7 Deadly Sins to Avoid When You're the Guest
Speaker
Speaking about what you do is an incredibly powerful way of marketing your
business, especially if you have a service business. I recently had the chance
to evaluate some speakers at a conference I attended. As you might expect, every
single one of these speakers was either a business owner or was employee of an
organization where they had a role in generating sales for the company.
As someone who takes advantage of all opportunities to speak about what I do, I
was carefully observing not only the content of the presentations but thinking
about what I might do differently. That led to this creation of sins to avoid
when you're speaking about what you do:
1. Stand behind a podium or hide behind a microphone and don't fully
reach out to your audience. One of the speakers was great--she knew her
material well, spoke without notes, and got the audience fully engaged. This is
the kind of presenter you want to strive to be. Another of the presenters spoke
from her notes but walked down the aisle and made eye contact with those of us
in the audience and spoke directly to people. You need to reach out and touch
your audience, to paraphrase an old AT&T commercial.
2. Talk to people for your full presentation time and don't ask them to
participate at all. One of the speakers stayed in one place behind her
microphone and referred frequently to her notes. She asked us few questions and
had planned no interactive exercises at all--she spoke "at" us rather than "to"
us. Think about the workshops you have attended--didn't you get more out of the
ones in which you had to interact with the speaker or with others in the room?
Create at least 2-3 interactive exercises that will get your audience pumped up
and excited.
3. Spend the entire workshop talking about the product or service you
provide. I have attended presentations in which I thought I was going to
learn something and it ended up being a long commercial about the company
hosting the presentation. If you're going to ask people to listen to you, have
a message to deliver that's of benefit and value to your audience. Remember,
they're asking "WIIFM" (What's In It For Me?). It's only in discovering and
finding value in "what's in it for them" that they'll even care about what you
do and the service that you provide. Provide value and begin to create that
relationship first--then you'll start to create a customer.
4. Provide content in your workshop that only remotely resembles what was
promised. One of the workshops I attended was supposed to be about
selling yourself and your ideas in and out of your organization. It ended up
being a workshop on presentation and communication skills, and while I can draw
the connecting lines to determine the relevance, there was no bridge given to
help me make the connection. Therefore, I left the workshop feeling
short-changed. Clearly define the outcomes and benefits you expect your
attendees to receive from participating, and deliver what you promise.
5. Keep your presentation somber and serious. One of the
deadliest mistakes you can make is to not joke around and have fun with your
audience. Granted, if you make really bad jokes, this can bomb on you, but
think of ways to interject humor into your presentation. One of the best
presentations I've attend lately was given by Tony Brigmon, who is the
Ambassador of Fun (isn't that a cool job title?) for Southwest Airlines. He had
all 250 people in the room rolling in the floor. His topic was on how to make
meetings fun, and he did that and then some. You can read more about Tony at
www.funmeetings.com
6. Don't provide any mechanism for participants to contact you.
I was completely amazed yesterday--only one presenter had any handouts and
provided any way to reach her if I wanted to do business with her. Another of
the presenters had a table in the back of the room with her books for sale and
business cards on it, but you had to be persistent and wade through the sea of
150 women exiting the room to get there. Provide something for your presenters
to reach you in the future--a one-page handout, a business card, a special page
on your website where they can download materials. Give them some reason to
think about you again.
7. Don't have any way to stay in contact with those who attended your
workshop. My second point of amazement was that not a single presenter
did anything to collect the contact info of any participant. This is something
you should be doing at any presentation you make, so negotiate for the right to
do it even if the conference organizers frown upon the practice. My sole goal
in speaking is to get participants to sign up for my newsletter. In order to
collect that info, I do a drawing and say that if they'd like to sign up for my
mailing list, they can participate in the drawing. I then award a door prize or
two, depending on the size of the audience. I have a check-off box so they can
indicate if they'd like to receive my newsletter or get more info about my
coaching gym. If it's a group with business cards, I'll ask them to put an N on
the back to receive my newsletter and a C on the back if they want more info
about coaching. I then enter their names into my contact database (if it's a
large number, I hire someone to do this for me) and then follow up with them by
email. If the person doesn't have email, s/he is probably not an ideal client
for me, but I do hang onto the address, as I do about 4 snail mailings per year
to my contact database.
The one aspect of the workshops that all the presenters aced was to end their
presentation with an uplifting story. Borrow a story if you don't have one, but
make it one that's happened to you personally or one from your clients that you
have permission to share -- those are much more powerful. Start speaking
locally, and see how your business begins to expand!
(c) 2009 Donna Gunter
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Internet Marketing Automation
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous
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results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by
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