Traditional client appreciation events often are inexpensive banquets at best and poorly masqueraded sales seminars at worst. Either one can serve a useful business purpose, but consider hosting a slightly different client event – a event based upon “purpose.”

Recently I visited with a financial advisor in the mid-south who takes a novel approach to client events. This advisor sponsored a golf tournament; nothing unique about that. What made it unique was it was a charity event tied to a major national charity – The V Foundation. From the Foundation website: “It has been just 17 years since The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded by ESPN and Jim Valvano. And what significant work has been accomplished during that time! Since 1993, The V Foundation has raised more than $90 million and awarded cancer research grants in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Researchers have developed their laboratories and taken their science from the labs to the clinics with the help of funds raised by The V Foundation.”

The event was replete with unique gifts from national sports celebrities, creative hole sponsorships, and appearances by regional sport icons. Clients loved it, and the event drew a huge number of affluent prospects. In addition, considerable publicity mentioning the advisor’s name offered significant favorable exposure.

This advisor used this event for a good purpose. A wonderful charity received tens of thousands of dollars, and the advisor is viewed as someone who puts something back into his community and society. Consider this type of client event next time you decide to host another boring chicken dinner.

Budgets are tight and getting tighter. Every facet of the meeting planner’s day involves facing an onslaught of details preparing for an event. Selecting sites that fit the bill, building menus, choosing premium items, and coordinating agendas with the input of multiple constituencies and coordinating an endless flood of details are just a few of your challenges. Selecting outside speakers from the oratory multitudes present unique challenges. In about one-third of a second, googling “Professional Speaker” offers almost 9.8 million choices, and you don’t have time to listen to all of their demos, so you pick one and hope for the best.

The location and property are perfect. Catering over-delivers on their service promise. The schedules work, collateral materials exceed expectations, and everyone loves the room gifts. Then it happens – your speaker bombs! Consider the following six ways to effectively use the web to help you find qualified speakers that meet your needs.

Search Terms: Be as specific as possible using search terms, but keep it simple. Include terms that identify exactly what you want, including the type of presentation, (keynote, training, motivational, breakout, etc.), location, and industry. Be descriptive.

Speaker Websites: When looking at speaker or bureau websites, look for testimonials, experience, and demo videos. If finding content is difficult, then you might question the speaker’s ability to communicate from the platform. If the speaker blogs, you also see the type of content they deliver.

LinkedIn: This social media site offers a huge amount in a standardized form. General information about the speaker, as well as testimonials, links, and group affiliations all provide insight into a speaker. Testimonials become easier to expand and verify. You can even do market research that provides information from other meeting planners, as well as groups devoted to meeting planners. Networking with other meeting planners develops a massive amount of intellectual experience capital.

Facebook: Another social media networking service, Facebook is traditionally thought of as a “personal” site. However, more businesses are building a presence on Facebook. “Fan Pages” give you an idea of others who may have used the speaker’s services – or a sampling of their friends and family. This site also offers the potential to see professional speakers away from their businesses.

Twitter: Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as “tweets.” Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length – just enough – and it is free. Twitter is searchable, and offers a glimpse into the world of value creation of speakers. Tweets often include links to other resources that may be helpful in your search.

Professional Associations: The National Speakers Association (www.nsaspeaker.org) and their numerous state chapters (for example, the Minnesota Chapter’s site is www.nsa-mn.org) offer directories of professional speakers that provide a buffet of talent from which to choose.  The fact that speakers hold membership in a professional organization does not mean they are a great speaker or will meet your needs, but it does mean they have met membership criteria and subscribe to a code of conduct that provides some accountability. The ability to find and search speakers in one place makes associations an invaluable resource.

The web becomes a valuable tool to help your make finding a professional speaker easier, and with better results.

Restaurant business is down due to the economy; people do not go out as often. In the November 2, 2009 issue of Nation’s Restaurant News, trainer and professional speaker Jim Sullivan wrote, “Not that we’re out of the woods by any measure. Grocery prices are falling and restaurant prices rising. Technomic recently reported that in the past three years 21,425 units have closed in the United States, and 84 percent of those were full-service operations. That reflects the worst three-year contraction in foodservice history.”

What does this possibly mean to financial advisors? Coupled with consumer’s expressed desire for education and guidance as to where to go from here, consider a tried-but true marketing concept: dinner seminars.Advisors report seminars are more popular than any time since the 80’s, and clients are attending seminars in record numbers. Restaurants need the business. Contact restaurants to negotiate more favorable pricing for dinner seminars. By making a commitment for multiple events, and you might get a significan price reduction. Also ask for complementary gift certificates. Often you get these at a greatly reduced costs, because restaurant operators know when you have a gift certificate, you bring guests!

Americans love to eat out. They want and need economic news and education. Use the current situation to your advantage as you demonstrate to people in your community you continue to provide information and education that help them make intelligent decisions about money, and do so in a cost-effective manner.

“If you feed them, they will come.” Good selling!

As a professional speaker I pay attention to trends. The popularity of investment seminars waned over the last couple of years.

Then came 2008 – 2009.

People want information; they need to know where we go from here. As a result, I relaunched public seminars as part of my speaking business late last year.  Financial advisors hire me to present on their behalf to their clients and prospects, and the results are nothing short of tremendous.  In addition, I meet with the local media in the cities where I present, and provide on-site sales training for the financial advisors that hire me and their sales teams.

Read the following article from such an event:

“New economy presents challenges and opportunities”

As seen in the Springfield (MN) Advance Press Pages 1-2

March 18, 2009

Credit problems, failing financial institutions, government bailouts, stock market downturns, economic uncertainties, downsizing, belt tightening, job losses, personal pain and tragedies are some of the many negatives that we hear and read about daily.

There always will be times when it seems there is nothing but discouraging news, said business strategist Michael Roby, who came to Springfield last week to bring perspective and common sense advice to those who question: Where we go from here?

Roby came at the invitation  of David Milbrath and staff of The Investment Center. “We have had a fair amount of people calling our offices to ask, ‘What’s going on?’ There is so much fear and confusion. They want reassurance,” said Milbrath.

With more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, Roby has the perspective of being able to look back and look at the present, and to provide timeless concepts and strategies for helping people save, invest, and manage their financial resources.  The topic of the public forum was: Financial Planning in the New Economy: Where Do We Go From Here?

“These are unprecedented times, but too a certain extent the new economy is no different than it ever has been,” said Roby, who spoke at a public forum at the Springfield Area Community Center the evening of March 12.

“Unfortunately, people take the events of the last six months and extrapolate them infinitely into the future,” Roby said.   “We get a sense that this time it’s really different; but it’s never different — it’s always a matter of supply and demand.”

“Everything cycles. Nothing goes up forever. Nothing goes down forever,” Roby said. “The inevitable progress of a capitalistic economy is that long-term values always go up, but they don’t go up every day.”
“There’s no question we’re in a recession,” Roby said. “Some call it a depression.” “I don’t mean to minimize what we see happening out there these days. But this is very different from the Great Economic Depression in many ways,” Roby stated, as he began listing the differences. During the Great Economic Depression our country had 25% unemployment; today we have 8.1% unemployment.  During the depression there was no Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) — there was no federal banking structure; today there are safeguards. During the depression there were very few welfare or entitlement programs; there are safety nets today.  During the depression, the United States government shut down, basically, all foreign trade during the 1930s, which did create a worldwide depression. That is not happening today.

“The biggest challenge we had during the depression was that people lost hope,” Roby said. “People are losing hope today. They are taking events of the last six months and saying that this will happen forever.”
Roby advised his audience to consider the positives:  “Take a look at what has made America great,” he said.  “We have the greatest country in the history of mankind.”  “We have some very big challenges going forth, but the fact is our population is growing. We have about 6.8 million legal immigrants every year (almost 38 million now) and that will be a strong economic force. These new Americans, have dreams, goals and objectives for their families just as our forefathers did — they work hard, and they contribute to our society.”

“Believe in the power of America; do not surrender ourselves. The United States of America have an infrastructure that is second to none. What would other countries give to have our infrastructure, our roads, our power grids. Americans band together when times are tough,” said Roby. “Americans come together to help one another; we don’t erupt into a civil war including violence. We take care of one another.”
He also pointed to the strength of Baby Boomers who will continue in the workforce because they can’t afford to retire under the present economic conditions. “The retirement of that whole group of Baby Boomers would create some huge inflationary pressure because there would be huge competition for talented workers,” Roby stated.  “These people are going to stay engaged longer and they won’t be drawing on their Social Security and pension plans as rapidly. They’ll be staying in the market place and continue to bring value.  They are productive. They provide a huge amount of intellectual capital.”

“American agriculture is the model for any production industry in the world,” Roby said.  “And agriculture is pretty sound right now.”
Small businesses have always been and continue to be the backbone of America. “Big business has never been what fired new job growth,” Roby said.  “It’s always been small business.”
“The United States of America still have the most efficient economic structure in the world,” Roby said.  “The things that we do — technology, intellectual capital, design and development — nobody does that better than we do.” People will continue to need to buy houses and to rent apartments, and they will continue to buy food and clothing, the speaker pointed out.

“There’s $8 trillion on the sideline that will need to be invested, and soon money managers are going to look at the fact that it’s time to get back in the market, and that will drive prices,” the speaker said.  “One of my fears is that people think the government is going to take care of all their problems,” Roby said. “The government can’t fix our problems. We have to fix our problems.” “It’s about us getting out of there and creating business.  And we’ve got to get back to work.”  The government that claims to fix our problems was the source of some of the problems to start with, the business strategist pointed out. 
For example: The deregulation of lending in the banking sector; “It never made sense to do 125 percent loan to value,” he stated. We have to get back to the basics,” said Roby. “If it’s lending/borrowing, it’s things like loan-to-value. What is your mortgage payment as a percentage of your adjusted gross income?  If it’s investments, is it reasonable price earnings? Is the company making money?  If it’s a family, are you saving 10% of what you make?

People must take personal responsibility for their future financial security. “We have to get back to basics rooted in the values and principles that made our nation a great nation,” Roby stressed. “Live within your means. Pay yourself first. Spend the rest. Don’t go it alone.”
He also stressed the importance of the basics of prudent financial planning. Guiding principles to good financial management, he said, are: 1)  Diversification, 2) Asset allocation, 3) Dollar cost averaging, 4) Manage and insure that which cannot be predicted, and 5) Use professional management.

“Challenges present opportunities,” said the speaker.  “There will be huge opportunities for those who accept the challenges.

Years ago one of my mentors gave me this gem of sales wisdom.  As we prepared to make a joint sales call he noticed the adequate but cheap pen I was using.  Oh, it was nice enough, but it had a spring pocket clip, had the name of some other business on the plastic body. At that point my mentor uttered the words in the title above, and we stopped by an office supply store so I could buy a pen with a more professional appearance.

This all goes back to the “packaging” of yourself, which contributes to your personal brand. How you dress, personal jewelry, the type of bag you carry, your collateral marketing materials, your seminars and client communications; all should be appropriate for the market you call upon.  Your office decor and positioning of your client meeting space are important.  Atlanta-based money manager Jim Hansberger once said, “Your office should be a monument to your success.”  Granted, you don’t want to be ostentatious, but you do want to look successful.

Let’s talk about seminars.  Many advisors do dinner seminars – cheap dinner seminars. Craig Zaligson, owner of Midwest Diamond and Watch Company in Minneapolis does dinner seminars. He specializes in high grade, low production, new and pre-owned luxury timepieces. Craig hosts dinner seminars at the Oceanaire, Minneapolis’ premier seafood restaurant, for his best clients and their guests. In other words, he offers a high quality experience and attracts high-end buyers.  Advisors would do well to co-host such an event if they want to present to a more affluent clientele.

So check out your pen, and all of the “tools” you use to grow your business,  Let people know you believe in quality and that you are successful.

Good selling!

1. Call your ten best clients and tell them you were just wondering how they were doing.
2. Deliver candy/donuts/coffee at a client’s office.
3. Do the same at your local fire department or police station.
4. List your top ten client’s hobbies and interests.  Do a web search and send them an article on topics that interest them.
5. Help sponsor a client’s family reunion. How will you know if a client has a family reunion?  Ask, or have your assistant ask.  Not a bad idea to send a letter to A+ clients asking this question.
6. Sponsor youth teams or events?  Show up at one of their events, encourage the kids, and meet their families.
7. Become a speaker for local civic groups and schools
8. Co-host a “Driver Safety Course” with AARP.  It will save people money on their car insurance, and you get the credit.
9. Host a day-trip for retired clients to area attractions.  Contact a travel agency to set it up, offer it at cost to attendees, and go on the trip.  The travel agency will comp your expenses and you get to spend the day with some of your best clients and prospects.
10. Send $5 gift cards from chain restaurants to your A+ client’s the month of their grandchildren’s birthdays. “Thought you might like to take them out for an ice cream.”
11. Consider tips 1-9 for your assistants. Your assistants can be your best marketing.

Yesterday I met Payce Reynolds on a flight to San Antonio.  Payce is a master salesman and successful former CEO in the utilities industry.  We discussed client entertainment, and he shared how  he hired a comedian for a client dinner to bus the tables along with the hotel staff.  Wow!  His clients laughed all evening, and have talked about it for years.

Too often we use client appreciation events as a way to sell.  If you call it a client appreciation event, then make it all about appreciating your clients.  Make it memorable.  Hire a comedian, or an improv artist.  Table magicians can add a touch of entertaining mystery to a dinner. If you have a more formal event, follow the lead of Bryan Godtland, an advisor who provided a string duet for the evening entertainment.  Of course, a world class professional speaker is always a good choice! (Hint, hint, hint!)

Be creative, be memorable, and truly entertain your clients.  Give them something to talk about.

Good selling!

What a week! Seven speaking engagements in five cities in Washington, California, and Texas, with five flights provided for an exciting but tiring trip. When my wife picked me up at the airport last night, the last thing I wanted to do was dine out. However, she had had a long week as well. She was prepared to have a quiet dinner at home, but I surprised her by suggesting we go out for dinner.

Jensen’s Café in Burnsville, MN is a wonderful breakfast and lunch restaurant, open from 7 AM to 2:30 PM. The Jensen’s are third generation restaurateurs, with another store called Jensen’s Supper Club in Eagan, MN. On my flight home I read in a magazine that they were diversifying their business by using the Jensen’s Café location to launch Jensen’s Wine & Dine, which uses the same facilities and opens at 4:30 PM. They have an entirely different crew that comes in to provide a warm, upscale, but reasonably priced dining experience with fine wines, an excellent menu, and an entirely different feel than you would find if you showed up earlier in the day for breakfast or lunch.

What does this have to do with sales? Jensen’s is growing their business using four principles of successful diversification. To be successful we must focus on what we do best, but when we become successful, we can diversify our business, and add exponential growth to our bottom line. To diversify your sales business you can use the same strategies, which are:

1. Stay in your area of experience and expertise
2. If possible, use existing business assets and resources
3. Provide better service to and more profitability from existing customer relationships, and/or…
4. Use diversification to expand your customer base

Don’t forget to focus on the profitability of expanding your offerings; it has to make sense from a business perspective. Once you have established yourself and become a solid presence in your marketplace, offering additional products and services allows you to increase your profitability and take advantage of scale. Take a look at what you can offer that will build on and strengthen your existing business. Build a plan to grow…and execute your sales plan!

Bon appetite… and good selling!

Technorati Tags: speaking engagements, sales business, customer relationships, sales plan

Late yesterday, I received an email from Larry Littler, an investment wholesaler with John Hancock Financial Services, with an idea on how he touches his clients in a memorable way. Over his twenty years in the investment business, Larry has consistently been a top-decile sales leader. Larry’s email spoke of the importance of developing professional relationships with clients, and reaching out to them on a regular basis in ways that are unique. At a dinner in Boston recently, his assistant Eileen Lachance shared how Larry’s team continued to stay on top, and this was one of his strategies.

Larry is in B2B sales, distributing high-end investment products through financial planners. He sends a bi-weekly email newsletter from www.cookingwithandree.com to his best clients and their spouses on personal entertaining. I looked at a sample of Andree’s service, and it is first-class! Each newsletter is a complete menu, including at least five recipes, with shopping lists, wine pairings, table settings, helpful hints, and photos to match.

This has nothing to do with investments, but is all about building relationships! Larry uses this strategy and others to augment his exceptional knowledge of the investment industry to produce consistent sales success.

Be memorable. Stand out from your competition by building deep relationships!

Good selling!

In my role as a professional speaker, I am always looking for ways to bring value to those companies that hire me. Whether the topic is motivational, training, a keynote, or about sales coaching, I want to leave a lasting impression on the audience. My goal is to make a difference by helping people make measurable improvement by taking action. Some clients understand this better than others…and in fact I learn a lot from them!

Next month I will deliver a popular keynote presentation titled “Tradition” for a financial advisor that is hosting a high-end dinner for his very best clients. I called him today to check on the details of the evening, and just hearing about it motivated ME!This dinner will include fine wine, china settings, and a gourmet meal. This is an annual event that has resulted in a high level of client loyalty, to say nothing of the fact that the majority of his business comes from referrals from this group.

The presentation I will deliver speaks to the impact of tradition on our culture, relationships, and business practices. This advisor “gets it” and has built the theme of his event around the concept of tradition. The five-star formal dinner will be served on the finest china, set on white linen tablecloths. His guests will receive a gift of wine glasses engraved with the word “Tradition.” They will leave with a bottle of wine he has private-labeled with his company logo, and the name of the wine is…you guessed it…TRADITION!”

No detail is left to chance, and everything is coordinated with the chosen theme. His opening comments will focus on the tradition of service and exceeding customer expectations that he has built into his company for over 20 years, and will lead into my keynote address. This financial advisor is a PRO at customer relationship development!

If you host client appreciation events, do it first-class! Build in a theme, and show them by your meticulous planning and attention to detail that you really do APPRECIATE them and their business. Be memorable, and remember…it is hard to fire your friends!

Good selling!