4hb.com :
Communicate
:
Speaking Your Way to Success
By Monique Harris
According to a survey by Trend Trackers 2000, a consulting firm
in Los Angeles, California, fear of speaking in front of crowds
is the second most popular phobia among business people. This
is in spite of the fact that those in the communications
consulting industry grossed over $150 million dollars last year.
So what does this mean to those business folks who aren't
afraid to talk their talk on stage? Why good news of course.
Good speakers are acknowledged as experts in their fields, thus
obtaining customers becomes easier. Plus they can count on
making as much as $500,000 more each year on speaking
engagements, in addition to their regular businesses. And
lastly, speaking is one of the cheapest, yet most effective
marketing methods you can employ. You can cover much more
ground by holding a mini-seminar for 25 prospects, instead of
seeing each one individually.
Below you'll find several tips for speaking your way to new
business. And for those of you who can't stand the thought of
speaking in front of a crowd, this first one's for you:
* Send Prospects Audio Seminars. You fidget, jingle the
change in your pocket, twist in your hair or tap your foot when
faced with the task of giving a speech in front of some people.
A simple solution for you is to send out an audio cassette with
your own mini-seminar on it, to prospects.
Think about it, everybody sends out direct mailings. But often
times they just get trashed by their receivers. People will
rarely throw out an envelope that has something in it like a
cassette. The curiosity factor just gets the best of them.
Even if they just browse through the rest of your materials,
they'll be 60% more likely to listen to at least half of a
cassette.
You can use any previously written articles that you've done.
Or if you've written a book, report or newsletter, you can use
this material as well.
Whatever you do, make sure that it's 98% information you record
or people won't listen to it all the way through. And should you
develop a series of five or more audio cassettes, you can always
sell them for extra revenue.
* Sign-up With Existing Seminar Companies. If you already
have an interesting idea for a seminar, but you don't want to
take the risk of laying out your own money to promote it, why
not sign-up with an existing seminar company.
You come to the table with your expertise, they do everything
else from promoting it, handling registrations, travel and so
on. You may be required to sign some sort of contract saying
that you will only present your seminar through their company
and you may also be on the road a lot, but most presenters make
between $50,000-100,000 a year and upwards depending on the
topic.
* Offer Free Talks to Chambers of Commerce. Most Chambers
offer a selection of meetings, expo's and talks throughout the
year, however many are starved for quality speakers.
It helps if you're already a member, however you can still
pitch your idea without being one. An advantage of being a
member though is that you will receive a membership directory
listing all the member's names, companies, addresses and so on.
This is an excellent tool for building a mailing list and
sending out follow-up materials after your presentation.
* Sponsor Your Own Free Seminars. People enjoy going to
seminars, but even better, they love going to free seminars!
Offering a free seminar can be the perfect open door for selling
your products and services as well.
Most free seminars are only an hour or two in length and it
helps if you have some sort of light finger foods like cookies
and coffee. You can offer your seminar at a local hotel or at
your office. There are also office support centers in many
areas that rent out conference rooms by the hour. I happen to
live in an apartment complex that has its own community center
which they rent out by the hour. Many apartment, condominium
and townhouse complexes also have a similar type of center.
Be sure to have some sort of hand-out for your attendees. This
can be a summary of your talk along with any promotional
information about your company. And spare some time after your
seminar to chat with your audience. People sometimes have
questions that they don't necessarily want to express in front
the entire audience.
* Teach a Class. In almost every community there are at least
one or two community colleges, and in larger cities there are
also adult education centers like the franchised Learning Annex.
These centers of learning are always on the look-out for quality
teachers. Simply call them up and request a catalog of classes
to see if your topic is already taken.
Although these teaching positions typically don't pay much,
they do offer excellent exposure. Underneath the description of
the class there's usually of brief bio of the teacher. This bio
can include company name, any recent accomplishments, prominent
clients, books or publications written and so on.
Sometimes people who can't attend your class will still contact
you and use your services based solely on that bio. Sometimes
the bio alone can bring in just as much, if not more, business
than actually teaching the class!
Although the typical credo among business people is that it
takes money to make make money, by using your speaking skills to
enhance your marketing efforts you can easily increase your
profits without breaking the bank.
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-- Monique Harris, that's me, is the president of Marketing
Moguls, a Greenbelt, Maryland based marketing and public
relations firm for businesses and authors who want to market
their products and services both on and offline. I am also the
author of "How to Make Yourself Famous in 6 Months or Less,"
which offers dozens of revenue enhancing promotional tactics
from the mundane to the outrageous. If you should have any
marketing, promotional or public relations questions, please
feel free to drop me an e-mail. You can reach me via e-mail at:
monique@connectionbank.com.
Stay amazing folks!
Monique
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