Get Booked for Speaking Challenge

“Loud and Proud” business owners make time to meet people, share their knowledge, write and just reach out to people. They are friendly and always project themselves in a pleasant and polished way, always ready for a chance meeting or an unplanned conversation with a new potential client.

Here are a few other things “Loud and Proud” business owners do to to increase Business Influence and proclaim to the world that they have value to bring.

* You have a speaker sheet, identified groups where your ideal clients are gathered and you are connecting with those groups to become a public speaker to get clients.

*You host your own events to connect with your current and potential clients just let loose or create new business ties.

* You regularly host free webinars or teleclasses to impart your expertise with new people and grow your network.

* You seek out opportunities to be a regular radio show guest or even get your own segment.

Now that you have gotten some ideas on what the “Loud and Prouds” do, ask yourself what you are going to do to assert yourself. The louder and prouder you are about what you can offer, the more your business will thrive!

Do you want to build your business yet you don’t reach out to your clients in public about the value you can bring them?

Do you want to book more speeches to gain more clients and revenue for your business?

Here’s something you can do right now! 

Join the Get Booked for Speaking Challenge! Starts May 14th!

Why should you join the Get Booked for Speaking Challenge?

Because it is a fun way to focus on getting more speeches on your calendar!

And you will learn a lot and meet some great women entrepreneurs in the process.

What is the Get Booked for Speaking Challenge?

This is a 30 day virtual, online and over the phone event with the goal of having you get your calendar full with all the speech/teleclass and webinar bookings you want for the year.

When you join the Get Booked for Speaking Challenge 

You will have the positive energy, support and great tips to speak as often as you like.

By Caterina Rando, MCC

Public speaking can be scary, nerve racking at first, and even frightening. Eventually, anybody can give a good speech -and even a great speech. I assure you with experience and practice and, possibly, some good speech coaching, the day will come when speaking is as easy and as pleasurable as singing in the shower.

You’ll find eight important reasons in this article to start speaking to promote your business: http://www.attractclientswithease.com/articles/speakandsucceed.htm

Join us June 8th and 9th for the Sought After Speaker Two-Day Summit and make your business thrive. http://soughtafterspeaker.com/

Always have something to give to audience when you speak. Audience members will forget you when you walk out the door if they do not have a part of you to take home with them.

• In addition to information on the topic discussed, consider giving participants an article you have written on the topic. This makes you look like an expert. Always have your brochures and business cards displayed.

• When applicable include a flyer on your upcoming seminars or where you will be speaking next or any other event you would like to invite your audience to.

• Put your business name, address and phone number on the bottom of each sheet of paper you give your audience.

• Many speakers use an evaluation form to ask audience members for feedback on how their presentations can be improved. While you have to be pretty thick- skinned to do this, it can be very helpful.

• Design a sheet asking audience members for their contact information. Consider including qualifying questions to help you determine if you should follow up with an individual. For example “Do you or does your company use (fill in the blank with your product or service)?” or “Would you be interested in a complimentary consultation to discuss (fill in the blank with your product or service)?”

• To make sure everyone turns in their form, hold a drawing, give away one of your products or services.

• Consider making a special offer good only for a certain period of time for everyone in your audience. Give each person a customized coupon with the offer written on it. Or send them an electronic coupon after the event.

• Some savvy professionals give everyone in the audience a specialty item with their business information on it, such as a pen, a pad of paper or an eraser. You will make friends with your audience members when you give them freebies and if they keep this item on their you will be remembered.

Start with a few of these tips that seem right for you, then add a few more. Speaking is a skill that can take time to develop. The more you do it, the more clients it will bring you and, eventually, you will find that there is no place you would rather be than in front of an audience sharing your message. Enjoy.

For the full article on how to prepare and deliver a great speech, visit:

http://www.attractclientswithease.com/articles/deliveraspeech.htm

Join us June 8th and 9th for the Sought After Speaker Two-Day Summit and make your business thrive. http://soughtafterspeaker.com/

Everything you do in your business is either revenue producing or non-revenue producing. It is important to ask yourself, “what non-revenue producing and revenue producing activities can I get someone else on my team to do?” This is especially important to ask when non-revenue producing activities are taking away from revenue producing activities.

The Time=Dollars Equation

Determine your current time equals dollars equation. This tells you the dollar cost to attribute to your time. Figure out what a day and an hour are worth in your business. For example, if your goal is to generate $10,000 a month in gross revenue and the average month has 20 business days in it, each day would be worth $500.00, and each hour of an eight hour day is worth $62.50. If you are engaged in business activities that are worth less then $62.50 an hour, like data processing, bookkeeping, proofreading, filing, then you are losing money–especially when these activities are taking away from revenue producing activities. Know your time dollar equation to be better set up to make decisions in your business.

What is Your Time=Dollar Equation?

As you know, time is money. But how much money is your time worth? Let’s figure it out right now. Answer these questions:

What is your monthly revenue goal? __________

Divide that number by 20= _________ This is what a day is worth.

Divide that number by 8=  _________ This is what an hour is worth.

Sometimes we can be so busy we get in the way of our own success. How can that happen? Any time we perform an activity that is not the highest and best use of our professional time, we hold back our business. Become more aware of how you spend your time, spend more of it on revenue producing activities and watch your business thrive.

12. Write Checks

Money matters and it is a great way to let your clients know you are serious about them sending you lots of referrals. Offer them a referral commission. Make sure you have a commission schedule so that everyone gets the same commission. Everyone is excited when they get a check. Let your clients know what your commission structure is and remind them on a regular basis.

13. Provide Resources for Your Clients

It is your job to have great resources for your clients, period. This is aside from our referrals conversation. It is just the way you do business if you want your clients to succeed. You cannot tell them they need something and not have a vetted, trusted resource for them to go and get it.

When you help your clients succeed in other ways they see you as their go to resource. They will want you to be that for other people as well, which is why they will send you even more referrals.

14. Find Memorable and Personal Ways To Surprise Them with Your Generosity

This week I am taking some new clients for afternoon tea so we can all get to know each other better. As standard operating procedure, I take my clients to Neiman Marcus® for tea in their birthday quarter. In January I will add hosting a special dinner for clients who have sent me clients and referrals throughout the year. What are your consistent ways of being generous that result in your clients being on the look out for you? If you do not have any- it is time to create some.

15. Take a Genuine Interest In Your Clients

This might seem obvious and you might know it, however, are you doing it? Are you checking in with your clients between projects and during projects to see how they are doing? Do you really know what their challenges are and how you can help? What else can you do in this area?

16. Host a Clients Only Event/Clients Appreciation

For the first time this year I hosted what I decided will be my annual client appreciation event. I call it a Goals Gala, we have a goals workshop and then we have a party. A client appreciation event is a great way to show your appreciation.

17. Love Your Clients

Love is expressed in lots of ways, many of them listed above. It all starts in your heart. Where you make a conscious choice to care, to share, to express positive emotion and be in relationship with the people you serve.

The world, you, and your clients could all use more love.

In this four part series I have shared seventeen different ways to get more referrals from your existing clients. Take the ones that appeal to you the most and make a decision to implement them. Have a plan for getting more referrals and watch this plan work for you.

I have so much more for you to make your business thrive. Join me for my Business Breakthrough Summit where I will show you how to increase your influence, increase your revenue, and accelerate your path to a truly profitable and sustainable business. Our next summit is June 29^th and 30^th, Visit: http://www.bizbreakthrough.com

8. Ask Your Clients for Referrals

Guess what, your clients might appreciate you and the value you bring. However they are not thinking all through their day who is an ideal client for you. They will give it a second thought if you ask them for referrals. Ask them who they know, who would also benefit from your services. Ask for one or two referrals at a time and then follow up on those, appreciate your client for those and ask for more.

9. Acknowledge Your Clients Publically

Once is not enough to say thank you. Do it over and over. Do it from in front of the room at your events, do it in your newsletter or ezine, say thank you in your social media feed. If you have a physical office have a board posted where you thank the referral givers for the month. You cannot say thank you too many times. The more ways you can express your appreciation the better.

10. Appreciate Your Clients Privately

In addition to the public thank yous are the private thank yous. The phone call, the card, the quick conversation pulling someone aside to let them know how much it means to you. The more thank yous the better.

11. Give Gifts

For some clients, gifts are the thing that makes the most difference. A small token of your appreciation does make some people feel appreciated more than anything. I send boxes of thank you cards

A word of caution on gifts, know a person when making a gift selection. It is important for you to not send wine, or chocolate or strawberries, or tea or coffee without knowing if that person is a fan.

As a tea lover, I always feel so appreciated when someone sends me a fancy tea. When I get sent wine and coffee I feel not seen or acknowledged cause I do not drink either of those. When someone send me chocolate covered strawberries I just get sad cause I am allergic to strawberries.

My web developer Brian sent me a huge gift basket at the end of last year to thank me for referrals. It was the biggest thank you gift I ever got and I have to say it made me appreciate Brian and have more focus on sending him referrals them before. Gifts work.

Time for you to select which of these ideas you want to implement and put a system in place to do it consistently and you will find you have more referrals then ever before.

I have more for you on this topic, look for part four of this series.

I have so much more for you to make your business thrive. Join me for a Business Breakthrough Summit. Where I will expand your thinking to all the many things you can do to grow your client base and revenue with ease. Our next summit is June 29^th and 30^th, Visit: http://www.bizbreakthrough.com

Here are a few more key ways to increase your referrals from your existing clients:

4. Cultivate a Deeper and More Personal Relationship with Your Key Clients

One of the best things about serving your clients is that you get to meet some awesome people. Pay attention to the clients you want to get to know better, take them to lunch, invite a few of them over to get their opinion, be available if they want to talk on a more personal level. This is not only personally rewarding, it helps to ensure the long-term client relationship.

5. Invite Them to Go Where You Are Going

This is probably my favorite relationship building strategy of all. It is a great way to show you care and have fun while getting to know your client better. If you are going to a seminar, luncheon, fundraiser or even a concert or sports event that you know your client would enjoy, invite them to go with you. I would say the smart thing to do is pick up the tab to.

6. Be on The Look out for What Else Would Serve Your Clients

This is something I want to really emphasize with you, let me be clear it is your responsibility to have great resources for your clients. You cannot tell them they need a design upgrade, some SEO or better copywriting and not give them a great resource to support them. Be on the lookout for the resources your clients need and pay attention to who you can suggest to help them. You want them to thrive in every way not just in the way you serve them.

7. Refer Business To Your Clients

If you are a business that serves businesses one of the best ways to ensure your clients stay in business is to send them some clients. This also ensures their appreciation and loyalty. Do you know what your clients do? Can you be loud and proud about the value they bring? If not, it is time for you to find out so you can drop some clients on their lap.

I have so much more for you on this topic. Tune in tomorrow.

To really make your business thrive join me at my two-day Business Breakthrough Summit, an event designed to catapult your business. Get the details at http://www.bizbreakthrough.com

When a potential client comes to you through a current, happy client they are much more likely to start to work with you right away. This means you have a super short sales cycle and you had to invest almost no marketing dollars to add that new client. That is a good day.

Follow these steps to increase the number of referrals you receive from your existing clients to make your business thrive:

1. Educate Your Clients

Make sure your clients know the total scope of the services you offer. Keep them informed on new offerings and, of course, on successfully completed projects. Keep your website current, send them a link when you have something new or exciting to share.

2. Stay in Touch Consistently with Your Clients

Be sure to have systems in place to stay in touch with your clients to keep them informed. This happens with your newsletter, customer care calls, direct mail, special events on or off line, that you invite them to. Staying in touch is most important between projects to make sure they stick with you and do not get the urge to try a new vendor.

3. Connect with Them on Social Networks

Hopefully you are visible on social media daily. Yes, daily because consistency over time creates results. Make sure you have a strategy to your social media; that you are both providing value, sharing your wins, and letting people know how you can serve them. Make sure you are connected to your clients on LinkedIn and Twitter. Depending on your business and their business your clients may use Facebook for business and then you would also, only of they use it for business.

Here are a few important ideas to get you started. I have a lot more on this topic for you. Stop by the next few days for more on generating referrals from existing clients.

Do you have my audio on 10 Business Breakthrough? If not go to http://www.bizbreakthrough.com

Organizing Your Presentation

Keep in mind good business presentations are either informative or persuasive. The best business presentations are both. What persuades— stories, statistics, client examples, visual aids, and personal recollections?

Step 1: Know Your Desired Outcome

You have three objectives every time you present: to build your list, to share value, establish yourself as the expert, and to come home with clients.

Step 2: Formulate Your Opening

In the beginning of your speech you are making a case for your topic: why it is important and why the audience should be giving you their undivided attention.

When you address an audience you want to answer the questions that are foremost in their minds: Who are you and why should I listen to you? Therefore, open with a personal story or vignette from your business or life experience. Many stories or vignettes can be slightly adjusted to support any speech you are making.

Things to Avoid in Your Opening

Do not open your talk by saying “Thanks Bob, great to be here” or “Thank you for this opportunity…” or ” Basically…” or ” I want to start by saying…” Also, watch the speech fillers (ah, umm, so) in your opening.

Step 3: Preplan Your Primary Points

Plan ahead of time the points you want to make to support your success. What are the primary “must-make points” you need to convey in order to inform and persuade your audience? Do not have too many “must make” points. A good rule of thumb is to allow ten minutes of presentation time for each primary “must-make” point.

Step 4: Gather Your Points of information and Persuasion

Have 3 to 5 reasons or benefit points that support your primary points. Use statistics, stories, metaphors, visual images, other industry examples, other client examples, and personal-experience examples to support each primary “must-make” point.

Step 5: Craft Your Close

Every presentation close must include a Call to Action at the end. A call to action is telling your audience what action you want them to take as a result of your presentation. For example, “You can see why our firm is the best choice— we look forward to you selecting our firm to do this project.” or “Based on our discussion today you can see the value of business coaching to accelerate the growth of your business. Join our coaching program today to ensure your short term and long term success.”

Follow these steps the next time you present and you will be far better received. The audience will be leaning forward in their seats. If you want to do more speaking to grow your business join me for the Sought After Speaker Summit, these two days will catapult your speaking, your speaking confidence, and most importantly your ability to give a speech and come home with insta-clients. See what it is all about http://soughtafterspeaker.com

Attention on What You Do Not Like

There might be aspects of sales or aspects of your business that you do not like. It is important to take your attention off of those things that you cannot change, and keep focused on the value you bring and sharing that value with your clients and potential clients.

Sales solution: Get support for the areas you are not wanting to do, like sales research or writing or email marketing. Then celebrate every big and small sales wins to stay focused on what is working.

Forgetting to Be Positive and Enthusiastic

We all have low energy or low self-esteem days. Sales still have to happen. A successful salesperson stays in action regardless of how they are feeling and regardless of outside factors. They know when you get a sale it makes you feel great and it puts everything right with the world.

Sales success solution: Keep yourself and your conversations upbeat. Make sure you are not doing any complaining. How you make people feel is a key factor in whether or not they will buy from you or want to do business with you. Be sure you make people feel good about you and your product or service. A lot of good feeling is created when you keep positive and enthusiastic. Also be sure to be acknowledging of the potential client throughout the sales process.

Dwelling on Rejections

The truth about selling is that if you are going to be successful you have to talk to lots and lots of people, you have to make requests of lots of people and many of those people are going to say “no.” Sometimes, unfortunately, the no’s do get to you. All feelings are valid.

Sales success solution: It is okay to feel hurt for a moment. Then, take a deep breath and move on. Remind yourself of your compelling vision, remind yourself that you have value to bring. Remind yourself you are here to serve and let it go; otherwise your enthusiasm and ability to take action will be slowed. Get right back in action so you have a new sale super soon.

I love to show women entrepreneurs how to easily attract clients and grow their revenue. Join me at my next Business Breakthrough Summit. This interactive, thought provoking two days will give you the tools to see where you can use an upgrade and a new strategy and put it in place to make your business thrive. Find out more at http://bizbreakthrough.com