Tips for professional business development seminars
In the last few weeks I've been to three business development seminars. It's a common tool in the marketer's kit, but it is easy to do badly and to lose the little credibility that you had gained by inviting people along. The following thoughts were prompted by these experiences.
1 Attend a few other events and make notes of what they did well and not so well. Mentally run through your own plans anticipating the needs of all kinds of delegates - including those who arrive late or are given different directions. Walk the experience from the car-park to the room envisaging and preventing what you can see might detract from participants' enjoyment.
2 Prepare and practice your contribution. Iron out mannerisms. record yourself and hone your story. I stopped counting the "you knows" at the event on Thursday, when it reached ten in one minute! No excuse.
3 Make sure that you've got a couple of excellent case studies to draw on that are directly related to the audience. Work them out in detail before and be sure that you know the sector well. At the same Thursday event, the presenter tried to waffle through a poorly conceived model of a 'hairdressers salon', when he clearly still had his hair cut by his mother using a pudding basin!
4 In an hour you can't explain everything. You should expect to get no more than 5 points across. Stick to the old formula from advertising - Attention. Interest. Conviction. Desire, and Close.
5 First impressions count. While people are now more relaxed about dress standards the downside is that, in forming their opinions, they place more emphasis on your words. This is not just in terms of the content but the anecdotes and asides. NEVER knock your competition and absolutely NEVER knock your audience. If you invited people with an incentive don't make fun of them for taking you up on the offer.
6 No matter how warm a glow you are getting from some members of the audience ALWAYS respect the whole audience and never run over the time you gave in your invitation. Don't focus on one person over others and don't deviate from the topic to suit a whim. Always thank them profusely for contributing their time and promise a gentle follow-up call.
For media and speaking enquiries, please call me, Graham Wilson, on 07785 222380.
Best wishes
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