The Reality of Business

Your Best Sales Conference: Improving the Impact on Sales Teams

• Bob Morrell and Jeremy Blake • Season 6 • Episode 12

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Don't you love a sales conference? 

Motivating your customer-facing teams to sell with greater enthusiasm... 

"There, you've had your sales conference - are you more motivated now?" 

"Yeah!" 

Really? 

Does your sales conference actually deliver the impact you’re hoping for? You’ve invested time, energy, and budget into your annual event – but does it truly equip your team to sell more effectively? A few hours of inspiration is great, but what if your event could turbocharge performance long after it ends?

In this episode, we explore how a well-planned sales conference can drive lasting success – far beyond just a typical social event. From skill development and team morale to employee retention and recruitment, we uncover the overlooked benefits that can make all the difference.

We also tackle the delicate balance between essential training and content overload. What do sales conferences really cost? We discuss the logistical and financial challenges of hosting large-scale events, share entertaining stories from conferences, and offer practical solutions to maximise your return on investment.

Looking ahead, we discuss the future of sales conferences – from AI integration to hybrid work models – and why maintaining high brand standards is crucial. Plus, we explore how unconventional speakers can bring fresh perspectives and real value to your team. 

If you want your next sales conference to have a real, measurable impact on your sales team, this episode is a must-listen!

For more info, free resources, useful content & our blog posts, please visit realitytraining.com.

Reality Training - Selling Certainty

Speaker 1:

bob hi. Um, thanks, you said you'd give me 10 minutes before you meet the swiss co-director. Have you got? Um? You know you're completely undisturbed, your phone is off. I just want to sort of get you excited about a bit of an opportunity an opportunity. What sort of thing, really simple. Um, I've been looking at the way that we work with our, our sales team, our european sales team, and you might not believe this. What have we not had for six years?

Speaker 1:

um a decent size bonus well, I think you're doing okay, but no, that wasn't what I was thinking. What are you thinking in relation to the sales people? I've no idea. Well, you see, and that's the challenge I have, because it's quite simple to me we have not had a sales conference.

Speaker 2:

A sales conference? You mean where we all come together and have a few drinks and go lap dancing, is that?

Speaker 1:

what you're talking about. No that was once. That was a period that we've got over. That was one conference, the others it was a yearly event. We haven't had them for six years. We should introduce them. They are a driver of performance.

Speaker 2:

I mean Maureen always says it's such a waste of money to get everyone together and I can't help but think, looking at the numbers, I think she's not far off.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is Maureen who didn't want to spend money on a proper coffee machine, remember. And when the reps got that they would actually meet each other and that improved sales.

Speaker 2:

Well, yes, there's something in that. Okay, well, I'm prepared to consider it. I mean, what is it you want to do? What are you thinking of I?

Speaker 1:

want to gather everybody from Europe. I want us to give them some brilliant new ways of behaving with today's challenging customer. We need to look at how we're using the phone versus face-to-face, versus Zoom. We need to get all of that communication working and our salespeople can be far more persuasive and compelling, and we need to give them some real insights. Together, let them work some things out for themselves, get them into teams, lift the leaders, reconnect, get everyone aligned quite a bit more on our methodology.

Speaker 2:

Well, it all sounds very good. The only thing is it's the cost. I mean, listen, let me finish To get everyone over here. It's not just the expenses, it's also the fact that they're not going to be selling for a few days. You know, that's the hidden cost is quite a lot for this sort of thing, you know.

Speaker 1:

Would you rather have salespeople not selling for two days or all of your salespeople selling for 238 days? With better skills?

Speaker 2:

Look, I'm happy to look at the business case. Put together a program for me.

Speaker 3:

I will.

Speaker 2:

Look at some dates and then we'll have a chat. Good, so welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our latest podcast on the subject of sales conferences. And why should you have them? And we're doing this in January because we've recently spoken at a sales conference and we've been booked for a couple of others, and so we realized that this is the time of year when people think, right, christmas is over and we want to sort of kickstart our sales people and get them really motivated, and so they start bringing people together for sales conferences, and so we thought it'd be a good idea to have a little bit of a look at this whole concept of a sales conference why people bother to do it at all and what it is they're trying to get out of it and, importantly, how you can make it really, really good. That's what we're going to focus on today.

Speaker 1:

That sounds good. Yeah, we hope we help you realize how to do them because I suppose over the years we've had wide-ranging experience of people doing them well and wide range of experience of people doing them not so well.

Speaker 2:

Now we should make a distinction that this is for a sales conference, because if you're having an annual company conference where you bring people together from every single department, then that's a very different motivation to having a sales team of 10, 15, 50, 150 plus people that you bring together who are all customer facing, who are all trying to sell whatever are the products and services that you have, and getting them motivated to sell more. That's the focus of this episode. Good, I like it. We're going to look at three main areas. The first area is what are the main reasons that companies would bother to have an annual sales conference? So, jeremy, when you look back on conferences that you've attended, either as a delegate, when you work for a company or when you were booked with me as a speaker, can you remember any of the reasons why the companies wanted to have a sales conference?

Speaker 1:

It was never explicit. They never said we're gathering you to improve your sales skills so that you sell more, so that we motivate you. I'd always hear things like a good chance to get everyone together. We can go back over the core priorities of the year ahead, we can see what we've learned from last year and take that into the year ahead.

Speaker 1:

that sort of stuff yeah there was often a sort of unimplied feeling that by gathering us, some form of osmosis of something would take place and we would become better. But it was never. Look, we're going to bring you together to make you better, to equip you.

Speaker 2:

It was never that implied yeah, and I think for many organizations it is simply an annual thing that they do, and I'm sure it's changed a lot from the way it did 25 years ago, when it very much was having a few drinks and going to clubs. But now people are trying to do a few more motivational things. But I think a lot of the motivation is largely social. I think that's still where a lot of companies do it Now. I have no argument with that, and we've said this on other podcasts about internal company meetings and conferences.

Speaker 2:

If you want to have a social thing where you just meet up, have a few drinks and enjoy each other's company as a kind of a motivational thing, I don't have a problem with that. But I think if you're going to do a sales conference which has hanging over it some of these things you've been talking about, you know the reasons to do it, that there are very specific reasons why we're going to do this then I think it's something you perhaps would want to spend a bit more time considering Now. I've done a lot of research into this and there's a number of reasons why you would have a sales conference. What do you think the number one reason is for having a sales conference?

Speaker 1:

so you're sitting there going, we need a sales conference. Uh, I guess they probably feel that, uh, people are not aligned, united so number two is aligning with strategic goals okay so that's important.

Speaker 2:

So this is what we're aiming for let's make sure you understand. Number one is really simple motivating the sales. Okay. So, and you know so, you do that through recognition, a bit of team bonding, and try and create some energy and enthusiasm. Now, energy and enthusiasm are very intangible things, aren't they? You know, you can sit there in a room. Everyone's going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you go look, everyone's got lots of energy and enthusiasm.

Speaker 1:

Jeremy, how wonderful we fill the tank and then the tank goes out and that they take the tank on the road and they don't need topping up for a bit.

Speaker 2:

A bit like a fuel tank, an energy tank yeah, I mean, three days later it's like oh yeah, we do that conference, you know. So I think that's an interesting thing to consider. So motivation is the first thing. Aligning with your goals is the second thing. Now, the third is training and development Skills, product knowledge and industry trends. Now, of course, we love the fact that they've got that in there training and development but sometimes they do try and cram it in with a load of other guff that they expect people to sit through.

Speaker 1:

And that's if I come in. The problem with that is the funding. A lot of the companies are too tight, even though they've got huge reserves to pay for themselves. So they want sponsors to fund it, so they allow the sponsors a platform and the sponsors take over large chunks of their time.

Speaker 2:

Well, we've seen evidence of that at conferences we've attended. But I think there is something important about training and development within a conference situation. You don't want it to be all of that, but you do want it to be some of it because and we'll come back to the reasons why that's important in a bit now, as I go down the list, some of it is just stating the obvious. I mean fostering collaboration, celebrating success, driving sales growth, yeah, reinforcing your corporate culture, that's quite good.

Speaker 2:

You will behave like this oh, let's tell you about a new value that we've got. You'll never guess our new value, Jeremy. Should I tell you what it is? We've spent a lot of money with an agency to come up with this one word. That's our value. Do you know what it is? Is it kindness?

Speaker 1:

no trust. That's brilliant. Oh, oh, how much did the agency charge you?

Speaker 2:

oh, 50 grand plus 50 grand, they said you've got to have trust as a value.

Speaker 1:

Gotta have trust now you've got it as a value, you'll be seen as so trustworthy. That will revolutionize the business.

Speaker 2:

I can just imagine our salespeople sitting in front of customers going now. The good news is, our new value is trust.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so we didn't need to trust you before, so I just don't need to negotiate on the rates anymore, because you wouldn oh genius.

Speaker 2:

So addressing challenges, I think that's quite a good thing to do, Building confidence. And then number 10, which I can't believe isn't higher is engaging people and retaining them as employees, because if you've got a medium-sized sales team, you've probably got a relatively high turnover and every time somebody leaves the cost of employing another person is a lot in terms of time, recruitment, interviewing, getting people on, training them and the lost business in between. That's one of your highest costs is recruitment, and if you can do a really good sales conference you might reduce your average churn of people leaving and I think that could make be a real return on investment.

Speaker 1:

Actually your number one, motivation, yeah, a bit like your number two energy and enthusiasm. Um, are you much more motivated now? Yeah, you know the measure of that. I believe, of course I would do that. The reason why people become motivated is they're given something they hadn't considered before yeah, they're given something practical to apply. They're given a model learning language system skills. They're given something oh, I can do that that's. Isn't that what makes them motivated or is that not obvious?

Speaker 2:

well, surely we want all of our people to be full of energy and excitement for the year ahead. That's the that's the thing we really want from this. Okay, yeah, now you can kind of cocoon them for a day and give them a motivational shot in the arm, but when they come out, you're still going to have a country that's facing an energy crisis, low imports, low exports, high inflation, high taxation.

Speaker 2:

You know, nothing changes in that day they need something to attack those environmental factors with yes, and that's a really key thing, and I wonder whether the powers that be who organize these sales conferences think right these to them and we'll design the content around it. It's we need to tell them to sell this.

Speaker 1:

We need to tell them about this factor or get them excited the fact we've got some new software that may or may not be actually exciting, sure.

Speaker 3:

You're listening to the reality of business, created by reality, training the minds behind the five principles that power so many successful sales models today. These principles deliver consistency and certainty in your sales approach. Discover how we can help you sell more at realitytrainingcom.

Speaker 2:

I thought I would really have some fun with you on the costs of staging a sales conference, because I thought you'd really enjoy that. So let's imagine that you have 150 salespeople Okay, so quite a high number of salespeople and they're all over the UK. I thought you were going to say they're all over the uk.

Speaker 2:

I thought you're going to say they're all over the age of 60 and let's imagine they're all over europe actually, because that's more of a decent size geography for 150 salespeople and you're going to bring them all together in london, okay, so what do you think the venue hire alone for a day in a central London location could cost you, just for the room.

Speaker 1:

Am I not going to get that thrown in with the day delegate rate? All being well.

Speaker 2:

No, you pay something for the room and the day delegate rate on top. Oh yeah, really, because remember you're paying for food and all the other stuff.

Speaker 1:

Well, they're going to want 2,500 for the space, au contraire, Blacker for 150. They're going to want more than two and a half k.

Speaker 2:

You're looking at an hourly charge for your room between 950 and 1250 per hour. Wow, which means you're going to be paying up to 10 grand a day for the room. And that's if I'm in central london, that's if you're in central london and your day delegate rate on top of that, the approach 170 225.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's like teas, coffees, water, food, lunch, breakfast, yeah, cakes whatever.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely 225, 225. Now that also is for staff getting loads of chairs in. Yeah, yeah, you know doing all that kind of stuff as well, so that's your cost to actually have the place. Now, if you've got 150 sales people coming in, a few of them may live within a commuting distance of london. The majority are going to be staying over. Okay, so you've got them flying in. Yeah, so transportation costs at least. I mean, they've got an average here of 100 pound per person, but if they're coming from europe, you're looking at three or four hundred pound. Then, plus the rooms, plus the room, 150 plus per night, plus food and uh bits and pieces.

Speaker 1:

So that's you're looking at, you know before we speak in the mic and start to utter anything to them. What are we set for, oh serious money, so 150 times 225, that's already 33,000.

Speaker 2:

Plus the room 43, plus your accommodation, You're over 50 grand already we're 50K to get in position At least. That's just for 150 people, remember. So then you go. Well, we want a speaker and I want a keynote speaker, and the range for keynote speakers has gone up in recent years. It's now between 10,000 to 30,000, if you want something really good.

Speaker 2:

Oh, if they're very famous yeah yeah, but you're looking at a minimum of 10 for a keynote Audiovisual. Well, you get to rent all that. So, depending how much stuff you need, it could be 500 quid, it could be five grand for the day, depending on all your AV and all that. And if you're going to have a stage and lighting and all the other bits and pieces, that could be very, very high. And then, of course, you're not just going to want to have the room and a stage and a lectern, you're going to want to have posters, great big things that go behind. You're going to want to have stuff to pass around. So a few grand on promotional materials as well. So you're looking at a sort of minimum, really, of about 70 for the whole thing, going up to about 100 as a kind of minimum for 150 people.

Speaker 1:

However, this does not at all consider the hidden costs of taking your entire sales force offline Without generating income For two or three days, if some of them are traveling, yeah, yeah, is this the main reason why people are put off for doing them?

Speaker 2:

I don't think they are put off for doing them. I think they want to do them, but I don't think they want to pay anything for them. I mean, I had an inquiry before Christmas. I didn't tell you this. I won't say who it was or where they are, but it was a company who knew of us and was interested in us and wanted me to go up to Manchester and do a day as a kind of kickoff for the busy season that was coming and literally wanted to spend a tiny amount of money to get a day's full experience and you just think what are you actually doing?

Speaker 2:

what's more important, you know and the roi was a no-brainer there was there was no reason for them not to to book, it was just they wanted to do it on the cheap. Yeah, and I think lots of organizations go oh, oh, that's expensive.

Speaker 1:

You know, they can't see the value well, there's also the the sort of trend of sponsors and the sponsors get stage time yeah because they don't want to pay the speakers directly.

Speaker 2:

But then the question is what is it that you're wanting to do this for?

Speaker 1:

you want to increase the performance skills yeah, yeah and skills and the efficiency and level of your sales force, so that the vast majority sell more and achieve geometric growth the following year. They sell more to more customers, they increase the average order value and they increase the frequency of transaction. You want them to win on three fronts, don't you? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

absolutely so. It's an expensive thing to consider. Now let's imagine you've only got 10 salespeople, or 20 salespeople. You're going to want to take them away from their environment to a nice location. You're going to want to feed them.

Speaker 1:

A boutique-y thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, something nice and enjoy that time together and make it a fun experience. So that's the cost. Now the costs are high, and I just want to think a little bit more about those hidden costs, because that's the cost. Now the costs are high. And I just want to think a little bit more about those hidden costs, because that's another reason why people don't do it. They just go oh, this is ridiculous. You know we're going to miss thousands of pounds of sales here. And they don't think about the longer term investment and they don't think about within the cost of employing people, there is also an additional cost to invest in those people.

Speaker 2:

And do you do that once every five years? I mean, what are you going to do with them? It should be something you're always looking at. So it is an opportunity to do that, rather than opportunity just to have a conference for the sake of having it. I also considered this question because if the number one reason to have this is morale, it's a morale booster. I want my Bob morale, bob morale, morale boosting. Why should we do that in 2025? Why should we consider?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because there's a lot of good stuff happening in the world. All we get is good news daily, isn't it? I mean, there's so much, we don't need motivation in the current climate. I mean, well, there's very little war, there's very little dictatorship, there's very little autocratic behaviors. Well, maybe we'll need it in a few years time.

Speaker 2:

So in the UK, the reasons we should consider people's morale is we have workforce resilience amid economic uncertainty, which is exactly what you just said. Okay, so that's things like post-Brexit challenges what's going on with that? The cost of living pressures that people are still under, and economic volatility All the things you just mentioned are good reasons to boost morale. Now, retention in a competitive job market you know, yeah, that's tough enough as it is, and it's interesting millennials and Generation Z employees are more likely to switch jobs if they feel undervalued or unsupported. Oh, hugely, absolutely. So that's a big thing. Now, this is a good one, which I hadn't really thought about much, and I wish that more companies would do this. Emphasis on mental health and well-being yeah, you know, what about doing something that doesn't just boost people's excitement about what they're doing, but actually makes them feel that you care about them, that you don't want them to burn out. You don't want them to feel that they're kind of remotely distanced from their employer, especially if they're working remotely the most recent conference we did.

Speaker 1:

we talked right at the start to warm them up about the five things you need, and number two is resilience absolutely you need a resilience and we we talked time about how you build to that, how do you work on it? You've got to learn how to do it on your own, largely. But no, you're absolutely right, you've got to be a company that gives people ways to feel resilient against the pressures that they're facing.

Speaker 2:

Now one which I think is quite an interesting thing is reputation and brand value. Now we've talked a lot on previous podcasts about our book, dislaw Bonding and Strategic Lies, and that's something that we can also do conference sessions on. Yeah, reputation is really important. We can also do conference sessions on Reputation is really important. So if you want to get a message to your people about maintaining a level of high reputation for the brand, then what better place to do it at a sales conference with your customer, facing people, where you say this is the level of standard that we expect in terms of how you talk about the brand and how you come across. I think that would be a really good thing to think about.

Speaker 2:

Now there's a few other things here which are kind of trendy, not so obvious things. But another area is future work trends. So we're at a place now where we've got AI coming in, so any decent sales conference is going to think how can we use this, how can we automate it and make it work with what? We're at a place now where we've got AI coming in, so any decent sales conference is going to think how can we use this, how can we automate it and make it work with what we're doing Hybrid working models. More and more now, that's the case. So how do we make sure that works for us? But then there's also the kind of diverse workforce needs, so all those various cultural, generational and personal motivations, or indeed, as we've covered in a recent episode, digital nomads working in different places, broadening the geographical spread of the organisation. You know, all those things are great areas to focus on.

Speaker 1:

I've just thought of a sales conference scene. I've just thought of a sales conference scene.

Speaker 2:

Isn't there a small sales conference scene in Tin Men.

Speaker 1:

Yes, there is when they're discussing methodology and stuff.

Speaker 2:

That's when the guy throws the $5 behind.

Speaker 2:

Oh lovely, teaching them the technique yeah yeah, that's a great film and, with Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss, well worth looking up. Absolutely. Those are some of the points about why have a sales conference and what these things cost and what are the reasons why you should increase the morale of your people. So the last area really is what should your sales conference consist of? And I'll refer you to our other episodes on conferences, where we've talked about the different sort of speakers and acts that you can book for your conference, and this will be a theme that we keep returning to, because there's so many different things that you could, you could have.

Speaker 2:

But if you think about some of those reasons why you're having it, if the third reason is to train and develop your people, then why not give them something actionable, something they can actually take and do something with? Because inspiration is one thing, but inspiration you need that daily, you don't just need it. You know that one single day in the sales conference you need to have continual inspiration, whereas if you're given practical things that you can apply to your job from the very next day, I would say that's a pretty decent thing to come out of a sales conference. What do you think?

Speaker 1:

Well, totally, it's funny. I'm designing the content for one. I've got coming up in a few weeks content for one I've got coming up in a few weeks and it's going to give the people things that they will literally do the next meeting they have with with a customer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

They will test it out and I'm teaching them things that they may know a bit about but may have forgotten. They're definitely getting some things they won't know anything about, may know a bit about but may have forgotten. They're definitely getting some things they won't know anything about. And the practical application, I think, counters the desire for a mountaineer, a man who's crossed continents. You see, that stuff and some of those people come and go in popularity. You know, somebody could have achieved something. It's funny. I was listening to the radio last night and I rung you because I told you the story about the woman who is not accepting her pardon.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

The 1,500, which is a very round number of people who have stormed the Capitol building. She says no, no, I'm taking the punishment.

Speaker 3:

I thought let's contact her and get her going on a speaking tour.

Speaker 1:

She'd be a brilliant new booking but she would be a brilliant trend for this year Book. Whatever her name is, She'll come and we help her put the slides again. She talks about accepting the sentence, owning your truth. I mean, that could just be a brilliant conference speaker. She speaks brilliantly.

Speaker 2:

She's very, I'm sure, but then you might find that she wouldn't get a single booking because people would be scared to be seen to be supporting that perspective.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm talking about in the UK. Well, either I think she'd do well in the.

Speaker 2:

UK.

Speaker 1:

Either, I'm not so sure she would Well and I think the point I'm saying is that people come off a television program quite often. Yeah, program quite often, yeah, and one of the podcasts I listen to is called the comedian's comedian and the chap who does that. He interviews major comedians and when they've had a tv series they keep saying I've got a stack of corporates and they get booked to do 30 minutes and they're only booked because they've been on telly a bit.

Speaker 1:

But there is no direct correlation between exposure and quality of content okay and the point being is somebody achieves something like like take our olympians yeah they achieve and some of them are encouraged to speak and they put together the stock footage of the race, whatever it might be, and many of them can't make the connection. And it's a motivational speaker and the audience has to go, wow, that's human endeavor, that's terrific, but there isn't always the connection. There are some who make the connection brilliantly and they've worked it out, but for a sales conference going back to your point, if you want the people to leave motivated and have some things to apply, a downhill skier isn't necessarily going to give you the material you need, even though they might use metaphors of working your way through the slalom of sales, who knows? It's not necessarily going to be enough and I think people don't know how to put together the program.

Speaker 2:

If you're having a company conference where everyone's there, accounts, logistics, every single bit of your organization is in that room. Yeah, then a sports or an adventurer or something, or a celebrity appeals to everyone. I can see the point, but if it's a sales conference, you know what's going to make that person sitting there go aha. I can see the point, but if it's a sales conference, what's going to make that person sitting there go aha. I can use that. That's going to help me sell more.

Speaker 1:

And I don't know about you, but when I see on LinkedIn the homegrown ones from quite significant organizations, saw one of our old contacts putting together something European wide organization. It's a cobbled together sales conference with only the sales people speaking and I just looked at the imagery and I thought, mr trick, because they're all based across europe yeah and to get them in the room together.

Speaker 1:

It was looked like people standing up and the networking looked awkward. They needed hosts, they needed somebody to be the glue to then build the program together. But it could be that a lot of these things are rushed jobs. That it's, let's get on with it. You know it's like um action bias I haven't got it fully worked out, but let's do it yeah, let's do it yes yeah, but actually to put together a considered program, which doesn't mean good, I've got my sponsors paying for the speaker.

Speaker 1:

tick, it's actually. What will the people do with it? It's a bit like strategy how do you connect? They'll learn this in January. They'll take it out on the road on January the 21st. We'll check in with them on the content we've given them on February the 15th. I don't think it's strategic, whereas we can help our clients do all of that.

Speaker 2:

But then I think some of it is down to the people that you book being able to change their content for the audience, because I don't think we've ever done a conference where we haven't thought well, who is it we're actually speaking to, what type of people are they, what is it they're looking to get from this and how can we make our material as relevant as possible? I don't think everybody does that, can I just say when I look at one of the bits of content you put together.

Speaker 2:

the other day you showed me a presentation I knew exactly the type of people you designed that for, because the way you had pitched it was aimed exactly at that type of person and it was actually very funny. But also I could see what it was you were trying to do. I think there are lots of people who just say, right, this is what I present on. It's up to your audience to see that they can make it work for themselves.

Speaker 1:

But I'm sure everyone's good at doing that well, interestingly I can't name the comedian and I've actually worked with them and helped them at a gig not long ago. But in his interview on the Comedian's Comedian he uses a very honest phrase. He says when I'm booked for the corporates, all I have to do is have a veneer of connectivity to their industry. So he says he'll write a joke that makes the audience think that he understands flooring installers and halfway through he'll drop something else in about flooring, and at the end he'll flooring installers. And halfway through he'll drop something else in about flooring and at the end he'll say something about it. But he says he's not changed any of it. He just gives the veneer. Now they'll get a booking on the motivation and the laughter, but they will leave there without anything else to change their behavior.

Speaker 2:

Well, bob Monkhouse used to do that, so I saw him a couple of times and they were industry dues. He would use four or five people's names in the first couple of jokes that he learned when he got on brilliant ironically, two-thirds of the room had no idea who those people were either. But there we are. But that was his little bit of effort. But actually, why not try and learn a little bit about who it is you're talking to, otherwise it risks falling flat.

Speaker 1:

That's the difficulty with it. Yeah, my dad saw paul daniels at his sales conference and he hypnotized the ceo and got him to give them all raises and stuff and it brought the house down. See, that's a great thing to do. Yeah, and you could just stage that actually he did he did it, he. And then he said he was saying and do you think that they should all be paid ten thousand pounds? Moment, yes, absolutely. They should all be paid 10,000 pounds a moment. Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

They should all have 10,000. And people were cracking up. That was Paul Daniels in person, so I thought it was a puppet from 1974. Say yes, paul.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I want to sort of give a few pointers that people go on about social media being. Content is king.

Speaker 2:

I think you've got to really just have proper discussions about the content of your conference of course, but at the same time, think about what is it that the people need from this conference that they're definitely going to go away from with that when, when it's finished, so that you can then say look, I've spent all this money bringing these people to this place and we've it's landing the bdf formula what are their existing beliefs, desires and feelings?

Speaker 1:

do I understand my audience, the bdf formula, what are their beliefs, desires and feelings?

Speaker 2:

and I can design it around that I think if you're going to have a sales conference and you can't see how you're going to get the money back from doing it, you haven't planned it well enough.

Speaker 1:

That gives me one more thing. You want an roc, not just an ROI. You want a return on conference and to that degree, surely the way you get your return is the materials that you have imparted are used. That give you a direct measure and correlation to the return.

Speaker 2:

Excellent, well, very good subject. As I say, we'll be returning to this and we'll let you know how some of our conferences go, but in the meantime, thank you for listening and we'll see you on another podcast very soon. Take care, bye-dee-bye, thank you.