Successful Meeting Basics is a must read!

When choosing a location for your meeting you want to be sure that a private area is available to you. This doesn't have to be a hotel although that is where you will ultimately want to get too. A good restaurant with a private room or one of your team members home or business can work well.

I recently received an email from a member who stated that the presentation they went to in their particular town was not very exciting. They complained about the presentation they had gone to and were wishing for a new presenter. That email inspired what I am about to share with you now.

In a successful meeting 60% of the excitement comes from the membership or leadership team. The first thing you must do is look for and appoint a core group of leaders who will work together to accomplish this collective goal. Often times in the beginning that starts with just one person, you! You can help the other members create that energy, as it is what energizes the speaker. We use a lot of different presenters on our team. The key is we depend less on the presenter and more on the membership or leaders. Here are a few items that the members or leaders have to do to make the presentation successful.

Have upbeat music playing before anyone gets there. Think about any live play or movie you have ever seen. In every case the music in the background sets the tone. The same is true for your meeting. If upbeat music is not playing and setting the tone when people walk in you have already created an uphill battle for the presenter.


Never let the presenter do any set up. Presenters should be treated like
gold. This is very important. Someday you will walk into the meeting with a real player. When that person sees the presenter setting up they may ask who is that? If you tell them that's our presenter and one of the top money earners in our area your guest, if he or she is real player will already be turned off because they'll ask themselves, why would I want to shoot for that? Never, absolutely never allow the presenter to set up. By doing so you just psychologically undermined your guest. Got it? Great, lets move on.

Have your leaders or members meeting and greeting the guests as they arrive bringing them up front. These are your warm and fuzzy extroverted people who know how to make someone feel welcome with a compliment about their shoes, or a joke, or a super friendly smile. Your guest is little nervous when they arrive and tend to want to sit in the back or near the door. It is vital that they are made comfortable and walked up front perhaps being offered a glass of water once seated.

Members should not be presenting or explaining. They should be helping move people up front, make them comfortable, and introducing them to other upbeat members and most important the Presenter. Members must focus on building up the presenter to the guest, not the business, that's the presenter's job!

The Presenter should be walking the room to meet and greet. They have only seconds or minutes with each guest in order to get them to feel as thought they like and trust your presenter. Don't let presenter do anything else but meet and greet. Shield them from being caught up in techi type questions. Leaders should be looking for this and when they hear a techy question being asked they should attack like a piranha taking the other member aside, explain that tonight is to meet and greet guests for a presentation and provide them one of the listed jobs that need done. Usually these folks that ask difficult and distracting questions just prior to a presentation really want to participate in a positive manner but they just don't know how yet, so explain it to them and you've just found yourself another meter/greeter!

You'll need someone registering people as they come in providing color coded name tags. One color for members and another for guests. This will help the presenter in identifying who is who. The registration person is also responsible for providing guests the income disclosure statement as they come in.

Have someone handling the music volume up and down. You can buy a great set of speakers for your laptop with a sub woofer and the whole shebang for under a hundred bucks at most office stores. This leader is in charge of raising and dropping the music every time another member walks away from or goes to the front of the room for example the introduction.

One leader should provide a short but explosive introduction for the
speaker. It is important that the introducer edifies the speaker in a big
way but the travel story is not part of the intro. Only promote the speaker. Do not mention anything about WorldVentures, just build up the presenter. This introduction will make or break the presentation. The Music goes back up as the introducer walks away and presenter takes the front of the room with a hand shake or even better a hug. After all, the introducer just said a bunch of really super nice things about you; he or she deserves a hug!

Membership then applauds and cheers enthusiastically. All cellular phones, black berries, and laptops are off and out of site. No members are standing in the back acting like their too cool and absolutely no one is to speak or get up and go to the bathroom during the presentation. This can throw off even the best presenter.

All of the members and guests should be in seats furthest to the front. As a member you want to be sitting on front edge of your chair as though you are hanging on every word of the presenter and smiling at the presenter like you are in love. With each comment you nod your head acknowledging what the presenter has said and encouraging the presenter that his or her points are being well received. All of these things are contagious and the guests will follow suite if the group is following along.


All leader/members must be laughing at every joke even if you've heard that joke 100 times from this presenter. The presentation is for the guests not you! When the presenter says, "does that get you your money back?" perhaps pointing to a screen in the dream trips presentation the members responds with a resounding "YES!" Again, it's contagious and you'll have the guests doing the same. Besides, its fun!

As the leaders or membership creates this vibe the presenter gets elevated
and their energy level rises. If I explained all of this to you and did a presentation right now, even though I know I just told you to do it, I promise the effect on myself or any other presenter is amazing. We begin to believe our jokes are funnier and that we are just really on and our confidence and energy level just goes up 20 notches. The energy level of the room causes the guest to then get excited too.

One thing is for sure, if the membership does not create this vibe the energy and confidence is sucked out of the presenter, any presenter. I have seen it happen both ways with the same presenter. The difference is the membership.

After the presentation is done the presenter should ask if anyone has a
travel or business story. The leaders & presenter should have pre arranged and prepared a rapid fire SERIES OF 30 SECOND testimonials. The excitement can be harmed if any of these are too long. Remember, short and powerful testimonials that include the dream, the struggle, and the prize. Do not present during your testimonial!

An effective way of closing from the front of room is always helpful. One way of doing this is when the presenter or one of the leaders announces that a vacation package valued at $1,000 is going to be given away to one of the guests. Several members should have raffle tickets and applications in hand. The speaker announces the giveaway to the crowd and asks all of the guests to raise their hand so that they can be given a raffle ticket. Give each guest a raffle ticket and an application. Remember, they get a raffle ticket and an application, not just a raffle ticket. Ask the guest to bring their application to the front of the room now in order to receive the two additional raffle tickets for the vacation valued at $1,000. Ask the guest to bring their application to the front of the room now in order to receive the two additional raffle tickets for the vacation valued at $1,000.00 That is a great close if the leadership does a good job of elevating the room. This may take a few tries to do really well, but don't worry, it will be well received as you stumble thru it the first time.

As you can see very little has to do with the presenter. If these items are performed well by the membership you can create a variety of effective presenters. If they are not followed, you can destroy the confidence of the one person who had the guts to go to the front of the room. Even a pretty average presenter will do well and the guests will sign if you adhere to the suggestions. Obviously some are more exciting speakers than others, however, we know that the memberships meeting etiquette and the testimonials are what really make it happen.

Meetings need you and you need the meetings. They not only get you back in the groove and re excited but they provide the relationships and the glue that your team will need if it is going to grow. Participate in your local meetings now and help to make them successful. Make sure they get posted on our team site and in the back office. Someday you are going to meet a real player and bring them along. If you did your part to develop a successful meeting it will be there when you arrive and your player will run for you. If not, he or she may walk. You need a great meeting that you can count on to bring your next potential prospect to. Help create that environment now before that time comes!

In closing I want to remind you to never stray from the basics. The coffee shops, lunches, conference calls, and house parties should be used on a daily basis to point to the meetings, the meetings to point to the super Saturdays, the super Saturdays to the acceleration trainings. There is an undisputable direct correlation between this system and the fastest growing teams in World ventures.

Finally, meetings are where you multiply. DO NOT WAIT FOR THE MEETING! Waiting for the meeting is the best way to go slow! Do the basics all day every day and add your people and work with them to get their two, then six etc. The meetings are where you multiply! It is worth repeating, waiting for the meeting is the best way to go slow!

After the meeting allow 10 minutes for signing people up. Your fast start training should be brief and include teaching and actually practicing the 4 step invite posted in training tools. Listen to GETTING STARTED RIGHT in the link section for more info on this topic.

Finally, see as many presentations as you can as part of your training to become a presenter incorporating all the things you hear as part of developing your own style.

There is a lot more on this topic in your back office virtual trainer too!