5 Reasons Not To Offer Free Webinars Unless …
A friend of mine who’s a fan of a coach that’s a “Leading Transformational Luminary” as best described by the coach himself, highly recommended that I attend a virtual webinar that the coach was holding. Curious, I signed up.
It was first scheduled for a Friday evening - I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do on a Friday night is to sit at my computer listening to a 90-minute webinar - but, okay, I’ll do it.
On the day of the webinar (the day of) I received an email saying that the webinar had been rescheduled for a Tuesday... Ugh. Again, I was willing, even though it ticked me off that it had been rescheduled last minute - but then again thrilled it wasn’t on a Friday.
I think it dawned on the Transformational Luminary that he scheduled a webinar on the start of an American long weekend. Gee, that’s seeing into the future for ya.
Anyway, Tuesday rolled around, and at 7pm I logged on. It started with someone from the coaches team welcoming everyone. Then the coach came on saying hello to all, which followed by him pressing 'play' to a pre-recorded presentation that consisted of him talking with closed captions.
Immediately I thought, the coach is right here, live … why on earth would he sit closed camera behind a pre-recorded talking presentation?
Despite all that, at first it sounded interesting. He shared his story (recorded) and the reasons why his 5-step program (although he advertised 7) was going to alter our very existence (something like that).
As the talk continued it was all about what we WILL be learning, he never once actually shared any steps. Nope .... and then I quickly realized (once again) “Oh no, here we go again, a marketing snake oil salesman pitching us on why we should sign up for his course.” Oh crap.
Now I knew this was going to happen. He was going to be that sales pitchy guy disguised as a wise man - but I put my pessimism aside for the benefit of my friend who was such a fan. I wanted to be proven wrong. Sadly, not to be.
What the coach didn't have was the foresight in knowing that he took 90 minutes of other people's time which we can never get back so that he could pitch us just the idea of the way one's life could be transformed.
Here's 5 Reasons Not To Offer Free Webinars Unless …
It was first scheduled for a Friday evening - I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do on a Friday night is to sit at my computer listening to a 90-minute webinar - but, okay, I’ll do it.
On the day of the webinar (the day of) I received an email saying that the webinar had been rescheduled for a Tuesday... Ugh. Again, I was willing, even though it ticked me off that it had been rescheduled last minute - but then again thrilled it wasn’t on a Friday.
I think it dawned on the Transformational Luminary that he scheduled a webinar on the start of an American long weekend. Gee, that’s seeing into the future for ya.
Anyway, Tuesday rolled around, and at 7pm I logged on. It started with someone from the coaches team welcoming everyone. Then the coach came on saying hello to all, which followed by him pressing 'play' to a pre-recorded presentation that consisted of him talking with closed captions.
Immediately I thought, the coach is right here, live … why on earth would he sit closed camera behind a pre-recorded talking presentation?
Despite all that, at first it sounded interesting. He shared his story (recorded) and the reasons why his 5-step program (although he advertised 7) was going to alter our very existence (something like that).
As the talk continued it was all about what we WILL be learning, he never once actually shared any steps. Nope .... and then I quickly realized (once again) “Oh no, here we go again, a marketing snake oil salesman pitching us on why we should sign up for his course.” Oh crap.
Now I knew this was going to happen. He was going to be that sales pitchy guy disguised as a wise man - but I put my pessimism aside for the benefit of my friend who was such a fan. I wanted to be proven wrong. Sadly, not to be.
What the coach didn't have was the foresight in knowing that he took 90 minutes of other people's time which we can never get back so that he could pitch us just the idea of the way one's life could be transformed.
Here's 5 Reasons Not To Offer Free Webinars Unless …
1. You Share Real and Helpful Information
However, if you give people what they came for - the information that you marketed to get people to attend your webinar in the first place, then you've offered something that could prove real and helpful.
2. You Build Trust With Others
Build trust. Give your audience what they came for. Deliver on your promise
3. You Exceed Expectations
If you want to engage people where they want to work with you ... give them something - in fact, give them more.
4. Respect Others Time
In knowing who you’re speaking with, the last thing you want to be doing is to spend 90 minutes for the sole purpose of having your audience sign up for a course. Particularly when an audience of this nature would have preferred you cut to chase and share what was promised rather than a long introduction. In fact, the entire webinar was an introduction.
Having a 'call to action' and 'pitching the idea of the action' are two completely different things. The first one is expected - we get it - you want to offer more - but that latter? Having an entire webinar as a sales pitch doesn't fly. You had us for maybe 5 minutes - after that ... see ya ...
5. Don't Bullsh*t Others
You have one opportunity to show others who you are - whatever that may be i.e., service provider, coach, investor, advisor, creator, etc. so being knowledgeable, honest, trustworthy, respectful, and in this case sharing and passing along what you've learned to others is important. It matters.
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