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7 Deadly Sins to Avoid When You're the Guest Speaker
Copyright 2005 Donna Gunter
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!
About the author:
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed
professionals make more profit in less time online. To sign up
for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE ebook,
TurboCharge Your Productivity: 50 + Tools To Help You Automate
Your Business and Make More Profit in Less Time Online!, visit
her site at http://www.OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com .
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