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UTILIZING ONLINE EDUCATION TO SELL SERVICES Presented by: Scott Zarret, CPA President CPAacademy.org CPAwebengage.com
UTILIZING ONLINE EDUCATION
TO SELL SERVICES
Presented by: Scott Zarret, CPA
President
CPAacademy.org
CPAwebengage.com
Scott Zarret, CPA
• 20+ years of experience in the accounting
industry
• Processed more than 400,000 hours of CPE
credits via live webcast
• President of CPAacademy.org, an online
education company with 70,000 members
EDUCATION -> THOUGHT LEADERSHIP-> SALES
Why are we here?
Why are webinars so popular?
◦ Relatively inexpensive to host
◦ Reach a wide audience
◦ Data can be gathered about their audience
(registration, polling questions, evaluations,
questions asked during the presentation)
◦ It’s a great way to use your existing database
◦ Presentations can be archived at no cost
Who Is This Class Designed For?
Professionals who are interested in understanding the potential for using online education to:
• Share important content with existing clients or with potential clients
• Use time and technology efficiently
• Utilize cost-effective marketing
• Reach a wide audience
• Position yourself as a thought leader
Webinar Objectives
• Discuss current trends in online education
• Learn presentation styles and tips for webinars
• Understand technical considerations
• Learn how to set short-term goals: planning and
preparing for your webinar
• Discover how to use a webinar to generate sales
• Learn how to set long-term goals: online education
as part of a strategic plan
• Learn how to “own your own space” through
thought leadership and branding
Current Trends in Online Education
Webinars Provide An Opportunity for
Accounting Professionals to Earn CPE
• Approximately 770,000 CPAs in
the nation with annual
requirements of 40 hours of CPE
per year
• 30 million hours of continuing
education requirements that
need to be filled
• Companies that provide CPE
must be registered with “The
National Association of State
Boards of Accountancy”
(NASBA)
There are two options for presenting CPE:
• Present for State CPA Societies, Industry Groups, or Associations– Advantages
• You do not need to market your presentation or incur costs
– Disadvantages• You will not be able to private-label your offering. Often the presenter information is not marketed well and is very
difficult to find
• Your topic might not be chosen
• No control over the pricing
• Standards imposed by providers are generally more strict than NASBA standards
• Become a NASBA provider– Advantages
• You choose the topics and length of course
• You control the pricing and marketing of the event
• You have complete information about your participants
• You have control the frequency of your events (date / time)
– Disadvantages• Need to have your own database
• Need to purchase software
• Need to be NASBA certified
• Find a NASBA-approved organization that will help you private-label market your webinar, control the pricing, present your chosen content using their technology, and potentially help you earn a profit
Webinars Provide An Opportunity for
Accounting Professionals to Earn CPE
What are the benefits to a firm offering
CPE webinars?
Thought leadership:
• Retain and reward current clients
• Build virtual rapport with an audience
including both clients and prospects
• Share knowledge and exchange ideas
with others in the CPA community
What are the benefits to a firm offering
CPE webinars?
CPE webinars help sell products and services without being “sales-y.”
• Develops credibility, creates accountability
• Generate leads for new client acquisition
• Enhance a personal brand
• Use archived sessions to share ideas on demand
What are the disadvantages to a firm
offering CPE webinars?
• Webinars require technology-savvy or time to
learn and prepare
• You don’t meet your audience
• Presenter needs to know or learn how to present
under this format
• To reach an audience outside of your core, you
will need access to a database.
• Limited attention span when presenting over the
computer – audience can be easily distracted
TIPS AND TRICKS
FOR A SUCCESSFUL WEBINAR
Recommended Book
The Data
The Data
The Results
The results you have will depend on:
How effectively the class is taught
How clear the upsell is (what should the audience to next?)
How much the product service is in demand
Your sales cycle
Your level of follow-ups (calls and emails following the webinar)
The data you have gathered and your ability to use it quickly
What Makes a Successful Webinar
• A reliable webinar platform
• A presenter who connects with the audience
• A presenter who is knowledgeable, passionate, interesting and not too salesy
• An interesting format (product demo, interview a client or other industry professional, second presenter)
Best Practices for Webinar Planning
Clearly identify your target audience and
ensure your webinar will be well attended
Rent or acquire a database
Send reminder emails prior to the event to
your own internal database or an external
database – the number and timing of these
emails is important!
Time-Line
• 30+ min before the webinar – all login to software and perform a test of audio and visuals
• 5 minutes before the start time: Presenter performs a screen share
• 5 minutes before the start time: Moderator and presenters make small talk while people are signing in to the session (example: discuss presenter's background and ask basic questions about the webinar)
• Start webinar on time. Moderator kicks off the webinar to discuss CPE requirements (2 minutes)
• Presentation begins (moderator launches polls)
• 1.5 hour class: Presentation lasts 75-80 min
• Presenter allows 10-15 min for Q&A
• Within 24 hours: • Follow-up email is sent
• Issue CPE and posts the archived session.
• Review details of the attendees and follow-up
Take Control - You should be grading the audience!
Make it engaging (ex. Polls, 2nd presenter, voting, ask questions
Provide quality materials Provide reference materials
Don’t try to cram in too much
Start / end on time Discuss your organization, in the beginning, but more at
the end
Plan for questions Might want to have some questions on queue, just in case!
Solicit feedback
What Makes a Successful Webinar
Best Practices for Webinar Planning
• Put together your course
description, objectives, target
audience, author bios, photos
• Define the course level
• Decide on the number or
presenters, panelist and
organizers
What you need to get started
• Course Name
• Course Description (4 - 5 sentences)
• Course Objectives (3 - 5 bullet-points showing what the attendee will learn)
• Target Audience
• Length of course (1, 1.5 or 2 hours)
• Instructor bio, photo, company bio, company logo and full contact info
• PPT slides (1 week before the webinar)
• Polling questions (1 week before the webinar)
• Graphics
• Email a “thank you” to your participants
• Offer a post-event survey
• Identify prospects and call them!
• Provide the archived recording of your webinar to
make it easy for them to pass along
• Don’t assume they know!
– Offer additional reading materials and information about your
services
Best Practices
Examples of the upsell
Examples of the upsell
• Free consultation (30 min?)
• Additional information (whitepapers, ebook, short video)
• Another educational event webinar or seminar
• Discount code (with an expiration date)
• Free trial
Marketing Collateral
What we offer:
• Advertise your webinar in our daily email blast
• Provide all of the resources needed to support you in marketing courses we host, including: invitation design, registration processing and hosting your webinar content on the CPAacademy.org website. We provide all of the software (GoToWebinar) and training to use the software.
• We issue CPE credits for all eligible attendees. Following each webinar, we provide and maintain records of NASBA-approved CPE certificates using our NASBA group internet-based credentials.
• Provide you with an excel spreadsheet showing all attendees and registrants (including email addresses, title, company size, physical address, phone number, information from the evaluations, a history of the Q&A session and polling questions)
• Include your instructor profile on our website
• Deployment of a post webinar email for you immediately following the webinar. Examples: http://cpawebengage.com/email/
• Archived video posted to our library: http://www.cpaacademy.org/archived
