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All professional practices have the perennial problem of how to attract new clients. The comfortable days that some of us once knew have long since gone and competition is now the order of the day. Professionals who have not been trained in marketing must feel their way towards a solution which will bring them new clients.

Many professionals opt for seminars as a way of obtaining new business. The traditional method is to organise a number of short breakfast or after work seminars. The seminar is advertised locally and a nominal price charged because we have all learnt that people who do not pay, often do not attend. A few staff will talk on topics we believe potential clients will find interesting then there will be food and a chance to network. We all tell ourselves that this system must work otherwise our competitors would not keep doing it.

The problem with this model of course is that we are not fooling anyone, with the possible exception of ourselves. Everyone knows the reason for the seminar and only attends because they happen to be interested in that specific topic. The other problem is that not one firm in a hundred has an effective system for following up on the people who attend the seminar.

It is time to re-think the model. Seminars can be a very valuable marketing tool if they are used correctly. The seminar should be used both to provide existing clients with something of value and to attract potential new clients in a low cost way. This can be achieved with the following approach:

• First begin by understanding that your most important clients are the ones that you already have, not the ones that you hope to acquire next week.

• Secondly understand that your best source of new clients is existing clients. I am assuming of course that you are providing your existing clients with a good service.

• Thirdly realise that it is a lot easier to prevent existing clients leaving your firm than it is to attract new clients to try your service.

Begin by listing all of your clients in descending order of importance, probably ranked by fees or turnover. Now divide your clients into four categories, Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. When you look at your own list of clients it will probably be obvious where to draw the dividing lines.

Once you have carried out this exercise the first thing you will realise is that to lose a Platinum or Gold client would be a blow to any firm regardless of their size. These clients would be both difficult and expensive to replace.

In order to keep your best clients with you it is a good idea to provide them with something over and above your normal service that has a low cost to you and a high perceived value to them. This is where the seminar comes in, but structured and sold differently.

Organise a bi-monthly seminar that you will call the 'Platinum Club' or some such name to provide an element of exclusivity. This can be organised for breakfast or after work event although breakfast is usually cheaper to provide. The format will be one speaker, food and the opportunity for all of your Gold and Platinum clients to network. Ensure that your clients realise this opportunity is exclusive and that they will have the opportunity to network with people similar to themselves.

The speaker should not be one of your staff but should be an outside speaker with something of interest to say to your clients. You should not have much difficulty finding people willing to give up a few hours to speak to your Platinum and Gold clients, hence there should be very little cost.

Your clients 'pay' for their admission by bringing with them a guest of similar standing to themselves who would like to hear the speaker and network with people similar to themselves. Of course during the networking period you and your staff are busy meeting and greeting both your existing clients and their guests.

If twenty clients each bring a guest then you have twenty potential new prospects. It is important to obtain name, address and email address for all of the guests and then put in place a systematic process for keeping in touch with them until you make a sale.

The benefit of this seminar model is of course that you provide your key clients with something of value that has cost very little and you now have a number of prospects in your system that you can follow up. If you run the 'club' every few months on a regular programme you will obtain a regular supply of new prospects.

You should have little difficulty arranging for someone to talk at the meeting if they have the opportunity to obtain contact details from the audience.

Good luck.