If you’re using speaking to market your practice, you’ve likely experienced this scenario:
You leave your talk really excited, because at the end of your talk, six of the ten attendees checked the box on your evaluation form that said, “Yes, I want to meet with you!” But then that excitement turns into frustration when you send three emails and make two phone calls to everyone, and only one person calls you back to schedule. You then spend the next month chasing down the remaining five prospects, with nothing to show for it. Now you’re wondering, “Is speaking worth it?”
Your goal: Attendees sign up for your offer on the spot
If you’ve experienced this disappointment, you are not alone! This is one of the most common complaints advisors have about speaking to gain appointments. But there is a simple way to avoid this dynamic: Become 100% committed to signing people up for appointments on the spot (right after your presentation ends).
Unless your host won’t allow it, or you have a solid, strategic reason why you don’t want to sign people up on the spot, your goal with each and every presentation should be to walk out with appointments set on your calendar. No more of this, “We’ll follow up with you later” stuff!
Simply asking people to check a box to meet with you often doesn’t work. Let’s face it: most people do not wake up and think, “I really hope someone offers me an appointment today!” In this overscheduled world, no one wants another appointment on the books. If your goal is to set appointments from your talks, you must know how to package your “appointment” so it’s irresistible to your audience.
For example, although no one wants an appointment or consultation, they very well may want a “Charitable Gifting Strategy Session” or a “Send Your Kids to College Without Going Broke Discovery Session.” The key here is to name your appointment as something your client actually wants and then give them two or three tangible benefits they will receive from meeting with you. When my clients do this, they see a dramatic increase in the number of appointments they set. And so will you.
Imagine how much your business could grow
Signing prospects up on the spot dramatically increases the number of appointments you get from each talk. Plus, it will free you and your back office from having to chase people down, which is a total time, energy and confidence drainer.
A few years ago, I gave a talk, and afterward, 45 people signed up on the spot for a meeting with me. From the 45 meetings, 15 joined my Crazy Good Talks training program, resulting in more than $90k in new-client revenue.
At that same talk, 15 other attendees who didn’t have their calendars with them said they wanted to meet with me and asked me to “follow up” with them after the talk. My team did, and guess how many of the 15 actually signed up for an appointment? One! And that was after following up five times!
Can you see how much revenue we would have lost had we not scheduled the other 45 appointments on the spot? Not to mention that fewer advisors would get the opportunity to benefit from our services. I shudder to think about it.
The barrier that keeps advisors from signing people up on the spot
One thing that stops many advisors from signing people up on the spot is the fear of making an offer for their services when they speak.
Maybe this has happened to you: You give a talk, but you “don’t have time” to make an offer. Or maybe you do make an offer, but it comes out like a mumbled apology.
If that has happened to you, you’re not alone. I get it because, believe it or not, I used to do that, too.
Let’s face it—it’s very uncomfortable to give a talk when you go from educator at the beginning to salesperson at the end. You fear you’re going to come off salesy, and nobody wants that. But here’s the good news: You can get comfortable making offers. In fact, you must because making the offer consistently and then signing people up on the spot is what will bring in clients and grow your business when you speak.
You can take baby steps toward this outcome. It took me years to get comfortable with it. The key is that I was always willing to do the next thing I needed to get past this fear. I hope you’ll do that, too.
Recognize and believe that your offer will benefit people
The first step to overcoming fear is to change your mindset.
I’m sure you know the power your mind has over your reality. The way you look at things can determine if you succeed or fail. Until now, your mindset may have been, “Ugh! I hate making offers” or “I’m pestering people” or “I don’t want to sound like I’m selling to them, and I don’t want to make them uncomfortable; I want them to like me.” That mindset will get you nowhere fast.
Here’s the mindset you want to embrace if you want to fully reap the rewards speaking can offer.
When you don’t make an offer, you are letting your audience down. You are leaving them flapping in the wind, wondering, “Great, what do I do next?”
Here’s an example: I was on a webinar recently about list building. It was getting close to the 60-minute mark, yet the speaker had not yet made an offer. I started to worry! I was worried because list building is going to be a major focus for my biz over the next three years, and I need a mentor to show me how to do it. But the speaker’s 75-minute webinar alone was not going to do the job.
So, when the speaker had not yet made an offer, I was thinking, “Great…what am I going to do now? I need her to offer me a next step! If she doesn’t, I’m going to have to try to figure this out on my own, and that seems impossible.”
Thankfully, she finally did offer a next step, which I purchased. I’m glad I had that experience because it reminded me of how my clients feel. That’s also how yours feel when you give them great information but then leave them flapping in the wind with no next step to take with you. Just like that speaker’s amazing 75-minute webinar was not going to give me all I needed, your 30- to 60-minute talk cannot give your audience all they need. They need more of you and your expertise.
Let your audience members ‘taste’ your unique offering
Think of your favorite restaurant. Imagine you’re at a cooking demonstration at this restaurant, and you’re excited. You want to learn everything the chef has to teach you. As he’s making the food, your mouth starts watering. His culinary masterpieces look so delicious! You’re thinking about the dinner party you’re going to have and how your guests are going to love your food. But when you get to the end of the demonstration, you realize two things:
- “Oh, wow…they’re not going to tell me where I can get this secret sauce they’ve been talking about all night—the one that goes into all these dishes to make them over the top.
- “They’re not going to let me taste the food!”
If that happened, how would you feel? I’m guessing you would feel cheated. And maybe ripped off. When it comes to your talks, of course, you are the chef.
Let’s say you give a great talk. You give your audience some practical tips for improving their lives and their businesses, but you leave out the next step. You leave out the secret sauce. You don’t allow them to “taste” what you’re talking about by offering them something. You’re actually cheating them.
I want to encourage you to look at your offer as helping people, not hurting them. View it as giving them something versus taking something. At first, you might have to be intentional about reminding yourself that this is your new mindset. But gradually, over time, you will adopt this mindset.
It is important for you to realize that when people don’t take you up on your offer, they’re not saying “No” to you; they’re saying “No” to themselves. They’re saying “No” to giving themselves the transformation you’re offering. That might be because they’re not in the right place for it, they don’t believe they can attain it, or it’s really not for them.
A new mindset can result in more appointments immediately
One time, one of my audience members listened to this analogy and really allowed it to soak in. She was able to change her mindset overnight. She went out a few days after she heard this and gave a talk with the perspective of that new mindset. She called me and left me this really excited voicemail saying, “Oh, my gosh, this works! I sold more books than ever before! It felt so great!”
I believe the same thing can happen for you.
I want to encourage you to embrace this way of thinking about making offers because it will make a dramatic difference in your ability to get out there and make offers—not just from the stage, but when you talk with people one-on-one, too. The bottom line is that your attitude is either your greatest hindrance or your greatest asset in building your business through speaking. Please spend time cultivating a mindset that will enable you to optimize the number of appointments you make when you give talks.