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When Joe Hockey said that poor people don’t have cars and don’t drive as far he was technically correct. But that doesn’t mean he will win the argument.
The way you structure your message to market will determine if you are successful or not. Joe leaves out the most important element and therefore will never win. This is important in any public speaking situation, and even in one-on-one communication situations.
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Want to know if people are engaged in what your Boss is saying at your next team meeting? You’ll notice this after a report has taken about 3-4 minutes to deliver.
When your boss/colleague/whoever has finished talking observe how others MOVE. Do they start moving at the same time, shifting their weight from side-to-side, moving their whole body as though they have just woken up? If they do, there is a good chance they have just woken up – or at least come out of a trance.
This happens when your voice becomes monotone. When it is monotone it becomes hypnotic. In the way that a good hypnotist will relax you into a trance with their voice, you can do the same to your team if you are not careful
You can avoid this by varying your voice in speed, volume, tone and even just pausing……………mid sentence. It does not matter how interesting your message is, if it is delivered without energy and enthusiasm it will disengage your team.
Now I know that this does not happen when you speak, but it will for others at your meeting
Last weekend I attended a conference where the presenters would just not stop talking. Each person on the agenda felt they had a duty to congratulate the last and next speaker for the job they had done. Then there were other speakers who to 20 minutes to say what could have been said in 5.
What was the result of this? because there were so many speakers (5 in 20 minutes) the whole event lacked rhythm. We could not settle into the speakers and listen to the message they had. It was like trying to watch TV with the ads coming thick and fast. Those that did have extended times to speak lacked substance and the audience stopped listening.
What is the solution?
Make sure that every person who gets up to speak will add value to the event message and deliver value to the audience. If they don’t add value, do they really need to speak? Just because someone can speak, doesn’t mean that they should. As the great philosopher Groucho Marx put it, ‘Very few sinners are saved after the first 20 minutes of a sermon.’
Cheers
Darren Fleming
When you are speaking, you are selling.
You could be selling your latest widget to your next customer, your ideas to your staff, or selling yourself in your annual performance review. What ever it is, you are selling.
But the reality is the results that you achieve will be a direct result of how well you present your ideas, as opposed to how good your ideas are. The world is full of bad ideas that were sold correctly, while the good ideas die with their creator.
If you want to sell more products, if you want your staff to listen to you, or if you want to be able to get that pay rise, you need to be able to sell your ideas, and sell them well.
Recorded in front of a live audience, in this audio will give you the reasons why you need to:
The one thing you must remember at the start of every presentation so your audience will listen to you
At just $15, this could just be the best investment you make in your next Business Presentation.
Get it now
With today’s economy in a constant state of flux, it is important to get the biggest bang for your buck – marketing bucks included. You have to spend your money wisely.
The good news is, that you can get a lot of high quality, well targeted and free marketing if you want it … and this is how you do it.
Each night, literally hundreds of professional associations have meetings. These events are generally networking events for the industry and they are well attended. At these meetings, there is some ‘general business’ that the members need to hear. After this, there is the guest speaker who is there to share their knowledge on a particular topic. These guest speakers have a captive audience for 30 minutes and can set themself up as THE exert. Would you like to be that expert?
Here is an example of how it works:
You are a lawyer wanting to generate business in the Energy sector (gas, electricity etc). First, you need to find the hottest topic that the sector should know about – in this case it would be the governments Carbon Trading system. Then find the industry association that the decision makers belong too. You then simply call the associations’ President and ask if their members would be interested in an information session explaining the implications of the new legislation. It really is that simple. As most professional associations need to have a focus on member education and development, you are ideal for their needs.
Now, on the night, you are not selling anything. Obviously the name of your firm would be mentioned, and you may have some information sheets for people to take away, but that is it. You do not stand up and say how good you and your firm are. If you do this, it will kill any potential for business that you could generate.
Instead, what you do is generate lots and lots of questions in your audiences’ mind so they will want to talk to you after your presentation. Once you are talking, you can ask for their number and follow them up over the next few days. It really is that easy.
What are the benefits of this approach?
The content should not be too hard for you to come up with; after all you are speaking about what you do for a living. You are speaking to a self-selected audience who want to hear you. And because you are standing in front of the room, you are automatically seen as the expert. This is what you want.
I guarantee that this approach will work for any professional who knows their target market. The only cost to you will be your time … and you may just get a free drink out of it!
Give it a go, and let me know how you get on.
Cheers
Darren
A client recently asked me, ‘How do I share my successes without looking like a know it all?’
This was a fair question. Peter had taken a business from near bankruptcy to one of the best performing businesses in his industry. Out of 1300 businesses, he was ranked 27th and is the only business that was growing while all others were shrinking. He was concerned that if he stood up and said ‘this is what we have achieved and this is how I did it’ he would sound like a know-it-all. And would be right.
How could he overcome this problem?
One of the best ways to overcome this problem is to change the focus of your message. Don’t focus on what you did, but rather focus on the process you implemented and what it achieved; make the process the hero.
Let me explain.
Peters’ industry had a massive legislation change that caused a big drop (15-18%) in revenue across all businesses except his. He experienced 10% growth. The reason he had the growth was he set himself up for the growth and told his team to expect it.
But if he stood up at his industry meetings and spoke about his successes he would be seen as lucky or a know-it-all.
So Peter and I worked on making the processes the hero and not him. We identified the processes he set up that enabled his success. He then spoke about the success that process had. This change – though subtle – was enough to take the focus off him. It was still clear that he instigated and drove the process but it was not about him being the hero. The process was now the hero.
How can you apply this in your work? Instead of telling others what you have done, tell them what the processes you implemented have achieved. Tell the benefits that have been gained by using the process. This will take the focus away from you being the hero and enable you to share your successes with out being a know it all.
Cheers
Darren Fleming
Speak Motivate and Lead: How Real Leaders inspire others to follow
This blog was not created to show people how to become wealthy public speakers. There are plenty of public speaking blogs out there that can do that.
However, I recently came across this piece of advice from Patricia Fripp, a San Francisco based public speaking coach. They points are great and should be spread. You can get more of Patricia Fripps insights here.
Everything in life is about marketing. Weather you are trying to sell an idea at work or your services as a speaker you need to understand what you have to offer others. Below are some points that will help.
Successful marketing means that you identify prospective clients and position yourself in the market so they choose you over your competition. When I sit down with clients who want to position their marketing, I seek the answers to four basic questions:
1. WHO IS YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENT?
Who wants to buy or could be stimulated to want to buy? Who is in a position to buy what you sell? What geographical and financial factors affect this ability? A good way to identify future clients is to listen
— really listen — to those you have now. Their comments, especially negative ones, will help you tailor both your product and your approach to other prospects.
2. WHY WILL THEY WANT TO BUY?
What emotional and physical factors will influence them? I just worked with an east coast psychiatrist who ran a practice with ten other psychiatrists and wanted to position herself. Our conversations quickly disclosed that her community was predominantly upwardly mobile professionals. Many of the women had delayed having children. Due to fertility drugs, a high percentage of families had twins, triplets, or more. We decided to focus her practice on these families, the first practice in the area to do that. How did we do this? First, we realized her potential audience was geographical, that is, in her community rather than regional, national or international. These prospects had distinctive demographics. By appealing to a unique aspect, we hit on her core group. She’s now hugely successful in her practice.
3. WHAT ANGLE SHOULD YOU TAKE? How is your product or service unique?
Why is it perfect for your target audience? How is it different from everyone else’s? How will it fulfill your core group’s needs in a way that no one else can? This is positioning yourself in the market.
(Remember how Avis advertised, “We try harder.”) As an example, when other advertising consultants do presentations, they talk about budgets, print versus TV, soft versus hard sell. I position myself by emphasizing that you start by targeting your audience, positioning your product, and creating distinctive selling propositions. Lots of mom-and-pop businesses, confronted by super stores, can’t compete or even survive unless they find a unique niche to fill.
4. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SELL IT?
We all know people with great ideas, products, and inventions. They spend a fortune developing this product, but it sits there because they have no idea what to do with it. Is there a system in place to put your product in the customers’ hands and return their money to you? Or do you need to create one?
Cheers
Darren Fleming
Australian Public Speaking courses
I have just finished a great book on public Speaking, The Nuts and Bolts of Public Speaking. The author Craig Valentine is the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking and a highly paid keynote speaker in the US.
What sets this book apart from others is that it focuses on the basics. From speech structure to how to use the rule of three to gte your point across with more impact, this book has it all.
There is one fantastic section that I loved. It was on finding the magical moments from your own life that will bring your speech alive. These are the parts of your speech that the audience will hang off. Despite what we think, we all have an enormous amount of stories that we can draw upon to help us illustrate our points. This section is well worth the cost of the book alone.
If this book could be improved anywhere, it is that there is no index or detailed table of contents. This is a great reference book, but the lack of an index makes it difficult to reference!
Over all, a great book, and you can order a copy from Craig here. Just tell him I sent you.
‘Til next time.
Cheers
Darren Fleming
I get a lot of enquiries through my website on how to market your speaking skills. Below are some ideas that I have used recently.
The first thing you need to do is to get out and start speaking. It does not matter if you are speaking at a Toastmasters Club, Rostrum Club or cards club, just get out and practice! This will give you the experience that you need to market yourself.
Once you have from this circuit, you can hit the Rotary circut. Rotary clubs are great to speak to for the following reason:
So how do you go about approaching Rotary clubs? It is simple. Just follow the steps below and you will be fine.
Hello,
My name is <insert name here>and I am a local speaker.
Could you please advise who I would need to speak to about being a guest speaker at one of your club meetings.
Cheers
<insert name>
That’s all you need to do. Send this e-mail to every club within 90 minutes drive of your house. (If you think that is too far, I suppose you don’t want to be a speaker! If you think that having 2 kinds under 3, both you and your partner working full-time and having to get up at 5 to get there is a problem, deal with it!)
4. Keep track of the contact names, e-mail addresses and club names. Not everyone will get back to you straight away. After a month, follow up those that have not got back to you.
5. The final reason you would want to get out and do the Rotary circuit is that you get a free meal and a pen as well!
What do you say? Check some of the other posts such as Understanding your Audience and marketing your speaking skills
But if you really want to a step-by-step guide, you need to get the MP3 How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today. In this audio you will get everything you need to get started – including an example of a live Rotary Speech. I will literally be your coach on how to get your first gig. Get How to Start Your Public Speaking Career Today.
Getting out and marketing yourself as a speaker really is that easy. The speaking circuit is full of people who do not have a message as good as yours, but are marketing themselves better than you are. In 12 months time, do you want to be sitting down annoyed that you let another 12 months go by before you got out and did something?
‘Til next time.
Cheers
Darren Fleming
0422 670 659
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