Back to Basics: Seminar Selling By Tom Basile Seneca Creek Consulting Seminar selling may be right for you if you wish to augment your sales efforts and increase your company’s exposure across selected agencies and to key decision-makers to include agency heads, chief information officers, chief financial officers, program managers, chief security officers and senior acquisition managers. The goal of an “executive” level seminar is to create a forum for the exchange of information while positioning your company as the subject matter experts that can bring solutions to pressing issues facing government executives. Issues can be mandated by law such as the Government Security Reform Act or the agency’s desire to improve services to its customer base. Note: This is not an opportunity to conduct a sales presentation; however it is an opportunity to position your company as a partner bringing value and information to the targeted audience. Conducted properly, the seminar will provide a forum to strengthen your relationship with key buyers and differentiate your company from your competition. Seminars are a great forum to quickly separate the buyers from the lookers. A properly targeted seminar can move a prospect down the sales cycle faster. It can take many meetings with key decision-makers to achieve the same results you can get with a single seminar. Your company will forever be viewed as the “trusted adviser,” not just a company trying to sell something. There are many formats for conducting seminars. Choose a location in close proximity to many government agencies with convenient Metro access. Don’t over target and attempt to fill the room. Remember these are high-level decision-makers. Target from 10 to 15 attendees at most, this way you will have an opportunity to spend some time with each attendee. An effective room presentation is utilizing a U-shaped table. This way the presenters and attendees can better engage each other. Much debate is given to the appropriate time to run a seminar. Consider early morning since it may be easier to get a senior executive’s time before he or she ventures in the office. A sample time line may include starting registration at 8:00 with full sit down breakfast at 8:30, followed by the kicking off the program at 9:00. End the program at 11:00 a.m. Remember to leave time during the program for discussions among participants for the exchange of information and ideas. Having guest speakers is highly encouraged. Draw on individuals from government and industry that are recognized as subject-matter experts for the particular theme of the seminar. If you are planning to present your solution, consider doing so through a combination of presentation and demonstration on how it has directly benefited other agencies. The preferred approach is to have one of your customers present your solution in the form of a case study. This will look less like “selling” and will maintain the seminar’s main theme of an exchange of information. Consider four to six seminars over a calendar year since this will provide the proper amount of exposure across selected agencies and target buyers. It goes without saying that there is a lot of back-office work required in order to pull off a successful seminar. You must create a target database, develop an appropriate agenda and corresponding presentation materials, create hardcopy and email invitations, arrange speakers, coordinate the development of handouts and evaluations, act as seminar moderator, and take good notes throughout the seminar. Finally, and most importantly, document and assign follow-up tasks to your sales staff. You will only see the benefit of your seminar program when you have good, consistent follow through. A Successful Seminar How do you measure success? A successful seminar might be defined by achieving the following: *Attendees openly shared future plans and buying agenda. *Based on seminar evaluations and verbal feedback, attendees find value in attending the seminar. *Identifying who the real prospects in the group are. *Moving key prospects further down the sales cycle. *Establish relationships with key prospects and arranging follow-up meetings. Tom can be reached at tbasile@senecacreekconsulting.com.