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Running seminars and workshops is becoming a costly and exhausting way to acquire new high net worth clients, according to many advisors I speak with.
If you’ve noticed a drop-off in recent years of registrations, show ups, agreeing to meet with you, not turning up, and of those not committing to a paid client relationship... you’re not alone.
One reason the model is declining is because it contains a multi-step sales process.
If you look at the process as a series of links in a chain, there are at least six potential points where the chain can break.
Even if the prospect gets all the way to the final meeting, the sale can still fall over (and it often does).
There’s a lot of time, effort and money invested on your part, not to have 100% confidence in a high conversion rate.
This multi-step approach to selling is a lot less effective as it used to be.
There’s simply less and less prospects willing to invest their 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 processe like the seminar model, any chance where momentum can be lost, 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 less channels, fewer voices, and less noise.
People listened to and trusted in both the information and the person providing it.
But now, our culture has permanently shifted.
There’s so much information available and it’s so fragmented, people often don’t trust the source.
You delivering the same information to them in a live environment, doesn’t exponentially expand it’s 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 by all means keep doing them. Just don’t be surprised if you see an upward trend of cost 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 any kind of marketing t focusing on presenting education/solutions, consider shifting 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 take action 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:
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There are no multiple steps where momentum can be lost
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It encourages action by emphasizing immediate consequences, instead of encouraging indecision by presenting future benefits
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It gives your prospect clarity, instead of information to process
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It’s fast
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It’s cost effective
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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 can 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 or not -- which is key to being able to target your ideal clients effectively, and in turn, grow your monthly intake of new paid client relationships.
If you’d like to learn a new way to consistently and reliably grow your practice, then order the complimentary book and consultation below.
Related: The Art Of Effortless Prospecting
Get your Free copy of Ari’s best-selling book "Trust In A Split Second!" here and you’ll also receive a Complimentary Sales and Lead Generation Consultation (value $995.00). Ari Galper is the world’s number one authority on trust-based selling and is the most sought-after high-net-worth new client acquisition expert for financial advisors. His latest book, “Trust In A Split Second!” has become an instant best-seller among financial advisors worldwide.