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June 23, 2006

The Power of Customer Seminars

by Sridhar Ramanathan

As a member of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, I get asked from time to time to participant in their “Dinner Dialogues.” These are intimate settings in which Donovan Neale-May (Executive Director of the CMO Council) does a masterful job in facilitating a dialog with 10-12 industry executives. He asks penetrating questions and provokes discussion on timely topics. The highly engaging evening resulted really in two things: 1) great networking with peers, and 2) honing the value propositions for the sponsoring vendor’s offering.

It struck me that this format (the customer seminar) is really one of the most efficient and cost effective methods in a multi-modal lead generation process. We’ve put on similar venues called “Lunch and Learns” for one of our clients, and found them a good way to educate, inform, and motivate prospects into action. Some of the key ingredients for successful customer seminars are:

• Personally invite prospects
• Bill the event as informative and interactive (not a sales pitch)
• Secure a dynamic facilitator or speaker who encourages discussion
• Capture notes on participant comments so you can personalize follow up later
• Go for the close by asking permission to follow-up later
• Follow up, follow up, follow up

Posted June 23, 2006 | Permalink
Posted to Marketing Management