I always tell my audiences and clients to have a 10 touch plan for all their clients. How can you touch them at least ten times a year: • Face to face meetings • Telephone calls • Conferences and seminars • Emails • Newsletters • Webinars • Teleseminars
Teleseminars are a great way to keep in touch with clients and potential clients. They build great relationships and as we know, business is about people and relationships. So, what are teleseminars and how do they work?
Teleseminars are a great way to promote your products, services, or to educate your clients and customers about a specific topic. It is one of the fastest, easiest and most economical ways to increase your sales and establish your credibility in your subject area.
The way it works, is that everyone calls into a bridge line. The bridge line allows everyone to hear everyone else, like 3-way calling, only with larger numbers. Most conferencing services have it set up where you, as the moderator have control over muting the call or not. If the call is muted, then only the moderator can speak, if the call isn't muted, then anyone can speak.
Teleseminars can last from 30 minutes to 3 hours. You can also record the call and have it available as a podcast download, sell the recording on a CD or even have the call transcribed and produce it as a book that you can give away or sell.
Teleseminars should have great content and benefits for the listeners and allow them to ask questions and give feedback. The advantages of teleseminars are: • No travel for you or your participants, you can do it from home or the office – no parking or travelling hassles • If someone can’t make the call, they can always listen to it again or buy the CD • It is a great way to run a seminar remotely to promote or launch new products, provide information, get feedback, run remote sales or marketing meetings and numerous other applications. • Free seminars are a great way to build your database or get potential clients interested in your products or services. They will see you as the experts in your field and business will follow. • You can sell products or services and have special promotions or links for those that have taken part in the teleseminar. • You can interview or collaborate with other experts in your field. I have run teleseminars together with my friend and technology guru Terry Brock while I was sitting at home in London and Terry was in Orlando. I have done the same with a Hollywood media correspondent in LA and my audience included participants from 23 countries. I have even done a teleseminar with Gihan Perera who was in Australia and we had to work the timings carefully with the time differences.
These are the practicalities of how to run a teleseminar: 1. Determine your subject and target audience. What is the level of education of your audience and what are the problems that the teleseminar will solve for them. 2. Determine if you are going to charge for this teleseminar or if it will be free. Typically, if this teleseminar is free, you are going to want to promote your products or services or do an upsell to a seminar or promotion. If the teleseminar is a paid teleseminar, concentrate more on the content rather than the product promotion, your clients are paying for the information you are giving them. 3. Research your content for your teleseminar. – You should do some research before the teleseminar to find out what your audience is expecting or what some of their problems are. 4. Work out the timing of the call. Ensure you cover all the points or answer all the questions within the time frame of the call. I normally have it plotted out on my laptop as paper can get lost or make a lot of noise during the call. 5. Get the right equipment. I like to use a headset which leaves my hands free and I can also stand or move around more freely. 6. Record the teleseminar and perhaps create a transcript. I record the call on a digital recorder as well as get the company organising the lines to record it as well. 7. Before the teleseminar starts, do a roll call of the main speakers, or if applicable, of the attendees on the call. 8. Start and finish your teleconference on time. Many of your audience will have set the time aside and get frustrated and ring off if they have to wait for the seminar to start. 9. Open the call by sharing with your audience your expertise in the subject - Give a little bit about your background and what they will get from the seminar. 10. Take a break. Take a break about every 30 minutes or so. Have people stand up and shake their hands and arms to get the blood moving again. 11. Question Time – I like to keep 10 minutes at the end of the call for questions and try not to take any before that. This is something you must convey at the beginning of the call. 12. At the end of the teleseminar, summarize the information and introduce your product or service that you are promoting. You should create a special page or website for this promotion. 13. Get testimonials. Offer a free product or eBook to anyone giving you a testimonial. I like to record those as well and put them on my website.
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