SPARDATA is an expert appraiser of privately-owned companies and professional practices. Since 1990 we have written over 27,000 business valuations. We specialize in firms with sales between $1 million and $40 million. Initial business valuations cost $6,000. Typical delivery time is 6-8 weeks but "rush" orders are completed in just 3 weeks (extra charge applies).
Prospecting Seminars
Business owners make great clients. Top advisors know this because business owners (also known as the "millionaires next door") are affluent, decisive - and need the products and services you offer. No surprise then that everyone wants business owners as clients and the competition to win them is intense.
How can you win this competition? What can you do to stand out from the crowd? Is there an easy no-cost way to harvest as many business owner leads as you could ever want?
Yes, there is a way - and if you are comfortable speaking to groups, we will show you how to generate more prospects than you ever thought possible. The secret is a seminar called What Is Your Business Worth.And Why You Need To Know .
Even advisors who know nothing about business valuations can easily present this seminar using the free resources we provide to you. Getting invited to speak to your local Chamber of Commerce and other business groups takes just a few moments and costs nothing (other than the price of a few stamps). You will have the opportunity to present to hundreds, even thousands of owners every year. Best of all, afterwards 25% to 33% of them will ask you to become their advisor. The seminar becomes your springboard to build your book and increase your sales.
Seminar Description. A business owner's most valuable asset is often the business, so owners are always interested in the topic of valuation. What Is Your Business Worth.And Why You Need To Know capitalizes on that interest. The seminar is 30-40 minutes long and has two parts. In Part One lasting 20 minutes, you will use a PowerPoint file (including slides and speaker notes):
to welcome attendees and congratulate them, because owning a business is the surest path to wealth in America;
to acknowledge all owners "guesstimate" what their businesses are worth. You will use statistical data to point out guesstimates are always wrong, usually by 50% or more;
to discuss two case studies illustrating bad things that happen to owners who fail to know what their businesses are worth. At this point your audience will be sitting in stunned silence as the implications of your message sinks in; and
to insist owners get their businesses valued without delay, as otherwise their financial plan rests on a house of cards. You should mention owners can obtain a high quality, affordable, quickly delivered business valuation through you.
In Part Two of the seminar, you spend 10-20 minutes discussing the services you offer and describing how you help business owners. (Since you know this topic inside out, you may find slides and speaker notes are unnecessary.) Before ending the seminar you invite attendees to complete an evaluation form. Usually 25% to 33% returning the forms ask you to contact them afterwards. Those evaluation forms are qualified leads you can use to build your clientele.
Checklist For A Winning Presentation. If you were to organize a seminar yourself, it would cost you time and money. It is much cheaper and easier to get local business organizations such as Chambers of Commerce, homebuilders associations and similar groups to invite you to speak instead. (It also results in much larger audiences.) With the organization doing the heavy lifting, a ll you do is show up, give your presentation and afterwards convert your prospect leads into clients. Here is your step-by-step checklist:
Send Proposal Letter. Start by making a list of business groups to which you want to be invited to speak. Identify the person at each organization responsible for scheduling speakers and use our proposal letter to suggest it invite you to give a presentation to its members called What Is Your Business Worth.And Why You Need To Know . The response is likely to be favorable because the topic is a business owner hot button. It is new, fresh and different than the usual "Are Municipal Bonds Right For You" seminars.
Provide Sample Invitation. You will enjoy greater success if you make it easy for groups to say "yes" to your proposal. A good way to do that is to furnish a sample invitation the group can send to its membership, inviting them to attend your presentation.
Distribute Evaluation Forms. Before the seminar you should customize your evaluation form by adding the seminar date, time and location; and your name. Then be sure to make enough copies to place on every attendee's seat before your presentation starts.
PowerPoint File. The PowerPoint file covers Part One of your presentation. Each slide includes speaker notes; print them out beforehand using the Notes Page command. If you are not familiar with PowerPoint, find a colleague who is as the "slide master" should highlight your firm's logo and phone number.
Collect Evaluation Forms. Make sure to station someone at the exit to collect the completed forms as the audience leaves. You will find almost everyone gives you high grades for your presentation, and from 25%-33% ask you to follow up with them afterwards.
Making Money From Your Leads. Now that you have all these leads, how do you convert them into insurance buying clients? Here is how not to do it: just make sure the prospect perceives you to be a PRODUCT PUSHER. Nothing turns prospects off faster than a post-seminar message to the effect that you sell a specific product and you want them to buy it.
Much better for your message to be along these lines: "Yes I sell life insurance (or investments or financial planning or whatever), but I refuse to talk with you about that now. Until we know what your business is worth, we have no idea what your financial needs are - if any! Whoever you end up deciding to use for financial advice does not matter to me. What we need to do right now is get your business valued. Then we will be in a position to know what to do next."
This is a completely unthreatening message. The prospect responds by perceiving you as a PROBLEM SOLVER, not a product pusher. You will be amazed at how much information they share with you through the valuation process - building trust and confidence in you the entire time. And when the time comes to present the finished valuation to the owner (and make suitable product recommendations), the owner will be highly receptive to your suggestions.
If this approach makes sense to you, add a business valuation expert to your team. Be sure to look closely at SPARDATA . SPARDATA is an expert business appraiser. Since 1990 we have prepared over 27,000 valuations of privately-owned businesses and professional practices. We specialize in valuing businesses with sales between $1 million and $40 million, and with from 10 to 300 employees. Our bestselling SPARDATA Reports cost $6,000 and take 6-8 weeks to prepare (or clients may pay a small premium for a rush order completed in 3 weeks or less). About half our clients use our valuations to buy or sell a business; the other half use them for other purposes such as updating a buy-sell agreement, doing succession planning, gifting stock etcetera.
Few business valuation firms have more experience and credibility than SPARDATA. Hundreds of law firms, accounting firms and financial advisory firms use SPARDATA as their business valuation provider; some of the most prominent include New York Life, MassMutual, PNC Bank, Transamerica, MONY and Piper Jaffray. Federal regulatory agencies using SPARDATA include the Internal Revenue Service, the U. S. Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Proposal Letter 
