STEP 4: Leverage All Your Opportunities

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February 18th, 2009
Filed in: Leadership, Lifestyle, Public Speaking

Do you want to read the previous post in this series? Just go to http://tinyurl.com/adfh3a.

The idea of leveraging ALL of your opportunities means that when you speak you explore all the ways to invest a minimal amount of your time and energy wisely to achieve massive results. Rather than filling your calendar with every event that crosses your path, you select the “power opportunities” and maximize them. Speaking is a marketing strategy not a product in itself — unless you are Bill Clinton or Michael Jordan and get paid $25,000 per event.

When you really look at how much time goes into preparing for and delivering a well designed presentation, leverage becomes a critical component to ensuring you are maximizing your resources. The real key to leverage, which we have already addressed, is knowing what your “power speaking opportunities” are. Once you are clear about that, we can look at some other ways to leverage your presentations.

Contact Database

I believe that every element of success starts with the way we think. If you go into each event thinking that you are just a speaker, you will leave golden opportunities on the table. One of the golden opportunities and the first cornerstone of leverage is building your contact database.

Your contact database is how you continue to build a relationship with this audience beyond the event. This is also why it is absolutely essential to speak to your target audience otherwise you lose the leverage opportunity. I have found that if they don’t buy at the event they will often buy directly from you over time.

It is absolutely essential to go into every event, whether you are speaking or even just networking, with an intention to grow your list. There are multiple ways to do this – some that work well and others that are only marginally effective. It all depends on how you execute on the strategy.

Here are some strategies that I find relatively effective:

• Raffle off your product from the stage. Ask the audience to pass their business cards to the middle of the aisle and have an assistant walk by and put them in a basket. Be sure to let them know they will also receive a complimentary subscription to your ezine. This is an effective technique to educate the audience on your products.

• Some event producers will not let you do a raffle. To overcome this or just to do it differently, you can offer a free gift when they fill out a form or check the box on your order form. You must take 5 minutes to accurately explain what they are getting or people will not do it.

• Booth contest. If you have a booth or table at the event, have some type of contest to win an IPOD or something of high perceived value. Be sure to use appropriate signage to explain when the contest ends and what they will win. Also clearly identify if they will get signed up for your mailing list.

Less effective methods:

• Feedback forms. • Untended “bowls” on tables.
• Business cards gathered to receive your “free ezine.”
• Box on your order form saying “I just want your ezine.”
• Any strategy that is not compelling and clearly explained.
Product Upsell

When you stand in front of a room and educate an audience on your area of expertise, you are creating a need in them to know more. If you don’t have a way for them to get more, you are doing people a disservice. From the leverage point of view, products are a way to get your message across to the masses with the least amount of one-on-one time. Information products are the second cornerstone of leverage.

There are lots of great resources out there to help you create information products. The important point I want to make in this report is to understand how to position your products for high payoff presentations.

At a minimum, if you are speaking at free or fee-only events, you will want to have some type of audio CD, video or book. It is also an excellent idea to have your coaching programs available.

If you are speaking at product-split events, the product offerings will need to a) fit the price points of the event and b) contribute to your profit margin. Ideally, product-split offerings would be high-profit offerings that move people into your sales funnel. Some potential product ideas are:

• Self-study programs that include guide books, audio programs, recorded teleclasses, instructional guides, etc.
• Specialty tools or resources only available at live events
• Consultations or strategy sessions designed to elicit a deeper need for your services. I always bundle these types of offers with other products.
• Special teleclasses or groups that are highly time leveraged
• Live events that pull people into your funnel

The idea is to be able to provide massive value with minimal one-on-one time investment. If you don’t currently have product, consider how you might either package something you do into a group teleclass or workshop that is exclusive only to the people at the event.

Or, record a teleclass or interview series. You can even include a transcription of the program to increase the value.

A few important product offering tips:

• Always display your products.
• Always integrate the key product into your testimonials and examples from the stage.
• Always build a must-have need into your offering.
• Always showcase people your audience knows and respects as users of this product.
• Always give a compelling offer that includes “I’d be crazy to say no” bonuses or pricing discounts.

Relationships

The third cornerstone of leverage is the power of relationship building. If you have properly chosen key events that are in your target audience, you will be surrounded with people and opportunities that can enrich your success even more. Here are some of the types of relationships that can open up:

• Other speaking opportunities
• Joint Ventures or product collaborations
• Book deals
• Interviews
• Teleclasses
• Press or publicity
• New businesses
• New product offerings
• Staff or virtual team members
• New friends and people who can “open doors”

I’m going to share something with you now that I don’t tell many people. It’s one of my golden nuggets. Golden nuggets are the wisdom that comes from my school of hard knocks. There is an art and a science to leveraging relationships.

The art is you have to be someone who’s attractive to the big players. I don’t just mean your looks. I mean the whole package. From the way you dress to the way you approach people to the way you exude confidence when you enter a room. It’s the way you communicate, the way you engage people with eye contact and the way you package your business offerings.

Are you being genuine? Are you congruent with your message? Do you “play the game” or “be your own person.” It may not be something that you get instant feedback. But I guarantee that people who can open doors for you sense when you are someone they need to get to know.

The science of leveraging relationships is how you follow up. Just because someone doesn’t call you doesn’t mean they don’t want to. People are busy. Sometimes the spark is instantaneous and sometimes it takes years.

The point is: be willing to plant seeds and let the garden grow. It’s OK to check on the garden (follow up) but don’t choke the plant because you need instant gratification. Give the relationship enough attention to open up interest and be willing to keep it going. Remember, busy people love the idea of things but often don’t follow through. If the relationship has high Return on Investment potential, be the person who follows through.

Stay tuned for Step 5: Systemize Your Speaking Process