5 Ways to Promote Seminars to Approving Managers

Having companies, associations and other organizations as your main seminar clients is good -- and bad -- for your business. On the downside, if organizations cut their travel or training budgets, your registration levels will be impacted.

On the other hand, organizations represent a potentially long-lasting revenue stream. An individual usually will attend your seminar one time, but an organization can send multiple employees to you for training. As those employees leave or change jobs within the company, new hires are brought in to replace them -- and they'll need the same training.

To capitalize on this opportunity, the first thing you should do is pull out your registration form. Do you ask for the name of the attendee's approving manager? If not, add it to your form immediately.

Next, ensure that you're capturing and segmenting these names in your database. Approving managers are worth the effort of creating additional marketing materials that specifically address their desires and needs.

Here are five tips for marketing to approving managers:

Address the organization's needs. Explain how the organization will benefit by investing in an employee's education. Describe how your training will help employees boost their productivity, close more sales, reduce costs, etc. Companies want to see a positive return on the investment they make to train staff.

Create a "letter to the boss" that attendees can use when seeking approval to attend your seminar. This letter will address the supervisor's concerns - basically, how paying for an employee to attend your training will help the company. Providing this letter can be helpful, as some prospects don't know how to sell their supervisors on investing in their education.

Give thanks. Send approving managers a thank you note after your event. Your gesture will help to create a memorable impression of your company. You might even want to acknowledge that they have many training options these days; then describe how your training helps them get the most bang for their buck.

Pitch on-site training. At some point (the number varies depending on your seminar pricing), it becomes more affordable to bring the training to the company vs. sending multiple employees to your seminar. Highlight the benefits of private training in your seminar brochure or even in a separate mailing.

Send separate marketing materials to approving managers. Acknowledge that they've sent employees to your event in the past and suggest that they send new hires to your event, as well. You may even want to offer a discounted price as a thank you for their past business.

Marketing to approving managers separately requires extra work and planning. But the additional registrations and revenue you'll generate make it a worthwhile investment of your time, energy and money.