5 Things You Have to Have For a Successful Teleseminar

In the past year or so, I've attended more than my fair share of teleseminars. I've also hosted a couple of them and have learned a few things about what makes an over the phone seminar successful. Some calls have been more enjoyable than others and it seems like these same 5 things always come up.

In my opinion, all telephone seminars have to have these 5 things in order to be successful and enjoyable. Let me just get this point out of the way, having an actual audience listening in, is not necessary for a successful teleseminar. Here are the 5 things that you do have to have:

1. Content. Without content or something to talk about during the call, you're dead in the water. Make sure that you have content that people want to listen to. It doesn't matter if you're talking about how come there was only 1 girl smurf or the intricacies of derivatives and other financial instruments. Have something to talk about.
2. Prepare. Take the time to read up about the subject that you're talking about so you don't look like an idiot. If you're interviewing someone, make sure that you read up about them. Have notes of somekind and if possible rehearse what you're going to say prior to the call.
3. Work out your technical issues. Look, I understand that there are technical issues that are beyond you're control, however all the items that are within your control should be dealt with. Make sure that your microphone works, that your phone battery is fully charged, make sure you can actually share your screen if you're doing a webinar. Test and retest your technical issuesbefore the call.
4. Make sure your attendees have the dial in information. This is a big pet peeve of mine. If you tell people that you're going to send them the call in information later, then by golly make sure that you send them the call in information. Better yet, when you send them their confirmation message and they're now on your list, send them the call in information right then and there. There's no excuse for not sending the call in info.
5. Record the call. You have to make a recording of the call, otherwise you're wasting people's time. You don't have to make it available for a free download, but you should have the call recorded for your own use later on. There has been more than 1 occassion where I would've paid to download a call recording, but that was never presented as an option.

Bonus #6: Don't turn your call into a "telesellinar." It's OK to sell stuff during a call, it's OK to make the purpose of the call to sell something, but no one really wants to sit in and listen to an hour long sales pitch. Much like with article marketing, you have to give during the call, before you can make a pitch with an audio resource box.

Like I mentioned earlier, you do not have to have people listening in on the call. You can distribute the call recording later on or use the call recording as a bonus or something along those lines. If you're planning on having a successful call, then at the bare minimum, you need to make sure that the above 5 steps have been taken into consideration.

by Rafael Marquez