Update 9/28/11

Hello,

I was going to save the following information to share with you at the beginning of the month. However, it was so right on that I just could not wait to share it with you.  You see I posted the following two items around on social media and received many comments and I felt this might be of great interest to you now.  Business is changing rapidly and we need to keep our finger on the pulse of the industry.  The is a compelling post Your Conference Audience Is Dead Velvet Chainsaw | Midcourse Corrections, jhurt@velvetchainsaw.com

It used to be that face to face presentations were one of the most important places people would go to get new, cutting-edge, critical information.

They would pay a conference registration fee, airfare, lodging and expenses to attend a conference just to get that new information.

But that has changed with the click of the mouse.

Information Is Ubiquitous

People no longer need to go to presentations to get information. They can Google it.  Or Bing it.

They can get it from blogs, enewsletters, ezines, Facebook, LinkedIn, online reports, Scribd, Slideshare, Twitter or other websites. The thought that your organization has exclusive content that can not be found elsewhere online is absurd and in denial.

Content is now dispersed across multiple platforms and our engagement with it is more fleeting. Our personal habits now control our flow of information. Our willingness to commit to 60- to 90-minute presentation to get a piece of critical information has decreased.

With the proliferation of information everywhere, audiences look for other things to do at your conference. They look for opportunities to become participants, to collaborate, to network and to share.

Read the rest and the bottom line.

My colleague speaker and marketing consultant Lois Creamer, Book More Business wrote the following How to be a Multi-thousandaire Like Me! I can not stand some of the promotions we see promising Make a Million doing this, that or whatever.  In fact, usually I do not even believe the person promoting the event has ever seen a million, forget making a million.

As for me, I am a multi-thousandaire and happy. Do not get me wrong, I would not mind becoming a millionaire. I am just a realist. Truth is, most speakers and consultants I know are more like me in the money department. That said, I love to hang around with people who are much smarter, richer and funner than me. Funner? Is that even a word? It should be if it is not.  Read the rest of the blog post.

I would like to hear your thoughts on the above.

Very powerful information here.  It is as if they put words in my mouth.  I read this information with great interest as this is exactly the way I have been running my business since 1992.

We market and train experts who want to grow their business and income through speaking.  We never promise that they will get 99 clients in 99 days or make a 7 figure income right off the bat. We start at the very beginning if need be and teach our business folks how to put together a compelling talk that can create lead generation.  When ready we can market them to organizations, companies and associations who want them to speak to their audiences.  We accomplish this through a listing in Speaker Services directory.  Our team can write marketing materials, train your VA’s or assistants how to prospect for gigs for you as well as how to leave a voice message that gets you a call back.

Did you know that we offer a complimentary session on speaker marketing? I will give you content and answer your question and make recommendations as to how we can assist you further.  If you are interested e-mail me susan@speakerservices.com and I will schedule an appointment for you.

Make sure to visit our website http://www.speakerservices.com .

If you are in S. California and you are ready to learn how to master your message and market your message and prospect for speaking engagements then sign up right now for the following $99 event.

See program and registration at: http://www.speakerservices.com/talkupyourbizla

Gain Credibility, Boost Your Visibility And

Get More Clients By Talking Up Your Business

These days, if you are a would-be speaker, a business hotshot, an entrepreneur or a network marketer; if you have a product, service or about-to-be-realized dream; you absolutely need to be speaking about it, do seminars & workshops about… you need a kick-butt website, you need to blog about, to social network about, to get great publicity about and you definitely need to know all the up-to-the-minute marketing tricks!

In short: to truly make a lasting impact, you need to be a media maven: a compelling presenter…a website wizard…a publicity hound…a master marketer.

- FIND the niche that suits your passion and skills and what is uniquely marketable about your mission

- PRODUCE presentations that captivate and attract attention…motivate action and get results

- LEARN marketing secrets and strategies to show you how to attract and reach your ideal clients

- IMPLEMENT the latest technologies: social media, blogging, mobile marketing, video, YouTube to boost your visibility

- MASTER the art of speaking and selling with intention

Talk Up Your Business brings together four state of the art experts in their respective fields:

Susan Levin, Jack Barnard, Ursula Mentjes, Jean-Noel Bassior

Date:  Monday, October 17, 9am-5:30pm, Venice, CA
Investment $99, Seating Limited

See program and registration at:

http://www.speakerservices.com/talkupyourbizla

A Speaker Services Production

See you at Talk Up Your Business LA

Susan Levin
Speaker Services
susan@speakerservices.com

The following post is from Speaker Services team member Jack Barnard. jackp.barnard@verizon.net

Jack says “it’s important to get your information and structure together but you can have perfect form and still not hook the audience. What makes your information come alive is what will be covered in Mesmerize Your Audience the workshop.  Openings, closings, storytelling, humor, involvers (exercises and processes) — the sizzle that really helps audiences keep their excitement levels high.” This post is focused on one of those elements humor.

“We’ll now take a ten minute break. Those of you who are asleep
can wake up. And those of you who remained awake can take a nap.”
From Current Comedy Newsletter

Of all the sweeteners, humor is the sweetest. We all love to laugh. Humor relaxes the audience, breaks the tension of digesting the material and creates an opening. The audience opens up their bellies for you to put the gift in. An added bonus of including humor in your talk is that listeners make an unconscious assumption that you must have great command of your topic if you also know how to make it fun and funny. In speeches and presentation, humor looks like lacing your points with stories and anecdotes, including jokes, playing with the audience, laughing.

The Point of Humor…Humor can be part of every presentation.
1) The main value of humor is it’s softening effect. It loosens up the audience so your gift (message) can be more deeply embedded. Here’s another way of saying it: Humor is a digestaid, it allows your audience to open up and assimilate your more challenging points. (And let me add, if you’re not bringing us material that is a bit challenging, you’re not much of a sherpa.)

2) It gives the audience a psychic and emotional break. Especially if you’ve been pounding home your message, a little humor allows the audience to regenerate their focus.

3) It lends credibility to your presentation. An audience subconsciously assumes that you must really know your stuff if you’re able to lighten the load with a touch of humor.

“Pardon me, I don’t tell jokes!”
18 out of the 20 people in just about any class I’ve taught

Most people don’t think they can tell jokes. Of course, there is a big difference between jokes and humor. Jokes are meant to make you laugh. Humor is meant to make you laugh and reflect. Generally, humor — especially as used in presentation — is more believable and illustrates a point.

“It’s great to be among friends — pity none of them are here.”
Max Hitchins

Now, I know that everyone has a sense of humor buried in there somewhere. Bringing that humor out is part of the work I do. It takes a little trust to tickle the funnybone. Humor relies on timing and confidence.  You’re funny if you think you’re funny and if you stay committed to your unique style and viewpoint. In any case, jokes are just a small part of humor. Even if you can’t tell jokes, even if you have difficulty relating humorous stories, you can have fun. you can have fun!

And if you have fun, we have fun. Lightheartedness fills the space. That’s 3/4 of it. If you have fun, we have fun. Not everyone is a great storyteller (although you’d better learn to tell stories if you want to create lasting impact), you don’t need to deliver a fabulous punchline, you might not have a knack for creating an improvisational environment. But, if you have fun — it offers the same result as being funny — and everything important pretty much takes care of itself.

“As far as impact is concerned,
being funny and having fun is the same

Jack Barnard is a writer, speaker, performer and group leader. His eclectic background blends business, human potential facilitation and artistic expression. He is the developer of SourceWork, a playful technique of dynamic expression; a mixing of the ceremonial, the theatrical and the mysterious. Jack has facilitated hundreds of SourceWork events in both the US and Europe.

Jack works with speakers and would-be speakers one-on-one and in workshops. His technique emphasizes the specialness of the individual, focusing on the permission to bring forth one’s unique expression and style. Jack is the author of We Get our Cue from You: The Communion Approach to Public Speaking, and Presentations.

Join us in for Mesmerize your Audience Workshop, 11/12/11 in Los Angeles, lmtd to 10 peeps

Read more and register, $125

Resource: CD or mp3- 2 hours, Mesmerize Your Audience, $25

Order and learn more

Speakers, Authors, Consultants, Coaches,
Experts, Entrepreneurs, CEO’s

Gain Credibility, Boost Your Visibility And
Get More Clients By Talking Up Your Business

These days, if you’re a would-be speaker, a business hotshot, an entrepreneur or a network marketer; if you have a product, service or about-to-be-realized dream; you absolutely need to be speaking about it, do seminars & workshops about… you need a kick-butt website, you need to blog about, to social network about, to get great publicity about — and you definitely need to know all the up-to-the-minute marketing tricks!

In short: to truly make a lasting impact, you need to be a media maven: a compelling presenter…a website wizard…a publicity hound…a master marketer.

• FIND the niche that suits your passion and skills — and what’s uniquely marketable about your mission
• PRODUCE presentations that captivate and attract attention…motivate action and get results
• LEARN marketing secrets and strategies to show you how to attract and reach your ideal clients
• IMPLEMENT the latest technologies: social media, blogging, mobile marketing, video, YouTube to boost your visibility
• MASTER the art of speaking and selling with intention

Talk Up Your Business brings together four state of the art experts in their respective fields:

Susan Levin, Jack Barnard, Ursula Mentjes, Jean-Noel Bassior

Date:  Monday, October 17, 9am-6pm, Venice, CA
Investment $99, Seating Limited

See program and registration at
http://www.speakerservices.com/talkupyourbizla

A Speaker Services Production

This post comes from my colleague Wendy Scharfman’s blog,
Coaching For Effective Communication

www.wendyscharfman.com
E-mail: wendy@wendyscharfman.com

Susan note: You know that speaking is the number one fear over death for some peeps?  Wendy offers some great tips for overcoming the “dread”.  Great point she makes- Connection is the fear conversion factor. Are you connecting?

I get emails all the time asking what to do with the green-eyed monster of fear when speaking in public. I decided it was time for a pep talk. We could all use one now and again. Consider this the locker room rally before the game.

First and foremost, your audience, whoever they are, is NOT the enemy. I repeat, those people sitting out there watching you are NOT the enemy.  Believe it or not, they WANT you to give them great information, to inspire them and, yes, even make them laugh a little.  And though this may seem daunting, at least you can remind yourself they are on your team.

Secondly, and this is where you give yourself a good talking to, you are there because you have something of value to impart, and the folks out there listening to you are invested in hearing it for a variety of reasons. This is a GOOD thing. With me so far?

Thirdly, the more you are enthusiastic, prepared and concise about what you have to say, the more the audience LIKES hearing it. There is a perfect, symbiotic correlation. Pay attention. As a result of your being enthused, prepared and concise, you become more confident. This, in turn, makes the audience relax and enjoy you even more. How about that!

Notice I haven’t mentioned the word “fear” until now. The “fear” you anticipate when you have to speak in public, that little diabolical voice in your head that causes panic, an inability to salivate, and your sweat glands to work overtime is… (Drum roll)…. mere ENERGY.  And the trick is to convert fear-based energy into a positive anticipatory energy, which in turn becomes a powerful energy of well being that is the direct result of your sharing great information with your audience. How do you actually make this conversion, you ask?

Here’s a few suggestions:

- Don’t feed your doubt, feed your imagination and your desire to share valuable information.

- Before you speak, dedicate this speech to someone you really care about. Do it for them. And mean it.

- Don’t open your mouth until you know exactly what you’re going to say and pace yourself as you go (slow down!!!) so that the content comes easily and “trippingly off the tongue”.

- Structure your speech or interview with only 1 or 2 major talking points and have the rest of your material support those points. An audience retains much less information than we always want to provide. Less is more. Keep that in mind.

- Be sure to add some universal humor. We all love to laugh at life and you will have succeeded in winning over most of the crowd. That will definitely help to relax you. Find a smiling face out in the crowd and say the next sentence to them.  As you proceed, continue to make eye contact with other attentive faces and share a full thought with them. Trust me, it makes them feel included, which will make them trust you.

- Fill your speech with concise, valuable content, interesting visuals (NOT power point with too many words in small fonts!!!), quotations, surprising statistics, analogies and one good short story that ties to your talking point. Make sure you have an emotional investment in your material. The audience will viscerally respond if the content of your talk matters to you. “Never lose your capacity for enthusiasm.” Gordon Dean said that.

- Record yourself if you can and get feedback from colleagues or friends on your delivery techniques. Then record it again.

- Have a unique beginning and a smashing close. Don’t dissipate the energy with a weak ending. Start by surprising us, or ask us a good question and you will suddenly see how we feel connected to you. Connection is the fear conversion factor. Once you know the audience is with you, the fear just melts away.

Oh, and don’t forget to breathe and drink some water.  It prevents cottonmouth.

Wendy Scharfman is a professional speaker, communication coach and trainer. She is the founder of Coaching for Effective Communication, a business she created to help her clients become dynamic, confident speakers who can inspire action by delivering a message that matters. Wendy specializes in Leadership Training and Team Building, Public Speaking Competencies, Message Refinement and Media Training.

Wendy Scharfman a social media friend and communication coach interviewed me for her blog News from Coaching For Effective Communication .  I thought you might be interested in reading the interview and the post from her blog.

GROW YOUR BUSINESS OR PROMOTE YOUR BOOK THROUGH SPEAKING

Wendy Scharfman
Coaching For Effective Communication
www.wendyscharfman.com
Take it away Wendy,

This week I want to focus on the ever-increasing necessity for professionals and authors to grow their business through speaking in public.

I had a radio interview with Bill Frank last week for KKZZ talk radio in Ventura, CA http://dld.bz/rq2K and one of the things we discussed was the importance of honing your speaking skills for whatever message or product you are providing. If you are not the BEST representative of what you do, the world will not embrace and engage with what you have to offer. It’s seemingly obvious, but often not the case. Taking the time to work with a coach, trainer or even a partner on refining your message for any speech or material you put out there will come back to you tenfold. And then, get some help getting out on the trail.

Susan Levin, owner and founder of Speaker Services (http://www.speakerservices.com/) put this notion to work. I came across Susan several times as I was building my business and I believe “Attention must be paid” to the seeming coincidence of someone repeatedly appearing in your life. She offers great services, training and a wealth of information for people who want to market themselves as speakers.

INTERVIEW:

Wendy’s Question:

Susan, can you briefly tell me what led you to start your business and how has it changed since its inception?

Susan’s Answer:
In 1992 I was inspired to work with business folks and give them the opportunity to market themselves as speakers. We began with a print directory in Los Angeles, which was mailed to event producers, meeting planners and was distributed on newsstands around town. In 1994 the Internet came to life and I was one of the first 1500 people to have a url and a website. We continued with the print till 1998 and then went full boar on the web as many more people were using it as a resource.

The web took Speaker Services from being a local business to worldwide – we have clients all over the country and in Europe as well. With the influx of social media, it has become very easy to connect with more people and grow my business. Connection is the key. It spans from a 30 second introduction, 10 minute talk to a keynote presentation, to blogging, lead generation, social media, creating videos, job interviews and workshops. The whole enchilada. I love connectivity!

Wendy’s Question:

What do you think are the most important factors in becoming a better speaker?

Susan’s Answers:
• Don’t be a speaker, be an expert who speaks.
• Be passionate about your subject matter. When you are on fire, others catch on fire.
• Know your target audience.
• Get a presentation, media and branding coach.
• Make sure you have The 3 C’s or the Holy Triad in your presentation Connection, Content and Comfort
• Be a great storyteller and get the audience involved.
• Create videos so that event planners can see you in action.

Wendy’s Question:

How does social media come into play in terms of the services you provide and promoting your own business?

Susan’s Answer:
Social Media is awesome. I promote my services and speakers via social media and teach them too how to join groups so that they can begin to create joint ventures, visibility and credibility. I prefer social media to networking meetings in person. Once you find your tribe it is totally acceptable to arrange a meeting to learn more about how you can support one another. Wendy, you and I met via social media and started a conversation and here I am writing a post for your blog!

Wendy’s Question:

Talk a bit about the various classes and teleseminars Speaker Services offers.

Susan’s Answer:
• I teach a workshop in Los Angeles called Market Yourself as a Speaker, which is about the business of speaking. I also work with folks privately. http://www.speakerservices.com/services/marketyourself.html

• Barbara Niven and I teach Web Video & Marketing Workshop, YOU ON CAMERA http://www.speakerservices.com/web-video-workshop.html

• Once a year we offer a Video Demo Showcase & Authors Video http://www.speakerservices.com/videoprod.html

• I have been offering teleclasses way before they were even popular.

• We have a membership club The Speakers’ Community where I interview experts twice a month on speaking, marketing, books, social media and more. http://www.speakerscommunity.com . It is an online library and it is 60 days complimentary.

Wendy’s Question:

If you were starting out as a professional speaker, what would be the most important sequence of actions that you would take to succeed?

Susan’s Answers:
• Get a coach
• Get focused
• Speak for Free
• Attend events, listen to teleclasses, join speaker groups or start your own on Facebook, LinkedIn
• Learn the business of speaking and get all your marketing materials together including video
• Build a following; stay out in front of your peeps via regular e-mails and social media

Wendy’s Question:

What transformation do you see in your class participants after they have completed the training for their speaking videos?

Susan’s Answer:
They jump to the next level of professionalism, begin to get paid for speaking and they are more visible.

Los Angeles friends join Speaker Services on 9/26/10 complimentary YOU the Star, Speak, Write, Market event. http://t.co/GPunWDY

If you would like to sign up for Wendy’s blog please visit: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001Vjt3cCjZco_UHnxe90vk-g%3D%3D

Invite from Susan Levin

COMPLIMENTARY

YOU…THE STAR!!! SPEAK-WRITE-MARKET MINI SUMMIT & VIDEO DEMO SHOWCASE In Los Angeles

Sunday, Sept.26, 9:30am-5pm   $FREE  Register Now

In this day and age, to truly make a lasting impact, you need to be a media conglomerate: a compelling speaker…a credible author…a believable video performer…a master marketer.

In “YOU…THE STAR!!!” you will learn — from acknowledged experts in their respective fields — the ins and outs, the secrets and strategies for being a multi-faceted media personality.

Regardless of profession, everyone is an expert in their field and this event is a perfect opportunity to turn your expertise into a successful business; to master the game of speaking, to navigate the latest technology, and learn exciting new strategies for producing active and passive income.

THE PROMISE OF “YOU…THE STAR!!!”

- EARN why the magic of speaking is invisible

- POLISH your performance, presentation and communication skills, no matter what field you are in

- TRICKS to sharing your passion & excitement that translate into action and sales

- WITNESS a live video demo shoot

- DISCOVER why a speaker video demo is the ultimate calling card

- GET the #1 secret so you can “play” on camera – it’s the magic secret sauce that brings you $$S!

- LEVERAGE videos into your marketing campaign and convert visitors into customers

- EXPLORE self-publishing vs mainstream publishing

- CREATE time to write your book

- TURN your content into cash

- FIND out how event producers decide who gets booked

- UNCOVER what’s uniquely marketable about you and your mission

- MASTER Social Media, Blogs, Article Writing, Teleseminars, UTube

PRESENTERS:
Jack Barnard is a master presentation & branding coach, a media trainer & writer: a true maverick in the business. He works with speakers, authors & entrepreneurs, both one-on-one and in groups. His original method emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual, focusing on the permission to bring forth one’s distinctive style.

Susan Levin is owner & founder of Speaker Services. Susan is an International Marketing Consultant for speakers & authors. Her company offers marketing & training services & video production service.

Jean-Noel Bassior is a book coach & journalist who specializes in celebrity interviews. She is the author of Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television published by McFarland.

Barbara Niven is an Actress, Speaker and Performance Coach.  Barbara is in demand as a Performance Coach for actors, hosts, speakers & executives. In her studio she videotapes sessions for instant replay & feedback.

Location:  Marina del Rey, 9:30am-5pm

When you register you will receive the address and location.

REGISTER NOW

Have a Presence

The first step in becoming a paid speaker is to position yourself so that you can provide value. Your product is what you say, so if you communicate intelligent things online you are on the right track. Twitter, blogs, online video and podcasts are great platforms to express your message to the world. This gives potential clients an excellent place to get a free sneak preview of what you can provide. Video works great because the audience actually feels like they get to know you.

Your website should say exactly what you stand for and what you can provide for an audience, it should scream “John Jantsch is awesome!” but not “I am so awesome! I’m god’s greatest gift to earth!” Nobody likes someone who over hypes him/herself. The proof is in the pudding, so let your work speak for itself; that’s why content in the form of text, video or audio works so well.

It is incredible how many referrals you can attract by simply having a presence. Online, all people need to do is make a quick introduction on Twitter and potential clients will start checking out your content. Referrals are so powerful because they are often done by trusted friends–when a friend directs someone to quality content of yours, it doubles the impact.

Build your Bio

Your bio should solidify your credibility. If it’s not up to par yet, check out these 59 Ways to Grow Your Credibility. Bio’s need to be short and to the point. Often times they are read for your introduction so don’t just rattle off all your fancy degrees and awards, make it sound like you are a real person. Adding humor is a major bonus, as most intros are incredibly bland and boring. Your bio is just as important as a resume and if you aren’t comfortable writing your own bio, have a friend write it for you.

Adding in your biggest press mentions is critical in growing that credibility. As soon as your potential client or audience hears “Whoa he’s been in BusinessWeek?”, they start to pay attention.

Have a Speaking Tab on your website

Here is where your bio, headshot, testimonials, speaking resume, highlight reel and description of your value driven talk go. This should be very obviously placed on your site and linked with your about page. Now, when people find your site and want to learn more about you, they’ll automatically know you are a speaker and learn more than they ever wanted to know about you.

Don’t forget to include your email address or booking agent’s contact information so they can get in contact with you.

Often times referrals in the speaking industry come from people who say “I just heard John Janstch speak, he was awesome”. They might not actually know John well enough to put you in contact with him, so you’ll have to be found on Google. Reaching your homepage or your speaking tab is what will get the referral in the door. You might not ever hear where the referral was generated, so make sure you make it as easy as possible for them to find you.

Have a hook

If you ever wanted to get paid to speak again, you’ll need to have a point to your talk. Reel them in early with some thought provoking ideas, maybe a joke or exercise to get everyone involved. Your first minute of your talk is where the audience passes judgment so get them on your team early and let them know what they are going to get out of your performance because they are probably already wondering “why am I here.”

Your talk should do two things: 1. Teach the audience something 2. Tell your story in a way your audience can relate.

How do conversations spark in the world of speaking referrals? “Matt Wilson used this awesome example about G-String businesses 2 minutes into his talk.” If people don’t remember what you talked about it, they won’t spread the word for you. Have something that hooks them in and keeps them thinking about it days after the talk. The 1-2 week period is when most word of mouth referrals will happen.

Start Small

Don’t expect to get paid right off the bat if you’ve never spoken anywhere before, so start off small. Local high schools, colleges and organizations are always looking for some inspiration. Call them and get your foot in the door. Search meetup.com and call the president of these groups, they are always looking for a way to fill meetings. If you have something to teach others, schedule a seminar with a local library or chamber of commerce. Not only is it a great way to build your resume, but it’s also a fantastic way to network. Have plenty of business cards on hand.

It is in your community where you are going to start to form relationships that lead to referrals. Small business referrals start by having your go-to accountant, lawyer, real estate broker, etc. and drive them business. If they saw you speak at the Chamber of Commerce, why wouldn’t they want to bring you in to the local Toastmasters group?

Ask to get paid

Josh Shipp of HeyJosh.com says, “How did I make the leap from non-paid to paid? Watch: I asked to be paid. At first $500. Then $1,000. Then $2,500. Now $5,000.
If you’re good at what you do, you’ll find the more you charge the more demand you’re in and the better clients you’ll get. You get what you charge for.”

Referrals come by truly helping other people. If you deliver on content, inspire them and give them value to take home, then people will not only be happy to pay you, but happy to refer you to others.

Build Testimonials

Your speaking resume, should include links to any press from the event. This provides instant credibility to say you rocked out on the big stage. Testimonials are literally referrals in written or video form. They are recommendations that you can use anywhere. When you put them online they have the power for millions to view which grows trust with every one of your potential clients.

Collect videos from your talks as people are walking out or come up to you after and favorite every nice thing people say about me on Twitter and link it up!

Creating a highlight reel builds both social proof and your expertise, by showing a mix of positive reactions in a live setting and clips of you on stage. The people who speak positively are literally making their referral to the whole world.

Have an Agent or Bureau

If you are looking for more speaker referrals, it helps if you are paying someone a referral fee to connect you with more engagements. Bureaus and agents typically work on a percentage basis of everything they book for you, leaving very little risk or upfront investment on your part. These are the people with connections to shop you around, so why not give them a referral fee?

Start Hustling

Want to do it on your own? It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get people to refer you. Start asking people who compliment you who they know; these people often know tons of people in their industry that would also benefit from hearing your talk. Ask them who they know and be upfront about it. You just helped them by delivering massive value with a great performance and you are looking to help more people in your niche. If they refer you to someone else and you are a rock star, it’ll be huge benefit to them too!

Referrals all come down to over delivering with your service and wow-ing your audience enough to start some chatter. Word of mouth really works!

Matt Wilson is co-founder of Under30CEO.com urging people to drop the 9-5 and get passionate about something. Follow him on Twitter  @MattWilsontv as the Gen-Y spokesperson looking to help every young entrepreneur on the planet.

by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

In the speaking world, the media stars are the keynote speakers. A lot of seminar leaders and trainers ask me how they can adapt their material to this intense, high-profile, and often lucrative specialty.

“The keynote speech comes from the discipline of show business. The seminar comes from the discipline of teaching.”
—Bill Gove, First President of the National Speakers Association

“With a keynote speech, the presenter is the star. With seminars, the leader needs to make the audience members the star.”
—Don Thoren, Past President National Speakers Association and Long-time Seminar Leader

To understand the big difference between keynotes and seminars, start by appreciating the unique characteristics of each. “Conversations occur in both keynotes and seminars,” explains Fripp Associate, Dr. David Palmer, Silicon Valley management guru, seminar leader on negotiations, and professor in the MBA program at Santa Clara University. “In a seminar, attendees learn more when you get them to do most of the talking. Your role is to set up the situations and guide them, letting them teach each other. But with a keynote speech you are presenting a conversation between you and each member of the audience. They are talking back to you in their own heads. During your speech, ask questions, then pause while the audience members think about what you have said.”

You need to understand how they are likely to answer. Set up a conversation between your voice and their heads and hearts. This is why a good keynote speech has rich and well-developed stories. Stories take people on a journey in their head. The stories are from your experience, and your audience relives them from their own perspective. The amount of learning is not going to be as deep as in a seminar, but the result of a good keynote can still be very profound. When well done, both keynotes and seminars can sell other services.

What are the differences?

Keynote speeches are much shorter than seminars. Therefore, you have far less time to get to the point and have an impact.

• Client expectations increase with fee and size of audience.
• The performance aspect has to be more refined. You may be IMAGed, so you can’t pace around. It’s like the difference between movie acting and stage acting.
• Audiences are considerably larger. If you are accustomed to speaking to twenty to fifty people, facing thousands can be daunting.
• When done superbly, a keynote speech looks easy. That’s why so many think, “Gee, I could do that.” Don’t be fooled!

How do I condense my material?

As a seminar leader, you might think, “I can’t say anything in only an hour!” Get over it! If you can’t say anything worth listening to in five minutes, you do not deserve an hour, let alone a two-day seminar. (And even when you are booked for an hour keynote, there is a good chance your time will be cut!) Here’s how to condense your material.

1. Start with the key subject of your training.

2. Define your premise or central theme (as briefly as possible).

3. Write it in a way that will encourage the audience to be asking how or why.

4. Make their mental questions and your answers your talking points.

5. Support each talking point with vivid stories and examples.

6. Conclude with a recommendation or call for some sort of action.

You can then adapt your material for different audiences. For example:

Your subject: Speaking Skills.

Your title: How to Design and Deliver More Charismatic Sermons.

Your audience: Seventh-day Adventist pastors.

Your premise: “Every Seventh-day Adventist pastor can deliver even more charismatic sermons.”

Audience asks themselves: “How?”

Your answer: “By better understanding and implementing three necessary ingredients in every talk or sermon.”

Audience asks themselves: “What are they?”

Your answer: “Structure, content, and delivery…Your content needs to connect with your audience two ways.”

Audience asks themselves: “What are they?”

Your answer: “Intellectual and emotional…There are three ways to connect emotionally.”

Audience asks themselves: “What are they?”

Can you see what my colleague David Palmer means about creating questions in the audience’s mind and then answering them?

Some Other Tips:

Use stories. Help your audience to connect with characters that make your points accurately and memorable. In a keynote, these stories have to be condensed to the nub. Cut out all waffle and fluff.

Use dialogue. Make the audience feel as if they are there as part of the situation you are talking about.

Create an intimate bond by speaking to the group as one person: “Do YOU think…?” Everyone feels you are talking directly to them.

Rehearse, don’t read. A keynote requires a great deal of practice. It’s okay to have a few notes, but never work from a handout or workbook as you might have in your seminar.

Start with high impact. Never do “housekeeping details” at the beginning.

Close on a high note so you’ll be remembered.

Become more successful in the Speaking, Consulting, and Coaching business. Learn how to promote in an ongoing, consistent, and relentless way. Through a combination of high-tech, low-tech, no-tech methods…from a professional who does them all! Want to learn from someone who has actually done it? This is your opportunity… Learn more about How to Build a Profitable Speaking and Consulting Business.

Patricia Fripp, is an executive speech coach, sales presentation skills expert, and Hall of Fame keynote speaker. She is a Past President of the National Speakers Association.

Improve your presentations and learn how to successfully market your professional speaking business with Patricia Fripp’s CDs, DVDs, books, and digital downloads.

Check out Fripp’s calendar of events for professional speakers.

Take advantage of Fripp’s The Executive Speech Coach blog and learn more about speaking professionally.

Subscribe to SpeakerFrippNews enewsletter on public speaking; it’s free – and it’s easy to unsubscribe if you change your mind.

Join the World Champions’ Edge speech coaching community.

SPEAKERS COMMUNITY Teleclasses

Teleclasses FREE for Speakers’ Community Members , 60 days complimentary www.speakerscommunity.com

Oct 14   Make Money in Your Jammies, Rebecca Morgan 

Oct 29   Market Your Book Beyond the Platform, Shel Horowitz

Nov 12  Put Your Best Book Forward, Ellen Reid

Nov 30  Profit as a Speaker by Becoming a Radio Talk Show Host, Martin Wales

______________

Los Angeles WORKSHOPS

Oct 24  

Social Media Marketing: The New Frontier Workshop, Susan Levin

______

Oct 26 or Nov 23

Market Yourself as a Speaker Workshop, Susan Levin

______

Nov 1, Costa Mesa

Connect with Reporters who want to Hear Your Message:  Tips for Pitch Letters, Jean-Noel Bassior & Susan Levin

______

Nov 8 

Three camera video demo showcase

______

Nov 11-15

Speakers’ Bootcamp, Jack Barnard & Susan Levin

______

Nov 20-22

Oscar Level Presentations & Video Workshop, Barbara Niven, Jack Barnard & Susan Levin, call for details

______

 See all workshops www.speakerservices.com

Susan Levin, 310-822-4922  PST

susan@speakerservices.com

Yesterday was a total nightmare with my e mail account.  Sincerest apologies if you received three e-mails from me.  It was only supposed to be one.  There were a few items I forgot to mention and I also want to give you a few speaking leads as a consultation.

Okay here we go…

Complimentary teleclass Monday, Oct 5, 4-5pm PST

Q & A Speakers’ Bootcamp

How many times has someone in your life said to you, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”?  Most of us have heard that. We have all worked with very accomplished, well-educated people who are absolutely brilliant in their field, but when they spoke, they almost put us to sleep.

- How many of us have listened to an individual who was charismatic, compelling, and attractive and then when it was all done, you ask yourself, “What did they just say?” or you don’t remember a thing they said. It was all show with no substance. To get on the road to more effective speaking, you must master what you say AND how you say it.

Get your questions answered regarding the semi annual Speakers’ Bootcamp by master branding, media and presentation coach Jack Barnard and Marketing coach and owner of Speaker Services, Susan Levin.

Even if you can’t make the teleclass register as we will send you the mp3 following the teleclass for your review.  Register http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses/detail/152

The Bootcamp is November 11-15 in Los Angeles
See web page with more info http://tinyurl.com/49zc8z 

________

Los Angeles, Meet-Up Speak-Up Network Event
Host Speaker Services

Wednesday, 10/7, 4pm-7:30pm   $29  Must register by Monday, Oct 5

http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses/detail/148

Relax and enjoy tasty appetizers in a beautiful setting overlooking Marina Bay as you schmooze with potential clients and learn from the experts
________

In SpeakerNetNews a question was posed:

Business is down for many SNN readers. However, some are saying that this economic downturn has provided opportunities they might not have otherwise explored. Send us one or two of the *best* things you’ve gotten as a result of the recession.

If you would like to respond please send your brief, pithy responses to editor@ SpeakerNetNews.com. Please put “Topic of the Month” or “TOTM” in the subject line.

Here’s one of the responses:

Derrick Hayes

In the Fall of 2008 I felt the effects of the recession with lost speaking engagements. With no budget to hire a publicist to help market my services, I researched and found cost-effective ways to market my business. I signed up for PR services like HARO, Pitch Rate and Blogger Link Up and learned how to market myself to the media to get article placement, radio interviews, quoted for blogs, and promoted in gift bags. I have taken what I have learned in the last 12 months and turned it into a workshop on social media.

Note: On Nov 1 Speaker Services is offering a workshop in Costa Mesa so that you can learn how to- Connect with Reporters who want to Hear Your Message:  Tips for Pitch Letters  http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses and we also have a Media List & Pitch Letter/Press Release Service click here to learn more. 

This is the most complete, up-to-date list of media in TV, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine and online media outlets. You get complete information, including name, email, phone, fax, street address, preferred contact method, website, circulation, topics covered and personal notes to help you target the media and built rapport to get results.
_________

Request for Stories for Empowerment Book for Teens
TEENS–we want to hear from you. Make a difference and submit your true experience/story or original poem for Lila Reyna’s upcoming Empowerment book at www.lilareyna.com. Examples of topics are cyber bullying, date rape, emotions, positive attitudes, and sexual assault. Your story can pass on prevention and may possess the power to heal another teen that has survived a trying time. Submissions are automatically entered in a $100 drawing. www.lilareyna.com

Lila is a Safety Awareness trainer teaches you to be your own bodyguard and increase external − and internal − awareness. She speaks about Body-Mind, Domestic Violence, Safety/Self-Protection, Self Empowerment

See her speaker listing http://www.speakerservices.com/speakers/detail/349
________

SPEAKING LEADS

ACRL/LLAMA Spring Virtual Institute
“Doing Well by Doing Good”:
Entrepreneurial Leadership for Librarians
April 21-22, 2010
http://www.ala.org/ala//mgrps/divs/acrl/events/ALA_print_layout_1_430652_430652.cfm

_____

National Speakers Assoc Convention, Orlando, Fl. 7/17/10

http://www.nsaspeaker.org/Home/ProposaltoPresent.aspx
________

Social Media Marketing: The New Frontier Workshop,
Susan Levin

Saturday, October 24, 1-5pm, Marina del Rey

Marketing on social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter can help increase the size of your email list and grow your business. The key to success is making sure that members of your target market are in your network.

- Build your business with social networking and increase your online visibility
- Develop a social media strategy presence across the key social media platforms
- Leverage and create content, connection, and community
- Explore why it’s never about the sale, it’s always about the relationship
- Produce and distribute content that can be shared and extends the voice of your brand, product and company
- Explore how articles writing, blogs, utube can create brand awareness and buzz

Learn more http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses/detail/151

Blog compilation posts on Social Networking/Marketing
http://tinyurl.com/ybxatfu

Post from Vickie K. Sullivan from RainToday

By now, it’s old news. Experts know that speaking at conferences and conventions builds a platform of credibility, visibility and “brandability.”

The Assumption: That giving a great speech to the right audience will automatically ensure a steady stream of clients.

The Reality: Getting applause and getting clients are very different things.

Getting applause doesn’t mean that you’ll get clients. There’s a difference between an attendee thinking “Oh, what a nice speech” and “We have to GOT to bring them into our organization!”

The above distinction begs a few key questions: Why do so many great speeches not generate more clients? Is speaking just for “brand-building? Is it impossible to get clients without “pitching from the podium”?

Many experts have given up on speaking as a lead-generating tool. They either resign themselves to speak only to develop credibility or use the “speaking can’t generate clients” argument to demand speaking fees (which they can’t get for the reasons listed below). The issue isn’t about realistic expectations – speaking will give you whatever you want. It’s very possible (and lucrative) to get clients without pitching.

The problem is focus. We pay so much attention to giving a great speech that we don’t see the speech for what it really is: a focal point for other outcomes. Below are three of the most common ways experts shoot themselves in the foot every time they open their mouths.

MISTAKE #1: OVERSTATED CONTENT

Why is speaking such an effective lead-generating tool? Because it allows experts the opportunity to differentiate their work from their colleagues and competitors.

Even better: This differentiation occurs in a high trust environment. The audience assumes the expert is a credible source of information even before a word is ever spoken. That assumption makes audiences more receptive to the idea that this credible person can help them individually. (Unlike the typical sales situation, where credibility is not assumed and the “audience” can be more skeptical.)

So what do many experts do? They blow this great opportunity by providing content that is a mile wide and an inch deep. They provide a large laundry list of ideas that don’t question current thinking, that don’t give the audience a fresh perspective complete with quotes from other authors of best-selling books. Result: the audience is not attracted to “think” with you. There is no reason to remember you after the applause dies down. It’s off to the next concurrent session…or lunch.

Key Strategy: Narrow Your Focus, Broaden Your Appeal.

Experts who try to be everything to everybody will attract no one. Instead of cramming three days of content into one hour, create immediate attraction with an overall “manifesto” that sets up a specific point of view. Then follow up with specific insights that can be applied in many situations.

Example: Instead of listing 25 solutions on stress management, create a “grace under pressure” manifesto with specific insights on reframing situations.

MISTAKE #2: LACKLUSTER PERFORMANCE

Especially in the conference and convention market, good speaking skills are expected. Even “free” speakers are expected to be entertaining (or at least not boring)! What separates experts now: the signature style™, a way of communicating that sets you apart from other speakers. Again, potential clients are looking for the “fit.” Speaking allows attendees to not only check out your point of view, it also helps potential clients make decisions about the experience of working with you. Your style conveys what kind of experience they could have.

How you illustrate your points is the best venue to show your style. Do you use stories? Metaphors? Examples? Does your humor let the audience know that you take your work, but not yourself, seriously? A pro uses all of the tools in the toolbox. Tell-tale signs of an amateur communicator: your stories ramble and are “slow.” Your explanations go from explaining to “preaching and teaching.” Your choice of stories focuses on you, crossing the line between confidence and arrogance. And humor is no where to be found.

Key Strategy: Stories Are Strategic.

Avoid the “how great I am” angle; make the client or other party the “star.” Better yet, make yourself the butt of the joke. Cut the details down to only what’s relevant; this will make room for your natural humor to shine through. Use a metaphor instead of a story if you have to explain the point after making it. Metaphors create instant word pictures and don’t take up as much time as stories.

MISTAKE #3: NOT ENOUGH LEVERAGE

Speaking is like any other tool — its effectiveness depends on how you use it. Many experts use speaking in a vacuum, thinking that every speech will create clients.

The Reality: Not all audiences are created equal. Program planners are depending more and more on experts who are willing to waive any speaking fees. Therefore, the case for “good exposure” is being bandied about in every conversation. It is up to the expert to decide when to accept and when to decline a speaking opportunity.

Another reality check: a qualified audience doesn’t guarantee sales. Experts who have a systematic approach to interact with that audience before and after the speech have a better chance of getting clients. Why?

Because attendees are not focused on “shopping” for additional help during the speech. They are focused on getting take-away value. Give the insights and show your credibility during the speech, and the attendee will give you permission to continue the conversation. Or better yet, permission to take a “baby step,” a low risk service or product that will show direct application of your work to the client’s problem.

Key Strategy: Don’t Assume That Every Speaking Opportunity Is A Good One.

Make sure that the demographics are in your favor and that you have access to the group before and after the speech. Springboard beyond this one-time exposure by offering something customized to the audience in exchange for business cards/email addresses. For the more serious “but not yet ready” folks: create a low-risk “trial” that will allow the prospect to see a direct application of your work. Make sure you don’t pitch your services during this session!

Example: A low fee, one-time only coaching or consulting session.

A CLIENT-GENERATING TOOLBOX

Given the above obstacles, is there light at the end of the tunnel? Good news: there are many tools at our disposal that will attract and convert clients from every speech. Below are three outcomes you need to attract clients and the tools you have to overcome the odds.

The first outcome is to generate initial interest. You want to attract by curiosity. Your intelligent distinctions and rhetorical questions alert the audience to the value of thinking with you. The tools at your disposal: an introduction that lists specific outcomes from your work; an opening story or statement that reflects your manifesto; and the nuggets of wisdom in the body of your speech.

The second outcome is to answer the internal questions. There are two questions every audience member has about the speaker. First, the audience wants to know if you work with people like them. Examples and stories about your clients will show attendees that you can work with them, too. Second, participants want to know if you are as good as you appear. Focused content with great distinctions will prove your competence.

The third outcome is the direct application of your expertise. This outcome is the “closer” to many sales. Potential clients must know that your expertise will provide specific solutions to fit their specific need. They may like your stories; they may think you are smart; but without knowing how to use your expertise, many attendees will put off buying from you. Best tools to avoid this pitfall: any interactive exercise or rhetorical questions. And of course, your baby steps provide individual attention to those who are serious.

Public speaking is a very powerful tool. Too many experts sell it short. They blame the “audience” for not buying, or blame the tool itself.

The Bottom Line: The podium is a platform. What happens on that platform drives the outcomes. What happens before and after appearing on that platform drives the outcomes. The outcome is up to the expert, not the audience.

By Sharon Housley

Presentations can be a great way to attract new business, simply by making yourself more well-known. However, nerves can often get in the way of entrepreneurs who want to use speaking opportunities to develop their business. Follow these steps to overcome nerves and make a powerful presentation during your public speaking engagement…

Prepare

In order to conduct a proper presentation, you must prepare well in advance. The more familiar you are with the material being presented, the more at ease you will be when speaking publicly about it. In order to be an effective public speaker, it is very important that you know the material you are speaking about. Preparation goes a long way toward building confidence and calming nerves.

Know Your Audience

Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of public speaking, yet one of the most important to a good presentation, is that the speaker have a clear understanding of who their audience is, and what material they wish to receive. The presentation should be relevant to the audience, and should be presented using a language and terminology they will understand.

Be Understandable

Project your voice, and speak at a volume level that is easy to hear. Test the microphone, and make sure that everyone can hear before beginning. If you are presenting to an International audience, be sure to speak slowly, and articulate your words. Use terminology and phrases that will be easily understood by all. If a subject requires complex terminology, be sure to define any difficult words.

Engage

Bring the audience into the presentation by asking open-ended questions. The topic material should be interesting, and should be presented in such a way that the audience will be engaged in the discussion or material. Consider spicing up the presentation with humor. Use personal stories to engage listeners.

Visuals

The visual presentation should not be lacking. Visual aids should reinforce key elements of a speech or presentation. The imagery should be used to help drive the important points home. If you are using a PowerPoint presentation, do a not make the slides too wordy. Instead, simply highlight key points visually, and use the presentation itself to elaborate. Use line graphics to show trends, and bar graphs for comparisons. Do not simply read the text from the slides word-for-word — use the slides as bullet points that your presentation can then elaborate on.

Consider using PowerPoint Templates to make a professional appearing presentation http://www.ppt-templates.net

Inflections

Speak with emotion in your voice. Use vocal inflections to emphasize important points. A monotone vocal delivery tends to be extremely boring, and will put your audience to sleep very quickly.

Note Cards

Use note cards only as prompts. During your presentation, you should not read from your note cards. Look at the audience and make eye contact while presenting.

Transition

If you are moving from one subject to another, be sure to make a smooth transition from the subject material so that the presentation flows smoothly.

Practice

Practice makes perfect! It is unrealistic to think that you can perform better without practicing your presentation.

Avoid Plugs

Conference attendees typically do not like to be sold to during a presentation. Use your presentation to educate the audience about a specific subject, and do not use the presentation as a way to sell or advertise your product or service.

Close

Always close the presentation with a summary of the items that you discussed.

Keep in mind that the best presentations are often relevant, animated, engaging, and humorous.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

Post by Lisa Sasevich T he Queen of Sales Conversion

When you’re on stage, it’s absolutely critical to keep a level of control in the room. You want to graciously command your audience so that you can get through everything, give what you came to give, serve people at the highest level and get great results.

Here are three places during presentations where it’s especially important to set good boundaries.

1. Taking Questions
You must set boundaries around questions, but first you should ask yourself whether you’re taking any questions at all.

In most cases, I don’t recommend taking questions during introductory sales presentations. However, some people are experts at turning questions into sales opportunities, so they would be the exception.

The problem is, if you don’t know how to use questions to gracefully seed your offerings, answering questions can relieve the tension in the room, and nothing will kill your sales faster.

If you do decide to take questions during your presentations, keep these points in mind.

· Manage your time. Nothing kills your timeline worse than getting on a roll with questions. You have to manage your time. Also, build in more time than you think you will need. If you think ten minutes will be enough, give yourself fifteen.

· Frame the questions. Unless you set up guidelines, people are just going to follow the lead of whatever is going on in the room. When I’m in a teaching scenario, versus a sales scenario, if I open it up to questions, I always make sure to frame the type of questions they should ask.

For instance, I might say, “I can see there are some questions. I’m a little bit ahead of my timeline here. I can take some quick, clarifying questions.” Notice that I don’t say, “What questions do you all have?” I limit the scope.

· If limiting the scope doesn’t work. If you frame the questions and someone still asks something unrelated, try saying, “That’s a great question, but it’s outside the scope of what I’m covering here, and I have so much to give you. Write it down so we can catch that a little bit later.” Or, “That’s outside the scope of what we cover in this class. We do, however, cover that in depth in our XYZ program. I’ll tell you more about how to access that a little later today.”

2. Dealing with “Blurters”
If you decide that you aren’t going to answer questions, you may have to set boundaries with “blurters.” That may sound derogatory, but I can say that because I am one. It takes a lot to control myself!

Part of what happens with us “blurters” is that we think of something that seems really important, and we feel that if we don’t interrupt and ask, we’re going to forget. That may be okay with our friends occasionally, but in a room where someone is leading, it’s distracting, not just for the presenter but for the other participants.

You have to find your own graceful way to let the blurters know that what they’re doing doesn’t work for you, them or anybody else. Just be careful; you don’t want to embarrass someone. Rather than calling them out, you can say to the room, “I love how involved you are with this presentation. But I have so much to give, I can’t take any questions or comments. Just stay with me. I’m going somewhere with all of this.”

3. If You Do Partner Sharing Exercises
Many of us were trained that when we see a lot of questions bubbling up, it’s a good time to do a “turn-to-your-partner” type of sharing. There are times to do that, but also times when you definitely should not.

I’ve written before about how there has to be a level of tension built up in the room, enough so that people see how much they need what you’re offering. The beauty and the problem with paired sharing is that it relieves tension.

· DON’T during sales presentations. During a presentation, partner sharing will kill your sales conversion. Participants will feel so good because the tension is gone that they won’t feel the same need to run to the back of the room to get what they had known moments before was absolutely necessary.

· DO during longer trainings. During a two-day training, releasing tension with partner sharing is great; otherwise, they might burst, or worse yet, get so full that they can’t receive any more. So, you fill them up and then give them a chance to release. Then you fill them up some more. Just don’t do it before you’re heading into an upsell. That’s when you need the tension to be there.

The Bottom Line
Boundaries are part of the design of your presentation. They’re your cozy container. And the great thing about cozy containers is that once you make them, you are then free to fly within them, and be your authentic self.

Lisa at the Speakers’ Summit09

Sales-from-the-podium expert Lisa Sasevich has x-ray vision for seeing the sales opportunities that exist in every company, and the creativity to convert them into gold! If you’re looking for simple, quick and easy ways to boost sales without spending a dime, get your FREE Sales Nuggets now at www.theinvisibleclose.com.

Known by many as “The Queen of Sales Conversion,” Lisa Sasevich has x-ray vision for seeing the sales opportunities that exist in every company, and the creativity to convert them into gold!

“I’ve done everything I can think of to get clients,” a desperate self-employed professional wrote me. “I launched a website, I had a brochure designed, I’ve been sending out mailings, and I’ve placed all sorts of ads in print and on the web. But no one is hiring me. What am I doing wrong?”

This unhappy professional has made a common mistake. He has fallen into the trap of believing that spending money on marketing materials, mailings, and ads will somehow produce clients without the direct involvement of the business owner. And he truly believes that this is “everything” he can do.

Corporate Marketing vs. Small Firm Marketing

Perhaps professionals who make this mistake are trying to follow the model of big business. They hide behind a company name, expensive marketing literature, and a website. They spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on ads, directory listings, and tradeshow booths. Far too many self-employed professionals don’t even disclose their own name in their marketing, even when they are operating a one-person company!

But people don’t buy professional services from an anonymous company whose name they don’t even recognize. They either buy them from nationally recognized firms that have spent millions to gain name recognition, or from individual people they have come to know, like, and trust. The more personal—or the more expensive—the service you offer is, the more likely this is to be true.

If you are a financial advisor, career counselor, or life coach, you are asking people to trust you with the most intimate areas of their lives. If you are a web designer, IT consultant, or corporate trainer, you are asking your clients to trust you enough to spend thousands of dollars with you. You don’t earn people’s trust by placing an ad or sending them a brochure.

Independent professionals and small professional services firms simply don’t have the resources to build name recognition and trust by way of high-priced, anonymous approaches like advertising and mass mailings. In fact, the approaches that work best for most professionals to get clients are less expensive—and more personal.

Here are the five best ways for professionals to get clients:

1. Meet prospects or referral sources in person, at events, or by appointment
2. Talk with prospects or referral sources on the phone
3. Send personal emails to prospects who already know you (or mail a personal letter for 42 cents)
4. Follow up personally with prospects over time
5. Speak to groups likely to contain prospects at meetings and conferences

And here are the five things self-employed professionals most often try that don’t result in clients:

1. Placing ads in the Yellow Pages, trade publications, or pay-per-click ads on the web
2. Distributing or posting brochures or flyers around their community
3. Mailing mass-produced letters or brochures to strangers
4. Sending their newsletter or ezine to people who haven’t asked for it
5. Building a website consisting of nothing but promotional copy for people to read

The main difference between these two lists is that the first group of approaches require you to talk to people. The second list consists of anonymous activities that allow you to hide out and never meet the people you are in business to serve.

Sharing Yourself

If you want people to become your clients, they need to get to know you, learn to like you, and believe they can trust you. And for that, they really do need to meet you.

It is understandable why so many business owners gravitate to the least effective marketing tactics—they are so much easier to accomplish! To buy an ad, all you have to do is put up the money. To send a mailing, all you need is a mailing list and postage. It’s much more challenging to go out and meet strangers, or to call people on the phone, or to speak in public.

But the reality is that this is what it takes to get clients. Even if you have the world’s most compelling copy on your website, it’s a rare client who finds their way to your site, reads it, and decides then and there to work with you. The same is true for an ad or a brochure. All these marketing tools are simply that—tools. Just like a pair of pliers, they need a person holding them in order for them to work.

What clients want is to get a sense of who you are as a person. They want to see your face or hear your voice, to get to know you over time. If you don’t have enough confidence in your business to speak to people in person about it, how will they ever have enough confidence in you to hire you?

What you’ll discover if you begin to meet prospects in person, talk to them on the phone, and speak with them directly about how you can help them, is that it gets easier the more you do it. It will build your confidence in yourself—and the confidence your prospective clients have in you—at the same time.

If you’re in the business of serving people, your best marketing tool can be your own voice. So put it to work and start talking to them.

View video testimonials re the Speakers’ Summit http://ping.fm/ZKMtD May 1-3 LA, 18 fab speakers see program http://ping.fm/9QiX5 about 21 hours ago The team at Speaker Services has been working non-stop to organize the best Speakers’ Summit ever.  This is the fifth time we are offer the Summit and it gets better every year.  See the program http://ping.fm/9QiX5

The theme is SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT ’09 – THE PINNACLE
THE TIME HAS COME – May 1, 3 in Los Angeles

It is priced quite reasonably $297 for three days!

This is James Malinchak and me.  James talks about how to land speaking engagements in the college market.

This is Jack Barnard and me-sweet photo! Jack is our master media, branding and presentation coach extraordinaire and he will be talking about the Secret of Speaking and more at the Summit.

SPEAKERS:
Jack Barnard, Jean-Noel Bassior, Alex Carroll, Lisa Cherney, Colin Daymude, Daniel Hall, Linda Hollander, Bill Johnson, Susan Levin, James Malinchak, Nancy Marmolejo  Barbara Niven, Sheryl Roush,  Ellen Reid, Lisa Sasevich, Rob Schultz, Marilyn Snyder, Nancy Solari, Geoff Zimpfer

Regardless of profession, everyone is an expert in their field and Speakers’ Summit ‘09 is the Pinnacle Opportunity to turn that expertise into a successful business; to not only master step-by-step the game of speaking, but to navigate the latest technology, and learn exciting new strategies for producing active and passive income.

 THE PROMISE OF SPEAKERS’ SUMMIT ‘09

√  DESIGN dynamite Power Point presentations
√  MASTER the art of Social Networking  Article Writing,Teleseminars, Webinars and other online marketing tools that make profits
√  LEARN to automate and monetize your business
√  MEGA-MARKET yourself as a speaker
√  ATTRACT a torrent of traffic to your website
√  CRUISE FREE and make bunches of money
√  DEVELOP your material in any time frame
√  DOUBLE speaking fees and triple bookings as a guest on radio shows
√  UNCOVER what’s uniquely marketable about you and your mission
√  GET and attract corporate sponsorship
√  LAND lucrative speaking gigs in the college market
√  DON’T get branded, get command-branded
√  USE high impact customized sales-closing strategies
√  BECOME a great storyteller
√  CREATE dynamic, stand-out one-sheets and brochures.
√  LEARN the difference between self-publishing and mainstream publishing
√  KNOW that the secret of speaking has nothing to do with theme, time, style

I  invite you to view video testimonials re the Speakers’ Summit http://ping.fm/ZKMtD 

The following post is from Graham Moore

Presenting to an audience no matter how small or how large is an important part of the way we do business today. It may be to motivate and influence our team to perform at their best, it may be to pitch for new business, it may be to present proposals to the board, to persuade the customer to buy, it may be simply to convey to others information about a new process or a new idea.

In my work see many presentations and I am so often disappointed by what I see. Almost daily, I see these mistake and it saddens me because I know these people could do so much better.

As a presentation skills coach and trainer, I’ve worked with many people to improve the impact of their presentations. Often there are some simple changes which people – yes, people like you – can make which significantly increase the impact of the presentations.

But let’s look at the biggest mistakes made by people in business when they are presenting.

1. Not being concise

This is what I call the ‘Waffle and Fluff’ syndrome. How often have you been watching a presentation and the presenter takes so much time to get to the point of is topic and or when they do, they add unnecessary and irrelevant material. It is important that you make it clear up front what you are going to talk about then keep to topic, Sure, there are various tools you can use as a presenter to engage your audience but make sure you are clear on what your message is ? and stay on topic. So cut the ‘waffle’ and ‘de-fluff’* the presentation. (*Fluff ? We could also call this ‘filler’- filling out the presentation but not adding any real value.)

2. Not understanding their audiences’ needs.

If you’re going to be presenting to an audience, it’s important that you understand who they are, what is their level of understanding of what you’re talking about, and what do they need from you. Do your research before you present. It’s often a very simple thing to do and will make your task easier and make your presentation a ‘fit’ for the audience.

3. Relying on PowerPoint

We’ve all seen it – the presenter who not only has a lot of material on the PowerPoint presentation (Far too much detail to be read on the screen!) but he or she reads the PowerPoint material as each slide comes up. It’s as if they’ve written their all presentation on PowerPoint and then simply read it to the audience. PowerPoint is an aid to the presentation, it should be used to enhance what you are saying and, by following a few simple rules, can be a very effective enhancement to help convey the message. But when the person reads everything on the slide – or has too much on each slide – they lose the audience’s attention. Nothing will kill your presentation quicker – that’s why it’s called ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

4. Not engaging their audience

Engaging the audience is of important if we want to have any sort of impact. How can you sell, persuade, influence or motivate if you don’t have the audience engaged? Engaging means they will want to listen to you, they will want to take on what you are saying, they will be motivated. If they’re not engaged, they are just sitting there waiting for you to finish. So how do we engage our audience? Well, there are a number of ways – and they’re easy to do.

Three of the ways are 1. Being concise (See above) 2. Understanding your audience (see above again) and 3. Effective use of PowerPoint.

Even by simply looking at each person, you will increase the level of engagement. But there are other ways – and they’re not hard to incorporate in your presentations.

5. No call to action

The purpose of any business presentation, indeed any presentation at all, even if it’s to the Mother’s Group or the PTA, has a purpose. You have an objective in making that presentation. You may want them to buy your product, accept your proposal, take on and act on the new information or be inspired and motivated to change their behavior. Many presentations end with what can only be called a ‘whimper’. It’s as if the person making the presentation is so glad it’s nearly over that they just want to finish and sit down. They are missing the all-important ‘call to action’. If you’re not incorporating a call to action at the end of your presentation, you should take time to learn how to do this – or your presentations will not be effective and get the outcome you are seeking.

You can avoid these big mistakes and set yourself apart from other colleagues and other presenters. Speaking effectively is such an important skill for anyone in business or in the corporate world today and those who take time to sharpen their skills in this area will stand out from the pack, will be more confident and will be more successful in achieving business outcomes.

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
Graham Moore is a professional speaker and trainer who presents to audiences internationally. With over 15 years experience, he also conducts presentation skills training and coaches professional speakers , managers and executives to improve their speaking and presentation skills. If you’d like to easily and effectively make significant improvements to your speaking and presenting skills in business go to http://mooresuccessonline.com

The following post is written by Barry Friedman. Barry is one-half of the Raspyni Brothers a four-time World Juggling Champion who works exclusively in the corporate market.

Timeline:

1978: Learned to juggle.
1982: Hooked up with my juggling partner and formed the Raspyni Brothers
1986: First of many Tonight Show appearances
1988: First corporate show – and I never looked back!

 Here’s Barry…

Yep, I’m still enjoying this market after 20 years and today I’d like to pull back a bit of the curtain on this active and lucrative market. I want to share with you the common threads I have seen in professional speakers, and how they land the corporate gigs.

While most of my work over the last 20-years has been in the role of ‘entertainer’, I have worked with dozens of professional speakers.  As emcee for a 4-hour general session, I not only perform my act, but will introduce a variety of speakers, along with corporate big-wigs.
The most successful speakers on the corporate market have narrowed the scope of their talk down to an edge that is sharp enough to cut.  They take a broad topic and eliminate all the ideas and sections that don’t fit into the title of the talk they were hired to present.  Filler is unacceptable in the big leagues of corporate speaking.

The top pros are accessible and easy on the ears.  Even the most serious speakers I’ve seen tend to open with a very funny story that breaks down the walls, connects the dots, and shows their humanity.  This opening story is specific to the industry of the audience – even if it means just changing one part of the same story they open with every time.

I’ve had the pleasure of introducing Michael Abrashoff http://www.grassrootsleadership.com several times at high-profile corporate events.  His talks on leadership are legendary.  Each time he has opened his talk with a story that ties into the introduction my partner and I just gave him.  He says that last year he was at a conference and gave a talk that went over very well.  His agent called him a few days later and said she had good news, and bad news.  He asked for the good news and the agent said that his evaluation scores were higher than Norman Schwarzkopf’s.  Then he asked for the bad news and she told him that he scored lower than the Raspyni Brothers.

It gets a huge laugh and the audience is ready to absorb every word he has to offer.
Meet and Greets are standard with corporate speakers and audiences eat this up.  Sometimes it coincides with a book signing, but it can also happen in the form of a Q&A with a select group or the entire audience. This time gives speakers a perfect opportunity for brand building and plugging their programs.  If you find yourself in this situation, don’t take it lightly.  People are hanging around because they want more of you – give it to them!

More and more speakers offer (and almost push) a continuity program as part of their speech.  It’s usually a website, training, or personal coaching that promises to take the topic of interest to the next level.  The idea behind this type of offering is that if the audience is enjoying the flavor of the appetizer, they might want the whole meal.

So how does a professional speaker break into the corporate circuit and become a top-shelf choice for meeting planners?  The quick answer is to do all the things I listed above!

Breaking into the corporate market as a speaker means being an authority.  Not a want-to-be authority, but a verifiable, been-there-done-that expert on a very specific topic.  While sales, teamwork, diversity, management, and leadership are some of the most common topics at corporate events, there is always a call for other subjects.

When shopping your talk to meeting planners and speaking bureaus, deliver promotional materials that drive the benefits the audience will take away from the talk.  Pack your demo with the best stuff up front and provide letters of recommendation from people who have benefited from your talk.

I offer a free 7-day training course TrainingCourse which not only shows you how to best present yourself to this market, but helps you stay there once you’re in.  Each daily short video (MP3 & PDF, too!) focuses on a primary element necessary to get you on the radar screens of this market’s top producers. 

And, so to speak, inside the belly of the corporate beast.
———————-
Barry Friedman is one-half of the Raspyni Brothers . They appear annually at over 100 corporate events in the USA and internationally.  His site Get More Corporate Gigs  helps speakers, entertainers, and bands to, well, get more corporate gigs!

I posted the following question on several social network sites.  LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook and to my e-mail list after I had blogged about it.

Q: Know what blogging and speaking have in common?  Find out http://tinyurl.com/53tqll

I noticed it caught a lot of interest and varying points of view.

Here are some of the responses or comments that I received.

See if you can figure out how my outreach created a win win for everyone and also the author of the post Mark Hayward.  Comments are appreciated.

Jon W. Hansen

From my perspective, the blog is the ideal venue to introduce the concepts presented in my seminars to a wider audience. It is also a means of providing additional information (including reference material) to those professionals who do attend the conferences.

What is interesting is that collectively the blog-speaking tandem creates the critical mass that maintans momentum and drives sustainable activity.

For example, my speaking engagements more than tripled last year, while my blog (Procurement Insights) which was launched in May 2007 now reaches 300,000 syndicated subscribers each month worldwide and is available in English, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Finnish.

The writing style and subject matter are of course a key elements of the blog, as is the speaking style and subject matter relative to the seminars.

The highest standards have to be maintained at all times. With a blog, this means that you must have at minimum 3 to 5 new posts every week.
___________

Trisha Torrey

I wholeheartedly agree, although until you suggested it, I hadn’t given it any thought.

I speak several times each month. I find my preparation for my talks often provide me with topics and fuel for my blogs. And I find my blogs, and the comments and email I receive in response, often provide anecdotal support for my speaking opps.

Great point. Thanks for raising it, Susan.

Every Patient’s Advocate
Blogs: http://patients.about.com and EveryPatientsAdvocate.com/blog

_______

Terry L. Sumerlin

Motivational Humorist (leadership, team building, customer service, networking) at Sumerlin Enterprises

Susan, You are absolutely correct. Thanks for pointing it out the connection between speaking and blogging. I speak what I write and vice versa. It is such a natural combination. The writing helps me clarify my thoughts for speaking and keeps me in touch with those I speak to. Thanks!

Terry L. Sumerlin – The Barber-osopher
Author/Leadership Humorist
http://barber-osophy.blogspot.com/

_______

Frank Feather

► CEO + Business Futurist + ex-Banker ► Keynote Speaker + Strategy Consultant ► “A Future You Can Bank On!”

Very interesting observation, Susan, that I have not really thought about, except that when I write (e.g., on a blog, in an article, in a book, or answering a question on LinkedIn), I do very much tend to write as I would speak.

The blog you cite makes the following point:

Dynamic public speakers and bloggers typically:
* Know their topic and are well prepared
* Display confidence when speaking or writing
* Take command of the audience
* Speak with an authoritative voice
* Engage the audience
* Add a touch of humor
* Maintain a high level of energy
Additionally … top bloggers (and public speakers) are able to communicate their message in a succinct and easy to digest manner. That sums me up pretty well.

I also think that writing about a subject helps you to crystallize your thoughts and actually to learn your subject matter more thoroughly. It also forces you to make your point succinctly, and to learn to leave out extraneous materials.

All that said, there is still a big difference between writing a Blog in private, editing and reworking it until you are satisfied, and getting up in front of a live audience of thousands and delivering a flawless presentation.
________

Jon W. Hansen

Hansen Consulting & Seminars Inc.

From my perspective, the blog is the ideal venue to introduce the concepts presented in my seminars to a wider audience. It is also a means of providing additional information (including reference material) to those professionals who do attend the conferences.

What is interesting is that collectively the blog-speaking tandem creates the critical mass that maintans momentum and drives sustainable activity.

For example, my speaking engagements more than tripled last year, while my blog (Procurement Insights) which was launched in May 2007 now reaches 300,000 syndicated subscribers each month worldwide and is available in English, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Finnish.

The writing style and subject matter are of course a key elements of the blog, as is the speaking style and subject matter relative to the seminars.

The highest standards have to be maintained at all times. With a blog, this means that you must have at minimum 3 to 5 new posts every week.

_________

Mary Collette Rogers

Great thought. I would never have thought of it. I do know, however, that the more I write about a topic, the easier it is to speak about it, as writing seems to discipline me to refine my thoughts on a subject. Thanks for the insights
________

Richard Kokholm-Erichsen

I do not personally have the experience that blogging and public speaking is the same thing. I am myself an experienced public speaker. I have been speaking to big assemblies and to smaller groups. I have never really been afraid of the speaking.
I feel however some fear when it comes to blogging, which I am still doing my best to improve.
To me the really big difference is the contact to your audience. When I am speaking I communicate directly with my audience and I can sense their reception immediately.

When I blog I am not in direct contact with my audience which means that I cannot perceive their immediate response.
The readers of the blog reads the information at their own time and within their own context. When I speak publicly we are all in the same context at the same time.

I agree with you that many of the basic requirements for the speaker or the blogger are the same. I believe however that the difference in time around the sending and the reading of the blog is a very important distinction.

So what did you learn from this experience?   Add your comments we can all learn from each other.

My comment: It is all about connecting with the audience.

Mark Hayward

http://northxeast.com/blogging/like-it-or-not-blogging-is-public-speaking/

Do you get sweaty palms, an increased heart rate, or feel like you are going to faint when you have to make a presentation in front of an audience? Would you like to improve your public speaking skills and enhance your blogging at the same time?

Public speaking and blogging are similar in many ways and particularly because they both require you to make an immediate connection with your audience. Additionally, how you choose to present yourself, whether speaking publicly or blogging, will ultimately determine how people view your tone, your image, and your brand.Some other complimentary similarities between the two include:

• You are putting yourself out there in front of the masses (sometimes this invites criticism)
• Public speaking and blogging are both acquired skills (for most)
• You must be able to effectively communicate a message

So it would stand to reason that if you improve your public speaking skills then your blogging talents would be enhanced too.

How do you feel about public speaking? Would you rather be doing anything else other than standing in front of a group of people and delivering a presentation?

Now that we are into the New Year many of us (including myself) would like to take our blog to the next level in terms of gaining more subscribers and possibly increasing our online income generation. If you would like to really improve the overall quality of your site there is one skill that you can work on that can have a direct correlation with improving your blogging talents.

Of course, I am talking about the ability to effectively communicate a message and make a presentation in front of a group of people, or speak publicly with authority and confidence.

When was the last time you had to stand up and speak to a group of your peers or colleagues?

Many people are apprehensive about standing in front of a crowd and delivering a message but if you can conquer the fear of public speaking you can absolutely improve your blog. As noted above the two are inherently related.

When I was younger and in high school, and even into college, I was a horrific public speaker. I had NO idea what I was doing and I lacked the relevant skills that were required to be successful. For most, public speaking is an acquired talent. My ability to present to a group of people was gained as a Peace Corps volunteer where I was continually asked to make speeches to large groups of people, and in a completely foreign language. Attending graduate school also helped to increase my skills.

If you are not the most dynamic public speaker do not fret because there is hope. However, there are also a few tips and tricks that are specifically related to blogging and presenting, which can have you creating improved posts by the end of today.

Like it or not, blogging is public speaking

That’s correct, every time you publish a post you are speaking to the global public via the internet. The number of people in the world with online access is certainly a much larger audience than any of us will ever have the pleasure of standing in front of, so it is pretty amazing.

Take Darren Rowse, of ProBlogger, for example. I don’t know what his daily visitor stats are, but he has almost 40,000 subscribers, so everyday he is delivering a presentation to thousands of people via his blog posts. Pretty impressive don’t you think? When you approach it that way, public speaking isn’t so bad after all.

What traits do all great public speakers have in common and how does it apply to blogging?

All of the most effective public speakers that I have ever witnessed have some common qualities, and the same is applicable to blogging. If you have the time some day I strongly recommend that you watch one of the many Seth Godin videos that are available on YouTube.

Dynamic public speakers and bloggers typically:

• Know their topic and are well prepared
• Display confidence when speaking or writing
• Take command of the audience
• Speak with an authoritative voice
• Engage the audience
• Add a touch of humor
• Maintain a high level of energy

Additionally, along with the above, top bloggers (and public speakers) are able to communicate their message in a succinct and easy to digest manner. In the past I have had to present to many government officials and in a way they are a lot like bloggers because they don’t want to waste time and they typically have a short attention span. Rather, they are only interested in the valuable information that you have to tell them and they are not interested in fluff.

Successful blogging is no different. In fact, of all the blogs that I read daily; ProBlogger, Seth Godin, Doshdosh, AnyWired and Zen Habits, the writers are true masters of their craft. The authors consistently produce posts that are delivered with a commanding tone, an authoritative voice, a solid message, and they successfully engage the audience and make you think.

Practice makes perfect

If you are not too confident in your public speaking I would encourage you to practice as much as possible. There are Toast Masters’ meetings all over the world and if you are not familiar with them they are a group of likeminded people who gather together to work on their presentation and public speaking talents. In time, you can become comfortable in front of a crowd and even enjoy speaking to groups of people.

When I know that I have to make a presentation, or draft a blog post, there are some general guidelines that I always follow in my quest for success. Here are some tips to start you on your way toward improved presentation skills and blogging:

• Start with your title and create the post from there
• Use visuals as a support mechanism to enhance your post or presentation
• Get someone to provide constructive criticism by watching you practice, or proofreading your post
• Connect with your audience or readers immediately
• Never apologize if you are bombing (only apologize if there is a technical issue)
• Make your points and support them with examples
• Provide information of value
• Seek input from the audience or your readers

As a final tip I would like to add that there are always going to be negative people and naysayers who will try to criticize what you are doing, so whether you are blogging or presenting, don’t listen to them and focus on the positive every time!

Remember, presenting yourself in the public domain is nerve wracking but with a little attention to detail and the proper preparation you should be blogging and speaking in public like a professional orator in no time.

Imagine that you have spent the better part of two weeks working on an important speech you plan to give to your firm. You think you have done everything right. Read on as Laurie Brown offers simple tips to keep the audience from falling asleep (post from Rain Today )

You have created a PowerPoint presentation with tons of information and Flash animation. You have created handouts of the slides for your audience, so they can follow along. Although you haven’t had time to rehearse the presentation, you are not worried, because you have the entire speech typed out. You plan to read it while you blow their socks off with the dynamic PowerPoint slides.

Everything should be perfect, right? Wrong!

If you were to look at your audience (which you cannot, because you are reading your script) you would see them either riveted to the screen, or to the handout in front of them… but not at you. The audience members who are eye-weary from all the information you have packed into the slides are closing their eyes just to rest them.

What went wrong?

Experienced speakers know that to engage their audience, they must build rapport. Reading from a script makes this difficult, if not impossible, because connecting with an audience requires direct eye contact. No matter how well-written your speech is, if you read your presentation to an audience, you will lose them.

Reading to your audience can also make you seem less authoritative. The audience wonders, “If you know so much about the topic, why can’t you just talk about it? Why are you reading?”

Here are 5 tips for getting and keeping your audience’s attention:

Make Eye Contact

Free yourself from the written page and demonstrate your expertise by using one of these ideas:

Memorization

If you want to memorize your speech, it is helpful to rehearse it out loud just before you go to sleep and right when you get up.

Outline

If you use the outline method to create your script, you can simply go back and clean it up and use that for the presentation. If you don’t have an outline prepared, you can create one using the major points of your presentation.

Key Word Method

This technique calls for you to select key words from your script that represent a paragraph or two of information. These key words should jog your memory so that you can speak extemporaneously. You can use a single page of key words, or place them on 3×5 cards (always number the cards). If you are a visually oriented person, you can find an image that represents the key word and create a pictogram.

Teleprompter

Nothing helps you maintain good eye contact without memorization like the teleprompter When speaking to an audience, you want to make everyone in the audience feel that the message is being directed to them personally. If you find that actually looking into the eyes of your audience is difficult and distracting, look at the tops of their heads, which will create the illusion that you are speaking directly to them.

In order to include the whole audience, use a “Z” pattern. Start by looking at the front left section of the audience. After finishing your thought, turn your gaze to the front right section. Again, finish your thought and direct your gaze to the center section. Then look at the rear left section and, after completing your thought, look to the rear right section.

Know Your Audience

The more you know about your audience’s wants, needs, and level of understanding, the better able you are to craft a speech they will feel compelled to listen to. Too often, speakers give the same presentation to different groups. “Generic” speeches tend to lose most of the audience. A speech needs to be relevant and specific.

You need to make sure that you are using words and ideas that are easily grasped by your audience. This doesn’t mean you have to “dumb down” your speech, but it does mean checking to make sure that you are not using jargon or acronyms that are only known by a few.

Your audience is always thinking, “What’s in this for me?” Keep this question in mind when you craft your speech.

Throw Away Your PowerPoint

I think that there is no other element of a presentation that can bore an audience more quickly than PowerPoint slides. Okay, I know you are starting to curse at me now. Get rid of PowerPoint? Well, maybe I need to restate that. You can keep PowerPoint–if you use it properly and effectively… and not as an eye sight test.

Follow these simple rules:

Choose an easy font to read, such as Arial or Times Roman.

Font size should be at least 28 pt (bulleted items should be at least 22 pt).

Use colors carefully (reds and oranges are hard to focus on).

Don’t crowd too many words on the screen (3 lines of type is more than enough).

Keep the slides simple, clean, and easy to read.

View the PowerPoint presentation on the screen after you have created the slides and prior to your presentation. Check for ease of readability. The slides really do look different on the screen.

Don’t read the slides verbatim. Quite frankly, most of your audience will be able to read the slide, so why repeat it?
I think the most powerful PowerPoints are those that use only pictures, a key word or phrase, or graphics. There is no reason to simply use a slide to repeat what you have said. Instead, use a visual aid to reinforce your point. It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

You should direct your audience’s attention to the screen and back to you. Simply turn your gaze to the screen for a moment or two and then look back at your audience. These subtle cues allow your audience’s attention to move from the screen then back to you.

Give Hand-Outs After Your Presentation.

If you are making a presentation that has a lot of important and/or technical information, you can provide a hand-out, but only after the presentation. If people have your slides while you are speaking, they tend to read ahead or stay glued to the hand-out and not to you. If you give them the hand-out after your presentation, it will reinforce all of your material without stealing attention from you.

Rehearse

I know people hate to rehearse. It is hard not to feel silly when practicing your speech. However, there is nothing that helps a speaker more than the familiarity and ease you get from saying the words out loud. (Yes, it does make a difference to say the words out loud.) I practice when I am in my car driving alone or while on the treadmill at home. The shower can also be a great place to practice.

Try these ideas with your next presentation. Even if you only use one or two of these tips, you will have taken a huge step toward being a speaker who compels audiences to stay awake and listen. No one will be snoring in the back row.

Laurie Brown is an international speaker, trainer and consultant who works to help people improve their sales, service and presentation skills. She is the author of The Teleprompter Manual for Executives, Politicians, Broadcasters and Speakers. Contact Laurie through The Difference.net, or (877) 999-3433, or at lauriebrown@thedifference.net

Susan note:

On August 28 I will be interviewing Kathy Bote in a teleclass on Getting the Audience Involved. You may attend and or order the mp3. http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses/detail/105

Short overview- Want to give a presentation they’ll never forget?
Need to energize your audience AND get lasting results?
Simply want to be an amazingly dynamic speaker with life-changing impact?
To make a difference today, you have to get the audience involved! Learn how to creatively involve your audience and UP fun and retention by 80 percent or more!

At the Speakers’ Bootcamp we teach the communion approach to speaking. Speaking from the heart. At the Bootcamp you will be branded, media coached and learn how to use a dynamic template for organizing your talks. The Bootcamp is very interactive and hands on and transformational. You will never hear anyone snoring in the back row!

The following photo is from the July/August Bootcamp. Next Bootcamp November 5-9.

I love the following post written by my colleague Diane DiResta. Are you guilty of platform abuse?

The platform is a privilege. When invited to speak, we have a responsibility to respect the audience and the nature of the platform (culture, venue, purpose of the invitation). Yet, many speakers take this responsibility lightly and abuse the platform.

Some of the biggest abusers are Hollywood celebrities at the academy awards. It’s disrespectul to accept an award and then use the stage for self-serving causes and political rants.

When Jane Fonda received an academy award for the movie Klute, it was at the height of her anti-war protests. You could hear the audience breathe a sigh of relief when she said, “There’s so much to say but now is not the time.”

Worse yet, are singers who pack the stadium to full capacity only to bash the current administration or turn the concert into a political rally. When people buy a concert ticket they expect to be entertained. To impose a political agenda is simply a bait and switch tactic.

The most recent platform abuser was reverend Michale Pfleger. He mimicked and mocked Hillary Clinton from the pulpit of Trintiy United Church of Christ. What was especially abusive was to do this in a church or “House of God.” A pastor’s platform is to preach the Scriptures not to campaign for a presidential candidate. This was a betrayal of trust.

At conferences business speakers abuse the platform when they sell their products from the stage. An infomercial is not what they came to hear. There is an unspoken contract between a speaker and an audience. The audience expects you to provide value. While it’s acceptable to challenge, stimulate and provoke thinking, it’s not all right to change the program just because you have a captive audience.

One speaker announced that instead of lecturing he would have an open discussion. People left feeling dissatisfied. They wanted the speaker’s expertise-not a chat. He violated the contract.

The next time you’re invited to speak, clarify your role, know the audience expectations, and then keep your promise. Speaking is a gift. Resist the temptation to push your own agenda. And you’ll continue to enjoy the privilege of the platform.

Diane DiResta, president of DiResta Communications, Inc., is the author of Knockout Presentations: How to Deliver Your Message with Power, Punch, and Pizzazz, an Amazon.com category best-seller and widely-used text in college business communication courses.

Blog: http://www.businesspresentations.blogspot.com

For a free newsletter and audio course visit http://www.diresta.com

Related Info:

Susan Levin interviews Diane DiResta on the Science of Speaking- Listen to the 60 min mp3

Click here to download…

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Diane_DiResta

Last night I was on a panel about Being Heard – Being Seen.

The other panelists were Linda MacKenzie of http://www.healthylife.net radio and Marc Ryan of Green Health Life, The All Natural Interactive Internet TV Show.

The following is a very short video shot by my friend Jeannie Cottingham with my ultra flip camera as I was speaking.

While I was there I interviewed the co-founder of the Westside Holistic Chamber - Camille Leon and you can see a 40 second interview with her when you click here

The following post is from Six Minutes- A Public Speaking and Presentations Skills Blog- Andrew Dlugan

- Research a topic – Good speakers stick to what they know. Great speakers research what they need to convey their message.

- Focus – Help your audience grasp your message by focusing on your message. Stories, humour, or other “sidebars” should connect to the core idea. Anything that doesn’t needs to be edited out.

- Organize ideas logically – A well-organized presentation can be absorbed with minimal mental strain. Bridging is key.

- Employ quotations, facts, and statistics – Don’t include these for the sake of including them, but do use them appropriately to complement your ideas.

- Master metaphors – Metaphors enhance the understandability of the message in a way that direct language often can not.

- Tell a story – Everyone loves a story. Points wrapped up in a story are more memorable, too!

- Start strong and close stronger – The body of your presentation should be strong too, but your audience will remember your first and last words (if, indeed, they remember anything at all).

- Incorporate humour – Knowing when to use humour is essential. So is developing the comedic timing to deliver it with greatest effect.

- Vary vocal pace, tone, and volume – A monotone voice is like fingernails on the chalkboard.

- Punctuate words with gestures – Gestures should complement your words in harmony. Tell them how big the fish was, and show them with your arms.

- Utilize 3-dimensional space – Chaining yourself to the lectern limits the energy and passion you can exhibit. Lose the notes, and lose the chain.

- Complement words with visual aids – Visual aids should aid the message; they should not be the message. Read the Presentation Zen book and adopt the philosophy.

- Analyze the audience – Deliver the message they want (or need) to hear.

- Connect with the audience – Eye contact is only the first step. Aim to have the audience conclude “This speaker is just like me!” The sooner, the better.

- Interact with the audience – Ask questions (and care about the answers). Solicit volunteers. Make your presentation a dialogue.

- Conduct a Q&A session – Not every speaking opportunity affords a Q&A session, but understand how to lead one productively. Use the Q&A to solidify the impression that you are an expert, not (just) a speaker.

- Lead a discussion – Again, not every speaking opportunity affords time for a discussion, but know how to engage the audience productively.

- Obey time constraints – Maybe you have 2 minutes. Maybe you have 45. Either way, customize your presentation to fit the time allowed, and respect your audience by not going over time.
- Craft an introduction – Set the context and make sure the audience is ready to go, whether the introduction is for you or for someone else.

- Exhibit confidence and poise – These qualities are sometimes difficult for a speaker to attain, but easy for an audience to sense.

- Handle unexpected issues smoothly – Maybe the lights will go out. Maybe the projector is dead. Have a plan to handle every situation.

- Be coherent when speaking off the cuff – Impromptu speaking (before, after, or during a presentation) leaves a lasting impression too. Doing it well tells the audience that you are personable, and that you are an expert who knows their stuff beyond the slides and prepared speech.

- Seek and utilize feedback – Understand that no presentation or presenter (yes, even you!) is perfect. Aim for continuous improvement, and understand that the best way to improve is to solicit candid feedback from as many people as you can.

- Listen critically and analyze other speakers – Study the strengths and weakness of other speakers.

- Act and speak ethically – Since public speaking fears are so common, realize the tremendous power of influence that you hold. Use this power responsibly.

Andrew Dlugan enjoys studying public speaking and delivering presentations. He has taught courses, conducted seminars, coached speakers, and emceed events. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator.

Andrew has an engineering background which spans cancer research, satellite data analysis, and web technologies. He is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada. Contact Andrew: dlugan@gmail.com

By Vickie K. Sullivan, Contributing Editor for Rain Today

You’ve hit a homerun with a recent speech. The audience was perfect, filled with high-level prospects who have the authority (and the budget) to hire you. Your talk was met with rave reviews and you got an outstanding recommendation letter from the host organization. But now, it’s 90 days later, and you didn’t get the business you expected. What happened?

As speaking moves beyond generating credibility and into lead generation, the next big question is: How can we convert a larger portion of the audience from observers to clients? This conversion happens with a consistent but subtle adjustment of perception.

Understand that the audience is not attending your program thinking of ways to hire you. Create that connection during the presentation by planting “seeds” that give them the idea to approach you. Experts who answer those below-the-surface questions create ingrained opinions that drive initial interest and inquiries.

Each attendee must be convinced of three things before they get the idea that you can help them. Below are the questions that must be answered before any attendee will approach you.

You Do What?

I was an agent for professional speakers for eleven years and talked to thousands of participants looking for more business. Their most common question: “I can hire this person?”

Somehow, the message that your services are available to them just doesn’t register.

Again, it’s a matter of focus. The attendee is there to network and learn something. They are not shopping for professional service firms. So you have to show the audience that you work with folks just like them.

The biggest mistake many thought-leaders make is they meet the challenge head-on with an approach that looks like a sales pitch. This is the kiss of death in many venues. Not only will the audience be offended, but they will also complain about you throughout the entire event.

You don’t want that kind of attention. The audience needs to learn that you are available without your selling them.

The best way to tell the audience you’re available without sounding like a walking sales pitch is to let other people do it for you. Most speakers are introduced by the program chair or president of the host organization. Write out your introduction and give it to them.

And don’t just say “consultant” or “coach.” After identifying what you specialize in, include how many people or organizations you have helped and in what way. If the clients are well-known, mention a few by name. Then, carry that idea forward by mentioning other clients in the context of your work. For example: “Of all the organizations we work on with (your area of expertise), one challenge comes up every time…”

How Does This Work For Me?

Once an attendee knows that your services are available, the next question is about application. Many audience members think to themselves, “This speaker is really making sense, but our situation is different. I just don’t see a fit.”

Translation: there’s no connection between the material and its application. When a participant sees you as the perfect solution to a specific challenge, they are transformed into allies. They are now on a personal mission to get you into their organization.

The biggest reason why many thought leaders get stumped here is that offer too much information and not enough stories and examples. It’s called “data dumping” and usually happens from a misguided desire to educate and/or from the arrogant belief that “all of my content is too important to cut.”

Many speakers also fear running out of material, so they overcompensate. Presenting too much information is like drinking from a fire hose. An overwhelmed audience is a paralyzed audience. They think, “Well, I will digest all this information, then I’ll contact the speaker to help us.” The result: the call never gets made and the attendee moves on to simpler solutions.

What’s the best approach? Don’t assume that the audience will apply your material. Do it for them. Use specific examples or instances and apply your message to them. Switch the focus from teaching your material, to applying it to their work environment.

Attendees will still learn, but they will also see the application. When using your clients (in their industry) as an example or story, be sure to make the client the star, not you.

Why Do We Need You?

The third question is the most subtle and most always fatal. I call it the, “We can implement this system without you” opinion.

Many companies send people to conferences for a recount of ideas/ strategies to teach the others. Audience members come to the program with an agenda: what can they take from this program for their report? If attendees think they can do your work on their own, then your content didn’t tell them anything new.

Consultants and other list makers are the biggest culprits here. Too many speakers give in-depth, step-by-step solutions, complete with all the pitfalls and best practices. Not only is this way too much information for the time allotted (see drinking from a fire hose above), but also you can’t give enough nuance to implement it effectively.

The audience thinks, “We now know the entire system. The speaker has given us all the steps. We can do this in-house.” Never mind that they can’t implement your ideas as well as you can. And if the effort fails, what do they blame? Your system.

Use interaction to prevent this disaster. If you’re a coach, do some “on the spot” coaching about process. For example, if you are a consultant use a process that will spur recommendations not only from you but also from the group.

Exercises that hone in on just one tool or process will be enough to shine a spotlight on your ability. Attendees who see your talent in action will never assume that they are as good as you are. They will know that having your help is well worth the investment.

To convert an observer to an interested prospect, your audience needs to know three things: your expertise is unique, you can help them and they can’t do it without you. Only then do the audience members start to think, “We need this person in our organization!”

Vickie K. Sullivan, President of Sullivan Speaker Services, Inc. is nationally recognized as the top market strategist for experts on the professional speaking circuit. Since 1987, she has worked with thousands of experts in a wide variety of industries to launch their big-fee speaking, professional service and book/product empires in highly lucrative markets. Visit Vickie’s Website: http://www.sullivanspeaker.com

We just finished the 5 day Bootcamp and I am always blown away by the comments of the attendees. Eileen Joyce wrote a poem about her experience.

See a very short one camera video that was created at the Bootcamp.  Doug McKee  click here.

See more comments and next Bootcamp Dates. I will be adding some of the short videos that the attendees created soon on the Bootcamp page and here as well.

What happened to me in Jack’s Speakers Bootcamp
I went not knowing quite why
I flubbed a lot of exercises
And had the time of my life

Each day opened something new inside
Although I couldn’t tell you what

Then the day after it ended
I see who I am, what I’m doing and saying
who wants to hear it and what we all get from it!

I’m selling
a way to open your heart—to the secrets it holds
so you can fully express all your pain and your passion.
Start living each day like it’s the last one you have.

I call it Speaking From Your Heart
And we all can do it!

THANK YOU Jack Barnard and fellow beings

Here’s the gang

By Thom Lisk founder of Professional Speakers Bureau International

Corporations and Associations all over the world hire professional speakers. A few people take speaking to the professional level so that their income is totally dependent on speeches or seminar revenues. Can you become a professional speaker?

You must have something of value and benefit to convey to others and you must present your material very effectively. You must know how to package and market yourself. The overall market for paid professional speakers is increasing. The number of people wanting to speak professionally has increased at a faster pace than the openings. So, regardless of your program benefits, you must know how to obtain your clients.

Speakers have one area of expertise. They brand themselves as a topic expert in that area. Becoming an expert in a market niche is the fastest way to increased income as a speaker if you create enough demand for your services.

Fees range from a few hundred dollars per engagement to many thousands of dollars, depending on the client as much (or more) than the capabilities (or credentials) of the speaker. Through my company, Professional Speakers Bureau International, I have come into contact with many aspiring speakers who have no idea how to proceed in formulating fees. How do you set fees? Carefully! Sometimes speakers are eliminated from consideration for fees that are too low just as often as too high. Good advice is for you to acquire fee schedules of speakers in various stages of their career development. If you know what these speakers offer and how they offer it, you have a good basis of comparison and a method of establishing your fee parameters.

The greatest challenge is to locate the people who make the final decision to book speakers, and then to contact them at exactly the right time. Some organizations only purchase outside paid speakers (or trainers) once a year for an annual meeting. As an example, Kronos Inc., of Boston, booked Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the book series, Chicken Soup for the Soul, from our bureau for $17,500 for their annual meeting. When I first met Mark in 1977, he would have been happy with $500 to speak anywhere at anytime. What happened?

Mark and his co-author hit upon something that the masses want and need. Inspirational stories! The research indicates that the number one topic requested from speakers’ bureaus is for motivational keynote speakers. Who are some other speakers that fit this category? (Ask, yourself, who will be my competition?) The list is almost endless! Some motivational speakers command as much as $50,000 per booking. However most are more in the $1-10,000 range. All people need inspiration! How many need your talk?

Some speakers become professionals through a carefully developed conscious plan of action, which includes knowing the possibilities and the steps needed to reach your goals. Some speakers join associations or bureaus to find out how to succeed. The 4000 member National Speakers Association is one choice. They have chapters in many states. Daniel Webster established the oldest speakers association (International Platform Association) in the 1830′s. Many people are more familiar with Toastmasters. This association has local chapters, as many as thirty in a city the size of Columbus. You can develop the skills of speaking in public through their weekly meetings. Memberships in these groups can be a part of your plan.

Develop a plan to acquire each of all the competencies needed. The most difficult competency for most speakers seems to be marketing and selling your services. You must think of yourself as the product and look objectively at yourself and the market for your programs. You must believe deeply in yourself and what you offer. Each week set specific written goals to contact people who have the authority to hire you to speak.

Many speakers turn an avocation for speaking into a profession; however, few sustain themselves long term due to a lack of quality marketing. You must make an effort to market yourself daily by being willing to invest money in marketing. Look at the best-known products. Products like Coca-Cola reinvest a large percentage of each dollar into marketing. Speakers fail because they do not become skilled at marketing themselves and their services. Please remember, you may be the best person and the best at presenting a certain speech topic or seminar, however if you fail to market yourself faithfully, you will eventually fail (or fall far short of your potential). This is why some speakers contract with seminar companies and bureaus. These organizations do the marketing.

Speakers who make it long term have a passion for their message and a love for their audiences. They are familiar with the adrenaline rush received from the applause of the audience; however, this is not what drives them. What propels the best speakers is the feeling and the assurance that they are making a difference with their lives and their messages. They are energized to stay focused on their mission or “calling.”

Cultivate the belief, if you do not have it, that you are “called” to make a difference through your life and your messages. Develop a commitment to constant improvement in spite of all obstacles. (Identify the obstacles in advance—anticipate them–so you can develop a plan to overcome them!) Let the money you earn be a by-product of a job very well done, the end, not the means or purpose. As Winston Churchill said to England’s weary troops during the darkest days of WWII, make sure you…”Never, never, never…give up!” Believe, as the Rotarians proclaim, in “Service above Self.” Make sure you and your messages are getting better, even if you are the only person who recognizes this fact.

One of the top paid professional speakers in America, Dr. Dennis Waitly, best selling author of The Psychology of Winning, says, ” Expect to win and you will!” Work hard to have a positive expectation (and attitude) and, more importantly, help others to be their best, and you will reap what you sow. Becoming a top professional speaker is a process or journey, not something that happens quickly. So be patient as you perfect your programs, your marketing, and more importantly, yourself. Make sure you have a plan!

Thom Lisk, BA, LHD, CSE is the Founder, President and CEO of Professional Speakers Bureau International. Learn more about his services.

Susan’s note: Need training, video demos? Check out www.speakerservics.com

My colleague speaker and author friend Chellie Campbell www.chelliecampbell.com always says there is gold in the phone. As a matter of fact she painted her phone gold and wears only gold shoes. In her workshops she teaches the attendees to send out ships. That is all great but how do you leave a message that gets potential clients to call you back? Today’s post by Jill Konrath, Contributing Editor of Rain Today offers us 5 great strategies on leaving voice mail messages that get call backs. If you are mining for speaking gigs, media interviews or consulting work all the tips apply.

Sick and tired of prospective clients never calling you back? Then it’s time to take a good hard look at what you’re doing – or not doing – that’s creating these results for you.

Voicemail is a fact of life today. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. And believe me, getting through to decision makers is only going to get worse. So if your livelihood depends on getting in to see these people, you better learn how to use it to your advantage.

First, let’s take a look at the basic formula most sellers use in their voicemail messages:

Hello, Mr/Ms __. This is __ calling.

I’m an account executive with __ company.

We do __.

Our service is leading edge, high quality and __.

I’d like to get together to learn more about how you do __.

And tell you about how our __ can help your business.

Please call me at __ to set up a time.

What’s wrong with it? It’s boring, boring, boring. No one in their right mind would ever waste one precious moment of their time to meet with a seller who said this.

Let me repeat myself. This approach does not work. I don’t care if that’s how you were trained. The world has changed. Even your own mother wouldn’t call you back today – and that’s pretty darn bad!

Most buyers from big companies are bombarded with more than 50 calls like this each and every day. Your message is “zapped” before the second sentence is out of your mouth.

How To Be Enticing

Being enticing is about saying or asking something in a manner that truly piques a prospective decision maker’s interest or curiosity.

You have to put on your thinking cap too. There’s no way around it. Enticing voicemails don’t just flow out of your mouth when its time to leave a message. In fact, not planning guarantees that you will sound trite and cheesy – exactly like the kind of salesperson everyone detests.

Here are five strategies you can use to increase your enticement quotient:

1. Reference Your Research

Do you know how few sellers actually invest time studying their clients before placing a call? Very few. You’ll immediately set yourself apart if you mention your research in your voicemail. You might say:

“In researching your firm prior to calling you today, I noticed that…”

“In reviewing your company’s website and marketing collateral, it became apparent to me that a critical issue you’re facing is…”

“In studying your organization’s strategic direction and comparing it to others in your market segment…”
If you’re not doing this pre-call research prior to contacting a big company, you’re making a huge mistake. Dig in. Do it. What you learn can help make your voicemail even more enticing.

2. State A Strong Value Proposition

Powerful value propositions focus on the business outcomes companies get from using your services. Framed in business terminology, they highlight specific measurable results. Examples of enticing value propositions include:

“In working with another firm like yours, we reduced space requirements by 10%, saving them over $500k on lease payments and capital equipment reductions of over $300,000.”

“After working with our firm, our average accounting client sees their prospect meeting-to-signed contract conversions increase by 35%, and their average dollar amount of services contracted increase by 13-18%.”
Prospective clients are enticed by strong value propositions because they address critical business issues and demonstrate significant value. To increase their effectiveness, mention that the results come from businesses like theirs – or even name-drop some prominent clients.
3. Share An Insightful Idea

Nothing is more tempting to future clients than an idea that can help them achieve their goals or solve their pressing problems. You have to do some pre-work to use this approach, but oooooh, it is seductive. When you leave a voicemail, don’t tell your prospects everything. Only tell them enough to get them drooling to learn more.

To be enticing with a thought-provoking idea, you combine it with some facts you’ve gathered from your research of their business and your value proposition. Examples might be:

“Over the past month, I’ve invested a great deal of time studying your website and what you’re trying to accomplish with it. Based on my analysis, I have some interesting ideas regarding how you could leverage it to create additional revenue opportunities.”

“I’ve been following your firm closely for the past six months, since its merger with Beta Industries. After hearing about your recent round of lay-offs, I have some ideas that I’d like to share with you regarding how you can reduce the risks of potential legal action.”

4. Dangle Important Information

Do you know something that your prospective clients don’t? If so, let them know you have this lucrative information. What tempts prospective buyers? They’re always interested in learning more about:

Their clients

Competitors

Industry trends

Visionary ideas

If you have access to this knowledge, use it. One of my clients recently used this strategy to land appointments with hard to reach decision makers. Essentially, here’s what they said:

“We recently conducted a study of how your clients’ needs are changing relative to decisions on group life insurance. I’d like to set up a time to review some of the key points with you. I know people in your firm will be very interested in what we’ve uncovered.”

5. Conclude With Confidence

Today’s buyers won’t waste time helping you learn about their business. Nor do they want to hear your service pitch. Enticing voicemail messages must end with strength to show that prospects will get immediate value if they meet with you. Several options that have proven to be effective include:

“We should talk. The savings I’m talking about can drop right to your bottom line. Give me a call at 651-429-1922 and we’ll set up a time to get together.”

“While I can’t promise you the exact same results, I can assure you that it will be worth your time. My number is 651-429-1922. Give me a call and we’ll set up a time to get together.”

“If you’d like to find out how (big, well-known company in related industry) have utilized similar ideas to gain significant market share, you can reach me at 651-429-1922. I look forward to getting together.”
Please notice how these closures demonstrate a quiet confidence and assuredness in the value of an appointment.

Leave Prospects Begging

Are you ready to be enticing? As you can see, it requires some serious thinking, a good understanding of your business case, and the panache to pull it off as a professional.

While the strategies discussed don’t ensure a callback, they will guarantee that you stand out from the crowd. Creating a series of these enticing messages enables you to penetrate your prospect’s natural defenses. When you do actually connect, getting an appointment should be the natural next step.

And, don’t be too surprised if you pick up the phone some day and it’s your prospect – begging to meet with you!

Jill Konrath is a Contributing Editor for RainToday.com and is a recognized expert in complex sales strategies and creating business value for B2B sales organizations. She is also founder of SellingtoBigCompanies – a web resource that helps professional services providers, consultants and salespeople win big contracts in the corporate market.

Listen to a 9 minute audio/mp3 with me Susan Levin talking about the purpose of speaking.

Why-Why do you speak?

Who- Who is your audience?

What- what is your message?

Where- Where you might speak

How-How will you give your presentation?

Included below is a presentation worksheet/checklist for you.

PRESENTATION WORKSHEET

• What are you passionate about?

• What topic creates a great compassion in you for your listeners?

• In one sentence, what is the purpose or mission of the specific presentation you want to work on?

• Who wants to hear it?

• If you have no choice in picking the audience or topic, how can you analyze this audience to find their wants, needs, attitudes, and capabilities?

• Once you’ve made an educated guess about the audience’s attitude, will you need to design the presentation using more benefits or humor?

• Are you prepared? What will it take in rehearsal and study to ensure you will not have stage fright and a fear of making changes in your presentation?

• Are you an expert in the topic area you will present ? What else must you do so you will view yourself as a credible expert?

• What overall theme will you use to substantiate your mission?

• What three or four main points must your listeners take home?
1
2.
3.
4.

• How will you organize the material, what format do you like?
Analogies, Storytelling? Problem, cause, solution?

• What mood does the meeting planner wish to be created with this meeting? Fun? Serious,, Educational? A special dress theme?

• What title have you given the presentation?

• What can you do to ensure your listeners will listen, understand, believe and retain the information?

• What else can you do to ensure you will have rapport with your audience?

This is me Susan Levin with Jack Barnard, Master branding, media and presentation coach at the NSA Convention

Chris Witt

The fundamentals of a great speech stay the same. (Develop one strong idea. Focus on the audience. Be authentic, clear, and committed.) But styles change with time. These are the latest trends in speeches and presentations.

1. Keep it Short

People want information, but they’re already overwhelmed by too much information. If you give them what they need to know in a way they can quickly understand and apply, they’ll love you. Get to the heart of the matter in as few words as possible. Say what you have to say. And stop speaking — even if you haven’t spoken for the allotted time.

2. Let’s Get Personal.

In this age of Oprah, interactive websites, and blogs, formal presentations are out. Instead, savvy speakers are speaking conversationally. They’re less likely to “make a speech,” more likely to talk to their audiences. They move away from podiums. They use personal stories and anecdotes. They say I and you, we and us. They encourage audience interaction.

3. Simple Is Chic.

Sophisticated technology is simple — at least for the end user. A point-and-shoot camera takes in all sorts of data and makes innumerable, complex calculations so you don’t have to. Successful speakers do the same thing. They do their research. They decide what’s important. And they present what the audience needs to know in a way the audience gets.

4. The Love Affair with PowerPoint™ Is Over.

Audiences are no longer wowed by PowerPoint™. They take it for granted, and if anything they’re a little bored by it. Use it as a tool, a way of presenting information. But don’t let it upstage you. Keep yourself up front and personal.

5. Recycling Is Good for What Ails You.

Creating a good speech takes a lot of time. So once you’ve created a presentation, reuse it. Don’t think you have to come up with something new for each occasion. You can give the exact same speech word for word to a different audience, and it becomes a different speech. Take bits and pieces from one presentation and repackage them. Trim a 45-minute in-depth presentation into a 15-minute overview of your topic. Or use your 15-minute overview as an outline for a longer presentation.

6. Mark your Territory.

It’s almost impossible to come up with something brand new and original to talk about. After all, how many news ways are there to make a sales, a speech, or a successful relationship? Winning speakers take the best of what’s already known and make it new by making it their own. They put their own spin on it, using a unique (and consistent) choice of words and phrasing. Think Chicken Soup for the Soul, the One-Minute Manager, and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. New stuff or clever packaging?

7. Everyone Wants a Security Blanket.

It’s a scary world, and people are afraid of losing what they have. They want something or someone who will make them feel safe. If you’re going to challenge them to change, you need to show them why. And you need to reassure them that what they get will be better than what they leave behind. Threats — implied or explicit — will make people react in the moment, but they won’t sustain people’s long-term efforts.

Chris Witt is a speech writer, coach, and trainer based in San Diego. He works with executives and business owners who want to speak like leaders. He also helps technical teams plan, create, and rehearse oral proposals for large government contracts. His website – http://www.wittcom.com – has over 70 pages of how-to articles.