The 3 Step Workshop System – Teaching First Makes Selling Easy Later

Hey Bullies… Martin Bell here!

So – I was trying to rise to Nathan’s guest blog post challenge again and I got completely carried away and wrote over 4000 words (just wanted to give you a fair warning!)

But before you bolt let me ask you a question…

What if I could show you a system that I use to drive over 60% of my marketing clients to me at virtually no cost? 

Would you make a cup of coffee and settle in for the ride?  Cool – then let’s get to it!

After my last guest post about BNI networking a lot of the private mastermind group guys have been quizzing me about ‘how’ I run my client getting workshops and if they actually drive leads and clients.

Yes they do work AND they drive qualified leads and sales – lots of them.  I was discussing this strategy with Nathan just the other day.  As we were chatting I had 3 referrals come through from people that had attended the previous evening workshop and are now referring others to me.  Nate said I should do a blog post, as it’s an interesting subject that can skyrocket your lead gen locally, so here we go.

Why Workshops – Work!

I wish I could proudly proclaim that I ‘invented’ this strategy – but I didn’t…sorry!  I cheated and modeled a business coach that is already doing exactly this locally.

The basic goal is to bring in strangers to your business workshop and turn them into raving fans and loyal clients by educating them and actually helping them by providing ‘results in advance’.  I’ll teach you how to do both these things (and more) in a bit…

It’s got to be all about them – their product – their services and we actually do get helpful stuff done!  If you do a pitch fest – they simply wont come back.

So I have been testing a few different workshops.  I have visited nearly every local BNI and gotten interest and attendees – and I wanted to offer more ‘classes’ to those that have already been to one event.

Momentum is a cool thing – I have been doing at least 1 per week, and mostly 2 sessions per week.   The more sessions I put on, the more work comes through the door to me.  Cool huh!

When I started doing these workshops, I taught them how to set up their GMB Google My Business page.  I’ve done workshops on setting up social media accounts, social stacking, basic on-page SEO (that one bombed really badly by the way – I’ll explain why later!), team building, sales/selling-and how to close the deal workshops, figuring out your customer avatar and how to target them, how properly written home page content makes you stand out and sells you better (including helping them write it with their avatar) as well as classes teaching “Get more Google reviews in the next 30 days than you got all last year”.

Related: Reviews = Most Understated Impact in Local SEO?

The SEO Workshop was a Disaster

The SEO workshop was too technical for the audience and I confused them.  It was awful, I felt like I was sinking in quicksand – the more I explained the more confusing it got and I just didn’t know how to dig myself out!  I hereby give myself a grade of 1/10 – Donkey!

Imagine trying to explain title tags, which leads into proper keyword research, Meta descriptions, on page keyword density, no follow and do follow links, inbound linking, citations, press releases, back links… blah blah blah – brains got fried!  It’s simply too difficult to teach the layman in a one hour class.  My advice – don’t do SEO in the workshops…

BUT – I didn’t die – nobody hated me – called me names or walked out – not one rotten head of lettuce or over ripe tomato was thrown!  So that’s about the worst that can happen – you bomb…  It actually gave me more confidence from failing – because now I clearly understand what to stay away from and the exact things that I should focus on presenting to my audience.

My favorite class is “The Business Hot Seat”, where on the fly I come up with marketing ideas and strategies for them.  I always do these to ‘invite only’ audiences that have attended a previous workshop where I already have credibility and authority (HINT: these session are the easiest to close new clients!)

The workshops have been a raving success with a lot of the attendees becoming repeat visitors.

So – you might be asking, am I not worried about giving away all this free info and ‘teaching’ them our job?  Am I giving away the food from our ‘online marketers’ table?

No I’m not – and I’ll tell you why…

Teaching Automatically Gives You Credibility and Authority

You are the ‘expert’ they are listening too…the more you show them; the more they consider you the local expert and trusted authority.

Have you ever read a book by a famous marketer and found yourself quoting ideas, concepts or marketing systems to others after?  I know I have…

We all love to learn – So I want to empower my audience to actually do stuff, to see that it’s hard work and to get them to accomplish some basic online marketing of their own…I want them to feel a sense of accomplishment building out a twitter page or a Facebook business page, developing a 5* review system – I mean, come on, it’s not hard for us, but teaching them to do it makes them believe you are some type of marketing god!

I’m really not kidding here either…

After one of the ‘hot seat’ workshops one guy told me “you are without doubt the smartest marketing guy I have ever met” all because I told him how to write better Google Adwords copy, having service themed landing pages for each ad and how to change his website content so he became the obvious choice and didn’t sound like every other provider in town with clear calls to action and to add his phone number on every page of the website to make contacting him easy…

For you and I – this stuff is basic…but our audience has never heard of anything like it.  You can see their eyes literally light up and every single attendee is scribbling notes frantically – it’s really a cool and empowering feeling!

Related: The Quadruple Marketing Threat To Close More Sales, Cheaper and Faster!

The 3 Step Workshop System To Get Clients That Actually WANT To Do Business With You

1. You have to have a place to present at. A nice conference room – comfy chairs, bottles of water etc…

2. Get an audience. I personally only present to 8 people per session for two reasons: First I can spend individual time with them, secondly, the conference room I have available seats 8!

3. Have a plan and deliver cool stuff – yes a real plan of what you will do and what you will accomplish. Map it out for yourself so you can be systematical in your approach and actually deliver value during the class.

Step 1 – Finding a Place to Present

I’m lucky – I had 2 offers, one from a lawyer and another from a computer store guy.  The computer store guy has a computer screen projector and comfy high back leather chairs with a big oval oak table – so I use that (he also promotes me to every business owner coming in the store!)

If you are looking for a place here’s what I’d do.  Poll your clients and see if you can beg, borrow, steal their conference rooms to use – OR simply rent one. (IncomeBully note: Most major cities have coworking space or virtual offices where you can rent a conference room for pretty cheap!)

I found all kinds of conference rooms available online by searching for executive suites, rent a conference room in {City} and even hotels that offer conference rooms – most run from $50 – $75 an hour for up to 10 people and that includes free internet and water.

So basically what I’m saying is – don’t let not having a fancy conference room stop you – simply rent one!

Step 2 Getting An Audience

Ok so now you’re probably thinking, uh oh…this is what I can’t do – right? Here are a few tips…

The business coach that I pinched this idea from, does all 3 of these below, but I don’t.  So do your research and don’t quote me as I have another couple of strategies I’m using to get attendees (I’ll share those two in a minute as well)

The local Chamber of Commerce will let members host 2 meetings per month and in my area – you can even use their facility.   Plus they will advertise it to all the COC members, put it on their website as an event and basically do your marketing for you.

https://www.eventbrite.com – add a listing for an event.  It has a ton of reach locally.

http://www.meetup.com – post up what you are doing or offering and you will get response from locals that are interested – go after the business groups.  It also helps if you are a member of other groups so you can cross promote by networking at their events and making the offer to your ‘target prospects’ to attend your workshops.

Related: IncomeBully Exclusive – Unlimited Business Leads At a Click of a Button

Here’s My Audience Getting Strategy

Business Networking International.  My BNI group now has 52 members, so I selectively invited small groups, the word spread and before I knew it I was getting emails from other BNI members from different groups that had ‘heard the good word’ and wanted to attend!

This gave me the idea of visiting all the other local BNI groups and skimming the cream by selectively inviting those I wanted to do SEO, web design and Adwords work for, to the workshops.

I’m picking those to attend that I want to do business with – this is prospecting for clients.  I’m not inviting other marketers, the radio station guy, lady that owns the deli or the rep from Mary Kay.  They wont hire me, they WILL lap up all the free info – but I’d have a hard time making them clients because they simply cant afford me – or they have a franchise website and marketing plan already from corporate.

Why BNI?

Locally we have a lot of BNI groups – I’m not close to being tapped out on BNI groups to visit, but I’m in Houston so we are a large city. I’d say that even if you are in a small city you could still implement this strategy and select the best prospects for your services and do some teaching workshops just to them.   Don’t be embarrassed with a group of only 2 or 3 attendees – you can still achieve a great return on your time and money by inviting them and then closing the ‘best’ prospects on your services… (Edit by Nathan: I know people pulling in 6 figures for their business just from BNI in smaller cities of 50K population)

The computer store guy gets me a lot of sign ups.  He says that from his point of view I’m providing an excellent service to his customers that make his store even more unique than the big box chains and a place that his clients want to come to and learn.  He’s certainly a raving fan and promotes me aggressively – he often sits in on the workshops and I now do all his Adwords and SEO as well!

Strategic Alliances

The business coach I stole the original workshop idea from, we promote each other and I have had him attend a few workshops to help me host and present a couple of the hot seat sessions.  He has an audience already (his coaching clients) and I want to show them how well what I do, meshes with what they are trying to achieve and learning from the coach.  I want to be the ‘missing piece’ of the puzzle – and it works!  They are already paying him $1500 – $3000 a month for coaching, so yes, they can afford your services.

Are you getting some ideas of your own yet?  Local businesses like the computer store guy that would help you out?  A business coach? Chamber or Rotary clubs?

It’s really all a matter of extending your circle of influence and spending time around those most likely to (and those that can afford to) do business with you.  Leverage the relationships of the people you know, clubs, your church or anywhere there are local business owners hanging out.  Keep expanding your own personal network.

You can even use your Facebook account, make a post explaining what you are up to – then follow up by private messaging your friends and simply asking for help “Hey bud – I’m doing these series of small business marketing workshops – who do you know that might be interested in attending?”  This is expanding your reach and leveraging someone else’s network.

Cool? … Awesome – then lets get into delivery…

Step 3 Having A Plan and Delivering Awesome-Sauce Advice

This really depends on what your service offer is.

For web design I don’t talk about how to build a website, I talk about understanding their customers and writing compelling content to influence a purchase decision using gain, logic and fear as motivators, how to properly explain benefits over features, the importance of calls to actions, the phone number on every page, successful layout structures etc.

Basic?  Yup – but you’d be surprised that no one knows this stuff.  It’s so logical that they immediately recognize you as an expert.  Lets face it; most of them have a site built by their niece – or their brother’s sister in law’s son!  So we have to differentiate ourselves, we don’t ‘just’ build websites; we design sites that actually convert web traffic into customers.

For SEO clients (as I said before) don’t do SEO… Do a workshop on “How to get more 5* Google reviews in the next 30 days than you got all last year” – or set up their GMB page.

Business hot seats are my absolute favorite, but you’ve got to have some marketing chops to pull them off.  Every one of you in Nathan’s private mastermind group has the skills to do this – I know you guys, the advice you give daily is exactly what these small business owners need and want to hear.  Just remember – “Zero Techno Jargon” – they simply wont understand it, the confused mind never buys and the whole point of this is to sell them something and get you new clients!

I simply analyze what they are doing now, review their website really quickly and tell them what I think they should add, or change to get better results.  I talk a lot about sales copy, knowing the prospect, building out a customer avatar – that kind of stuff.  Simple – but powerful…

I explain that more content will help rankings, having a blog optimizes for long tail keywords and therefore extends their reach, adding their phone and email to every page of their website makes contacting them easier, we’ve even gone into chatting about email follow up marketing by capturing opt ins, cold calling for new customer outreach – all kinds of fun stuff.

Just be careful not to stray too far from your service offerings – the whole idea of these workshops is to:

1. Show them the pieces of online marketing they are missing
2. Demonstrate knowledge, authority and gain their trust
3. Show them you are cool…people buy from those that they like, know and trust!

During a chat session on Income Bully Skype Mastermind the other day (The mastermind is priceless in my opinion, the sheer amount of talented marketers and how freely real world information is shared is amazing and one of the main reasons that I have been able to scale so quickly in my own agency…The Skype mastermind group is free for those that have purchased either the Agency Blueprint or Ice Cold Email Gold, email Nathan to get added!)

I commented that, “People buy on emotion, not logic”.

Nathan said it even better with his reply – “I would say people get interested with emotion, your job is to provide the logic to justify and play on the emotion”.

So you simply find out the number one question your prospects have or are asking themselves – and you offer to solve that problem, or answer that question – for free!

In my experience here’s the scratch they need itched:  Every business owner I meet wants and NEEDS more customers.  Very few know how to get started, let alone actually do it.  So what you have done is to actually say to the prospect “you need more clients, cool – no worries – here’s 3 things you should do that will solve your problems, try this, then this – OK cool – now do this…”

That’s results in advance.  You are actually helping them to get to where they want to go.  It’s a novel approach to getting clients right?  Simply by helping them…

Now your hardcore closing question to the prospect is simple – “You want help doing the rest of this?”

That’s it!  That’s my mega hardcore close: “You want help doing the rest of this?”

You are building a bridge – here’s where they are now – here’s where they will be after working with you.

Here’s how I always finish the workshops

I close with a tripwire sale of “I’ll audit your entire online presence and uncover your top 3 competitors best marketing strategies for only $49.”

Or if web development is your thing – “I’ll do the website edits, put your phone number and email in the header as well as insert calls to action on your website for only $49”

Just make the offer irresistible – everyone wants to know their competitors marketing secrets – or have their site convert more visitors into customers.   That’s why they came to your workshop in the first place!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: The goal is to make them your client.  I always make a modest charge so the relationship changes from prospect to client.

The price you charge doesn’t matter near as much as getting them to commit to a purchase – it’s a basic tripwire sale. I just make the offer compelling enough and cheap enough so that it’s irresistible to them.

The main point I’m getting at here is to have an exchange of a service you provide, for their money – here’s why…

How many times have you heard this when prospecting to clients – “Oh that sounds interesting but we already have a web guy”.

When they take you up on your offer – now YOU are their web guy – their marketing guy!  They will take your calls and return your emails.  You are the trusted resource they go to for advice and help.  You become the ‘logical decision’ when anything needs to be done (and by the way, I always make my clients aware of what they need to do and make recommendations)

Personally my favorite tripwire offer is “Uncover your top 3 competitors online marketing strategies.”  Because I want to offer them SEO, GMB and Adwords.

So you simply find out if the competition is doing Adwords, where they rank organically with SEO, the keywords they are going after, GMB page rank, their social media presence and whatever else they do online that we could clone and deliver for our client.  I deliver this presentation (fancy wording for – I chat with them on the phone!) and email them a few basic keyword reports and competitor analysis.  I’m trying to show the prospect what they need to do to get more market share away from the competition.

That’s the basic set up for the tripwire and how it leads to a conversation about planning what marketing strategy we should implement for them.  Honestly at this stage, you are competing in a vacuum.  They are not going out and getting more bids or interviewing other marketers – you are their Web guy…

DON’T miss this step at the end of the workshops

Always, always, always – Ask for referrals…I know, most of them are not even your client yet right?

Doesn’t matter – ask for the referral anyway…  I usually say something like “Did you get value from this session?  Cool-cool – then who else do you know that would benefit from this? Who do you know that could use my help?”

Get the referral names on paper – provide a notepad and pen to all attendees and they will make a list for you of hot prospects to call later to either invite to a session or send a proposal.

When they look down at the yellow legal pad I prompt them with “Go through your phone contacts so you don’t miss someone that needs this for their business”…

If I see one or two people with blank yellow pages, tell the group: “I’d appreciate a cool comment on social media as well – do me a favor and post an update on Facebook telling everyone how freaking awesome I am, and by the way, witty has two T’s and make sure you capitalize Charming!!!”… That always gets a good laugh, but more importantly some will post an update that gets shared to all their friends – that’s massive action and outreach stuff…

If you ask – most will do it.  If you are cool and funny, you don’t take yourself too seriously and then deliver practical actionable info, they will be more than happy to help you out.  People LIKE to help people they like – just ask them to do it!

AND – don’t forget to follow up on the phone the next day with every attendee.  Simple stuff goes a long way; ask them if they have any questions, if they understood everything or do they need clarification on any points, would they like to come to an invite only business hot seat workshop in 2 weeks, thank them for coming and then make an offer.

“If there’s anything I can ever do to help you out, please let me know – I’m very interested in the septic tank pumping industry and working with an entrepreneur like you to drive massive traffic and new leads to your business – can we sit down and chat about this one day?  What does your schedule look like for next week?”

Want to get all super ninja up in this workshop thingy?

Create an auto responder follow up to everyone that attends your workshops, announcing new classes, send them a ‘bring a friend invite’, alert them to cool new strategies, step by step cheat sheets or video walk-through explainer videos, talk about advertising opportunities – basically be the marketing (or web) guy they never dreamed of having before.

Inform and educate them – this will make you the local go-to authority.

When Google Adwords changed the Ads listings and eliminated the sidebar ads, I immediately sent out a broadcast email to my entire workshop list.  “Hey guys, just wanted you to know that Google Adwords has blah blah blah…Ads will become more expensive because they have removed all the sidebar ads, so make sure your landing pages have a high quality score to ensure your keyword bid price costs don’t spike – I made a quick 5 minute video to show you how to do that here {link} ”

The result:  I landed 3 new PPC accounts to manage…

Final Thoughts

This system is responsible for at least 60%+ of new customer acquisition for my business and the best part is that it only costs me the gas to drive there and my time to present!  That’s it…

OK – So I do get all fancy pants and bring 8 pens and 8 yellow legal pads – big deal, less than $20 at Office Hippo!

Maybe you need to rent a conference room – in that case it will cost you $100 to put a workshop on.  $100 is nothing in comparison to the ‘payoff’ from presenting and talking to a group of business owners.

So simply go and get it done – be creative to find your audience, decide on a workshop presentation that aligns with what services you offer and go deliver…

Most of all take massive action – because nothing, and I mean NOTHING, beats massive action.

What will start to happen is everything you do will create a snowball effect, the workshops are easier to fill, emails pour in and the phone rings more often with highly qualified prospects looking to do business with you.  The more you do, the more comes to you.

That was 2 cups of coffee huh – my bad.