Seminar Marketing for Socially Responsible Investing: Elements of an Effective Presentation

Seminar Marketing: Elements of an Effective Presentation

I. Asking Questions:

You have a lot of knowledge to impart and your guests are there to learn; however, keep in mind that Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) will be new for most of your audience. Allocate enough time for question and answer sessions to ensure that the information you are providing is being absorbed. If no one is asking questions, don't be afraid to be the one asking the questions and have your audience answer them. Remember it is important to keep the audience participating throughout the seminar. Here are some suggestions to get the conversation started.

"How many of you already invest utilizing SRI principles?" If you get an answer, keep the dialogue going. "What tools are you currently using in selecting your SRI investments?" If you don't get an answer, or the answer you were looking for, you can always ask and answer the question, especially if your audience seems reluctant to participate. For example, "What are some things we may want to exclude from our investments? (Pause, and if you get no response...) "Oil, weapons, and tobacco are common exclusions... can you think of any others?"

II. Empowering the audience:

During the seminar, give your guests an opportunity to participate in discovering their values. This will be important to get them interested in how Socially Responsible Investing relates to them and will make them more likely to set an appointment to meet with you. There are different ways you can implement the participation portion of the seminar. You can break into groups, discuss values together in an open conversation, or have each person work individually. Breaking into groups takes discipline and organization, but also encourages open conversation and participation with the other guests.

III. Tips for audience participation:

Partner shares - have them pick a partner to discuss why they came today and what they hope to accomplish.
Group/table exercises - break them into groups, or assign each table to work together.
Utilize the whiteboard - ask questions and write their answers on the board.
IV. Navigating the slides:

If your guests have a copy of the slides you are using to help them follow along and take notes, it is important not to stray too far from the slides you are using - and try not to jump around. If a question from the audience leads you to a section in the seminar that you haven't reached yet, you can always say, "That is a great question, we will be covering that in the next section of the seminar." Stay on track, and make sure you revisit their question when you reach that section. Also, don't read each slide word for word; anyone can do that, and that is not why your guests are there. Use your slides as a guideline and for illustration purposes. Be sure to highlight important sections and read out loud the hard to see sections.

V. Presenting the information:

A true skill of presenting is acknowledging when enough is enough. You want to provide enough powerful information to entice, but you don't want to inundate them with facts and statistics. Keep your statistics and informational data sections to a maximum of 15-20 minutes per section. Focus more time and attention on the Q&A and audience participation sections. Avoid the "data dump" approach which is popular with many advisors. It is boring and ineffective. You want them to leave wanting more so that they set an appointment and hold it.