Are you speaking to grow your business?
Speaking is a great way to boost your visibility and profile to MANY of your ideal clients as it follows the one-to-many model.
However, ONLY if you have a clear strategy and the RIGHT steps in place.
Unfortunately, many business owners who are speaking to grow their business are leaving thousands (if not tens of thousands) of dollars on the table, because they DON’T have the right steps in place.
Let me explain.
Imagine you’ve just given a presentation and the audience enjoyed your talk.
Even though you received a loud applause at the end of your talk, and you had many people coming up to you after your presentation to shake your hand and thank you for your inspirational message – not one person asked you about your services or how they could work with you.
What do you do?
While you may be tempted to collect as many business cards as you can from attendees; take them back to your office; and add them manually to your database so you can email them more about your products and services – DON’T!
You have just violated spam regulations, which prohibit you from adding people to your database without their express permission.
And more importantly, you have just potentially damaged your opportunity to build a relationship with these people, who may have become raving clients.
But, by adding them to your list without their permission, spamming them with information and trying to ‘sell’ them on your services before they have gotten to know, like and trust you – you have just jeopardized your efforts to sign up a new client.
How do I know?
I recently asked my community on Facebook what they thought about this process and their responses confirmed it. Here are just a few of the responses:
- “I get so annoyed and have recently had to ‘unsubscribe’ and report them to mailguard”
- “It’s shocking this still happens and to me say’s a lot about how that person does business overall.”
- “I find it annoying and an intrusion.”
- “I hate it, unless I know or have spoken to that person, I never open their emails.”
- “Hate it, it’s just rude and people should know better by now. Another peeve is the group email displaying everyone else’s email addresses.”
So what should you do instead to encourage people in the audience to get onto your list?
You give some thought to the following two questions:
1. What do you want to have happen after you finish your talk?
While it’s important to spend time on the content of your Signature Talk so it’s concise and of value to your audience, so is considering the next step you want people to take after you have finished you talk.
This is something many business owners don’t consider.
The reason this is so important is that it will determine how you structure your Signature Talk, the information you share, and the depth of each of the points you talk about.
What is the action you want people to take after you have finished your talk?
In my complementary The Secrets to Successful Speaking in Business training I discuss three different actions you can encourage people can take.
One of those actions is to sign up for your Irresistible Signature Giveaway. Once they sign up, this now means they are part of your community and you have the opportunity to continue building a relationship with them so they get to know, like and trust you.
As people get to know, like and trust you, they are more likely to say ‘Yes’ to your offer.
Remember though, building a relationship with someone takes time, so please don’t bombard people with sales materials. Take the time to build your credibility as an expert in your field and ‘wow’ them with your knowledge and information you share in your giveaway.
When you get that formula right – you’ll have people scrambling to work with you!
2. How can I make it an easy “YES!” for people to take the action step I want them to take?
While educating and empowering people during your Signature Talk is important, so is engaging with them and helping them recognize that you understand their struggles and what they are going through.
Once you know the action you want them to take, the MAIN task of your Signature Talk is to build awareness of what they still don’t know or can’t do (i.e. the gap) WHILE deepen their desire to fill this gap by getting their hands on your Irresistible Signature Giveaway.
Let me stress again that the role of your Signature Talk is to educate and empower your audience WHILE create awareness that they still have a gap in their knowledge/abilities (that prevents them from achieving their goal) and to deepen their desire to want to learn more, which they can do by accessing your giveaway.
You have the solution and it’s presented in your Irresistible Signature Giveaway and to access this information they need to give you their contact details.
It’s that simple.
That is the RIGHT step and the RIGHT way to encourage people to get on your list.
So in closing, if you want to use speaking to grow your business – before you give your next presentation:
- Get totally clear on the ONE action you want your audience to take; and
- Ensure your Signature Talk has the correct structure and content so that it educates and empowers your audience; creates awareness that they still have a gap in their knowledge/abilities that prevents them from achieving their goal; and deepens their desire to want to learn more, which they can do by accessing your giveaway.
When you do, you’ll have no problem in increasing your subscribers and growing your list with ideal clients who want to learn more about you and what you have to offer, after each and every one of your Signature Talks.
To your speaking success and brilliance!
Annemarie
PS. Are you still unsure if you have the right structure and content in your Signature Talk? Why not sign up for one of my complementary Signature Talk Strategy Sessions and we’ll see where you still have gaps and what you need to do to create a Signature Talk that generates subscribers, leads and clients.
Check out the following relevant articles:
- The Power of Storytelling in your Signature Talk
- How NOT to alienate your audience at your next speaking gig
- Speaking to Grow Your Business: 3 Tools You Must Have in Place
Get IMMEDIATE Access to my Speaking To Grow Your Business FREE 3-Part training here
