The first seminar with the client. Little tricks

Ways of conducting a seminar with a potential client. An example from personal practice.



A productive community is when people jointly realize a common business task on an online platform. The Productive Community Workshop is the first stage of our roadmap for creating a productive community for an organization. He appeared not just like that. Now I want to list several nuances of holding this seminar, by which it becomes clear why it originated and how it was built.
')

• Officially, the seminar lasts two hours. Mandatory program - presentation, discussions, answers to questions and so on - take almost all the planned time, and with those who wish we can then stay for a little longer. But do not offer people a meeting for a longer period, because you will not gather an audience.
  
  
• We always warn that the number of participants must be at least 10 people. In such quantity the mini-community is organized and people get practical experience of working in a team. Moreover, most likely in such a composition, the colleagues have never discussed the issue of teamwork. Often there is a situation where participants actively discuss issues of working together in their organization without our participation.
  
  
• When I first communicated with potential customers, I myself had tried to list the benefits of using an online community or a corporate social network. There are many, about twenty, and the probability is high from the first words not to guess, but what exactly this client needs. Now we offer the participants of the seminar themselves to select and vote for the most urgent problems requiring urgent solutions. In practice, revealed two or three of the most pressing problems. Here you have the initial setting of community goals. Moreover, these tasks received the most votes, which means that most people will support these topics during the project implementation.
  
  
• I already wrote that there are many ways to use the online community and it is desirable to identify a couple of tasks that are relevant to the organization. Therefore, an exercise in the choice of tasks should be done as early as possible. But you can not perform it at the very beginning, because people are not yet warmed up. To warm up the people - at the very beginning you need a lighting presentation. And we have it.
  
  
• People should have a video series on the practical application of a new idea, so we definitely do a demonstration of the platform (Bitrix24 / Jive / DaOffice / Yammer / IBM Connections). And we are not showing everything in the world, but we are unfolding precisely those tasks for which a few minutes ago a majority voted.
  
  
• The impression of a vacation, a business trip or a seminar of people consists of two components: 1) a peak emotional impression and 2) an impression at the end of the event. Do you remember that your wonderful holiday was overshadowed by a long queue at customs? This is the very thing. Therefore, at the end we tell an interesting story from the life of Yitzhak Adizes, Walt Disney or some other famous person, and we can show a positive explanation about corporate online communities (as for the cartoon, this is only the beginning, watch our channel ).
  
  
• The introduction of corporate online communities is a new topic for the majority of listeners, so it is quite natural that people have objections. Of course, we answer them , and even better, when people respond to their own colleagues. The problem is that we will not be able to pass the labyrinth of objections of each participant, therefore (see the previous paragraph) the question and answer session should be done closer to the middle.
  
  
• Even in this short time, one can see who emotionally supports the idea of ​​an online community, and who does not. We, no less than the organizer from the client, can make the impression about the one on whom it is possible to lean in work on the project.
  
  

What do participants get? A fresh look at familiar things, interesting real-life stories, a concerted task for their online community, an understanding of how to develop a community, a two-hour experience in the community. In the end, a reason to reflect on a new concept. And you know - people like it!

In general, life does not stand still, and we are constantly trying out new ways to conduct a seminar. When it changes significantly enough, we will write again.

Vladimir Ivanitsa Facebook | LinkedIn