The challenge: In this final week of a four-week program to get your business off to a solid start by focusing on retirement rollovers, let’s discuss effective retirement rollover seminars and how to do them on a limited budget.
Since you’ve already branded your practice as a retirement resource and made sure you have the ability to deliver the high-level retirement services that implies — and contacted current and past clients to be sure they are aware of your services — it’s time to be proactive.
The opportunity : Create semiannual retirement rollover checkup seminars as marketing vehicles for clients, their friends and prospects.
In order to make this seminar approach manageable and cost-effective, consider using a local library or some other free or low-cost venue and teaming up with members of your estate attorney/accountant/planner/insurance team to defray the costs and make the seminars even more informative.
For instance, a knowledgeable insurance agent can explain alternatives in health and long term care health plans.
Your CPA can speak about the tax consequences of rollovers and the
Roth IRA conversion opportunities coming in 2010.
Make it clear to the speakers that the meeting has no sales agenda and is purely for informational purposes.
Seminar planning checklist and timetable
1. Once you have selected your location, set a date about two months out and send a “hold the date” card or e-mail to guests. Remember to invite clients, their friends and family, and past clients, because it is much easier to win back an old client than to convert a prospect. They may have left your practice due to a lack of retirement resources.
2. Send an invitation four weeks before the event and include the seminar overview. Make sure your invitation makes clear the key points that will be covered.
3. Confirm your topic, presenters and venue, as well as your food, time and audiovisual needs.
4. Two weeks before the event, send out a reminder note or e-mail.
5. Create an agenda and have handouts or materials approved by your compliance officer. Check on audiovisual needs, such as LCD projectors and microphones. We recommend using a microphone for any group larger than 10 people.
6. For a dinner or meeting with a speaker, have the room set up in round tables of eight (never use 10 – it’s too crowded) or a U-shape to give you and your speakers an opportunity to walk around.
7. Two days before the event, call all invitees to confirm their attendance and remind them to bring a friend or family member.
The day of the event
1. Bring nametags (use big type), agenda and materials.
2. Arrive one hour before the event to check the room setup and introduce your team to the staff.
3. Bring materials and have quiet background music playing, if possible, as guests arrive.
4. Follow a timeline, as below.
5. Close the seminar with action steps.
Seminar Timeline
6:45-7:00 p.m. Check-in for guests. Ask your assistant to record total retirement assets for each client or prospect and welcome them personally. Be sure each guest wears a nametag.
7:00-7:15 p.m. Refreshments and welcome. This is an opportunity to share your retirement resource branding and have one or two clients give a testimonial of how you have worked with them.
7:15- 8:15 p.m. Retirement rollover checkup. Have your guest speakers share their topics and then provide attendees with a retirement timeline. Explain the need to review their asset allocations and diversification semiannually and provide retirement calculators to project retirement needs using data from their 401(k) or IRA statements.
Finish your seminar on time and let guests know you will be following up.
Follow-up: Send a follow-up e-mail the next morning to thank your guests for joining you. In each case, tell them what’s next based on your follow-up action plan. This is the key to turning a client’s guest into a new client or a referral. Have an e-mail template prepared before the seminar (one for referrals and one for clients). This can even be set ahead of time into your computer for delivery the next morning.
Next week: How to tap into corporate retirement plan rollovers
