Holding seminars to homeowners in pre foreclosure

In an earlier entry, I wrote about some different calls to action. As one call to action, how about asking a troulbed homeowner to register for a free seminar on avoiding foreclosure? I recently attended a seminar on fire prevention, and I'll share this experience to provide a framework for what can be a workshop to explore the alternatives to foreclosure.

My friend's mother recently got a mail piece from a specialist on fire safety. This professed expert on keeping families safe offered to foot the dinner bill at Red Lobster for a party of six in exchange for an open ear and listening to his presentation. The event was suppose to consist of couples, presumably because spouses participate in the decision making process. Sensing the sales sheen, I wasn't exhuberant about going but after some arm twisting, signed up for the free dinner/presentation. After my date backed out at the last minute, my friend Danielle agreed to tag along with me as my date for the evening.

The gentlemen hosting the seminar exchanged perfunctory greetings with everyone coming into the room and gave an overview with a powerpoint presentation, before our ordered entres came into the room and we savored our seafood with an educational video playing. So as to focus our attention on the video, the man leading the seminar distributed a quiz hinged on answers contained in the video. If we got the answers right, he said, he would buy us desert. So of course, everyone tuned into the video.

After the conclusion of our dinner and explaining the answers to the dinnertime quiz, we were rewarded desert and the host launched into a lengthy sales pitch for his suite of state of the art smoke alarms and fire prevention products. We were a captive audience - he just bought us dinner. For me, it was a little brutal and I wished I had just paid for dinner. But the reality was I owed him my undivided attention because he fed me a lavish meal.

Along the way, he set off a smoke alarm in a demonstration that it will get your attention if a fire occurs. "Will that wake you up if you were sleeping and heard it", he asked my friend, to which she said, "It just did". I found humor it it, he did not.

To make a long story short, everyone in the room signed up for an on-site consultation where he would come out to their home, evaluate their fire hazards and install his company's fire prevention equipment for hundreds of dollars. (Everyone but me, only because I was going out of town early the next day). If you made the appointment for the morning, you would be entitled to a free fire exstinguisher or propietary hammer that smashes windows without leaving sharp edges in the event you have to make an escape out the window. I don't know what happened on those appointments, but I'm guessing he closed all of them and made a lot of money, much more than what he had to lay out for the free dinner entres.

It occurred to me that the same model can be applied to homeowners that are falling behind on their loan payments. Get them all in a room and educate them about the choices they have available.

The fire prevention expert had one aim in mind - to sell his equipment. But this objective was disguised. He came across more of a concerned person that wanted to educate all of us on what we can do to prevent or escape infernos. As a marketer, I was dazzled by his prowess in establishing credibility, building trust, and then going in for the kill.

Only after making us feel good and educating us did he say anything about buying something. In the same fashion, you can present all of the options and arrange for a personal meeting to tour their home and pitch a short sale.

Shrimp anyone?