I’ve been using public speaking as a marketing strategy throughout my whole corporate life and now as an entrepreneur. I learned early how powerful public speaking is. The world is speeding up and there will be a time when each one of you will be asked to speak, whether for your business or for another purpose.
Congratulations for learning this so you can be ready when you’re called upon.
I really like having some time off, don’t you? Here are five tools you can use with public speaking to triple your income and double your time off.
Five Tools to Increase Your Income and Time Off
1. Speak More Often.
If you want to make more money and have more time off, you’ve got to get in front of more people more often! Public speaking is the number one way to do this, but you can also speak on webinars, teleconferences, and podcasts. The most important thing to do is to get out there and speak to more people.
Make a goal. Speak once or twice a week. The more you do, the faster it works. If you get in front of 25 people once a week, that’s 100 people a month that you would normally not meet. If you use social media – keep doing that. I’m talking about adding public speaking as a marketing strategy. If you closed two people per week, that’s eight new people per month. How much money will that be for you in your business? What is the lifetime of one client– $100,000? And you didn’t do anything but speak for 20 minutes and “poof!” — two new clients.
2. Gain Visibility.
The reason that public speaking works so well is because you gain visibility. People must see you, and experience you, before they decide if they want to do business with you. They want an experience, not a lecture or a presentation. They want to feel things. You need to be alive in front of them, pour your love and energy into them, and receive theirs. The energy goes both ways.
3. Build trust and rapport first!
Think of it like when you were dating. You took your time, you went out to dinner, you talked about things you liked, and you made connections. Like attracts like in every relationship. You’re selling yourself to each other. You take your time. You send an email, make a phone call, go out again, and then it’s a full-on date. Eventually, you fall in love.
That’s what is missing with businesspeople these days. Speed networking doesn’t work any more than speed dating works. Take your time with your audience to build rapport and trust.
A simple way to build rapport is to go to the event early and meet people. Call them by name. There’s nothing sweeter than saying someone’s name. When you are rapport building, if you say five names, it works! That’s all. New people who know you know their names will become your friends. Pull them into your presentation. At one point, someone raises their hand and you say, “yes, Bob.” I’ll pull out someone I know, and I might say, “Now, Mary, if someone told you this, what do you think is coming?” She responds. Not only did I build rapport with Mary, but I’ve also built rapport with everyone.
Be aware of your audience so you’re feeling what they’re feeling. Some speakers can’t even tell if their audience is bored. I ask, “Are you having fun?” “Is this good stuff?” “Is this fun?” “Is it hot in here?” Connect with your audience.
Have great eye contact. You’d be surprised how many speakers look over the heads of their audience. Make sure that you’re consciously looking at people, for at least three or four seconds–contact, connect, communicate, continue. Anything longer than that and you’d be staring. Don’t make them feel uncomfortable.
4. Use words that sell.
Use visible words or connect with emotional words. When you say “house,” there is no connection, but when you say “home,” you connect emotionally. When you talk about money, don’t say “profit,” because they can’t see that. If you say, “a mountain full of money,” they can see that. Be creative and use word pictures. What are some other words that sell?
What are the benefits? People only want what they want. They want more money, better health, and better relationships. Concentrate on those things! Then, go beyond – find the benefit of the benefits. Is it more clients, more income, or more time off to spend time with my grandson? Keep asking yourself. So many people stop at the first benefit. What is the benefit of what you do? Now they can emotionally connect with you.
5. Close to the next step.
We’ve talked about the close, and really, it’s quite simple. It doesn’t have to be scary. Don’t avoid it. It helps people and helps you to triple your income. Forget about selling right now. If you’re not comfortable with it, then don’t sell. You’re not selling from the stage; you’re getting an appointment.
What is the next step in your business? Don’t try to move people to buy in one move and one day. You’ve got to build rapport, take them through your process. I can trace several of my clients back to where they came from. Chances are this was not my first touch. There are many touches in between.
Collect business cards and warm leads. This has been very effective for me. I went from 0 to 12,000 in nine years. I do not speak unless I can collect business cards. I use it every single time. The money is in the database. It can continue to build your business and make you a ton of money.
Set appointments. After your talk, when the hot leads come back to talk to you, don’t answer their questions. The strategy is to get them to the next step. Call them within 24 hours and set an appointment.
Ask for referrals. Maybe for your kind of business, you only want select people. You can ask for referrals. I was part of this professional networking group, and we couldn’t directly solicit business, but we could ask for referrals. Whenever possible, ask for referrals to speaking engagements.
Sell from the platform – if you’re ready. I recommend that once you have done 200 speeches you can sell from the stage. Put your mind at ease that nobody expects you to get out there and sell. I do expect you to have an invitation to the next step. You absolutely need to have a next step.
I’ve seen so many speakers lose business because they didn’t time their speech and ran out of time. Practice one hour for every two minutes of your speech. I practice every presentation and training before I go out and speak. I put in the time. It’s not because it comes naturally. It’s because I practice, and I continue! That’s how you become a speaker and create the lifestyle you want.
Follow up to get the business. I’ve seen so much business lost because people don’t follow up. You need a way that is easy and automatic. For instance, when I speak, I make sure I have the next morning open so that I can make phone calls to my hot leads. Bring the cards home; when someone comes and talks to me, I fold the corner of the card so I know it’s a hot prospect. Once I get them on the phone, I find out what they want to do about speaking, then I can do this service for them. I don’t even know if I can help them or not until I talk to them.
If you have an assistant set up the “discovery call,” make sure the people have a set time to call you back. This way there’s some buy-in and commitment on their part. I make sure that they know that the value of our call is worth $250. I set it up so that they value the call and show up.
Send out cards to touch your audience once more. You can also send out emails, but people don’t see that oftentimes. I will even snail mail them. The main point is to follow up. It takes more than one follow-up to get a client to triple your business. It takes 7-8 touches before they give in. Show that you really want to work with them.
These are five tools you can use to triple your business and double your time off.
Build Your Skills
In order to use these five tools, you need to work on your speaking and selling skills. I’m happy to give you the guidance to get you there faster. Let’s hop on a Zoom call together and get you what you need. Here is my calendar link https://calendly.com/arveerobinson/30min find a time that works for you.
I look forward to supporting you to increase your income and have the time off you deserve.
