Public speaking spots are a great way to get attention for ourselves and what we sell. This is mass prospecting on steroids. The key notion here is we are selling ourselves rather than our solution in detail. This is an important delineation. We want to outline the issue and tell the audience what can be done, but we hold back on the “how” piece. This is a bit tricky, because the attendees are looking for the how bit, so that they can apply it to fix their issues by themselves. We don’t want that because we don’t get paid. We are here to fix their problem, not for them to DIY (Do It Yourself) their way to a solution.
All selling is public speaking and presentations skills. However, very few salespeople are trained as speakers or presenters. This is incongruous, isn’t it? We need to be able to present to the one person in front of us or to hundreds of prospects all gathered together at an event.
First of all, we are selling our personal brand and then by extension the solution we are representing. That is the correct order and just jumping to the solution won’t work. Buyers buy us first and then what we sell. We all know we can’t do good business with a bad guy or gal and our talk is a due diligence process to see if we can be trusted.
The dumb way to sell from stage is to provide all of the content up front and then come in at the end with the shiny sales pitch. There is a discernable break in the flow and the audience braces themselves for the pitch. This isn’t the way to do it. We need to be interspersing our pitch throughout the talk, so there is no discernable shifting of gears by the speaker. This way, there is nothing to brace against or push back on.
The way to do this is to determine what are the key problems and fears confronting the audience. We have the fix for these and can be a trusted partner for them. Once we have determined what are the key problems, we construct our talk to address all the most high priority needs in the time allotted.
The talk is broken up into specific chapters, rotating around the key issues. We need to create hooks, which will grab the attention of the listeners. In each chapter, we outline the downside of not doing anything about fixing the problem we have raised. We also talk about what needs to be done to fix it, but we don’t reveal how to fix it. To get the point to register with the buyers, we pose rhetorical questions about what will happen if they don’t take action to deal with it. We are painting a dismal picture for them of the future ramifications of leaving the mess as it is.
The fact that we understand the problem in detail tells the audience we are an expert in this area. If we have some visible proof of our expertise, all the better. We might point them to our books, blogs, podcasts or our video shows. Today, all of these things are much easier to pull off than ten years ago. For example, Amazon prints my books one at a time if I request it and so no garage is full of unsold books, which used to be the reality for most authors.
Today, creating blogs and pushing them out through social media gives us credibility at almost no cost. The same with podcasts and videos. There might be some small cost to recording the shows and hosting podcasts on a platform like I use with LibSyn, but really the cost is marginal. YouTube hosts my videos and it is free. Our mobile phones provide amazing quality for recording video and video editing software is not prohibitively expensive. Editing things yourself is possible in a way it wasn’t before.
This means we can project our expertise beyond the physical limits of the stage. Let me give you a case study. Please go to LinkedIn and find my page. You will see I am posting all the time on three subjects – leadership, sales and presentations. If you scroll down through the feed, you will just see over three thousand posts. My prospective buyers don’t need to read them all, but they can see there is a substantial collection of my expertise there. They can read what I publish and check it for themselves, whether it is good enough or not. This substantially bolsters my personal brand. It also allows the buyers to follow up after the talk, to check me out further before they buy what I am selling. For risk averse buyers, this is very important.
By incorporating the key hooks into the talk itself, using well-crafted questions to create fear that they may have trouble if they don’t fix a problem we have flagged, we eliminate any resistance against what we are selling. When there is an obvious transition from sharing information to now selling, there is a large barrier created between the speaker and the audience. They are thinking, “I love to buy, but I hate being sold. Now I am getting the hard sell by this speaker”. Doing it the way I have outlined, we never have any barrier, because we have been working the crowd all the way through the talk.
If our questions hit the mark, they will want to know the “how” from us, after we have sold them the “why” and the “what”. We are aiming to create two concerns: 1. We haven’t considered that possibility and 2. We have not prepared for that possibility. If we are successful in doing this, then we will get sales. We have caused them to self-discover their own needs without us forcing it down their throats. This is ideal in sales.
Would the people who know you or meet you describe you as persuasive? Do you think you are persuasive enough? Persuasion power is the most important, but the most commonly lacking skill in the business world. Do it yourself trial and error wastes time and resources. It is time to change things up and get that key skill. There is a perfect solution for you- to LEARN MORE click here (https://bit.ly/3VhvR2B )
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About The Author
Dr. Greg Story, President Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training
Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com
Bestselling author of “Japan Sales Mastery” (the Japanese translation is "The Eigyo" (The営業), “Japan Business Mastery” and "Japan Presentations Mastery" and his new books "How To Stop Wasting Money On Training" and the translation "Toreningu De Okane Wo Muda Ni Suru No Wa Yamemashoo" (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのは止めま
Dr. Greg Story is an international keynote speaker, an executive coach, and a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. He leads the Dale Carnegie Franchise in Tokyo which traces its roots straight back to the very establishment of Dale Carnegie in Japan in 1963 by Mr. Frank Mochizuki.
He publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
Has 6 weekly podcasts:
1. Mondays - The Leadership Japan Series,
2. Tuesdays – The Presentations Japan Series
Every second Tuesday - ビジネス達人の教え
3. Wednesdays - The Sales Japan Series
4. Thursdays – The Leadership Japan Series
Also every second Thursday - ビジネスプロポッドキャスト
5. Fridays - The Japan Business Mastery Show
6. Saturdays – Japan’s Top Business Interviews
Has 3 weekly TV shows on YouTube:
1. Mondays - The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show
Also every Second Thursday - ビジネスプロTV
2. Fridays – Japan Business Mastery
3. Saturdays – Japan Top Business Interviews
In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development.
Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making, become a 39 year veteran of Japan and run his own company in Tokyo.
Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate (糸東流) and is currently a 6th Dan.
Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.
