Together with the Become a PADI Pro presentation template and promotional toolkit, we’ve created this handy guide to setting up, promoting and hosting your PADI Pro acquisition event online or in person. Get ready to start inspiring divers to ‘live the dream’ and become a PADI Pro in 2021!

Setting up your event

1. Select a date and time to run your Become a PADI Pro event and decide whether you will host the event in person or online via a virtual platform such as GoToWebinar or Zoom.
2. Line up hosts and guests who are confident and engaging presenters and who are passionate about “the PADI dive life” to host the event with you.
3. Create tiered training packages – a basic package, a mid-range package that appeals to most customers and a platinum package with all the bells and whistles.
4. If you usually conduct classes in cold climates, keep in mind that attendees may want to complete some of their training in warm-water destinations. Have upcoming trip information available and be sure to include pricing for additional PADI course opportunities.
5. Any special prices should only be valid for a very short window to create a sense of urgency and ensure you get potential pros to sign up in the moment.
6. Use the customizable Become a PADI Pro presentation template and personalize this with your dive center information, photos and content. Download here.
7. Ask your staff to prepare a list of promising candidates and then personally call them to invite them to your Become a PADI Pro event.

Promoting your event

Use the customizable tools within the Divemaster Marketing toolkit to promote your event online. Download here.

1. Setup a Facebook event, add the key event information, invite your network, promote it on your dive center’s Facebook page and try boosting the event to a target audience in your locality to reach even more potential PADI Pros. Need more help with Facebook events? Check out this handy step by step guide.
2. Add your Become a PADI Pro event to the homepage of your website to ensure that everyone visiting your website knows about!
3. Email your database and invite them to your Become a PADI Pro event. Ensure to segment your audience to keep the communications relevant. If your event is focused on becoming a Divemaster, only email students who are Open Water, Advanced Open Water or Rescue certification levels.
4. Promote your event across your organic and paid social media channels to drive awareness and attendee registrations.

During your event

1. Collect contact information. If your event is virtual you can capture all attendee information via the pre-registration form. If your event is in person, ensure you assign a member of staff to collect new customer information.
2. Add fun and interactive elements to your presentation to engage the audience and inspire them to become a PADI Pro with you.
3. Limit your presentation to one hour – any longer and you risk draining, rather than building, energy! You can always leave time at the end or add on an informal social element to give attendees the chance to ask you questions 1:1
4. Keep the excitement up with a prize draw for items like PADI hats, backpacks or equipment rentals. Draw a name each time you switch presenters.
5. Towards the end of your event, run a poll to understand which packages each of your attendees is most interested in as this will help you close the sale during the follow up call.
6. Distribute information about your PADI Pro packages and price the packages so that attendees are enticed into signing up after the event.
7. Allow time for attendees to socialize after the presentation (in person or virtually). The interaction between divers is a powerful sales tool in its own right.
8. Finalize as many sales as possible. This is the time to capitalize on the excitement of the presentation and sell training and equipment.

After your event

1. Meet with your staff to designate a follow-up plan for each attendee – and then follow-up!
2. Create a pipeline to prioritize your opportunities and track your progress to converting event attendees to Pros over time – hot opportunity, medium opportunity, cold opportunity.
3. Re-evaluate a few weeks after the event to determine if it’s time to change tactics in order to close the sale with a specific customer.
4. Be sure to invite anyone that registered for the event but did not end up attending to any future events and nurture them with inspirational pro content across your email, blog and social media.

Contact your PADI Regional Manager or Regional Training Consultant if you need any assistance with your Become a PADI Pro event or need to stock up on any products to sell during your event.

Key Resources:

• Become a PADI Pro presentation template – download now
• Divemaster Marketing Toolkit – download now

Related Resources:

• The Perfect PADI Divemaster: 10 Attributes You Should Look for When Recruiting DMs – Read more
• PADI Divemaster: Leaders, Supervisors and Marketing Assistants – Read more
• How to identify and recruit Divemasters – Listen
• Five reasons you need a Divemaster in your business – Listen
• How to create Divemaster programs that work for your business- Listen

The post Guide to Organizing a Successful ‘Become a PADI Pro’ Event appeared first on PADI Pros.

Business of Diving / Business Support, PADI Divemaster, UncategorizedPADI Pros