Why do so many seminar leaders complain that customers attend their live event and buy their products but don't implement the information? The good news about hearing this complaint is that these experts are genuinely concerned about the issue. They want their clients to use their information. They're not interested in just selling their product and collecting money. These seminar leaders actually care about serving their customers. And of course, a well-served client is far more likely to be a repeat long-term customer. What's going wrong? Under what circumstances does the failure to implement occur? Here's what's happened to me in the past after a live event. I come home, catch up on sleep, and on my next work day I go my desk, I face the two-inch thick binder and notes from the event, and I start to feel overwhelmed. It's too much information facing me all at once, and I'm not sure where to begin.
I start to read through the notebook and review my notes, and then I hit upon some key marketing component I'm supposed to implement, and I realize I have no idea or clear instructions on how to do so. Boom- my ability to implement this system is stopped dead in its tracks.
But it seemed so simple and clear when he was explaining it onstage just last week!
Yet when I'm trying to do it on my own, I'm hitting a dead end. I have nobody to ask to clarify and explain further. And I start to think I've just wasted a good bit of time and money. Perhaps this expert seminar leader isn't one I want to follow in the long term after all.
There goes one client relationship, right down the tubes! Anybody else out there experienced this?
Here what I think is missing in live events:
1) The take home material needs to be broken down into smaller implementation "chunks" with step-by-step completion checlists for each "chunk." Checking a completed item off of a list is extremely satisfying! I would advise that each step take no more than one hour or two to complete. Detailed instructions on how to implement each chunk would also be a plus.
2) Have a program of telecalls where the seminar leader can follow up with attendees and answer their questions while the customers are implementing. For example, clients can submit questions prior to a monthly call, and repetitive questions can be referred to posted recordings of past calls where the issue is addressed. Mastermind programs are great, but they're usually highly exclusive and usually prohibitively expensive.
Wouldn't it be great if a seminar leader could find a way to follow up and continue to support most of the attendees to their events? Wouldn't it be wonderful for everybody who attended to feel that they were part of the after-event "club," instead of only a select few willing and able to pay the initiation fee?
The bottom line is that many, if not most, people cannot absorb a large amount of information in one sitting or crash course aka today's "live event" or workshop. In order to educate a group thoroughly, the expert needs to create opportunities to reconnect, clarify, and reteach the concepts as students struggle to implement them after the live event. That's key to truly educating others.
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