Due to the dramatic falloff in results from traditional financial seminars, advisors are now hosting events to generate prospects. The good news is that many advisors are generating good will with clients. The bad news is that many of these events are huge failures in initiating relationships with quality prospects. The exciting news is that by avoiding the key mistakes listed below, advisors can turn events into hugely successful prospecting vehicles.
Here are the top 6 mistakes advisors make when hosting events
- Failure to clarify a primary objective for the event. Too many advisors promote a “client appreciation event”, when their real desire is to generate prospects. Showing clients your appreciation is a very DIFFERENT objective than generating prospects and these objectives require DIFFERENT types of events and invitation strategies. What you say to clients, how directive you are in the invitation process, and how you follow-up are very different.
- Failure to link the event to your primary marketing objectives. Many advisors spend a lot of money hosting big events when a smaller and less expensive event aimed at their target market can do much more to build awareness and secure appointments with target prospects. An exclusive briefing for key managers of a company may do much more for you than an expensive dinner gathering for a larger group.
- Failure to direct the invitation process so you get who you want to attend. This is the single most important factor in driving your results, yet most advisors leave this entirely to chance. They “hope” that clients will bring along quality prospects and as a result the advisor is frequently disappointed.
- Conducting events that are too large. If the objective is to initiate relationships with elite prospects by making them comfortable with you, having them attend your event with 40 other people gives you NO TIME with them to accomplish your objective. Is your goal entertaining a lot of people or making select people comfortable enough with you to agree to a one-on-one appointment?
- Inadequate or non-existent follow-up. Your event is NOT THE END RESULT. It is the BEGINNING of the selling process. Have you specified exactly what your follow-up process will be with clients and guests who attend?
- Failure to give yourself enough lead time to do it effectively. To make your event a profitable business building strategy, you need to set it up effectively. For example, you need enough lead time to check the calendars of the people you want to attend BEFORE you finalize the event date.
Events can compress time and get you introduced to dozens of elite prospects within 90 days – if you conduct them effectively. They can be a huge success or a huge waste of money.
To help you host the right type of event, get the people you want to attend, and turn those introductions into appointments, we created Attract High-Quality Referrals with Distinctive Events.
This referral event toolkit covers everything from A-Z including
- How to get who you want to attend
- How to determine the right type of event
- How to make your event stand out so people WANT to attend
- How to define your objectives
- What to say to clients so they feel good about bringing who you want to attend
- How to get fully briefed on guests before they arrive
- How to follow-up with clients and guests so you secure appointments
- How to conduct distinctive events without spending a lot of money
You will hear success stories from advisors who created hugely profitable events and you will learn exactly what they did to make them so successful.
To learn more, go to the productivity tools section of this website and check out “Attract High Quality Referrals with Distinctive Events”.