You want to ensure that with tele-seminars you give stand-alone value to it. Way too many of these events are pitch-focused, where you don’t really even give content, maybe just a hint of content, and then spend the remainder of the time trying to convince the listener to buy something.

I remember calling in to listen to my first tele-seminar eight years ago. It was run by one of the big-name motivational speakers. So I blocked off the time on my calendar, took away time from my family (it was in the evening), and dialed into the conference phone number. The first 10 minutes consisted of the speaker getting the phone-call attendees all revved up for the call itself and pretty much the remainder of the hour talking about how you can succeed in life by taking advantage of this great opportunity. The great opportunity that was being offered on this call was to sign up for their high-priced coaching program.

I got off that call feeling angry and sort of frustrated that I had trusted this person with my time. If you take nothing else from this book take the importance of valuing other people’s time, which is another reason for never cold-calling, putting on pitch-heavy events, and generally not respecting people for the time committed to you. I vowed that day never to run a tele-seminar like that myself. I promised myself that if somebody chose to honor me with their gift of time that when that person got off the phone he or she would get easy-and-quick tips to implement the knowledge that I was offering.

When you set up your own tele-seminar, decide whether you want to do a free or paid version. They both have benefits. A free tele-seminar will get a much higher response, but also know that your attendance rate of those who signed up compared to those who actually phone in will be fairly low. On the other hand, doing a paid tele-seminar will give you an audience of people who are a little more qualified to potentially take the next step with you for your products or services. You also have to look at perceived value. Some people may not sign up for a free tele-seminar assuming it’ll be pitch-heavy, because most of the time free seminars are. And be careful with paid tele-seminars. Even if someone has paid a small fee like $15, the attendee is expecting value from that. Creating a pitch-heavy tele-seminar where people have to pay to listen is a sure way to getting many refund requests. Paid tele-seminars work best when they are about a focused topic. Free ones work well when the topic is more general and it is in the up-sell of the seminar where the customer will have access to more depth. Most people do not have an issue with pitching something at the end of a free tele-seminar or even a paid one as long as the value has been given prior to the pitch. It’s a great way for people to get a taste of how you are on the phone. People can hear your voice, bringing you one-step closer to establishing a better trust relationship with them in the long run.

Coming up with topics can be as simple as asking people on your mailing list. Come up with five great topically based titles per tele-seminar and ask your list members to vote on which one they’re most interested in. Use an online survey service where you can see the results immediately. By getting people to rank their interests in each of the five titles, you get some valuable information. Not only does this show you where your market’s interests lie, but in turn people will also feel like they have contributed to the topic you choose. This makes them feel valued and involved and gives them a little more to buy in.

For example, if you are an accountant and your list consists of small business owners, come up with five different titles that address some of their biggest fears or desires. Titles like, “The five things you can do to reduce your tax obligation” can go over well when tax season is approaching. Even better, make the topic evergreen (meaning, always fresh and interesting), by switching it to, “The top five things you can do to increase your bottom line in the next 30 days.” You don’t even need to have the entire session laid out when asking your list. The key is that once list members choose their favorite, you have to ensure that whatever you are revealing on that tele-seminar is great content. I did my first tele-seminar about the six keys to viral marketing about six years ago, where I revealed a lot of the information that you can find in the viral marketing section of this book. I gave a lot of solid content to my customers and, at the end, after telling everybody how to make their own viral movies, I made them the offer that my company could make it for them. That one tele-seminar was the nucleus for sales for the next five years.

When I did my first tele-seminar, I really didn’t have a list at that time. I created a topic that I thought was interesting, wrote some bullet points of what people would get out of it, and then mentioned it to a few of my colleagues who I thought would benefit from the content. I offered a referral fee to whoever mentioned the seminar on their list. Even though the tele-seminar was free, any sale that came out of it would be credited to that person and he or she would get a cut.

When trying to approach list owners to do a tele-seminar it really helps to have a relationship with them first. I get people asking me all the time to promote their seminars to my list. For motivational-theme seminars, I have the numbers in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

But most the time I don’t even know that person. I, or any other list owner of significant size, has given a lot of time and resources building a list. We didn’t build it so you can benefit from it. There is also a lot of trust involved—my list trusts me and I am not about to lose that trust by recommending something less than great.

For people with whom I have a relationship, that I trust and know they will provide quality information, it is an easy decision for me. Just as it was an easy decision for this person to have me do a tele-seminar for her list. So if you’re going to approach other list owners, have a topic ready with some bullet points and let them know what you’re willing to offer them for it.