Listen Now:

If You Build It… They Will Come.

Also known as the biggest lie about your online business that you’ve ever been told… and this holds DOUBLY true for your virtual summit. Building your summit withOUT considering your post-summit sales plan is a recipe for disappointment.

In this conversation, we’ll break down things like:

• What you can sell post-summit (and a couple ideas on how to sell them)…
• How to gather the data you need on your summit registrants so you can speak to their needs more easily…
• The difference between a brand new lead and someone who has already been around you for a while…
• PLUS a really important mindset shift to consider about your summit promo (that will help you more easily promote whatever you have coming next.)

This conversation is real, raw, and off-the-cuff… and full of the details you need to profit from your summit.

The Summit Series:
Episode 144 – The 6 Steps to Take To Prepare For Your Next Virtual Summit
Episode 145 – Your Virtual Summit Speaker Search (How to start & what to avoid)
Episode 146 – Virtual Summit Setup: The Tech Essentials for a Successful Summit
Episode 147 – The Dos and Don’ts For Your High-Converting Summit Opt-in Page
Episode 148 – Your Summit Host Engagement Plan – Our Best Tips to Keep Attendee Attention

Check out the entire library of list building & summit episodes here.

Alyson Lex 0:02
When you start planning your Summit, you have probably some pretty big hopes and dreams for how it's going to play out. And if you're anything like, Well, me, or the hundreds of clients that Jennie has worked with, it goes something like the attendees of my summit are so enamored with everything that I have shown them that they buy the VIP at 100% conversion rate, and then they all sign up for my program. And, as we often get to do here on this podcast, Jenny and I are going to burst a little bit of a bubble. And then we're going to tell you what it really looks like. And we're going to talk about how to improve your post-summit sales. We're going to talk about really how to make those offers to your list in a way that's going to keep them around, get them engaged, and ultimately be successful. Now. Jenny's shaking her head, because I'm coming at you with a pretty harsh dose of truth here in this intro, and I usually don't do that I kind of pump you up. But I don't want to I don't want to lie to you today. I don't want to sit here and say that, yes, magical summit dreams can and will come true. Especially if it's that 100% conversion rate, I'm rich, because of my Summit. Dream,

Jennie Wright 1:31
I was shaking my head. Because everything you said happens. So often. I don't know where the fallacy is created that. I don't know if I should blame the movie Field of Dreams. But I want to because it is this massive. If you build it, they will come fallacy. But what we're going to be able to show you by the end of this episode is how to really leverage your event. So let's fill that with a little positivity, we burst your bubble a little bit, we are going to be the purveyors of I was just going to try and do some alliteration, but then my brain froze. But we're actually going to try to be the purveyors of honesty and reality here. You will not get a 100% uptick on your VIP, it's not going to happen. But if you work with conversion specialists, like somebody like Alyson and I, you could get as high as 25 to 35%. Just saying, but what we're going to focus on and I think the thing that I really want to focus on is that to convert the best from your Summit, you actually have to figure out the offer before you even do the summit. So the answer to your problems with conversion. A lot of it lies in the pre-planning stage. And this is knowing your offer years ago also knows the story. Well. It is now what eight and a half years ago now where I got and this in this plays into another story about being like taken for a ride on a coaching program, but we will go there. But yeah, it got pulled into a coaching program. It was all about summits, this is how I got my you know, indoctrination by fire with summits. And they said, Don't worry, Jenny, you don't need to know what you're going to do. You don't even have to know the business that you're gonna have. All you need to do is build a summit around a topic that is interesting to you. And you can figure it out all later. Oh, like the full-body shiver that gives me now

Alyson Lex 3:32
is insane. Well, I want to talk about that because I and I know that this episode as part of our Summit Series is the post. And what we're saying is I hope you haven't been listening to each episode and following us along week by week, building everything because now you have to go back to the beginning. And you have to create your summit to tie into that offer. And that's so that's the first problem that I have with that statement, right? Because if I want to, let's say sell a copywriting program, which may or may not be something that I build. If Jenny has her way into May, then why am I building a list of people who don't have a business or aren't in my ideal client market or can't afford the price point that I've planned on or any of the other factors that go into it?

Unknown Speaker 4:35
And so

Alyson Lex 4:39
it what that my first problem with that statement is what that's doing is saying any list has value and we know that's not true. In fact, Jennie maybe we should write this down. I would love to do an episode in the future on how to know that your list is valuable, where the value is in the list. And what's valuable about it. But the second problem that I have with that is let me give you a little bit of insight into what it's like to plan a summit to I'm sorry, to run a summit without proper planning. Without thinking about this step, before you get to it, this post offer this post-summit offer step, you're going to get there. And you're going to be so burned out, from creating, hosting, building, promoting and running your Summit. That you're not going to have an offer. You're not going to offer them anything. And so will you will have done all of that. And now the best you can hope for is to engage your list while you try to figure it out.

Jennie Wright 5:54
Ask what happened. Yeah, as I was gonna say, asked me, because that's exactly what happened to me. I ended up throwing out the list. So that being said, we did mention this in the planning episodes. That was an episode actually in the preparation episode. That was 144. So if you haven't been following along the Summit Series is episode 144. Prepare 145 Plan 146. Build 147 promote, and we're on Episode 148, which is actually no 148 was host and now we're on 149. This is a good long series. And this is the posts on the ones Yeah, yeah, it's awesome. So six weeks of content there. So figuring out your post-summit offer is essential. But you know, not to to bang you over the head too much with it, just really take some time to figure it out. The thing that is so important to me is to create that incredible amount of sales that you can get from a summit and guys, I have worked on summits, I've produced summits where the outcome is a six-figure and even a seven-figure outcome. Okay, so I know what I'm talking about here. But the biggest thing that you can do is creating engagement while the summit is actually happening. So everybody's heard of this know, like and trust factor, right? Yep. Okay, nodding your head. Absolutely. You got it. So no, like or trust factor. And I actually don't like that phrase. But the building up of that connection with people is a strange thing. In a summit, right, so we talked about engagement on Episode 148, as well. So go back and listen to that. But building up the engagement is key for your post offer. And we mentioned that so make sure that you're looking at your engagement strategies and listen to episode 148 For more of that, but having those engagement opportunities created and baked in is what's going to help you create that post on that sales as well.

Alyson Lex 7:47
So we're talking about, you know, last week with 148, we talked about how to engage in order to improve those post-sales. But what do you sell? Yeah, what do you I mean, everybody and we talk a lot about selling the VIP. And I think that what gets lost in that is your VIP and I think we've mentioned it last week, your VIP is not what's going to bring the profit. What your VIP does, is help you identify buyers in that attendee list. And be depending on what your VIP includes, if it doesn't include a call, it should include a call, it gives you an opportunity to have those conversations that can be turned into sales conversations. So when it comes to what to sell, now the world is your oyster. And, frankly, what you choose to sell is going to determine your post-summit sales plan. If you let's say want to sell a $20 a month membership, that's going to have a very different plan than a 346 $1,000 program. Both are viable. Both will require different strategies going into it. But it really depends on what again, what you're offering to figure it out. So let's say we're selling that $20 A month membership. I'm going to put Jennie on the spot and say Jennie How would you sell that from a summit

Jennie Wright 9:34
you're reading my mind because I was already going there. I would and this is for a lot of products but I would definitely host a five-day challenge and or a will also and I call a 3x or 4x webinar series, which is three or four webinars pretty much back to back to back that helps you sell. Those have a benefit like a whole bunch of benefits. They create connections they Identify your ideal client, they help get your message out, they showcase you as a speaker. You know, they create amazing content. And also they can generate a ton of sales webinars, I think, and people can agree or disagree that webinars even, you know, I'm in my ninth year 1000s In or what, 15th year or 13th year, webinars still sell, and they're still a great vehicle. That's what I would do.

Alyson Lex 10:25
And see I

Alyson Lex 10:34
would probably go a more automated route. Because it's a lower price point, maybe I would even throw a free month of that $20 A month membership into the VIP. Yeah, yeah, do that. Right. So and then I would maybe use the summit as creating that buzz and look, lead right into the launch of this membership on social and through email to my son at attendee list. Hey, come check it out, grab a free week. Right. So I would go less in-depth from like a webinar, although I do think that those can convert really well for a low price program. The key there, and a really good segue to our next type of sale. The key here is do you have the audience to show up, like to get a ton of webinar registrants, so that you have a lot of webinar attendees so that you're making more than one or two sales on that webinar, you want to make sure that you're leveraging your time as well. So if you're, if your audience is not huge, then webinars to sell a low ticket program is probably not the best use of your time.

Jennie Wright 12:02
I disagree. Okay, talk to me about that. So I just I, I think that webinars, regardless of the product size, and or your audience size, are still an amazing sales vehicle. And although you're saying it may not be the best use of your time, I think it is because what it does is it allows people to connect with you versus just an email sequence where they don't get to see you on video and connect with you more deeply. Or ask questions or get into a q&a kind of situation, which I love webinars to be, you know, me, I like them to be interactive and not just talking at but talking with. So I think it's, I never see that those connection points are a waste of time, because they build more trust and understanding and things. I understand why you say that. I just, I, I like to keep doing those connection points. I mean, in the beginning, I did webinars where 20 people registered and one person showed up, but if I could sell that one person I was happy.

Alyson Lex 13:00
to I, I don't disagree with you on that. I think that this is all I mean, we're having a real conversation here. This is all stuff that you have to consider when it's what am I going to sell. And a lot of times when we talk to our clients, it's let's look at what is going to generate the revenue now, the most revenue right now and then look at the other stuff, the lower price stuff later. And so if we go again, all the way back to the drawing board and say, What am I going to offer? Maybe, instead of saying I'm going to do my $20 a month membership. Now I'm going to go ahead and do a higher ticket, one on one type of customized or group coaching program that leads into that membership or something like that. So if I say I can expect to based on my list size, and we should talk about those kinds of numbers, too. But I can expect to sell x units of whatever product. Is that going to be financially viable for me?

Jennie Wright 14:14
Yes, I understand what you're saying. Now. I think I misunderstood you a little bit earlier.

Alyson Lex 14:18
Yeah, not Yeah, I

Jennie Wright 14:19
think I totally I wasn't, I thought you were thinking it was a you know, wasting my time to do webinars. But I understand you now that if you don't have the right amount of people on your list, with the percentage that you think you could sell to excel, yeah, okay, I get it now.

Alyson Lex 14:35
All right. I'm on board with Yeah, like if I've got, if I can expect 100 registered to a webinar. Let's call it a 25% show up, right, because that's pretty much what you're looking at. So 25 people on a webinar, if I know consistently for my webinars that I get a 40% conversion rate, which is fantastic. I'm looking at 10 people at 20 bucks a month. Yeah. Is that the best use of my time? I can't answer that for you. But it's something to consider.

Jennie Wright 15:07
Okay, I totally agree with that. Because if if, if money is not the word like the worry, then having three webinars where you sell 10 people each, now you have, you know, 30 people in your webinar at $20 a month is obviously not going to pay all the bills if money is a thing, right. So that's where you have to look at those one on one programs. And we've had these discussions before, you know, the most amount of money is going to be made on the one to one or the DFI like the done for you services and stuff like that. Now I've launched a membership. And it wasn't the end all be all that I thought it would be. You know, and I learned a lot of lessons from doing and I ended up closing it. But definitely, definitely would say that you have to take a look at your numbers. And when you're doing a summit, that can be a challenge, because you don't know the metrics yet, which is leads me to my point that I really like to talk about is data. So we want to get as much data from the people that attend your summit as possible. Now, when we get them to register, all we're asking for is first name and email. And we're not changing that we don't want you to go to asking for their first name, email, phone number, how many years of business have you been in? What's your average, blah, blah, blah, like, we don't want that stuff on an opt in form, because it impedes the opt in. But once they're in your email, you know, pipeline, getting more data is essential. And we get data points by getting people to make micro decisions, micro choices, yes or no. And if you're using Active Campaign, you can do things like one clicks. So in an email, you can say, hey, so glad that you're on the summit, you know, just let us know, what kind of information would be most helpful to you? Would you like to hear about copywriting done for you services, or product generation. And if they click it, whatever that you know, and if they click whatever, because you make them clickable, then it adds a tag to their profile in your email marketing system that says, you know, interested in copywriting interested in dfi, interested in whatever. And then you can create these wonderful segments that you can start now emailing for those specific things. And I could go down the road deeply with data because I love it. But that is just even a little bit of that would make a huge difference, because then you can start making sure that you're putting the right offer in front of the right person.

Alyson Lex 17:28
I think it's also really important to look at data that you already have. And so I saw this on, I think it was Instagram, at talking about list segmentation. And I thought it was a really interesting concept, but about understanding that the people who are new to your list and I know this, but I don't think of it in regards to summits, because brain block or whatever, but people who are new to your list who are have met you, because of your event, are going to need different types of care than the people who already knew you and came because of that. So you can't lump all of your summit attendees into one box. And treat them the same. So your your brand new people are going to need a welcome and indoctrination sequence. Your people that have already been there, they already know you. They don't need that. So they can be delivered different stuff, whether that's direct to sales, or just throw them right into the regular nurture until you have a launch or personal invitations or whatever. That's data you already have. You don't have to ask them for that. You can tell did they sign up? Just is the only thing they have the summit tag? If the answer is yes, they're brand new to you. Treat them as such.

Jennie Wright 18:59
Yes, emphatically, yes. The problem that we see Allison and I see, and I don't want to use this word. I don't want to use this word because it seems very negative. But there's almost a bit of a laziness like, Oh, I know I should, but I don't. And there's many reasons why you may or may not do it, maybe you don't know how, which is a valid point. And so you need to find somebody who can help you with that segmentation. Or I'm

Alyson Lex 19:27
gonna just interrupt and say, I say this. I say this and I do this for a living.

Jennie Wright 19:36
Yeah. Because it's a pain. I mean, there's a bit of a pain to the talk. Yes. Yeah, it's a bit yeah, it's a pain in the butt to do it. It's a pain you got

Alyson Lex 19:46
you got to design to to separate experiences and dang it. You want me to plan a summit. Now I have to design I can barely design one experience. So I'm just telling you exactly. I feel you So if you're this person and you're like, you know what, I know I should, but I'm not gonna know that. You're not alone. I get you. And maybe try one thing.

Jennie Wright 20:14
Yeah, you don't want to make 16 Different freakin right? Yeah, just do even having one way to create like to create a different data point and create a segmentation even one segmentation is better than not. And if you are going to segment do this one, this is my this is my teaching point for the day. If you are going to do one segmentation, make it so that your new registrants don't receive or sorry, are treated differently, like Alison was saying, and people over 60 days on your list, you can communicate directly with about sales because they know you. But anybody younger than 60 days on your list should be put into what we call an indoctrination or nurture sequence. So that they can really get to know you better before you make the offer the sale? Or if you don't you risk a ton of unsubscribes. So that's the difference. It's a 60 day difference. Okay? On return that. So,

Alyson Lex 21:06
okay, so we've had our summit, we have our VIP, maybe we've included a call, maybe we've included a month of membership, or a little thing here, maybe we're doing some posts summit engagement, which I think is really important. And I know Jenny mentioned a challenge earlier, one of the things that I really like about the idea of Summit, then free challenge is to think about the experience that these brand new people, again, we're going to talk about brand new people for this, these brand new people have just met you. But they've also just met a whole lot of other people. And so even if you follow all the stuff that Jenny and I teach, about making sure that you're visible, and you show your expertise, and you have your own sessions, and this, that the other and you're communicating really well and engaging in the group, they still haven't seen you shine fully. So doing a summit and then following it up a couple of weeks in general, tell us how long but a couple weeks later, with a challenge allows you to say, hey, let's hang out. It was really great to meet you. And now I want to spend a little bit of time with you, helping you achieve a goal of yours. That's going to one help you identify the people who have a very specific goal that you help with, versus the slightly broader goal of your Summit. And two, it's gonna give you that opportunity to get that intense time with them. So how long after our summit? Should we run our challenge? Jenny?

Jennie Wright 23:00
Do you want the oh my gosh, Jenny, no way answer or the easy? flowy? Answer.

Alyson Lex 23:07
I want both.

Jennie Wright 23:08
So the oh my gosh, Jenny, don't make me do it. Answer is I want a challenge to take place within about seven to 10 days after the summit concludes with the reason being that that is the oh my god, don't make me do it thing. But the reason being is very valid. One, if there's too much of a cooling off period between the summit and whatever connection activity you create via to a challenge or webinars, their attention begins to focus on somebody else. To keep you front of mind, this is why you need to do these things in rapid sequence so that you stay front of mind for these people. If you create too much of a gap, then they will like their attention goes in other directions. So we really want to keep that focused on you. The slightly less Dear God, Jenny, don't make me do this. So fast answer is about 14 days. But that is the max. And a lot of people make this mistake post Summit is they go on vacation. A lot of people you know, because the summit was so challenging. They do what else and I called copying, right. So they just like disappear from the world. And they do this for like a week and a half, two weeks because they have to recover and it is a valid thing to need to recover. But if you plan for your challenge, whilst you're planning everything else, and you're able to do this guys, it's not me it's totally possible to do this, then it's not going to feel so crazy heavy afterwards when you actually just want to rest asked me how I know because I've now done a summit what how many times twice or three times whilst

Alyson Lex 24:42
moving? Three, three,

Jennie Wright 24:46
and possibly to be about four.

Alyson Lex 24:48
And you're getting ready to do it again. Yep, yeah. So the question that I have, and I know that this is something that our clients get concerned with is Where is that sweet spot between nurturing and, and encouraging additional engagement, like challenges and webinars and promoting too much. So one of the worries would be, well, I just promoted to the heck to them on this summit about the summit I over communicated. They're probably tired of hearing from me. And now I'm going to try and get them to come on to a chat like, they're going to hate me.

Jennie Wright 25:31
That's a you thought that's not them thought. Welcome to the perspective of having a proper mindset.

Alyson Lex 25:41
Talk to me about what that mean? I mean, why wouldn't they hate us?

Jennie Wright 25:45
Because you're projecting, not you Alson. But that thought is a projection of every analysis in our life. But that is a projection of a thought that you have that doesn't necessarily coincide with how you're registering, feels or thinks, think about it this way, you're registering has come into the summit or into your worlds into your ecosystem, as I call it, because they need a solution to a small and or big problem. And your summit has provided the answers to several of their small band or big problems. But they haven't yet, put it into play. So they've felt empowered, and engaged and excited by the prospect of changing up whatever it is they need to change up. But now they're looking for that secondary guidance of how to make it happen. And that's where your engagement activities, position now are creating that position where you can show them that, hey, you know what I got you, I can show you how to do this, or I can help you further or I can take you to the next level, or I can help you solve that big problem, or whatever your answer is. And they're ripe for that. You've actually all the work that you did in the summit, was to elevate them to that point where they are ripe and ready to receive your solution. And if you let your mindset now interfere, and say, oh my god, maybe they don't want to hear from me, and I gotta back off, then you're actually leaving them hanging. And that's not the right approach.

Alyson Lex 27:24
I want to talk to about, but first of all, do you agree with that? I do. I'm going to I'm going on top of this, okay. Yes. And if you do your job, right. From a messaging standpoint, it's gonna feel like, okay, I'm gonna tell a story. And I'm hoping the metaphor will stick. My first day with my husband. We met online, and then we met for sushi. And when we got to the restaurant they hadn't. We were too early. They weren't open yet. But there was a used bookstore next door. So we went there. And we're walking around talking and looking at all the books and then we went and had sushi. But then, after sushi, we weren't ready to be done. So let's go get coffee. Well, then, after coffee, we're still wanting to hang out. So they want to play mini golf. But none of that other stuff was in the plan, we were going to go have sushi. And instead of just having sushi went to four different places, because we didn't want it to end. Okay, so your Summit is your sushi restaurant. That's the plan. And now the people that want to work with you are going to be so excited to work with you. They can't wait. And they say let's go get coffee. Or you say let's go get coffee and they're in. And then after that, right, so that might be your challenge. Your challenges your coffee. I have really worked this out to summit sushi challenge coffee. And I promise this is a real story. You know, you can email me I'll send you my husband's information you can ask him but so then they're loving the coffee and you say let's go play putt putt. I did this one on purpose because now that's your program. Okay.

Jennie Wright 29:18
I love you.

Alyson Lex 29:19
This is why I call it putt putt not mini golf because membership didn't work for this. But do you see how that works like they want to you're not forcing them. You're not coercing them. You're not cajoling or bribing or talking them into anything. But if you've done your job, right, they want to be there with you. And if you've done your

Jennie Wright 29:39
job, right part of that is being super engaging in your emails and not not sharing that icky energy. Allison and I signed up for a online challenge. What a week ago. Both of us did, thinking this would be like the super cool thing. We were all in cited for it. But then we started getting bombarded with emails from the host that were icky. They were way too pushy way too salesy way too, not giving a crap about us kind of feeling and just didn't feel good. And we were getting like, two or three emails a day. And so we tuned out. Right, so part of your job, the J. OB, is to make sure that you're connecting with people at a real level, and that the copy that you're using is very connecting, and really real, and none of that bro marketing icky crap. So I almost swore. So yeah.

Alyson Lex 30:45
Well, and you know, if your audience is like, and that's the thing is, maybe we weren't the ideal audience for this person. We happened to find it and sign up, but it just wasn't the right fit. And that's okay. We, we just disqualified ourselves from being open to that coffee date. And so just be you be authentic, connect with them in a real way. Let them know what to expect. And see what happened and let them see what happens with you. But have an idea of where that next part of the date can be.

Jennie Wright 31:30
is the worst thing, the worst thing is being on a date and being like, what do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do? Right? And then it stalls. Right?

Alyson Lex 31:38
So when we weren't ready for the date, and it was, what are we going to do? And I said, Well, there's actually this little coffee shop, right around the corner. Let's do that. I, I would like to spend more time with you. Great, we can do this. And so that's that's the experience that you're creating for your people. But you have to know where to go. You have to know what you're offering, what you're offering is up to you. But it is going to affect the plan that you put together for how to get there.

Jennie Wright 32:13
And if you want to find out how to make a plan like this that could work for your Summit. Why not talk to Allison I we make these things all day long. We've created hundreds and hundreds of posts on the plans and help people launch into successful post summit offers. So if you want to talk to us, go to system to thrive.com. Click on the link that talks about you know connecting with us and we're happy to talk to you and see if we can help. To that end. Make sure you listen to the rest of this series. Again, we had like episodes What 144 through 149. This is a great series. Check it out. This is our Summit Series. Go to system to thrive.com and watch the show. Check out the show notes for this episode, and all the other episodes in this series. And make sure that you're giving us you know some love, wherever it is that you're listening. We'd love to get a comment or review. Let us know how we're doing connect with us. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. We'll be back again soon. Take care