The Client Appreciation Dinner.

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Appreciation dinner concept

lets say THAT  i came up to you and said, I can provide you with quality life insurance referred leads at a cost of $5.35 each, and furthermore, I guarantee that each one should generate at least $170 in commission. would THAT GET YOU ATTENTION?  AND IF IT DID......

How many would you want to buy?

This is what a Client Appreciation Dinner is all about.

As an Insurance Agent, this is one way to generate low cost quality referred leads. If you can get 30 of your insurance clients and spouses together and it costs you about $800, and if they each gave you 5 quality referred leads, this would be a total of 150 signed referred lead.

So each referred lead card would average out at a cost of $5.35 each. If you use good record keeping practices you should be able to determine the value of each referred lead card. In my case, I knew that each referred lead card should generate me about $170 commission. Would that not be a good deal.. Of course it would. Simple business economics here.

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Learn how to build your own website and really make these appreciation dinners or any marketing concept take on a new dimension.

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Once you generate 100 or more good clients, then you may want to consider using this client appreciation dinner method for generating referred leads.

This appreciation dinner concept also became part of my relationship building theme. I incorporated this concept into my interview process and I let the prospect know, that I have several customer appreciation dinners at the country club during the year and as a client of mine, they would receive an invitation each year. (Keep in mind that you would need to change the theme and subject matter for each group as time went on. You don't want group one people coming back to hear same stuff again.)

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Here is how it should be done.

First off, I would line up a location, a dinner skit and guest speaker. (I would then work with one of my team members, Attorney. CPA, Real Estate Professional, etc. to be a guest speaker.) I would then send out invitations to about 30 to 40 of my new clients/ and or my key clients, with a rough overview of the agenda., and ask them to call and confirm if they will attend. I would then follow up with a courtesy phone call.

Generally I would limit this to the first 30 people, and would do a couple per year if need be.

The Dinner Format

Either me or my wife would greet my clients at the entry door to dining room. At that time I would hand them out an agenda of the meeting which included the names of the guest speakers and their phone numbers.

Additionally, we would provide them with 5 BLANK referred lead cards and indicate to them that we will be giving away a few raffle prizes this evening and the referred lead cards would be put in a barrel and be used for the drawing. I would usually have about 3 to 4 gifts laid out on the sign in table for viewing. In my case, my home office would provide some of these at a minimal cost.

I also tried to keep this meeting limited to about a one hour time limit, so people could get a baby sitter and get back home at reasonable time.

We would also have stick on name tags and had them put their names on them, and stick them to their shirts. We would usually have access to nearby bar and people could get drinks on their own.

Once people were seated, I would start out with a short welcome (see rough outline of agenda below)

ENTERTAINMENT

As time went on I found that I could get some of the arts and drama students to come in and provide a short 15 minute skit to entertain the people. One of my best ones was a couple guys who done the Abbott and Costello “who's on first and whats on second” skit.

TRAINING YOUR CLIENTS

When inviting people to their second appreciation dinner, they will understand and realize that we are asking them for referred leads. (This Is called training your clients.)

Remember referred leads are like hot potatoes, the longer you wait to contact them, the colder they get.

When I got back to my office the next day, after the appreciation dinner, I would sort the referrals out based on priority and based on who referred them.

Usually you will end up with 100 plus good solid, warm referred leads.

I would immediately plan on contacting the top priority ones first, by sending out the bottom 1/2 of the signed referred lead card, and then send out a letter to the rest of them telling them that they were referred by so and so and I will be contacting them in the next week or so. It is imperative that you do this while they are hot.

Why? Because the person referring them will usually tell the referral in the next day or so, that they will probably be getting a call from me.

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APPRECIATION DINNER AGENDA

7 p.m. welcome comments

Thank you for coming. I appreciate your business and this dinner is one small way for me to show you my appreciation for your business and friendship.

This evening we have 2 speakers (or one speaker and short skit) who will speak on the following topics for about 10 -15 minutes each and then we will be glad to answer any questions you may have after each speaker.

At the end of the dinner we will be having several raffle drawings. As you all know my business is meeting people and sharing ideas with them, like I did with you. We never know where anyone is in their financial life and if you would like to help me by filling out some or all of those referred lead cards you received when you came in.

You can fill them out during the dinner and we will pick them up at the end of dinner and put them in bucket and draw for the door prizes. I hope you enjoy your meal. What I would like to do now is go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves and tell us what you do.

• 7: 10 p.m. introduction of guest speakers and my wife
  
  
• 7: 15 p.m. guest introductions around the tables
  
  
• start serving dinner
  
  
• 7: 25 p.m. 1st guest speaker
  
  
• 7: 40 p.m 2nd guest speaker or drama skit
  
  
• 8:15 p.m raffle drawings and closing comments.

End of appreciation dinner agenda

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