Attracting the Right People to Seminars through Option Solving

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

 The other week I was talking to a small group of people about their efforts to promote their particular organization through a series of talks. They operate in a big city where there is always plenty of competition for audiences who wish to listen to speakers on a whole range of topics. They had targeted a particular audience of family owned business leaders: where owners could listen to and meet interesting speakers on a range of topics particularly germane to their issues and needs.

As we talked about their challenge of attracting such an audience, they talked about their frustration of finding too many brokers, consultants, bankers and others turning up rather than the owners of family businesses. So we began to formulate a question: “What is our best alternative to attract owners to seminars…” but stopped there to consider some of the issues associated with such a need. We listed eight in all, with the top four being listed in the latest example question (see Latest Example).

With the question in hand, we then considered the most pertinent “bookends,” in order to get our combined intuitive insights into top gear for the different possible options. Those ranged from: Give everyone $1000 to attend, and at the other end, Charge People $1000 to attend. Being somewhat outlandish with bookends has the intent to stimulate the intuitive mind to switch into high gear. When you look at some of the question considerations, the latter is not such an outlandish thought. But now the real options really started to flow, which ended up with six different viable possibilities: three of which are shown in the Latest Example.

With an Option Solving topic like this, coupled with the right, fairly large group of people to look at all the alternatives,  then even more interesting options could emerge. Having sufficient people in the room, would bring out the real “wisdom of the crowd” to come up with an optimal, creative solution.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: Taking a better approach to Quality, through Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author.)

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Getting Sales Meetings without Alienating Prospects through Option Solving

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Peter Arthur-Smith

During these recessionary times securing sales meetings is tougher than usual. Even after a salesperson gets the ball rolling, building relationships through subsequent meetings can be equally challenging as prospects have to make difficult decisions about whether they can afford to proceed. This is where skill and finesse is required by the salesperson.

It is more than likely salespeople will look to their sales leaders for advice and coaching on how to handle the situation. Talented sales leaders will not be drawn into just giving their “charges” the answer; they will challenge their team members to come up with their own answer. This way their salespeople will more likely act on their choice, as well as discover their best option: which they won’t then forget in a hurry.

So, firstly, sales leaders, following the Option Solving technique, will work with their salespeople to come up with the right question: see the Latest Example. Once this is has been hashed out, then sales leaders can encourage their sales team members to come up with bookends: the least likely options like – “Forget the idea” or at the other end “Camp outside his/her door:” find out more in the book.

Such extreme options help to stimulate the intuitive intelligence to come up with its best alternatives. In this example, we have: “Leave alone for a month,” options B-E, and “Approach an ‘outside’ Janice friend and ask for 3rd party advice.” We deliberately left the other options open, since there is no one set of alternatives. Once the range of reasonable options is in place, then sales leaders will encourage their salespeople to pick the best alternative option. This is the one that their sales people should now pursue with all due skill.

Thanks Option Solving. (NOTE: Next posting in 2 weeks: Attracting the right people to seminars, through Option Solving. Make your COMMENTS or go to peter @ileadershipsolutions.com to connect with the author. )

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  • Six Principles of Option Solving

    1. Ask the right contextual question and frame the possibilities through bookends
    2. Be imaginitive and think "Out of the Box"
    3. Avoid asking "how, why, when or where" until the best option is identified
    4. Avoid excluding any option until all options have emerged
    5. Allow participants to support a less than conclusiv option
    6. Accept hunches or gut feelings