Free Webinar! If you’re like me, you get at least 10 of these emails a day. Webinars offered on every topic: Saving on Your Taxes; Becoming a Trusted Adviser; Making More Sales; Leadership in the 21st Century; How to Handle Difficult Employees; The New Rules of Health Care. Blah, blah, blah.

May I remind you that death and taxes were the last two pieces of certainty? And, at last report, taxes were coming under fire. But add to the big two the fact that a free webinar is certain to have a sales pitch at the end of it.

The word FREE is an enticement. Someone wants to expose you to his or her message, and then present you with an option to buy more now, or take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime offer.

Unfortunately, most of the free webinars out there offer little or no value to the people who attend them.

I ignored the opportunity of putting on my own webinars at first because I didn’t want to be identified with a pitch and a come-on that would entice my customers who have come to trust me and my word – and then at the end ask them for money. I didn’t think it was right, didn’t think it was fair, and I still feel that way.

AHA! MOMENT: When I got involved with Ace of Sales, Chief Architect Andy Horner was giving free, weekly, value-based webinars to people who already had signed up and paid for the service. The basis of his webinar content was how to use Ace of Sales to create memorable messages and differentiate yourself through the use of branded and customized emails, email magazines, greeting cards and postcards.

Every week, Andy gave away a free webinar. And every week, Andy’s audience grew. There’s a reason. Andy’s webinars were 100 percent value-driven, with no sales pitch at the end.

I began to pay closer attention to the potential of webinars.

One day, Andy and I decided to do a webinar together on Business Social Media – FREE.

More than 5,000 people signed up for an event that would hold only 1,000.

After reviewing the results, response and aftermath, we decided the next webinar would carry a small fee. Twenty bucks. We would offer it at two different time slots so people could choose. The result? Nearly 1,000 people registered and paid.

MAJOR QUESTION: Why were these customers willing to pay for my webinar, and not take your webinar for free? Two-word answer: perceived value.

REALITY: People are willing to invest a small amount of money for information and answers that they believe, in the end, will lead to their own increased revenues.

I’m about to intensify my webinar intentions for the following 2.5 reasons:

1. I’ve proved it works.

2. My customers are very accepting of it.

2.5. People are actually requesting more.

Are your customers willing to pay for your information? Or are you simply trying to sell more of your stuff?

If you are going to offer a webinar for free, is it with an ulterior motive? Are you willing to disclose that motive?

The more you create a webinar that your customers would consider valuable, the more they are willing to sign up, pay up, sign on, take action and want more.

The webinar is an amazing strategy to create direct communication with the people who know you. What messages are you sending them? How is that increasing their word-of-mouth advertising for you?

Those are tough questions, but if the answers are positive, the response is money. I’m certain you could use more of that.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by email at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2011 Jeffrey H. Gitomer