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Speaking to grow your business, 3 tools you must have in place

By on June 27, 2014
woman speaking

By Annemarie Cross

According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report – 2014, sixty per cent of business’s who participated in the survey were going to use speaking (and networking) as an additional way to market their business, alongside social media.

In my article “How to Build Credibility, Visibility and Profitability FAST with this One-To-Many Model” I shared the many benefits and successes I have personally experienced through public speaking and can therefore highly recommend speaking as a great way to build visibility for your business.

To recap some of these successes, they include:

  • Building my credibility as a specialist: I’ve been sought out to speak on other people’s stages alongside other multi-six and seven-figure business owners;
  • Growing my list of subscribers: I consistently grow my list of subscribers from every talk. In fact, recently after a 30-minute presentation I added over 350 highly targeted people to my list who I now know are interested in that specific topic.

I now have the opportunity to nurture and build relationships with my new subscribers. As they continue to get to know, like and trust me and continue to learn more from the information I share, guess which person is top of mind when they are ready to step forward? [Hint: Me].

  • Gaining referrals for other speaking opportunities: many times after a speaking engagement, I find one (or more) people in the audience request I speak to their group. So I’m consistently receiving more opportunities to speak in front of groups of my ideal client;
  • Increasing my income: after hearing me speak, people who are ready to take action and generate results – invest in my programs/products.

In my conversation with many other business owners (who want to know the secrets to successful public speaking in business) I am asked, “Were you always generating these types of results?”

No, I wasn’t.

In fact, I’ve lost count of the number of speaking events I’ve been involved with in the early days that had little to minimal results. Even though I managed to inspire the audience with a great presentation – the results as far as subscribers, leads and clients (income), were dismal.

Until I made some changes.

Here are three things I integrated into my business that helped me turn my results around.

Make sure you have these three things in place as well to avoid disappointment and frustration because you’re not generating the results you want from your talk.

Speaking to Grow Your Business –
Tool 1: Your Signature Talk

Just because you can speak about multiple topics – doesn’t mean you should.

I learned this the hard way.

I used to accept any and all opportunities to speak and get in front of the audience, so-much-so that I would speak about any topic; even topics, which didn’t always fit into my program funnel.

What ended up happening was that I inadvertently developed a reputation of being a specialist in an area quite different from what I wanted to build my reputation as an expert in.

I was also spending a lot of time creating presentations that didn’t really fit in well with my business model, and more importantly my product and program funnel, so I wasn’t generating a steady stream of enquiries and clients, either.

Thankfully, this changed dramatically after I created two key Signature Talks, each covering a topic I wanted to become known as an expert in. AND, both of my Signature Talks are aligned with and relevant to my product and program funnel.

Does that mean I don’t tweak my topic to suit the theme of the event I’m speaking at? No – of course not.

But, I now know that every event I’ll be speaking at (and the people who are attending the event) – are my ideal clients and will therefore be more likely to want to learn more about my work.

This is because:

  • I know the struggles and challenges they have;
  • I know what keeps them up at night;
  • I know what they dream about and long to achieve;
  • I know what they want and I show them that I am able to provide a solution to support them.

My Signature Talk is strategically positioned to engage where they are at in their current struggles; it educates and empowers; AND it entices them to learn more from me.

Which brings me to my next tool.

 Speaking to Grow Your Business –
Tool 2: Your Irresistible Signature Giveaway

Not everyone is at the point where they’re ready to say “Yes’ to your offer. However, you don’t want to walk away from your presentation without getting as many names and contact details (at least an email address) of your ideal client.

How do you do that? With your Irresistible Signature Giveaway.

What’s an Irresistible Signature Giveaway?

It’s a piece of content that your ideal client (who is sitting in your audience), wants to get their hands on. And, to do that, they need to give you their contact details.

This piece of content, must be relevant to your Signature Talk, must be relevant to your program/product funnel, and must provide incredible value to your new subscriber.

In other words, don’t just throw any old thing together and hope they’ll find that resource of value.

Remember, every piece of content you share is a reflection of you and your work – so make sure your Irresistible Signature Giveaway continues to showcase your expertise and the value you offer.

 Speaking to Grow Your Business –
Tool 3: Your Signature Program

Do you have a product and/or program your audience can invest in if they want to take their knowledge, ability and results to the next level.

If you don’t – you’re leaving money on the table. And, in some instances if you don’t have a program to offer, you end up creating business for your competitors, because your audience now realises they need help in that area. If you can’t help them, they’ll find someone who can.

How do I know?

Because this happened to me.

A few years ago I was asked to speak on the topic of social media.

Someone had seen what I was doing on social media with my business, and wanted me to share my successes and tips with their group of small business owners.

I certainly didn’t mind sharing, however as I don’t necessarily teach and support people ONLY in their social media strategies I didn’t have any programs on that topic that people could invest in.

After my talk, at least one third of the room approached me and asked whether they could work with me privately.

As I didn’t have anything to offer them at the time – I left opportunities and money on the table.

An expensive lesson learned.

Do you have a product or program your audience can invest in if they want to deepen their awareness in the topic you’ve just spoken about?

If not, then you either need to create one OR you need to create a new topic for your Signature Talk. A topic that is relevant to what you want to become known as an expert in and that leads people into your product/program funnel.

Don’t be like me those many years ago – where you end up leaving money on the table OR creating business for your competitors because you didn’t have a program/product to offer people who are ready to invest in your product/programs.

Annemarie CrossAnnemarie Cross is an authority in influence and impact – a Business Coach residing in Melbourne.

Money, Marketing & Mindset Business Coach for Women Entrepreneurs: Annemarie draws on her 18+ years’ award-winning expertise to provide ‘step-by-step’ personal branding, business building and marketing strategies alongside breakthrough personal, business & money mindset principles for women in business so they can stand out, get more clients and build a wildly successful business doing what they love. Annemarie is also the International Award-Winning Podcast Host of thewww.AmbitiousEntrepreneurShow.com.

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