Speak To Get Clients: 3 Hidden Factors That Influence If You Get Clients When Speaking (or Not)

BusinessMarketing & Advertising

  • Author Bonita Richter, Mba
  • Published August 24, 2012
  • Word count 796

As a woman solo-entrepreneur, you’ve undoubtedly been told speaking in front of a live audience is one of the fastest, most effective ways to build your list and get new clients.

If this is true, then why do so many women walk away frustrated after delivering a presentation because they have few new client prospects, and they’ve just wasted hours of time in preparation and delivery of an unfruitful presentation?

Many times, the reason this happens is because she is delivering the wrong type of content in her speech, and her offer is weak (or non-existent).

When I speak, I’ve been able to get new clients every single time.

How? Here are three tips to help you walk away from every speaking engagement with prospective new clients, who want to hire and work with you, so you can earn the income your deserve.

  1. Don’t "give away the farm."

When speaking, the tendency of most women is to want to give as much information as they can. This comes from a willingness to please, and deliver the value they promised to people. The problem is that most women end up over-delivering content, which leaves people full and satiated; they’re not "hungry" for any more new information, or working with you.

The solution is to balance how much "how to" information you deliver. A guideline I use is to deliver 25% of high quality, "how to" information in the presentation content. The other 75% is, 1) what the topic is, 2) why it is important for people to know about it, 3) typical problems people have around the topic, and 4) some solutions and know-how to solve some problems.

For example, if I am talking about branding, I would cover 1) what branding is, 2) why branding is important, 3) typical problems people have around branding, such as what happens if they don’t brand, and 4) some solutions how to create a differentiated brand.

  1. Express credibility and vulnerability.

We’ve all heard those awesome biographies for a speaker that makes it appear to the audience they walk on water. Yes, it is necessary to build up credibility during your introduction.

The reason is because you want to express to the audience why they should invest their precious time listening to you speak.

What can happen, though, is a powerful biography can distance you so much from your audience that they can’t relate to you. You’re "up there," and they feel "down here."

To build connection, you must meet them where they are, and tell a personal story that expresses your vulnerability. Essentially, you’re telling them a story that says, "Yes, things are great now, but they weren’t always this way. And, this is why." Then you tell a story of your personal journey, that relates to the topic of your presentation.

  1. Coach from the stage.

Often, when speaking, we’re told we "can’t sell" anything "from the stage." This is because many organizations have suffered through presentations that were nothing more than a poorly crafted and veiled sales pitches.

The problem this has created is now when many women deliver a speech, they hope they will generate leads when people opt in to their mailing list, or speak with them after the event to schedule additional time to talk. This isn’t enough, because not enough desire for her services has been created.

The solution to create desire to work with you is to is to "coach from the stage." By doing this, the coaching help you deliver to one lucky person in the audience will create desire in other audience members to get the same type of help. Then, you make an offer for them to get this same type of assistance, through delivery of a structured, sincere discovery session to qualified prospects that they have to apply for.

Is this fair? You bet! Few organizations will object to you offering something both extremely valuable and free to participants (especially when you are probably also speaking for free).

The key is crafting your offer in a way that generates interest, desire, and promises to deliver value. Coaching from the stage is a perfect way to do this, because other women will want what the lucky participant in the audience just got! (Remember the movie, When Harry Met Sally, and the restaurant scene?)

To attract new clients when speaking you must deliver the right type of content, and have a strategy and offer to create desire for people to want to work with you.

By being thoughtful and strategic about how you deliver content at your next live speaking engagement, you’ll experience a much higher degree of success in attracting prospective new clients, and be able to grow your income from your very next speaking event!

Bonita Richter, MBA,award-winning business expert and "Get Clients" Business & Marketing Mastery Mentor,teaches women entrepreneurs how to create a financially rich, $100K business.To get a FREE copy of her ebook,"5 Best Strategies for Quickly Getting New Clients" visit http://www.bonitarichter.com.

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