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| May 3, 1999 |
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So what does it take to put on a successful buyer's seminar? The steps are easy to do. They include lining up your speakers, selecting their topics, setting a date, selecting a location, arranging prizes for attendees, advertising your seminar, watching your seminar budget and offering a valuable information-filled program to the attendees. Speakers You should be in control of all steps of your transactions, so it is natural that you should be in control of the speakers at your seminar. You invite whom you want to participate, and you decide what they will talk about. You will want to have about four speakers including yourself to complete a two-hour program. Choose your speakers from among a mortgage broker, an attorney, a title company representative, a home inspector, and an appraiser. Draw on your experience and ask your speakers to address the most common questions you face from your prospective clients. As a Realtor, some of the most common questions I get from clients on a consistent basis are:
You may have your own questions that you would like your speakers to handle, that may relate to the unique market conditions in your area. In my seminars the most popular topics are consistently:
Set a Time and Date Once you have your speakers, you need to set a date; I hold my seminars every 6 weeks (in a town of 26,000), and promote them for 3 weeks before the date. I have found the best days to be Tuesday & Thursday. I start at 7:30 sharp, and make sure everyone is out by 9:30, although I am available for one-on-one questions after that time. I've found 7:30 to be the best start time as the majority of the population here commutes at least 45 minutes, and they need time to get dinner, etc. before the seminar. Find a location As far as location is concerned, I suggest that you use someplace that is:
Some examples of nice, low-cost places to stage a seminar are:
I have been using a community room in the most popular grocery store in town. There is loads of parking; everyone knows where it is, and best of all, they advertise the seminar in-store for 2 months ahead of time. Recent problems with the booking of the store have caused me to change venue, to a community hall that is part of the old Town Jail. Everyone knows where it is; there's plenty of parking, and it costs $18 per hour to rent. Limit attendance A trick I figured out after my first seminar (for which 63 people signed
up) is to limit the attendance. I now limit to 24 people, and require
advance registration. Once the limit is reached, I can either get the people
in for a private session, or I offer to sign them up for the next
seminar. I chose to limit the attendance for 2 reasons: I find that only a few of the people who sign up in the first week of advertising will show up, and nearly everyone who signs up in the week of the seminar will show up. I have considered charging a $10 fee per couple, giving the money to a charity, to see if it does anything to increase the percentage of people who sign up Vs. attend. I have decided against this, at least for the time being, as I don't want to mess too much with a great thing! Gifts & Incentives All attendees are entered in a drawing for a free appraisal when they buy through me. Also, everyone who attends and buys through me gets a free home inspection and free title insurance. (I pay a discounted fee for the home inspection and the title insurance.) My mortgage broker pays for 30% of the advertising, and I pay all the other expenses. I don't charge my lawyer to be a speaker, because I get lots of free service from him as it is. Prior to offering the home inspection & title insurance, I was giving $500 towards closing costs when people bought through me. I decided to change because I feel that it is better to give services than to give money. Insuring attendance Once someone signs up, I mail them a coupon for their free gifts (only valid if they buy through me) to be authorized at the seminar, a coupon to enter the draw-prize, a newsletter, and a letter thanking them for attending. I send all this in a 9" x 12" white envelope with a color logo on it, promoting the seminar, and listing the same information as the newspaper ads. I have one of my assistants call all registrants the night before the seminar, to remind people. If someone says they can't make it, I can call one of the people who had to be put off until the following seminar. Advertising the seminar I start running a 4.5" x 6" ad in the weekly real estate section of my local paper 3 weeks before the seminar. The ad costs me $92 per insertion, and is 3 color. I outline the speakers; topics covered; the gifts to attendees, and the location/date. For my next seminar on May 11th, I am running a 1/2 page ad, in full color, at a cost of $350 per insertion. This ad will contain a testimonial letter from one of the past seminar attendees who I have sold a home to; the other half contains what I've previously outlined. I've decided to run this bigger ad because 2 other Realtors are now offering seminars (I guess imitation really is the most sincere form of flattery), so I want to shut them down as fast as I can. I also distribute 8.5" x 11" posters to all the stores and businesses in the area. These are on obnoxious neon paper, and outline the same thing as the newspaper ads. Other venues for advertising that I use are:
Another advertising source I have considered is having mail delivered to all the apartments in town; the postal service offers a discount for this, but it would still cost me $470 for 1440 apartments, so I have not yet tried this. Controlling costs The following amounts are in Canadian dollars, and are based on 14 buyer-units attending (I say buyer-units because I get quite a few single people attending, so I can't call them couples).
A couple of notes here: I don't include the amount I pay for the inspection & title insurance, because it is not an expense until they buy. Also, the binders cost me $30 each because they are custom Better Homes and Gardens binders with lots of color pages in them; they also take my assistant about 24 hours to put together 30 of them, so I include her salary in the per-binder cost. You might think that the binders are an excessive cost, but they are well worth it; people are amazed that they get to keep them, and they bring it with them whenever we are looking at houses. Is putting on a buyer's seminar worth the planning and expense. I think so. The least income that I can attribute to one of my seminars is $13,560. I consider it well worth it! Related Article:
Note: Chris Newell wishes to thank Al Napier for his help in creating Chris' successful seminar format. |
| Chris Newell, ABR, CRES, RMM, CEI, is a cyber REALTORŪ with Main Street Realty/Better Homes and Gardens, Milton Ontario. Contact him at chris@new-all.com |
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