Yes, a virtual summit can transform a business. The summit alone usually doesn't. The event brings you an audience, borrowed trust and new peer relationships, and your offer and follow-up decide whether any of that becomes clients.
This article is for coaches, therapists, healing practitioners and anyone running an expert-led service business. You've helped people and you know your work is good, but clients tend to arrive in bursts. A summit can help with that. It works best when you go in with honest expectations instead of a highlight reel.
Jennie and I have run 13 summits of our own and over 40 summits for clients. Some of them reshaped a business. One barely paid for itself during the event. What made the difference had very little to do with the event itself.
Key Takeaways
- Decide on your offer before you invite a single speaker, because a summit with no clear next step grows your list and not much else.
- Write your follow-up emails and booking path before registration opens, so new subscribers hear from you while the event is still fresh in their minds.
- Invite speakers who serve the same people you do, because their trust and their promotion bring the right attendees to you.
- Judge a summit over months rather than days, because many people buy long after the event closes.
- If you hold a license, check your board's advertising rules before you promote anything.
What A Summit Can Realistically Do For You
A virtual summit puts you on a stage beside respected peers, all teaching one topic your ideal clients care about. When it goes well, it does four useful things.
It grows a list of people who chose your topic. My first summit, the Solopreneur Accelerator Summit, started on August 31, 2020, eight weeks after I'd left my job to start a coaching business. I had no audience to speak of. Twenty-seven speakers taught over four days, my list went from about 100 people to 750, and I sold four places on my $497 course plus $3,500 in VIP tickets. That came to about $5,500. That's my own result, and it doesn't predict what another host will see.
It lends you credibility. When attendees see you hosting experts they already trust, some of that trust rubs off on you before you've said a word about your offer.
It builds relationships with peers. Partners you meet through a summit can support your future programs, refer people and invite you onto their stages. For my second summit, more than half of the 37 speakers approached me.
And it keeps paying off after the event. Own Your Stage, the first summit Jennie and I ran on EventRaptor in February 2022, brought more than $24,000 in sales within two weeks. By February 2024 it had passed $50,000, as new registrants kept buying. If you'd like the longer argument for hosting one, read why you should host a virtual summit.
What Decides Whether Your Summit Works
After more than 575 summits on the EventRaptor platform, the same few factors keep deciding the result.
| Factor | When it's in place | When it's missing |
|---|---|---|
| A clear offer | Attendees know their next step, such as a VIP pass, a course or a call | The list grows but sales stay thin |
| Follow-up | New subscribers get useful emails and an invitation to talk | People drift away once the replays expire |
| Speakers | They share your audience and promote their links | Registrations stall or the wrong people sign up |
| A specific topic | The right people recognize themselves straight away | You get a broad crowd and a weak response |
The Summit Where I Lost Sight Of The Offer
I was exhausted going into one of our summits and never put a proper offer together. Speakers loved it. Attendees loved it. It added 476 new people to our list.
It made about $1,800 during the event.
I still count it a success, because those people will keep buying from us for years. But the lesson stuck with me. The offer is the part of your summit that pays for it, so build it first, while you still have energy.
Follow-Up Does Most Of The Converting
EventRaptor made running a summit easy, yet plenty of our customers still struggled. They'd add hundreds of people to their list and turn few or none of them into clients, because nothing connected the event to a conversation. In my experience, a good follow-up process might turn 10 to 15% of registrants and attendees into clients. That's an observation from my own work, not a promise. "Build it and they will come" is a myth.
Speakers Who Share Your Audience
In a podcast interview, summit host Krista Miller described pitching each speaker a specific topic that moved attendees one step closer to the summit's goal. Getting that specific about her niche helped one summit bring in $16,000 at a time when her business was making three to four thousand dollars a month. That's one host's result, and it isn't typical or predictive. Her advice was to plan the summit around the change you want attendees to make. If you're worried nobody will say yes to you, here's how to host your first virtual summit before anyone knows your name.
What A Summit Won't Do
A summit won't make an unclear offer clear. It won't take your sales calls for you. And nobody can honestly promise you a number of leads, clients or dollars from one.
If you aren't ready for a multi-day event, a smaller one can test your message first. This guide to running a micro event that builds authority shows what that looks like.
A Note For Therapists And Healing Practitioners
Summits suit practitioners who'd rather teach than sell. You educate the public alongside respected colleagues, and that can lead to professional referrals and interest in workshops or group programs. Make it clear on your pages that summit content is education and not therapy. Keep client stories out of your promotion, and check your licensing board's advertising rules before you publish anything.
How EventRaptor Carries The Technical Work
The event side is where most hosts lose their evenings, so this is the part we take off your plate. On EventRaptor, speakers apply, sign agreements and upload their materials through the platform, so you skip the long email threads. Your schedule, speaker pages and attendee dashboard are built from the speaker records. Each speaker gets a promoter link and can see a leaderboard. Reminder and follow-up emails go out on the event's timing, and registrants sync to GoHighLevel/CRMRaptor with tags, so your follow-up can start right away. Live sessions run on Zoom. The platform doesn't include in-event polls or Q&A.
If you'd rather not touch the tech at all, our done-for-you team can run the whole summit while you teach, host and make your offer. We produced the Out-Earn Your Man summit for copywriter Lucy Bedewi in September 2021. Her list grew from 25 people to 825, and all 4 of the discovery calls she booked right after presenting became clients. That's one person's experience and doesn't predict results for another host. You can see the full list of virtual summit software features.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Leads Can A Virtual Summit Bring In?
It depends on your topic, your speakers and how hard they promote. My first summit grew my list from about 100 people to 750, and one prerecorded list-builder summit we produced for a client brought in 610 new leads. Those are individual results, not predictions.
Do I Need A Big Audience To Host A Summit?
No. I had no list to speak of when I ran my first one. Your speakers bring much of the audience when they share your topic and promote their links.
How Long Does It Take To See Results From A Summit?
Some sales come during the event, mostly from VIP passes and offers made during the live sessions. A lot of the value arrives later, as new subscribers get to know you through follow-up. Own Your Stage kept producing sales for two years after the event.
Is A Virtual Summit Right For A Therapist?
It can be, as a way to educate the public and build referral relationships with peers. Present it as education, never as therapy, and leave client stories out. Check your licensing board's advertising rules before you promote it.
Your Next Step
Before you choose a date or a speaker, write two things on one page. Write your offer in a single sentence, then list what happens to a new subscriber in the two weeks after the summit. If either one is hard to write, start there.
We can help you test both before you commit. Book your Client Attraction Planning Call and we'll work through whether a full summit, a smaller event or stronger follow-up makes the most sense for your practice right now.