Ed Rigsbee

PLEASE NOTE: THE VENUE FOR THIS EVENT HAS CHANGED.  It will now be held at the AGILYSYS Building (Location information at the bottom of the page.)

Morning Session:
Selling to Associations…Bypass the Gatekeeper and Sell Through the Backdoor

Ed Rigsbee, CSP, CAE, will teach you how to sell to trade associations and professional societies by going after their soft underbelly—publication editors. In building a relationship with any association, Ed will teach you how to first build a relationship bridge with the association’s editor by offering articles adapted from your books, keynotes or seminars. Then, you’ll learn how to use the editor relationship to bridge the divide into the meetings department. And, you’ll learn how to find these associations through free Internet directories and web sites. (Half-day Program)

• The market: 7,500 national and international associations and societies—and many have local, state, and regional affiliated associations/societies; delivering a total of about 90,000 organizations holding over 280,000 meetings yearly.
• This is the implementation system designed especially for those who hate to make cold calls.
• Learn how to let association publication editors connect you with association meeting decision makers—soft sell through the back door!
• Learn how to find your (paying) association and society prospects at no charge through online directories and search methods.
• Learn which hard-copy directories are actually worth buying.
• Learn how to scan the association/society publications and meetings for usable selling knowledge.
• Learn Ed’s article distribution methods.

Ed’s Four-Step Association Business Development System

1. Write articles based on your expertise that association editors will want to share with their readers.
2. Make your Relationship Bank Deposits; contact association publication editors and make available your articles.
3. Use your newly developed relationship to connect (warm call) with the association’s meeting planner.
4. Start selling!

Afternoon Session:
Ed’ Six-Step Process for Writing Articles that Association Editors Will Publish

Rigsbee’s highly interactive article writing workshop will cover how to craft your writing to make your material even more desirable to association editors. Learn wordsmithing; hooks, sloganization, bullet point writing and calls for action. Following this workshop, attendees will be armed with the article template and skills necessary to hook the interest of association editors with the kind of articles that those same editors truly desire. (Half-day Program)

You will learn Ed’s Six-Step Article Writing Process:

1. Title needs a benefit hook.
2. Grab interest in first sentence.
3. Use bullet points or numbered points for content.
4. Sloganize bullet points whenever possible
5. Close with an offer.
6. Your end bio is your sales copy.

Check out some of Ed’s articles:
http://www.rigsbee.com/morearticles.htm

Ed Rigsbee, CSP/CAE (https://rigsbee.com/)