$100K in 3 Days: How Patti Keating Converted 30% of Leads Generated From A Live Event

Tim: Welcome to ConversionCast, the only podcast that gets to the heart of the metrics. Now here’s another data driven case study.

Hello fellow marketer? Thanks for being here today. Today’s guest is going to share her exact funnel for turning event sponsorships and speaking engagements into leads and revenue. We have this formula broken down piece by piece so you can take it and run with it right on our website. Go to ConversionCast.com/unleashed right now to download it. Again, that’s ConversionCast.com/unleashed to download this event funnel.

This week, I’ll be heading out to San Diego to speak at Unleashed Live, a fantastic event all about growing your business and making more money than ever before. Today’s guest, Pattie Keating is the founder of the event and the reason why she decided to put unleashed live on is because she’s been absolutely crushing it as a speaker and sponsor of other people’s events. Really, today’s case study is absolutely proof of that. She’s going to discuss exactly how she generated over $100,000 in revenue in just three days from an event that she invested far, far less than that and we have her funnel broken down for you at ConversionCast.com/unleashed. So download that now and then listen on. I’m Tim Page, the conversion educator here at LeadPages. This is ConversionCast and here is Patti Keating from Entrepreneur Unleashed.

Hey, Patti, welcome to ConversionCast. Thanks for coming on.

Patti: Hey, thanks so much for having me Tim.

Tim: Yeah, I’m excited. This is going to be a lot of fun and I guess the impetus for this podcast came because in just a few weeks, I’ll be speaking at your event, the Entrepreneur Unleashed Live of Unleashed Live and I’m really excited for that. So before we kind of get into today’s case study, I’d love to just hear just a little bit about what the event is going to be all about and how somebody could sign up to join us at the event.

Patti: Oh, absolutely. The event is all about getting your strategy in place to make more money next year than you have this year and to really get clear about how to use automation, how to reach more people, stop trading time for money and create leverage in your business using tools like your amazing tool and several others. You know none of that works if we don’t take the time to sit down and create the strategy and the plan. So that’s what we’re doing at unleashed really looking at who you are in the market, what you stand for, what your platform is, the message that you have and then how to take that and amplify it through automation and really clarity on your part and putting that all in place. If that’s something that speaks to you and you’re listening, you could head on over to UnleashedLive.com and sign up for a ticket. There are still a few seats left.

Tim: Awesome. It’s going to be great. I’ll be speaking on how to generate more leads and what to do once you get those leads. We’re going to have John Lee Dumas there who’s a good friend of both of ours. We’re going to have Valerie Shoopman who’s been on this podcast before and Kristen Thompson, John Tar. It’s just it’s going to be a fantastic time and I’m really excited for this. So with that out of the way I would love to just kind of hear what were the results that you were able to get with kind of the case study that we’re going to talk about today.

Patti: Absolutely. So the results were as far as numbers are concerned, I’m able to get 86% of the room that I spoke to to sign up for a future appointment with me. I had a 48% show up rate and 30% of the people who showed up closed into a program generating over $100,000.

Tim: Man I love that and that was at Podcast Movement, is that right?

Patti: Yes.

Tim: Okay. That’s where we got to meet for the first time and so you know, I think this is really valuable. So you had told me you were there for three days so you had to spend three days of your time at the event. You sponsored the event. You spent a certain amount of money, which is a very small investment compared to the rewards that you reap and then in three days you generated six figures just from being there and promoting your product, is that right?

Patti: That’s right.

Tim: Incredible, I love it and that’s what we’re going to talk about today and a lot of people are going to say wait a minute this is a podcast about converting people but the problem is a lot of times we get into this place where we’re in –you know, we’re doing our marketing online and we’ve got our website up and we’ve got our automation going. We’re doing all these things and that’s awesome. But really, I think at the end of the day one of the most powerful things that we can do is get ourselves out there and you know, get in people’s faces not in a bad way but just let people know that we’re there. Go to events. Go and network and communicate with people not in a sleazy like here’s my business card kind of way but just go out there and talk to people and help them solve a problem. That’s one of the main ways that I’ve been able to kind of get out there and grow Conversion Cast. I mean I spoke at podcast movement, I was at New Media Expo. I’m going to you know, the AWeber event and I’ll be speaking at your event. So you know, this is really something that I think is really important and it’s one of the reasons why I’m so excited to share that on this podcast. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about how this strategy works and how you were able to get such incredible results.

[0:05:32]

Patti: Absolutely and I just want to second what you’re saying Tim because if you’ve taken the time to build out those funnels online, it’s the exact same process live and so you’re really missing a huge opportunity if you don’t go out and implement the exact same thing you’re doing online out in the real world. So I just wanted to really emphasize that for people who are thinking, oh you know, does that really work going out and speaking, sponsoring. But to answer your question about how this came together, I did. I sponsored this event. I had a breakout session. There were close to 65 people in the room. We’re not 100% sure on that number. You know what you hear this over and over again online it’s the very same thing. I gave a ton of value. I used the same PowerPoint that I used in my weekly webinar and when people had questions, I stopped and I answered their questions. It wasn’t about the Patti Show. You’re going to have to hold your questions. I’m doing a presentation. It was let me help you.

Tim: [Laughs]

Patti: Let me help you here and now and you know lots of hands went up. The microphone started being passed around. I asked for a mic for the audience and I just delivered whatever value I could to help them where they were. People feel that whether it’s on your webinar, or whether it’s live. As a result, when I came to the end of my presentation, I told them simply that I would love to gift it with 20 minutes of my time. They’ve been an amazing audience. They had a lot of questions. I reemphasized what had happened. You know I can see you guys are thinking about this. I’m going to open up 20 minutes of my time for each of you and you know I could do may be 5 to 7 people this next week so you know, sign up at my booth. I just grabbed a piece of paper. I wasn’t prepared for this. I just grabbed a piece of paper, put it in the clipboard and set it on my booth table. I said you know, if more than seven of you I didn’t really expect 56 people to opt in right? [Laughs]

Tim: [Laughs]

Patti: If more than seven of you want appointments, you know, if you don’t mind waiting until next week that’s well and good and we’ll get it done. But what happened was doors opened and there was a rush to my booth and there was a line with these 56 people and probably a few more. Some people just wanted to say thank you and here’s where it got interesting. I put them into the same funnel that I used almost identical to the one I used on my webinar. The only difference is that I had a thank you page or a great to meet you at the event page. So I just took a picture of this sheet of paper and texted it to my assistant. She put them into the funnel. By the time they got back to their room, they had a thank you, it’s great to meet you. I can’t wait for our strategy session. Click here to schedule your appointment. I had them answer some questions on a web form to really get them clear. And then that took to my schedule once calendar and they booked their appointment. You know, from there I put them into my new lead follow-up sequences.

So they started getting video trainings every few days. I’m telling you Tim by the Tim by the time these guys came to their strategy sessions, the way they were responding to me was hey Patti, I’m so glad that we’re on this phone. I want to know what programs do you have.

Tim: [Laughs] I love that. That’s awesome.

Patti: Yeah.

Tim: And I think you know, there are a lot of things that I want to dive in here. I think the most important thing is we want to hear a little bit about the funnel but there’s a few points that I have to point out. One is that I think it’s really interesting that you mentioned that you do, you did almost the same content that you do on your weekly webinar. You know, the same PowerPoint and that kind of stuff because a lot of people will say like oh gosh, I have to create all this new content especially when I’m telling people about doing webinars. I always recommend if somebody is not doing a webinar, they should start doing it and start doing one at least once every two weeks if not more. I always preface that by saying look I do at least one every day.

So doing one every two weeks might seem complicated but I’m not asking you to go out and create a brand new webinar every two weeks. Just you know, from scratch creating a webinar because we don’t do that. We have a webinar that we do every week and yes, it gets changed as we go but it’s very similar every week.

[0:10:12]

So you don’t have to go out and create brand new content to go out and do a great presentation. If you’ve got one that you’ve found works, you can do that. I’m assuming that’s the case here, you found your weekly webinar worked and you said why not present this at the event. Is that right?

Patti: Absolutely. You know what Tim, I created this presentation. It was a year ago in November.

Tim: Wow. Yeah. So you’ve been using that basically for a year and —

Patti: Yeah and I changed it up some, a little bit but I have the basics, all the basics, the great presentation that sells–

Tim: Yes.

Patti: –are critical to the sales funnel in your business.

Tim: Right, yeah I love that. The other thing that I love about what we’re talking about is that you know you mentioned that you weren’t really ready for this influx of people and the beautiful thing is a lot of people again I don’t have the technology set up and everything like that. Well you had a piece of paper and a pen and you had them write their names and email down or whatever it was and you were able to just take that, put them into your email service provider and then send them an email. Put them into that funnel. So you know sure, there are some hi-tech ways of doing this. I mean you could use – I know that you’re using CallLoop as well. You could use that to have people text in and that kind of stuff. That’s awesome and we love that kind of technology but you know, if it’s something like that that’s holding you back, here’s a really simple way to get that done.

So I think you know, the really valuable point that we could get into now is what did that funnel look like because I think people will want to use something similar modeled after what you were doing. So if somebody goes and speaks at an event and they get people to opt-in or enter their email or whatever, what does the funnel look like after that?

Patti: Okay. So they opt in to the funnel and they get a welcome to the Entrepreneur Unleashed community email right away. And that email has of course our social media contacts and then a link for them to schedule their strategy session. If they don’t schedule their strategy session, they go into another funnel that has four follow-up emails over the course of ten days until they do just encouraging them giving them more value. If they do schedule their strategy session, they go straight into what we also use as our new lead follow-up sequence, which is video training series that I did two years for a live event. So I’ve cross-purposed my content. I just want to point that out. I’m not – this doesn’t have to be hard and complicated. As you build things, reuse them just like I’ve used my presentation for a year.

Tim: Right.

Patti: So it’s that four part video series with some extra bonuses and downloads and checklists and it lasts, I’m not exactly clear may be 12 to 14 days now.

Tim: Got you.

Patti: All set and done. You know that’s the funnel and then at the end of that sequence they go into my e-zine funnel.

Tim: Got it. Okay so it’s you know, basically it’s designed to nurture them on to the call, get them on to the call and then once they’re on the call it’s designed to get them to sign up for your program.

Patti: If they’re a good fit and you know, I do some weeding in there. So when they click on that link for a strategy session. I don’t just say here’s my calendar choose your time, because if you do that, you’re going to get a lot of no shows.

Tim: Uh-hum.

Patti: And people will just like you know, they don’t have any skin in the game. So they’ll just sign up and then may be change their mind or forget whatever. So the have to go through a process. It’s a web form in Infusion Soft that asks them eight questions that are you know, really specific to who that person is and are they somebody who would be a good fit for the Entrepreneur Unleashed before we talk about if they’re a good fit, if we’re a good fit for them.

Tim: What kind of questions are in there?

Patti: There are questions like how much money have they made in the last 12 months, how much money did they want to make, are they person –we’ve got some radio button questions, are they a person who sees opportunities often and thinks about taking action later. Are they a person who sees more excuses than opportunities? Are they a person who sees an opportunity as a – or a challenge as an opportunity and takes immediate action? So there’s a little bit of mindset questions in there. Are they somebody who is willing to invest in themselves and see themselves as their number one asset or did they you know, they don’t put any money into their business. They believe that chasing freebies is going to get them where they want. I mean they’re pretty direct questions.

[0:15:01]

Tim: Yeah. I love it. There’s so many things I love about it. I mean one thing is that you’re qualifying your prospects. So you’re not getting you know, I mean tire kickers really and you’re not getting people that aren’t going to spend money on their business. But the other side of it is a lot of people are going to say oh my gosh, you know, you’re so qualifying people, you’re going to lose so many potential leads or prospects but really what you’re doing is you’re saving yourself the hassle of no shows, the hassle of people coming on the call that have no possible way to afford a program at any level right? And what you’re really doing is you’re also getting people to commit to you know, doing something to making a change in their business.

Patti: Yes and they’ve got skin in the game, they’re thinking and you’re right I am turning away a lot of business or maybe it’s not a business I’m turning away a lot of strategy sessions and that’s exactly how I want it. Because I don’t want to –you know, I say this in my business. I don’t work with whiners. So if you’re a whiner, I can refer you to somebody else. But if you’re somebody who wants to take action and grow your business, I would love to help you.

Tim: Yeah.

Patti: But you got to let go of your story.

Tim: I love that. So what’s – I guess this will be kind of the last question but what would you say is the number one key that has made you so successful at these live events?

Patti: Connection, really connecting with people. You know, I have this method that I teach. It’s called the CEO method and most people use the CE method and I’ll real quickly share it with you. Connect, engage, offer. So make a connection with them, engage with them, listen to them, be curious, be spacious, help them and then invite them to something. Just always have something to invite people to. So the mistake a lot of people make at events is they connect and may be they engage and they think god I’d love to get back to this person. This is a great person. I’d like to get to know them, I could help them and they don’t make an offer. They take that little business card back with them and they put it on their desk and they think oh I don’t want to call too soon. They have to get their back at the seat again.

Tim: [Laughs]

Patti: The have [0:17:10] [Indiscernible] right? So it’s the key is really connecting and caring about people and meeting them where they are, engaging with them and then just inviting them to see if they’d like to move forward with some of the things you’ve got going on.

Tim: Yeah. I love that. I mean it’s so direct. The reality is and you know I’m the worst of this because one I realized that people spend a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of effort on stuff like business cards and I’ve started being this guy. I want to be really truly honest and upfront with people. So when people try to hand me business cards now, I you know, politely, respectfully declined only because I know that that business card is either going to get lost in a pile. It’s going to get thrown in the garbage or really recycled because we recycle. But you know, if something is going to happen and it’s not going to result in me remembering that person or you know, it’s not going to draw up the memory of that conversation that we had. So I haven’t really perfected this yet but I really think that you know, the next step is to say hey let’s –you know, let’s set up a time or let’s arrange a meeting or let’s do something that’s going to kind of further this relationship and see how I can help you or let me do something for you or whatever it is, you know, some way to further that relationship. If that person is a potential customer, great there is a great thing to do. You know, get them on a call or a webinar or something and really do something with that relationship that provides value.

Patti: Yes.

Tim: I love it. Well this has been really helpful and I think you know, more people can get some really amazing results out of live events and event sponsorship. So thanks so much for sharing your insight and this kind of strategy that has worked for you. I really appreciated having you on the show.

Patti: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Tim: Thanks for listening to this episode of ConversionCast. If you liked what you heard here today, we have something awesome that we want to send you. Our amazing team has created a free reference guide for you with every single split test and piece of conversion data that we have access to here at ConversionCast. This free booklet is packed with incredible case studies and real metrics from real people to show you what’s really working across multiple industries right now. This is the kind of information you won’t find anywhere else. As one of our listeners, we want to give you a copy of this book absolutely free. You can get your copy right now by going to ConversionCastGift.com. Again that’s ConversionCastGift.com. Go there now and pick up your copy and we’ll see you next time.