When you go about setting up local meetings or seminars to recruit your PSAs and PRMs, you should know your objectives.
Your business objective is to build your team by sharing the benefits of SFI home business opportunity and the benefits of TripleClicks membership. It is therefore vitally important that one conduct all meetings/seminars as professionally as possible in order to accomplish these objectives.
A common pitfall for network marketers is failing to realize that it is the little “professional” details that make a tremendous difference in realizing success in holding local meetings or seminars. It is the fine points of how the meeting is conducted that translate into how successfully we sponsor PSAs and PRMs.
How to set up and run professional meetings or seminars to recruit PSAs and PRMs?
One of the most effective presentations is a home meeting where you invite a new prospect or lead over to discuss the SFI/TC business opportunity. This can be very informal; however, you always want to be as professional as possible when representing your SFI/TC business.
You want to make sure that there are no distractions such as TVs playing, pets running around, children trying to get attention, or telephones ringing. This type of meeting can be for one, two or three people sitting across from each other at the kitchen table. When conducting a meeting across the kitchen table, it is very effective to use a flip chart of SFI Basics, Compensation Plan and Benefits Chart.
Another very effective method of presenting your SFI/TC business is through Power Point Presentation about SFI (About Us) and the SFI/TC Stats. Compensation Plan and the Benefits Chart. You should provide information about the home business opportunity and the highlights of what’s in it for them.
If home meeting is not an option, you’ll need to search for a venue.
Choosing a Venue
Once you’ve got the topic pinned down, you must figure out where to hold your event. How large of a venue will you need? Do your best to estimate attendance, based on how widely you will market the event. If you have distributed a postcard invitation, it’s typical for 10 to 20 percent of the prospects who receive will show up. If you had advertised in a newspaper, turnout tends to be harder to predict.
If you’re looking to keep costs down, pick a low-cost venue in a central area that’s easy for your prospects to find. Many cities have community centers or libraries with conference rooms available for free. Don’t forget to check into the spaces available at churches, synagogues, and schools.
Good Timing is Crucial
The day, date, and time of the event may affect where you decide to hold your meetings/seminars. As with all other elements of planning a seminar or meeting, think carefully about what would be most convenient for your prospects. Weekend mornings and weekday evenings are two popular times. You’ll need to conduct the best available time for your attendees.
Then consider what time of year is the best for your meetings/seminar, and how frequently you’ll hold it.
The time of day will determine what kind of food or refreshments to provide.
In case prospects bring their kids for the meeting/seminar, you should consider providing a supply of complementary coloring books and crayons.
The time and place won’t be an issue if you decide to take your meeting/seminar to the Web. You need to provide your prospects the details of your upcoming webinar. Web-based meetings/seminars are a good fit for some home business opportunity seekers. Practitioners who choose the Internet route will not benefit from face-to-face contact, but can still build a solid reputation with the Web-savvy prospects who tune in from their computers.
There are a lot of people who now go to a Web site for education and information about working at home. It’s much simpler if they could find out and learn while sitting on their couch.
Designing your Program
Now comes the tough part: Crafting a program that will excite your prospects. Think about what format will be most appealing to your prospects, and give your best of covering the topic in an entertaining yet authoritative way.
Here are some of the questions you’ll want to consider:
What audio-visual elements will you use? What handouts will you provide?
Will you reserve a portion of the meeting/seminar for questions from the audience?
What seating arrangement will best suit your meeting/seminar format?
It’s important to keep the focus of the meeting/seminar on the topic — not on you. If you spend too much time touting your achievements and asking for signing up, prospects will simply leave or dismiss your credibility.
Never pressure your prospects to join. The format of the meeting/seminar should be pure information about the SFI/TC opportunity. You should have an approach of offering solutions to what your prospects are looking for.
Get the Word Out
You have the topic, you, the speaker, the time, and the place. Now you must do your best to make sure that your prospects know about the fantastic event you’re planning.
Explore all of your options for free publicity. Many local newspapers will run news briefs announcing the event; just contact the newspaper and find out how to submit information. Post fliers on your community bulletin boards. Also, don’t forget to mention the event in your newsletter, Web site, and blog.
If you plan to pay for advertising, focus on publications and Web sites that are popular with people in your niche. In other words direct your advertising to your target market.
To get an accurate head count, give attendees an easy way to RSVP. Ask your prospects to register online. That also serves as a way to capture prospects’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses for follow-up.
Following Up
When the meeting/seminar is over, your follow-up efforts begin. Make sure that attendees leave with a high-quality handout that summarizes the main points of the session and includes your contact information and other resources you mentioned during the event.
If you don’t get phone calls right away, don’t fret. Many practitioners say that the real payoff comes months or even years after the event, when attendees are finally ready to make a move. That’s why it’s so important to make sure attendees don’t forget about you in the meantime. Using registration data from attendees, you can follow up with regular e-mails, newsletters, mailings, and phone calls.
Reflect on Your Success
As with anything, practice makes perfect. If your first seminar didn’t go as smoothly as you would have liked, or didn’t draw a very big audience, don’t be discouraged. Even if only one person will attend your first event, that shouldn’t stop you from trying again.
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nstead of giving up, analyze what factors may have affected turnout, such as the date, time, or topic. Did your meeting/seminar conflict with other local events?
Wednesday or Friday night, might be a church night for a lot of people. The best turnouts may come on Tuesday and Thursday nights – but not too early. This may depend on your region.
It’s a good idea to capture your meetings/seminars on video. Not only can the recording help you analyze what could be improved, but it also can serve as a marketing tool
Meetings/seminars may take a lot of planning, but they get easier with experience. The biggest mistake is to think that meetings/seminars are not worth the effort. You’d be missing a huge opportunity. When done correctly, meetings seminars could be one of the most excellent channels to market your SFI/TC business and they can be very successful over the long term.
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