"Seminar Marketing Secrets..."

[JosephRatliff]

Can Preparing and Delivering a Seminar Help Market Your Business?
By Joseph Ratliff


I think we all know the answer to this question.

Of course getting up in front of multiple, very qualified prospects for your product or service will result in additional interested parties willing to investigate or buy what you have to offer. It also establishes you as an expert in whatever you do.

But that is not why I am writing this post.

My main question for you is...

Why don't more business owners use this most profitable technique?

I think the answer to that question has to do with facing your F.E.A.R.

Or the...

Facts about

Expanding your

Actual and current

Reality

In other words...expanding your comfort zone to include being able to present an idea to more than one person at one time.

Let's get right to the meat of this post...

How do you overcome this fear and get yourself into a frame of mind to be able to use seminars to deliver valuable information and generate increased profits for your business?

The answer lies within the "E" of my acronym above. The reason we hesitate to move outside of our comfort zone and expand our current reality is because we do not have any past experiences or we have only negative experiences to draw upon in our brain. In other words...

We don't know what is on the other side of the fence.

Get over it. I understand if you feel that is "harsh" or abrasive, and I apologize...but in order to gain extraordinary results, you must do extraordinary things. You cannot keep avoiding seminars as a means to market your business just because your afraid or don't know what to do to deliver a presentation.

I will give you a secret of all secrets when it comes to seminar marketing...

Everyone who has used seminars as a means of marketing and delivering information...

Has screwed up big time when delivering their speech or presentation at one point or another.

Have they screwed up all the time, or every time? No.

Just like anything else, delivering a seminar requires:

* Practice, practice, practice (perhaps in front of a mirror or with your family before you decide to go live with your speech).

* The ability to forgive your mistakes. Who cares if you blow one part of a seminar or even the whole seminar? Don't take it personally, everyone who does this makes mistakes until they get good at it. Which leads to the most important point...

* The ability to learn from those mistakes and move on. This is a big secret to success. You will fail at least once, period. Just know that...and realize that mistakes are opportunities to make your presentation that much better. Once you do a few, your presentation will get "dialed in" and your results will improve.

Take one or two items from your business and outline how those one or two items can help your target client...then start planning and preparing your presentation. Include a couple of "insider secrets" that you may know that your audience may not know.

Contrary to what you may believe, your presentation does not have to:

* It does not need to be four hours long or longer. In most venues, anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes is sufficient, with some being even shorter.

* You do not have to have slides, a power point, or other technical items involved in your presentation. A simple verbal speech complete with copied handouts for each attendee is sufficient. You may wish to use a "report folder" with each handout for a professional appearance and use a cover page.

* You do not have to be the equivalent of Tony Robbins or other professional speaker to gain credibility and be effective. While your presentation should be delivered in a straightforward and professional manner, you don't have to have massive amounts of "pump up the crowd" energy to be effective. Just practice. You will be fine.

Bottom line, you may feel uncertain about using a seminar to help market your business. Get over those feelings and just get out there and do it.

Take action, now. Don't put this off at all, don't give yourself an excuse not to do it, just gather your information as described above, and do it.

I do understand that this was not a complete course in giving seminars to market your business. Sometimes, too much information can actually paralyze us into inaction (I have been there). But for more information on delivering seminars and using them to market your business, I have included a couple of resources below:

Get The Word Out - Marketing Your Business Using Seminars And Workshops


A free CD package covering how to turn the information you have into profits



Resource Box:
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Joseph Ratliff is a Marketing Consultant, Copywriter, and Author of
The Profitable Business Edge. He has over 17 years of experience
in Sales and Marketing to share with you in pursuit of your business
dreams and increased profitability. You can reach Joe on the web at

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