June 13, 2008

Some consultants benefit from selling their knowledge in a phone teleseminar format: if you’re interested in pursuing this avenue, I’ve compiled a step-by-step guide on how to do this using some very easy-to-use online resources.

I first signed up with FreeConference.com in 2004 to manage conference calls and the service and different features they’ve rolled out are simple, easy-to-understand and all managed online.

You may set up a new user account with a login and password. Keep this information private (always) and never send it out to anyone else.

Consider developing a series of teleconferences on your topic of interest (part 1, part 2, part 3, etc.) and write up a brief title, description, benefit to participants, and what to expect. I highly recommend you do major planning around these topics, as you have the potential to use this content that you generate in audio format, as well as in book format or article format.

Offer these conferences as part of your existing suite of products and services.

Your price consideration is important: what is the “price point” that is likely for you to be able to sell the seminar, make it worth your time, and provide value to your participants? It might be $9.99 or it might be $99, make sure you hit the “sweet spot” that your customers would be interested in buying.

Also consider how many people you will allow on the phone call at any time. Can you manage 100 people? Does 10 people feel more reasonable? Do you want to provide the information in “lecture” format or do you want more time for questions and answers?

You can do a teleseminar with as many or as few participants as you like. The FreeConference service offers three modes: a) everyone talks [Conversation Mode], b) only the organizer or moderator talks [Presentation Mode], or c) a combination (first the moderator talks, then everyone may ask questions in a Q&A format)

If you work with other people in your referral network, consider expanding your series to include multiple guests or visitors. The added exposure to other experts will help boost your “ratings” and will give you a greater pool of talent to draw upon.

Set up the call using the dashboard on FreeConference.com and take note of the organizer access code (keep this private: you may use this code to set up the call). The participant access code is the code that your participants will use. Note that you may choose an 800 toll-free version of the phone number or the assigned phone number. You also have some options to limit the number of participants, to make a recording of the call, or to have the call transcribed.

Now it’s time to highlight your conference on your calendar of events page or on your homepage. List the instructions and set up the initial payment processing (via PayPal or through a service like e-Junkie.com). Find other ways to cross-promote, e.g. through blogs, through networking, or through other websites you know and trust.

When someone makes a payment to you to participate in the phone call, make sure to have the date, time, description, phone number, and participant access code ready to send them. Alternatively, a service like e-Junkie automatically sends this information to them upon receipt of payment. Remember to keep the number of participants underneath your specified level in FreeConference.com: you may increase the number of phone lines allocated to your teleseminar if you find yourself going over.

If you have additional materials you’d like to post for review before the conference, make sure these are available in PDF or Word format and send them as an e-mail attachment or as a downloadable set of files from your website.

The day of the call, make sure all participants have received the relevant information ad downloads, then host the call. You may need to practice before hand and prepare all the notes you need. You may also want someone else to handle moderating (making sure that the conference is in the correct “mode” so you have people participating at the correct times, for example, questions are only available during the Q&A section of the talk).

After the call, thank your participants and if you’re offering followup with an mp3 recording or a transcription, make sure to send those files as soon as they’re available.

Once you’ve developed a few teleseminars, you’ll get a good sense of which topics work well for your business, and perhaps you’ll want to bundle your calls into a CD format or downloadable podcast format using a service like CreateSpace.com or any online service like podomatic.com!