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Conducting a seminar either that’s free or fee-based is a fantastic way to build your brand, your reputation and your expertise. Once you are known as the expert in your field via your seminars, you’ll be better able to build your client base and your referrals. You’ll also be able to capture new subscribers for your newsletter and gain testimonials you can post on your website as well as in your marketing materials. And if you have books to sell that align with your seminar topic, seminars are the perfect avenue to have “back of the room” sales so participants can purchase your book. So let’s get started!

Coming up with a good topic

All great seminars start with a topic. How can you help people? How can you solve a problem? What in your industry causes customers confusion? Your seminar topic’s title should also be specific and compelling. For example,”All about Today’s Real Estate Market” is too broad. Instead, you should title your seminar,”The Ins And Outs of Selling Green Homes to Today’s Savvy Homebuyer.” Coming up with a topic requires you to listen, take notes when someone mentions a problem their having and research blogs and papers in your field.

Planning and more

o Where

First, you need to figure out where you’ll have your workshop. When you’re first starting out, try finding free places such as the local library, community centers or friends’ businesses that have adequate office space. Once you’re more established, negotiate with agencies and business owners who will take a cut of your participant fees.

You’ll need to consider having enough tables and chairs. Also consider if your chosen location has available parking, and is handicapped accessible.

o Fees

Will your workshop be fee-based or free? If it is fee-based, is the agency who is hosting it taking a certain percentage of your fees or is it a flat fee? How many participants do you need to cover the fee? You also need to know what is your minimum number of participants to make it worth your while.

o Publicity, Marketing

How will you publicize your event? Will you use flyers in key locations that would attract your ideal customer, social media, traditional print advertising, community bulletin boards, press releases, or email marketing? Also remember to use the signature block of your email to publicize your event. If you have partnered with an agency such as a community college, continuing ed program, or store, they will help you (since it will help them, too) through their brochure, website and email blasts and newsletter.

It’s the day of your seminar!

Before the day of your seminar, you’ve made enough copies of your handouts, you’ve prepared your PowerPoint presentation if you have one and you’ve made sure your laptop and projector are compatible. You also have made sure you have enough business cards, brochures, books to sell and you’ve created a sign-up list to capture email addresses for your future mail-outs.

Purchase name tags for your participants along with a marker. Show up to your seminar an hour early if you have computer equipment, and a half-hour early if you only have handouts. Adjust the chairs, tables and room temperature. Set up a separate table for your marketing materials and the participant name tags. It’s also a good idea to place your participants’ handouts on their chairs or on their spot at their table so they have everything they need. Along with the seminar handout, you should also prepare an evaluation and a video release if you are videotaping the seminar or if you want to capture your participants’ video testimonials.

And remember to

o Delegate someone to handle registrations, payments or to check participants off of the pre-paid list. This person shouldn’t be you since you need to greet everyone by shaking their hands and welcoming them to your seminar.

o Start on time, even if you know people are running late – don’t penalize the folks who got there on time!

o Who will be doing your introduction? Will you introduce yourself or be introduced? If the latter, give that person your bio sheet in advance.

Once you’ve started the workshop

o Use voice modulation; don’t look at your PowerPoint slides. Remember to talk slowly and clearly.

o Don’t rush through your points, maintain eye contact, SMILE and relax!

o Don’t overload your audience with information; make your material fit the timeframe.

After the workshop

o Read all of the evaluations (even if you’re scared to – it won’t be that bad, I promise)

o Follow up with participants via email or snail mail and welcome them to your e-newsletter or email subscription list.

When you’ve organized your materials, figure out what worked and what didn’t so you can start planning your next successful seminar!

When you consider how to read body language during a negotiation, what do you consider? When negotiating in person, do you focus on the other negotiator’s eyes, hands, feet, mouth? Or, are there other aspects to which you apply your attention? When negotiating on the phone and/or in social media, what do you look/listen for to gain hidden meanings to spoken/unspoken – written/unwritten words?

Being able to decipher undisclosed words and hidden meanings in a negotiation can give you great insight per what you should do to ensure you negotiate better.

Observe the following body language and nonverbal signals in your interactions with others to enhance your negotiation efforts and outcomes.

1. Face-to-Face Negotiations:
   1. When negotiating in person, note when the other negotiator faces you straight-on with his whole body (i.e. head, feet) versus when he turns slightly away. At the point when he faces you straight-on his body language is indicating that the two of you are more aligned with what’s being discussed. Note when he turns away (i.e. head or feet). That gesture indicates that the alignment has been broken. Take special note of when that occurs in the negotiation process to heighten your mindfulness as to what was said/done to make him turn away.
   2. Eyes – Observe when the other negotiator averts his eyes from yours. You should be mindful of such even if it occurs for a moment. It may be a momentary sign of discomfort. If it occurred as the result of something he or you said, it may be a sign that he doesn’t believe what he’s saying (lying) or what he’s hearing. It could also mean, he has something in his eye. Pose a question to verify what you’ve seen if you think it will impact the negotiation.

2. Email & Phone Negotiations:
   1. Be very observant as to when someone alters the pace of which they speak or write. In writing, such can be denoted by the variance seen in shorter or longer sentences. When speaking, such is denoted in the pace of speech. In either case, an alteration of either can indicate a shift in the negotiation.
   2. Be mindful of the tonality of your voice and that of the person with whom you’re negotiating. You can convey a more serious demeanor with a lower tonality. Such should be used when appropriate, and a softer tonality should be used when attempting to be airier and less serious. Also, be mindful of a changed tonality, that conveys the same tune. There may be deeper implications in that action.

Regardless of the environment in which you negotiate, take note of when people alter their demeanor as to why they may have done so. In order to make such a distinction, you should observe how they purport themselves in what is a ‘normal’ environment for them; doing so will give you a foundation from which to note changes. If you’re observant to such occurrences, you’ll be quicker to realize when a correction strategy may need to be employed. Such recognition will also allow you to negotiate better, which will lead to more winning negotiation outcomes… and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

The dramatization, or showmanship, in your sales presentation allows you to appeal to as many of the client’s senses as possible. The more of his senses you can involve the more impact your product will have. Ask him to handle it, feel it, use it, if appropriate taste it, smell it or listen to it. Taste, touch, smell, looking involve the emotions. Build into your demonstration every opportunity for your client to become physically and emotionally involved with your product or service. While he is engaged with your product you can observe him and watch for signs of emotion, signs that he is believing, disbelieving, accepting or rejecting, the things you have said.

Remember only one third of what we hear is absorbed. The more senses we use in the learning process, the more information registers in the mind. Consequently the more you can use visual aids, the closer you will bring your client to the product. The elements, which make up showmanship are, Interest, Drama, Emotion, Excitement and Action.

Remember it’s your dramatic presentation that earns you the money that will make your life a success. Take time to study your approach, your opening of the sale, the way you present the benefits, backed up by the features of the product, the way you anticipate possible objections and how you counter them, and then how you close the sale. The Success Formula.

Initially I was taught to construct the sale around the word “IDEA” I = Interest: D = Desire: E = Enthusiasm: A = Action. Interest it is created by identifying a problem or a need that the client might have. Desire is stimulated by introducing your product as a solution to the problem. Enthusiasm is built up by emphasising the benefits your product will bring him through the features of the product.

Action is engaged in by making it easy to buy using your closing questions. EG: would you like the red version or would you prefer blue? Would you like to pay now or on delivery? This structure of a presentation worked well for me a number of years, until I learned of a new and better formula. This has since proved to be a far superior way of structuring a sale. The formula is DIPADA.

If you learn this structure and apply it, your presentations will flow more naturally to a close… D = Disturb: I = Interest: P = Proof: A = Acceptance: D = Desire: A = Action. D = Disturb your client by pointing out his need or his problem. It’s often the case that he is not aware that he has a problem. I = Interest him in the product by introducing it is as a solution to this problem. P= Prove that your product will be the ideal solution, get him to accept and agree that the product fits his need.

Proof and acceptance go together, Proof can also be provided by third-party testimonials or referrals to other satisfied users (especially if they are in the same line of business as himself.) A = Acceptance of the proof you give him is important, if he doesn’t accept the proof that your product or service will satisfy his need he won’t buy it. D = Desire is built by emphasising the benefits of owning your product which arise from its features. These might include the quality, price, safety, service or the guarantee, particularly those things that you notice have caught his attention. A = Action must be the close of the sale. This you can do at any point in the presentation by the use of trial closes.

To test whether the client is ready to buy you can ask closing questions: “What colour would you prefer?” — “Would you like the standard model or would the deluxe suit you better?” I used DIPADA to build up every kind of presentation I have made ever since. I even used it to construct sales letters. I have found the Proof and Acceptance area is the point at which you can introduce the common or standard objections yourself. When volunteered and dealt with in this way they disarm the client, which makes for a smooth flow through your presentation. By the end of your presentation the client is willing to buy and doesn’t feel as though he has been sold. It becomes a purchase rather than a sale.