The following post is from my colleague Lisa Sassevich

I have the privilege of speaking at a lot of live events, and it always distresses me how often I see the host stepping over thousands of dollars because they haven’t built in really simple ways to monetize those events. And let’s face it, the host making money means participants are investing. And when participants invest in themselves, they are standing up and saying, “I’m ready to take my game to the next level!” And that’s what I live to see!

I’m not happy unless you’re making your contribution in the world AND being paid well for it.

So to help you strategize and enjoy a rich return on your investment, even if it’s your very first event, here are five of my favorite ways to monetize your events, big or small.

5 Ways to Increase Profits at Your Events

1. Make money on the front-end by charging for your event tickets rather than giving them away for free.

You may have heard that promoters are having a hard time getting people to come to events, but if you make the value of your event clear and promote it well to targeted lists, attendees will make the investment. The #1 reason you see people struggling to fill their rooms and eventually giving seats away free is because, somehow, the outcome or transformation that will happen for the participant as a result of attending that event is not crystal clear. So make sure that the event’s title says it all, such as…

Event Profit Secrets
How to create your own content-rich, highly profitable events and secure your ideal
clients and your income for the whole year in one weekend!

2. Sell your products in the back of the room at special rates with free shipping.

Who doesn’t love a bargain? We already know that people who attend your event are interested in learning what you have to teach. So give them an incentive to invest in your products while they are on-site with “Event Specials.” Be sure to highlight products, programs and services that are beyond the scope of what you are teaching at the event or that solve a next-level problem they may encounter. It truly is a service to do this.

3. Invite other speakers to contribute to the content of your event.

The standard split of those arrangements is 50% of the speaker’s sales going to you, so you definitely want someone who knows how to give amazing, relevant content, make an offer without being salesy and convert sales.

The most important thing is to make sure that any speaker you invite adds value to what you’re teaching. For instance, at my events, Michele DeKinder-Smith has presented her fascinating research about the five categories of female entrepreneurs — her five “Janes.” Let me tell you, my attendees were on the edge of their seats as they learned how that research could help their business, and many were thrilled when she offered them the chance to work with her more directly in the future.

4. Sell sponsorships so that people who want access to your audience can get exposure.

My events are full of surprises, some of which come from my wonderful sponsors. Not only do the sponsors get exposure and I receive revenue, but my audience gets valuable freebies, goodie bags and extra special surprises at events. Sponsors have given beautiful journals, useful product samples and helped fund the amazing Networking Galas that people talk about for months!

5. Offer a high-end mastermind, mentorship or coaching program.

You may already know that at my last live event, I sold out my mentorship program to the tune of 100 people! When those future Sassy Mastermind members first arrived, few of them had any idea they’d plop down tens of thousands of dollars to join a mentorship program.

But they saw me walk my talk for days, networked with the other mastermind members who are having breakthrough results and got in touch with that part of themselves that is ready for something much bigger. And nothing beats a live event for getting a real taste of what it would be like to be deeply supported over time in a coaching or mentorship program.

So, as you can see, your leaving money on the table at your live events directly equates to your leaving opportunities for transformation on the table. By including these ideas the outcome is you win, your speakers win, your sponsors win and most importantly, your clients win. Isn’t that why you’re doing all this in the first place

Heralded as “The Queen of Sales Conversion,” Lisa Sasevich has x-ray vision for seeing sales conversion opportunities and the creativity to convert them into gold! Lisa delivers high-impact, low-cost, customized sales-closing strategies for turbo-charging entrepreneurs and small business owners to great profits.

After 25 years of winning Top Sales Awards at Fortune 500 companies like Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and training top executives at companies like Hewlett Packard, she left corporate America and put her skills to the test as an entrepreneur.

In just 3 short years, Lisa created a multi-million dollar home-based business with two toddlers in tow and her husband in medical school. She is the undisputed expert on how to make BIG money doing what you love!

Lisa is the author of The Invisible Close, teaching experts who are making a difference how to get their message out and enjoy massive results, without being “salesy.”

To receive monthly Sales Nuggets and Lisa’s FREE 6-part series, ”Simple, Quick and Easy Ways to Boost Sales Without Spending a Dime,” subscribe today at www.lisasasevich.com

Post by Vickie Sullivan contributing editor of Rain Today

In these days of free webinars, free speaking, even free projects to “build the relationship,” buyers have plenty of opportunities to discover your value. They take that content and either 1) file you under “not a good fit” and move on, 2) keep in touch to pick up more free stuff, or 3) pick up the phone and call you with their latest challenge.

How do they decide who is a “go-to” person and who has nice ideas but aren’t worth paying for? One word: relevance. Let’s explore these three comparisons buyers use to separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves. Buyers use these filters to decide who is relevant now and who can wait for next year’s budget.

Your Priority

Most of you are pretty good about being clear on what you do. Once buyers know your offer, two questions determine if they need to act now. The first question they ask themselves: will your expertise help them with something they know they need right now? Will you help them get something they already covet? You must be a conduit for something they already want badly.

How to Beat the Competition Changing Your Position to Beat the Competition Tap into Buyers’ Emotions and You’ll Win More Clients Selling Ideas: How Ideas Can Transform Non-Buyers into Clients

Here’s an example: one of my Turbo Charge clients is a best-selling author who wanted to expand his brand into a new area. He wrote another book that publishers wanted so badly that they started a bidding war. Why did the winning publisher fight for that book? Because they wanted to expand into business books and they saw my client’s project as the conduit to make that happen. Yes, they liked the author’s brand, but they also saw what the book could do for the CEO’s top priority. So before writing that article, ask yourself this: what do the decision makers already covet and how can your expertise help them get that?

The second question buyers ask themselves: is solving the problem worth this price point? Here’s where your fee strategy really plays a role. Your investment forces buyers to explore what the solution is worth to them. And they compare your fee with what else they can do with the money. Even in this recovery, there’s a lot of competition for the same pot of dollars.

I’ll use myself as an example. I just heard from a prospective client that she’s weighing two options: working with me or hiring staff. Isn’t that interesting? My competition isn’t other brand consultants—it’s administrative help. In the got-to-have space, your competition is not only other experts; it’s also other priorities. Everyone has more things to do than money to spend. This is why the got-to-have experts position their focus as a conduit for something bigger than themselves.

Your Scarcity

The second thing buyers do to determine whether they must have your services is compare your expertise with theirs. There are two assessments buyers make that can put you into nice-to-have status. First comparison: our insights vs. what they already know. I call this the invisible Vulcan mind meld. Decision makers invest in what they don’t already have. So the question buyers ask themselves is do you know something they don’t?

Must-have experts show the market that they have something not readily available. Many talented, nice-to-have folks focus on the clever title or analogy. Buyers see right through that. They are looking at the insight, the point you are making. The analogy, the story, and the cleverness make your point come alive. If your writing is better than your insights, you are a nice read but not worth reaching out to. If you give a speech and hear, “Hey, nice reminder of what I already knew,” you failed the invisible Vulcan mind meld and are in the nice-to-have category.

After passing that test, buyers make a second comparison: your high-end services vs. information they don’t have but can easily get from you. The second bias—all things being “good enough,” the low-cost or free route will prevail. Notice what I didn’t say: equal. Even if you are better than the free resources you provide, even when prospects have a budget, buyers want to make sure they are getting the best option for their money. So another question they ask is can they get your insights from other free sources such as your book or white papers on your website? Is that “good enough” help for them?

This economy has created a lot of free and low-cost education. And it’s good stuff. A must-have expert provides high-quality content but always leaves the impression that “there’s more where that came from.” My favorite example of this strategy is Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics. His way of thinking appeals to so many situations that folks can’t get enough of him. And yet everyone knows that if they want their situation examined, they have to pay him his fees.

Your Approach

The third thing buyers look for is agreement. Before hiring you, even before talking to you, buyers want to get a sense of your approach and the way you think. The question they ask themselves: do they agree with your world view? They want to know this because they plan to implement your recommendations.

Think about it: we facilitate change, and change is confronting at the very least. Clients are willing to go on that journey with us as long as we don’t throw them under the bus. And that’s what buyers are really afraid of. They want to make sure your solutions won’t create too much brain damage. Your approach is their early-warning system.

And just saying your solutions are easy won’t cut it. Buyers are now in what I call “discovery” mode. They credit you with any discoveries they make about themselves while reading your material or hearing you speak. They believe their opinions about you more than they believe what you say.

No More Spaghetti on the Wall

The days of just getting your insights or story out there and hoping for the best are over. In this noisy marketplace, either you are relevant or you are ignored. When we tap into the three things that buyers look for—priority, comparisons, and agreement in approach—not only will we get attention, but we will get the incoming emails and calls, too. And isn’t that the whole point of getting our message out there?

Post from the Jamaica Observer

We have all been there – you and I. Every strand of hair in place, dressed to the nines and new shoes squeezing like the dickens but we have nevertheless rolled up to the function. We are here to give our full support and to hear the pearls of wisdom drop like gentle rain on us by the guest speaker. But oh, what a disappointment it was for us.

We expected to be inspired, to be enthralled, to laugh, maybe to roll in the aisle – but instead we find ourselves crying all the way home. And this is especially so if we had paid more than recession prices to attend the event. On reflection we think that perhaps Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy (in combination) or Elmo might have kept the listeners more awake and entertained than the sad sack who wreaked havoc on the audience’s consciousness for a full ninety minutes. Good Grief. It is definitely time for the speaker to call it quits when the low hum you hear is not the build-up of thunderous applause but the not-too-gentle snores of those persons in the front row.

The choice of a guest speaker is one of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal of any event planner. An occasion’s success or failure hinges on this seemingly minor detail. I am writing as one who has often been on the receiving end of having to listen to really badly selected speakers as well as someone who has had to make suggestions about persons who could possibly be chosen as a speaker for an event for which working people will fork over their hard-earned cash.

Don’t get me wrong. The case of an inappropriate guest speaker is, more often than not, not the fault of the speaker himself. Surface investigation will often reveal a lack of professional advice in choosing a speaker or that the speaker was selected by someone who s/he was interested in hearing said speaker for purely personal reasons which had nothing to do with the audience nor the event itself. The other harried members of that planning team (busy with their tasks) just let it ride without too many questions.

A good place to start in choosing a really good speaker is via experience. It is usually not a good idea to take any reference from ‘Frighten Friday Flo’ who thinks everyone in a suit with the gumption to step to a podium is a good speaker. It may make better sense to have actually heard the person speak at an event yourself. After listening to more than a few dozen speakers over the years you will find that you will have developed a well-attuned ear for who is good and who is not. You get to see for yourself who is at ease in front of an audience and who is not, despite the wealth of knowledge s/he may possess. Because, let us face it there are some persons who are the fount of all knowledge in their chosen field but they just are not comfortable imparting that knowledge in front of a large roomful of strangers.

More than all, in choosing a speaker it is important to ensure that the presenter and the presentation ‘fit’ the audience and the occasion. A speaker who is serving up meat to a vegetarian audience will not go down well and may very well cause a stampede out the doors. If the audience consists of policy-makers, CEOs and decision-makers it might not be such a wonderful idea to invite a little-known operations executive who might not be able to add much to the audience’s storehouse of knowledge.

There are several types of speakers and each has a different purpose. For example, the celebrity speaker is well known and his presence will definitely attract a large audience if that is the main goal of your event. Here’s the thing about some celebrities: they might be good at whatever it is that made them famous but they might not be good speakers. Hence it is a good idea to have ‘experienced’ them first or get a really good reference from someone else who has heard them speak.

Choosing a speaker to impart educational information, to instruct or to teach might be a trifle troublesome. This type of speaker has to have a sense of humour, many relevant stories, and must be able to interact easily with the audience. Lectures can be dull and boring. The best teachers are the ones who do not overwhelm you with too much information, they keep you awake and interested and wanting to learn more. Not everyone has that gift even if they have twenty degrees in the subject areas and the full knowledge at their fingertips. If they do not have the right words on their lips – no one will be the wiser. I have found that even while we openly say we want to learn, audiences more than all, want to be entertained – all the time.

Motivational speakers are supposed to, at the end of their presentation, make us feel good about ourselves and spur us to change things in our lives. They should, at the end of the event, make us feel inspired. You do not want a motivational speaker who makes your listeners depressed by keeping it ‘too real’.

Persons whom we invite to entertain us should not suddenly launch into a twenty-minute dramatic monologue about how they got into the music biz and what a cutthroat world it has been. If the audience has been prepped for musical entertainment – this is all we require – thank you very much. And unless it is a Passa Passa session, it is not a good idea to ‘dedicate’ songs to that special ‘someone’ in the audience. The rest of us will feel left out.

Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson MBA, ABC, is a Business Communications Consultant with RO Communications Jamaica, specialising in business communication, employee communications and financial publications. Contact: yvonne@rocommunications.com; Website: www.rocommunications.com and post your comments.

 Susan’s note:  The worst nightmare for a speaker or meeting planner is putting your audience to sleep.

Need speaker/marketing assistance? Give me a call 310-822-4922 PST.  Speaker Services might be just right for you.

This post is so perfect for today. Why?

I have several events coming up and they are filling slowly and I too need to be reminded about what to do if no one signs up.  I never want to see myself as a failure or taking it personally and the tips that C J Hayden suggests make it much easier to swallow.  Oh right and the other deal is that 1 Shopping Cart is down.  Not just me but everyone who takes orders through 1 Shopping Cart and uses the auto responders.

Okay next I am going to send an e mail out to my list of folks just in case they are trying to sign up and can’t.  Guess I have to go back to being non automated for awhile?

It is the nightmare of every professional who offers group programs. You design a powerful workshop, schedule a date, broadcast your marketing message… and no one registers. Then what?

Let’s assume you have the basics down. You’ve chosen a compelling topic, identified a likely audience, and clearly described the benefits of participating in your program. Even the price is right. You’ve already sent information about your program to a list of strong prospects. What else can you do?

-Preventive Measures-

First, let’s back up a step. There are several measures you can take early on in your promotion that will improve your chances of full enrollment:

1. Offer your program in house instead of to the general public.  Selling your program to a company, association, or learning center with an established base of employees, members, or students can be much easier than trying to sell each seat yourself. You could also partner with an existing organization with a track record of filling programs, and share the profits in return for a full house.

2. Build your prospect list to equal 20-100 times the number of people you want to attend. A typical response rate from a postal mailing is 1-2%. Response to opt-in email is often even lower. (Don’t even consider using unsolicited email.) In general, expect no more than 1% to respond if they don’t know your work and rarely more than 5% even when they know you well. Make it a habit to capture the name and address of every prospect and get their permission to mail or email.

3. Plan to promote on multiple channels. Your promotion plan should include announcements in your ezine or newsletter, a description on your web site, postal mail, a brochure or flyer to distribute, calendar listings, and personal invitations. Don’t rely on just one or two avenues — students are much more likely to enroll when they see your program mentioned in many different places.

-Emergency Enrollment-

If your program has low or no registrations as the date approaches, here’s what you can do to increase enrollment:

1. Call everyone on your prospect list and invite them personally. Don’t count on mail and email to do the job. Place a phone call to each person you have a phone number for, give a brief description of the program, and invite them to attend. You’ll be amazed how many people will say, “Thank you for calling — I’ve been meaning to sign up.”

2. Ask clients and colleagues to make referrals. Just mailing an announcement to potential referral sources isn’t the same as asking for their help. Call or email people who respect your work, and ask them to suggest two or three others who could benefit. If they have suggestions for you, ask if they will also contact those people themselves to endorse your program.

3. Make a special offer. Tell the people who are already registered they can bring a friend for half-price. You’re not losing any revenue that way if the space would otherwise be standing empty. Offer a bonus gift with minimal cost to those who enroll — 30 minutes of your professional time, or an ebook, audio, or report you’ve produced. To encourage people to spread the word, offer the same gift to people who refer students to you.

-If All Else Fails-

In the last few days before your program, if you still have only a handful pre-registered:

1. Hold your program anyway. Invite people to attend for free if necessary to have good participation. Your clients will enjoy the chance to spend more quality time with you; colleagues will benefit from the opportunity to see you work and meet other attendees. Ask people who attend at no charge to write you glowing testimonials and refer paying participants for the next time.

2. If you can’t fix it, feature it. The meaning of this classic sales maxim is that if your product has an obvious flaw, make it a positive selling point. When only six people enroll in your big seminar, convert it to an intimate group experience. If you have only two people for a group, turn it into a success team. Your participants will be thrilled to have more individual attention. Never apologize for a smaller-than-expected turnout.

3. Plan ahead to do better next time. Analyze what went wrong with your marketing and strategize how to do it differently the next time around. Should you have allowed more lead time? Does your mailing list need to be larger? Do you need to factor in more promotion channels instead of relying on mailings or email alone? Make a list of all the key elements you think are necessary to successfully promote your next program.

Filling group programs becomes easier when you offer them regularly. When students see the same program advertised two or three times, they are much more likely to enroll. Think of all your marketing efforts as part of a long-term plan to make more people aware of your business. If the outreach for your workshop introduces your business to many new people, you may ultimately find that much more valuable than just filling one program.

Article Source: http://www.articleset.com

About the Author

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Since 1992, C.J. has been teaching business owners and salespeople to make more money with less effort. She is a Master Certified Coach and leads workshops internationally. Read more of her articles at http://www.getclientsnow.com

The following post is by Seth Godin

Posted by Seth Godin on May 19, 2008 Seth’s Blog

If oil is $130 a barrel and if security adds two or three hours to a trip and if people are doing more and more business with those far afield…

and if we need to bring together more people from more places when we get together…

and if the alternatives, like video conferencing or threaded online conversations continue to get better and better, then…

I think the standard for a great meeting or a terrific conference has changed.

In other words, “I flew all the way here for this?” is going to be far more common than it used to be.

If you think a great conference is one where the presenters read a script while showing the audience bullet points, you’re wrong. Or if you leave little time for attendees to engage with others, or worse, if you don’t provide the levers to make it more likely that others will engage with each other, you’re wrong as well.

Here’s what someone expects if they come to see you on an in-person sales call: that you’ll be prepared, focused, enthusiastic and willing to engage honestly about the next steps. If you can’t do that, don’t have the meeting.

Here’s what a speaker owes an audience that travels to engage in person: more than they could get by just reading the transcript.

And here’s what a conference organizer owes the attendees: surprise, juxtaposition, drama, engagement, souvenirs and just possibly, excitement.

I’m on a roll here, so let me add one more new standard:

If you’re a knowledge worker, your boss shouldn’t make you come to the (expensive) office every day unless there’s something there that makes it worth your trip. She needs to provide you with resources or interactions or energy you can’t find at home or at Starbucks. And if she does invite you in, don’t bother showing up if you’re just going to sit quietly.

I’ve worked in three companies that had lots of people and lots of cubes, and I spent the entire day walking around. I figured that was my job. The days where I sat down and did what looked like work were my least effective days. It’s hard for me to see why you’d bother having someone come all the way to an office just to sit in a cube and type.

The new rule seems to be that if you’re going to spend the time and the money to see someone face to face, be in their face. Interact or stay home!

SETH GODIN is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Godin is author of ten books that have been bestsellers around the world. His titles include The Dip and Meatball Sundae. Free Prize Inside All Marketers Are Liars His books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Permission Marketing and A Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. Website

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The following article comes to us from RainToday.Com

Editor’s Note: In this two part article, Michelle Palmer looks at why invitations to events work well to generate quality leads. Part two, featured in the upcoming February 6 issue of Rainmaker Report, will list how to craft effective event invitations.

I used to consider “event population” or “filling seats” a necessary evil for event marketing.

Seminars, webinars, conferences, speaking engagements – they are a whole lot of work, resources, time and energy, and for what? A fifty percent drop-off rate? A few dozen people straggling in late, eyeing the free Continental breakfast?

Granted, when you do get qualified attendees, you get the opportunity to showcase a much greater scope of your services than you would during an introductory sales call, for example.

It also seems that live events enjoy a higher prospect-to-client conversion rate than less interactive lead generation methods, such as receiving RFIs through your website or attracting visitors at a trade show.

In fact, in-person seminars ranked number one in a recent MarketingSherpa survey, Most Effective IT Lead Generation Tactics, with 88% of marketers deeming them effective or somewhat effective in generating qualified leads, with direct mail, telemarketing and search advertising ranking much lower.

But, still… I used to question if it were best to devote all those human and financial resources to speaking events…

At last, I’ve had a final change of heart. I’ll even say that populating speaking events are now my favorite marketing programs. But here’s the shocker: I don’t really care if my events are particularly well attended.

Why?

I discovered the event is actually secondary to the benefits a marketer gains from the invitation process itself. In fact, there are few better ways than inviting prospects to a special event to create exposure and brand name recognition, and spark actual interaction with prospects – in my opinion, it’s one of the best brand building exercises available.

The Invitation Process Is Key

Your messaging still gets through whether your prospects attend the event or not. From a lead generation standpoint, I’ve found the invitation – in any of its written or verbal formats – opens more doors, more easily, than a cold sales call, an e-mail or any other type of unsolicited mailing. It gives you the all-important reason to speak with your prospect and, more importantly, a reason for them to listen.

Here are a few reasons why:

The invitation: Invitations are a great technique to begin a dialogue with new prospective clients, because they don’t threaten the recipient.

For most of us, as soon as we hear a sales pitch, our defenses go up and we start brainstorming excuses. On the other hand, prospects tend to regard an invitation as a “value-based offer.” They tend to give them more consideration than a typical sales flyer – and they may not end up in the trash as quickly, either. We relax when presented with an invitation. (Maybe it’s because we can always use the “schedule conflict” excuse.)

Who… me? Most people like invitations because it makes them feel special. It makes them feel like an important part of their community or industry. The very fact that you’ve singled someone out to participate in a special event makes them more likely to tune in to your message longer.

The Importance Of The Value Based Offer

Some people refer to a value-based offer as the “what’s in it for me” factor: whenever we receive a marketing message, we ask “how does this apply to me?” Business professionals like to learn things that will help them in their jobs – and especially things that can make them look good at their jobs.

Invitations to events, particularly educational-type seminars, are truly value-based offers because there is, in fact, something in it for them: the chance for them to learn something that could help them succeed.

According to the white paper Making Lead Generation Work for Professional Services, by Wellesley Hills Group, a marketing and consulting firm, seminars, webinars and other offers are among the best methods for professional services firms to market themselves because they “allow you to approach prospects via thought leadership.”

You’re able to provide insight on a topic of interest to them and simultaneously demonstrate your expertise – without “selling” them on yourself.

The research report also makes the point that such a value offering is also highly effective in introducing additional areas of your services to existing clients who currently only utilize a portion of your services. An invitation to your seminar will make them aware in a non-threatening way.

What’s In A Name? Your Value Proposition

As you promote your event among your targeted audiences, remember that they will be seeing your event topic repeatedly. So it’s critical that the title of your presentation effectively reflects both the need they have and the solution you will provide.

Think about it. Each time someone receives information about your event, you are reminding them of the problem/need they have. This enhances top-of-mind awareness of the issue. Better yet, your name is automatically associated as a solution to that problem.

For a sales consulting firm, consider the seminar topic “Close More Sales by Selling on Value, Not on Price.” The very title identifies a prevalent problem facing most sales executives competing in global, price-driven markets. Recipients will immediately relate to the problem presented, and associate your company as a solution provider.

For human resources professionals, a seminar titled “Offset Rising Medical Insurance Costs with Creative Value-Added Options,” addresses a growing problem for many HR departments, and hints at some potential solutions. “No Need for Layoffs: Reduce Operating Costs through Workflow Improvements,” shows executive management that you understand the real impact of rising costs how to offset them.

You’re viewed as the expert. Even if they’re not ready to move toward a solution right now, you’ve set yourself up as a valuable industry resource that they may turn to in the future.

Michelle Palmer is President of Leading Edge, a marketing firm that specializes in developing and implementing lead generation programs for mid-market companies. You can reach her at mpalmer@LeadingEdgePrograms.com.