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By Steven Van Yoder |
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| Money Talks: How to Use Public Speaking to Attract Clients | ||||||
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When Robert Middleton moved his
marketing consulting practice, Action Plan
Marketing, to Palo Alto, California several years
ago, he started his business from scratch. He had
left his well established client base several miles
away and now had to find strategies to generate new
clients.
Because Middleton had always spoken
to promote his business, he turned to public
speaking with a vengeance. He researched local
organizations whose members comprised professional
business owners, his target clientele. He called
chambers of commerce, business groups and others
likely to be interested in his three-hour marketing
workshop.
Within a few months, Middleton had
spoken at over a dozen organizations, establishing
his reputation as a marketing expert for
professional service firms. He quickly became a
known entity, having personally introduced his
business and credentials to hundreds of prospects.
Better yet, Middleton's speaking
strategy helped him land all the business he could
handle in a relatively short time period.
Over the course of sixteen talks, he
averaged one new client each time. Today, the
seminars he conducts at business groups and,
increasingly, teleconferences promoted through his
web site, generate more than 50 percent of his
business.
Speaking is Selling
Many business people never consider standing in the front of their buying public to share professional wisdom. If you're one of them, you're missing the boat.
Speaking is a marketing strategy you
can immediately embrace to get in front of potential
customers. Speaking puts you within handshaking
distance of your best prospects, many times helping
you close sales before you leave the room.
By speaking regularly, you can end the
uncertainty of knowing where your next client will
come from. Speaking can help you reach dozens, and
sometimes hundreds, of your best prospects every
time. Speakers report that speaking regularly
continuously fills their prospect pipelines,
ensuring a steady stream of new clients and
customers.
Speaking is effective because it
showcases your knowledge before groups of people who
eagerly show up to hear it. Your prospects may tune
out advertising, but they'll pay attention to your
talk because it presents your knowledge in polished
form to people who think it will help them.
Speaking gives you tremendous
visibility and credibility that increases over time.
Whenever you're in the front of a room, you get
noticed. People will remember who you are and what
your business does. The more people see you speak
and see your business name, the more successful
people think you are.
Speaking gives prospects a taste of
what you offer in a non-threatening environment.
When they are in a room full of people, they feel
comfortable. There's safety in numbers. They don't
feel the sales pressure of a one-on-one meeting.
It's also low risk, as chances are, they didn't pay
as much to hear you speak as it would cost to hire
you.
Get on the Program
You don't have to be a seasoned
speaker to put speaking to work for your business.
If you're willing to speak for free, you'll find
that there are more outlets available than you'll
know what to do with.
"If you can get up there and do a
decent job, you will immediately position yourself as
an expert in the minds of an audience," says
business coach, author and professional speaker Caterina Rando. "You only have to be 'decent' to
make an impact. Even though speaking can be scary at
first, anybody can find groups to speak to and
master the basics of giving a good speech."
Choose the Right Topics
Before you contact an organization
about speaking, create sample talk descriptions with
catchy titles. For example, a financial planner
could avoid generic descriptions like "Planning Your
Retirement" and use a more snappy title like
"Enjoying Your Gold Years on a Champagne Budget".
Targeting Speaking
Opportunities
Once you are clear about your topic and its benefit to the audience, make some calls and offer yourself as a speaker. Here are ideas of where to look for a free podium. Many of these groups need speakers all the time.
Getting the Most Out of Your
Speech
The promotional value of your talks
goes beyond your time on the podium. Often, when you
speak to a group, the group publicizes the event.
Many people who do not attend the event will still
read the information, or will hear about you from
other attendees, and may give you a call.
Consistency is the big thing. Getting
out there and speaking on a regular basis keeps your
pipeline full of prospects. When you're done, put a
follow-up mechanism in place, even if it's a simple
mailing or newsletter. If you keep in contact with
people who've heard you speak, you get more
long-term leverage from your efforts.
....................
Steven Van Yoder is the author
of Get Slightly Famous (tm.). He teaches small-business owners how to attract more business with
less effort by becoming a mini-celebrity in your
field. Visit
http://www.getslightlyfamous.com
to claim your FREE Slightly Famous Marketing Plan
Workbook.
Get Slightly Famous™ is a trademark of Steven Van Yoder.
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