Why Workshops Work: The Secret to Selling Long-Lasting Retainers

You’ve been working to sell a prospective client on a retainer for months. You’ve sent them a range of articles, guides, and case studies. You created a proposal, a contract, and have followed up multiple times to move things along.

They seem genuinely excited about the idea of investing in inbound, but a few people on the client-side are hesitant. They’re not quite sure how this will work within their current structure. They're used to the current way of doing things. The idea of signing a year-long contract is making the prospect retreat.

So, what do you do? Do you go in with a hard sell? Do you lean on the one person in management who can demand adoption?

You can’t force a culture, and that's ultimately what inbound is: a culture shift for companies. It changes the way a brand operates. Inbound is about transparency, education, and listening. These are words that may not be a part of the client’s current business lexicon.

And that’s a lot to ask of someone during the sales cycle. You are asking the client to not only invest in new marketing tactics but to also change its approach to communication, sales, and services.

这就是为什么马库斯·谢里丹（Marcus Sheridan）, founder ofThe Sales Lion，相信代理商需要一种新的（更好）开始持续关系的方法。通过给客户研讨会（销售前或销售后），代理商可以指导客户完成为入站成功而进行的精神和文化转型。

Why Inbound Is a Culture Shift

“The idea of inbound is that you let go of the idea that your business has a secret sauce,” Sheridan said. “You see yourselves as teachers to those in your industry, as problem solvers, and active listeners.”

Companies that adhere to this idea ask questions and想问题的答案。他们听。他们了解client’s pain points and problems. The company uses this to educate their prospects and customers about the solutions. By teaching, the company gains trust.

“The business that we're in, that you're in, that I'm in -- whether it's swimming pools, whether it's marketing services, whether its selling rocket fuel to airlines -- this is a business of trust,” Sheridan said. “As soon as the company realizes that this is a business of trust, they start to focus on what matters and what they have to do to engender and generate more trust than anyone else in their space.”

客户投资入站营销时,can’t just send out an all-staff email saying, "Hey, I think we should start blogging and doing this thing called inbound marketing.”

You need buy-in -- from management, marketing, sales, engineering, customer service, HR, and even legal.

Sheridan说：“研讨会是让所有人进入同一页面的理想催化剂。”“每个人都必须了解什么是入站，如何做，以及如果它将成为一种文化，为什么他们应该分开。除非您真的深入介绍这些东西，否则整个团队都会听到并理解并将其应用于自己 - 单独地将其应用于自己 - 您不会建立一种文化。”

通过举办研讨会，机构可以成为教育者，因此可以成为信任的代理人。您可以成为客户发现和转型之路的指南。

代理机构开设研讨会的优势

从销售和关系的角度来看，开设车间可以有益的原因有两个：

Reason #1: To sell inbound retainers to the right clients.

长达一年的入站营销保留器对客户来说是一项巨大的承诺。潜在客户用于投入为期三个月的项目，价格为20,000美元或30,000美元。当某人盯着一年的合同总计120,000美元时，情况大不相同。

如果公司正在动bob全站app摇他们的决定，或者他们质疑其在组织内部如何工作，则研讨会将为团队提供他们需要购买的知识。它还可以巩固该公司尚未准备好。bob全站app您能做的最糟糕的事情是向拒绝合作的客户提交一年。

原因＃2：避免恋爱中的缓慢开始。

Another way workshops can be beneficial for the start of a relationship is that it fast- forwards the initial, get-to-know-you phase. You can use the time during a workshop to identify subject matter experts, build trust with people from customer service, engineering, and marketing. It also helps to convert your most important group: sales.

“Ultimately, we need to see inbound marketing as a sales tool,” Sheridan said. “And the sales team needs to see that it’s a sales tool. Until they do, we’re not going to live up to nearly the possibilities of what a true inbound culture is within an organization.”

通过研讨会，您可以了解客户的业务并更快地开始战略工作，这将为客户带来更快的结果（更多潜在客户和销售）。

如何为客户教研讨会

Hosting a workshop does require that the agency learns如何最好教。大学演讲方法对此无效。您需要了解人们如何学习以及如何以促进发现的方式呈现信息。

“You’ve got to allow them to discover these magic truths on their own,” Sheridan said.

The most important idea workshop leaders must understand is the Columbus Principle (as in Christopher). “Everyone wants to feel like they are the one that discovered America,” Sheridan said.

研讨会领导者必须提出一些问题，以使观众独自说出您要教他们的内容。这就像试图说服某人应该吃得更健康。您可以花费数小时列出收益和后果。但是，直到该人自己意识到这是一个优先事项并且有进行更改的理由，这不太可能生效。

During the past five years, Sheridan has developed a set of more than 100 questions that he asks attendees who attend his workshops. Every question walks a person closer to the point of finding their own answer. And the added benefit for agencies is that when they master this style of questioning, they are able to apply it to situations outside of the workshop, such as sales and training.

An example of this is the below run through of questions and answers:

By a show of hands, how many of you have researched how much something costs over the last year?

房间里的每个人都举手。

Okay, great. So you all have done it, perfect. So, when you are on that website, and you can’t find anything about cost and price, what is the emotion you experience?

Everybody in the room immediately says 'frustration.'

Great! So tell me why do you feel frustrated in this moment?

Everybody says, ‘Well it’s my right to know these things.’

Of course, you feel like it’s your time that they’re wasting, don’t you.

They say, 'Yes, it’s my time they are wasting.'

Well, do you just keep digging on the website?

他们说：“不，我不继续挖掘。那太荒谬了。

OK, well instead of digging, do you think to yourself, 'Well that’s okay. They’re a value-based company. I’ll call them instead.'

然后每个人都再次说：“不，我不那样做。”

所以你会怎么做？

They say, 'Well I keep searching.'

好吧，您一直在搜索直到何时？

他们说‘我一直在寻找，直到我找到一个愿意给我我想要的答案的人。’

And then generally, what happens with that person?

他们说：“好吧，然后他们得到了业务。”

太好了，这是正确的。我们都感到沮丧。我们都这样的行为，不是吗？

Everybody shakes their head and says, ‘Yes, we do.'

OK, great. Now, by a show of hands, how many of you talk a lot about cost and price on your website right now?

如果您提出正确的问题，人们可以自己找出答案。当他们定义答案时，他们拥有它，然后拥抱它。

By following the Columbus Principle, agencies can teach prospects and clients what inbound marketing is, how it is done, and why all team members should support it. You do this by discussing how the buying cycle and consumer expectations have changed, how people search online and what they are looking for from a company, and why sales needs content.

这取决于沟通

谢里登（Sheridan）发现，与不这样做的公司相比，通过研讨会开始他们的入站活动的公司的流量，潜在客户和新客户的增长超过300％。bob全站app

“Agencies need to be world class communicators,” Sheridan said. “If they are, they can convince, and they can convert. If they’re not, they’re going to have frustrating retainers, they’re going to have constant issues and headaches, and they’re not going to enjoy what they do nearly as much.”

This post originally appeared on HubSpot'sAgency Post。To read more content like this,订阅代理职位。