Sanders said they are transparent with both potential attendees and the community colleges about their mission to educate about retirement. The colleges, he said, understand that the people are going to want to talk to them at the end of the sessions and “they are OK with that as long as we are not selling things and pitching our business,” he said.
Since the pandemic, the workshops have been conducted via Zoom. Sanders explained that while the colleges were closed for in-person classes during the pandemic, they worked out a deal with colleges to conduct the sessions on Zoom. “We did it not only in our communities but surrounding communities, and what we found was the turnout was just as good, if not better,” he said.
The online arrangement, he said, is not only a lot more efficient use of their time because they don’t have to spend time transporting and setting up their equipment, but the attendees also love it, he said. “They can just get home from work and don’t have to get a quick dinner and rush to the local community college. They can just turn on their computer and access it much more conveniently,” he said. “They can have their personal information readily available to kind of put everything in context for their situation.”
With Zoom, Sanders said people have the option to exit the class if they feel they are being sold something. He said he has taught classes where most of the people had their videos off. “From a presenter’s standpoint, that’s a little awkward, but you get used to it,” he said. He noted that the people who do not turn on their video would still reach out to them after the session. “It’s a way for them to kind of maintain that control so they come and take the class and remain anonymous and then if they want to contact us it’s on their terms.”
The partners do about a half dozen workshops a year, which results in the firm picking up, on average, one to two clients per class. The average size class is 15 to 20 attendees. Sanders said any more than that is not useful for the participants because it is difficult to get their questions in. Also, in terms of return on investments, he said they connect more with the people, and they get a higher response rate.
Consumers, Sanders noted, are educated, and can get a ton of information online but there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the industry and what financial professionals do. “So, your offering has to be focused, genuine and educational and you have to make sure it’s presented that way,” he said.