You know what happens when you assume?
I’ve had a few agents push back on our Social Security seminars. They have the misguided notion that people aren’t that interested in something that is only a few hundred dollars a month. And, they assume people are inundated with information and won’t attend a seminar. Both couldn’t be further from the truth.
I am teaming with a local attorney who is inviting his clients to the workshop (with our help). We keep the room small to encourage discussion… six to eight is the perfect number. We had our first workshops of the year last week and they couldn’t have gone better.
We mailed 75 hand-signed letters to the clients with a return card to make response easy. Within a week we had received 12 responses, three opting to come to our March workshops. This is about a 15% response rate! We also had help from the attorney’s staff, who called clients to encourage them to attend.
The workshops were held at the attorney’s office. We provided sandwiches and drinks, which were a big hit. I don’t think they expected them—and I may start doing it for all workshops (it cost less than $40 to feed 6 people).
Four of the six in the first seminar were “blind” to the complexity of Social Security. I spent a lot of time on the impacts of holding a job and collecting Social Security benefits before full retirement age (FRA). These folks were amazed how high the penalties are if they decide to elect their benefits early and continue to work full time. There was also a lot of interest in the file and suspend concept, which is a strategy allowed only for individuals who are full retirement age. I will make this topic front and center going forward.
Since the workshops are only about an hour and there is a room full of people who don’t know each other, you have to prod them a bit to get participation. Rather than just presenting, I stopped often to engage participants and warm them up. Some really didn’t want to talk, but with a gentle nudge they were talking just like the others at the end. That’s critical to get them warmed up for the Q and A session at the end.
While I was engaging them in questions, I was also not shy about letting them know I was available for one-on-one meetings. After all, the intent of these seminars is to meet new prospective clients and prove our ability to guide them in the right direction.
From those 12 people I have requests for two sit-down meetings and two others with high interest. And, I will be following up with everyone personally and conducting drip marketing every month or two to stay in front of them.
Our attorney partner was ecstatic. And, it didn’t hurt that he picked up two new opportunities for his legal business over the two nights.
I am 100% confident this is time well spent and will begin to generate business and fill the pipeline.
Redbird has a complete package to make getting started easy and fast. Give me a call if you’d like to talk.
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Redbird Chirps
- Fonts matter in how you’re perceived. If you want to ensure that existing and potential customers recognize your brand, you need to go further than just designing a memorable logo—you need to create a cohesive experience. One of the most undervalued yet effective ways to do this is by selecting a singular typeface to use for all client communications, marketing materials and other representations of your brand. This holds for large companies or entrepreneurs.
- It’s what with you do with the “wins”. Winning matters. Losing matters. But in life what matters most is what we do with the wins and losses. Jon Gordon has some good advice to keep us focused on what’s most important.
- 15 money trends for 2015. Dave Ramsey may not have a crystal ball but he’s got a good perspective on what our clients are thinking and what they will do with their money.
