Published:
06/20/2012 02:55pm
Exponentially Increase Your Revenue Through Speaking
One of the fastest ways to increase your revenue is to make yourself available as a public speaker. It's quite all right if you have never done it before. If you focus on a topic that's truly of interest to your audience, prepare well in advance and formulate a follow up system you really can't lose.
Keep in Mind... It's ALL About Them!
We entrepreneurs have a bad habit of focusing our marketing efforts on what we want to say, vs. what our audience really cares about. The first step in using speaking to get more clients and to increase your income is to prepare a talk that addresses a pain point your audience is facing. Make your talk ALL about your ideal client and a specific problem they are looking to solve right now.
Not sure what your audience is struggling with? Then you need to spend a little time doing some market research to find out. Use that information to develop a talk that showcases your credibility, a few specific main points, and include a strong call to action so that they can learn more by purchasing a product or working with you directly.
Prepare Well
Planning ahead is critical. Do some research on the group. What is the organization about? Who will be in attendance? What are they expecting to hear? Your presentation should provide the solution that they need. So, how can this exponentially increase your revenue?
No matter how great your talk is, your problem solving abilities are stifled. There is only so much that you can share during your presentation. However, if you make arrangements with the event planner, you can likely sell your packaged solutions during the event. Since the time that you are performing is so limited, be sure to give the audience something to take home. If you have a book, sell that. Do you offer a packaged product or a web-based solution? The point is to make sure that you can further help the audience. This is the first step in your follow up system. Let me give you an example.
Make a *Special Offer*
Last week, I spoke at an event filled with ideal prospects. Part of my preparation for this talk was to decide which of our products would be appropriate for the audience. I chose a product directly connected to my presentation and created a special offer ($200 off!) that was only available to the conference attendees.
Next we made sure we could accept payments on the spot. We didn't need a bunch of fancy equipment. All we needed was an iPhone! We went to Square, got a free mobile card swiping device, setup the app on our phones and we were good to go. (The fee per transaction is comparable to using a merchant account... sweet!)
It was so exciting to see people running to the back of the room to our table to purchase the product. We made a lot of sales and got to meet so many great people. Can you imagine what would have happened if we hadn't planned ahead to take payments there on the spot? We would have missed out on exponentially increasing our revenue. It would have taken a day or so to follow up with the attendees and by that time, the excitement for the information I shared may have waned.
Follow up Formula
Next on the preparation list was to make sure that we followed up with each person who requested to stay in touch with us, whether they made a purchase or not. People are busy and have a short attention span. So you want your follow up system to be fast and relevant. There are several methods that you can use: 1) a signup sheet 2) text messaging 3) email 4) opt-in web form, and others.
We chose two systems, a sign-up sheet and text messaging. As a result, we captured contact information for 70% of the attendees!
Whatever system you use, it has to be seamless in order for you to get in touch with prospects as quickly as possible. Your instructions must be clear and concise so that you will not have any difficulty keeping in touch. After gathering all of the pertinent information, make sure that your new friends hear from you within 24-48 hours. Thank them for their attention, consider offering a free gift (such as a special report
