One of the most effective ways accountants can build relationships with their existing clients and start (or build on) conversations with prospective clients, is by bringing people together. Organising seminars and events is a great way to achieve this.
Before you do, use our handy checklist below to make sure it’s a success!
Before the event
- Decide why you want to hold an event, is it to:
- Educate clients about forthcoming changes, such as how to prepare for MTD for ITSA.
- Attract prospective new clients.
- Raise awareness of your firm and how you help local businesses.
- Host a social or charitable event which will bring people together for a good cause, or simply to have fun.
- Create an attention-grabbing title – depending on what the topic is, the title needs to capture why people will want to attend and what they will get from the event.
- Agree who the seminar will be aimed at – clients, prospects, business contacts, media and generate a lists/database of names to contact.
- Confirm whether the event will be held at your own premises or an external venue. Either way you will need to consider: the maximum number you can seat/cater for; is there sufficient car parking; is there disabled access; opening times; and how easy is it to find.
- What time of day will best suit your delegates? Breakfast, morning or afternoon, lunch or evening? The time of day can be crucial in getting as many people there as possible.
- Try to avoid event clashes, or incorporate them – check the events diaries, what else is going on which might take delegates away from your event.
- Decide on the duration and format of the event. If there will be presentations, how long will they last? Serving refreshments on arrival and after a seminar or business focused event is a good way of creating a networking environment, not just for you and your staff but also for delegates to get to know each other.
- Send invites at least 4 – 6 weeks in advance to allow time for people to get the date in their diaries. Make it clear on the invite how delegates/guests need to book/RSVP. You should also make a follow-up phone call to invitees a couple of weeks before the event to remind them and see if they want to book, and where necessary send a final reminder email to people who have not yet responded.
- Prepare your presentation (if doing one), you may want to use PowerPoint, or have something less informal. Choose a delivery method that you feel comfortable with and which your delegates will get the most from. Think about the key things people want to find out, what their worries are, how you can help them.
During the event
- If you are doing a seminar or equivalent, the presenter or chairperson should be a good public speaker and confident in their presenting abilities.
- If you use social media and your website to communicate with people, consider having the seminar videoed, so that you can post links to it on your digital channels. This also gives you scope to extend your message to a wider audience than just those who attended on the day.
- Giving delegates hand-outs is also a useful thing to do as it gives them the opportunity to make their own notes throughout the presentation, but also something which they can refer to after the seminar.
After the event
- Set in place a process to make follow-up calls. This might be to delegates who attended, to see if they have any further questions or would like to arrange an appointment for you to go and meet with them. You should also contact anyone who was booked to attend but didn’t and offer to send them the handouts, or better still arrange an appointment to go and see them and run through the key points that were discussed.
Events can be a very effective way of raising your firm’s profile, strengthening relationships with your clients and attracting new clients. However, in order for the seminar to be a success you must break it down into a before, during and after process and use the points mentioned above to maximise the time and effort you put into organising them.
