted.

There’s so much information available and it’s so fragmented that people often don’t trust the source. Delivering the same information to them in a live environment doesn’t exponentially expand its trust worthiness, primarily because they don’t have a relationship with you before you deliver it.

Merely informing or educating your prospects is no longer enough to onboard them as a new, paying client.

(Of course, if workshops are still bringing you new clients, then keep doing them. Just don’t be surprised if you see an upward trend of costs invested and a lower trend of those converting to a new client.) Look at your numbers; they will tell the story.

Rather than educating prospects through workshops, online posts, or marketing focused on presenting education/solutions, shift to a trust-based, problem-centric approach.

Solution-based marketing encourages indecision, triggering: “I want to think about it”.

Problem-based marketing emphasizes the need to act on the problem, not think about the solution. Read that line again and let it digest for a few minutes.

Think about other professions like law or medicine.

They don’t run workshops to get new business.

Their intake process is a problem-diagnosis session (not a discovery meeting), a single appointment, where they clarify their client’s or patient’s problem and explain its immediate consequences.

The advantages with this approach are:

1. There are no multiple steps where momentum can be lost.

2. It encourages action by emphasizing immediate consequences, instead of encouraging indecision by presenting future benefits.

3. It gives your prospect clarity, instead of information to process.

4. It’s fast.

5. It’s cost effective.

6. Often, the client or patient commits at the very first meeting.

If you switch to a process that works more like a doctor’s appointment, you collapse the typical workshop model that can span weeks, or even months, down to one single conversation.

This allows you to quickly determine whether the sale will happen – which is key to being able to target your ideal clients effectively, and in turn, grow your monthly intake of new paid client relationships.

To learn a new way to consistently and reliably grow your practice, order the complimentary book and consultation below.

Ari Galper is the world’s number one authority on trust-based selling and is the most sought-after high-net worth/lead generation expert for financial advisors. His newest book, “Trusted Authority” has become an instant best-seller among financial advisors worldwide – you can get a free copy of Ari’s book here and, when you click the “YES” button in the order form, you’ll also receive a complimentary “get new clients” lead generation consultation. Ari has been featured in CEO Magazine, Forbes, INC Magazine and the Australian Financial Review. He is considered a contrarian in the financial services industry and in his book, everything you learned about selling will be turned upside down. No more chasing, no pressure, no closing.

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