I am super excited to start a new video series titled, Nightmares from the Back of the Room. Over the next several videos, I will be sharing some stories around things I have been seeing and/or hearing about from the back of the room at different events that are designed to move people forward to make a buying decision. This is one of the major premises or ideals around hosting these types of events.
Last week, I had the honor and privilege of facilitating a workshop with one of my former coaches, Angella Johnson. She did a week-long training series where she brought in a bunch of different experts. She brought me in to talk about FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) versus authentic selling at events. In particular, in the coaching industry.
I was really excited because woo-hoo did I have some stories. So today, one of the things that came up during our conversation in that last week (and also during the training that I facilitated) was this whole notion that a lot of times people have been taught and/or they have seen where you go to these live events, there’s a whole lot of hype going down. So, when the offer comes, the whole premise is to get a massive movement of people to jump up and rush to the back of the room to throw their credit cards at the team (laughs). If your event doesn’t do that, then you have failed (that’s kind of how it goes). But one of the things that I’m seeing is that’s not happening and when it does happen, a couple of things occur.
One of the reasons why this is not working or is not working as well as it has in the past is because people are hip to the game. People are like, “You know, yeah I’m not really sure I believe what was just said.” One woman that attended the training last week shared the story (and it’s definitely something I have seen) where someone at the front of the room will state something like, “We have ten slots available” and 700 people go get in line (and of course I’m exaggerating that number). So then, people go and get in the line and then you enroll in the program and you’re like, “I thought only ten of us could get in but it’s like 77 of us – like seriously?!” So that creates some feelings and definitely a lack of trust because now you’re looking at this person like, “Dude where’s the integrity in this relationship and now we’re supposed to work together a lot of times over the next year? I am kind of giving you the side eye because I’m not sure trust you.”
Is that the best way to start a coaching relationship? Just throwing that out there. The other thing I’m seeing, and this was one of the big things that came up last week during the training, was one of the secrets that many people don’t want to talk about. That is the attrition post-event. You will hear people talk about events and they’ll talk about the number or dollar amount that is sold. It sounds something like, “I had an amazing event and we closed $120,000 in sales.” Yay fabulous!
But what is not shared (particularly at events that continue to leverage manipulation, FOMO, and some of these other sleazy tactics to move people to a buying decision) is the number of refunds or payments that never go through. So yes, people get excited and say, “Oh My Gosh!” in that moment for fear of missing out and they are rush to the back in a room but are they really your people? Is that really even for them? Then what happens when they don’t follow through?
In many states, there’s a three-day right of refusal. So, you may have that moment, but things change when they get home. You want to look at that and take your time. One, be honest, keep the integrity and remain aligned with your values. If that’s your value system to leverage those types of taxes, then more power to you, right. But a lot of the times people that bring me or my team in, they don’t desire that. They want to have a transformational event, they definitely want to have a profitable event, but they want it to be in alignment with their values and their brand. They also want to enroll only the proper clients, their ideal clients, and only the best people. Those people that are ready to move forward and are ideal for them. You have to look at whether or not this will work.
That is one of the nightmares from the back of the room. You made all this money on paper (in theory) but then going a couple months (sometimes not even a couple of months – that’s generous) or a couple days or weeks before you realize that that number is actually far less. When the dust settles, not all those deals actually will come to fruition.
What are some ways that you can leverage events in your business but do it in such a way that feels good, that is an alignment (and trust me), and it can be profitable? If you would like to connect with our team, you can schedule a conversation on how we can support you with creating this amazing, transformational event that is also profitable.
