Content Delivery

How Speakers, Authors and Thought Leaders Can Capture More Leads, Make More Connections and Close More Sales

by Shawn · 0 comments

As a speaker, author or thought leader, capturing leads, making real connections with those leads, and ultimately converting them into paying customers is the lifeblood of your business.

How are you doing with that?

Evaluate your current lead management practices by answering “True” or “False” to these 10 statements:

  1. I capture and follow up with every business opportunity I get from meetings, networking events and conferences I attend.
  2. When I present to groups or get interviewed by media, I capture and follow up with every business opportunity in the audience.
  3. As an expert and author, I have a system for boosting sales of my book or program and adding every buyer to my follow-up list and community.
  4. I maximize the number of leads I capture at conventions and conferences through contests and drawings — and automatically follow up with all of them.
  5. I can instantly learn who are the most connected, powerful people at any event where I present or capture leads so I can immediately follow up with an exclusive offer.
  6. I use multiple channels to capture leads, including:
    • Web page and blog page registration forms
    • Online event registration forms
    • Mobile text messages
    • Voice recognition phone registrations
    • QR codes
    • Business card scans
  7. I use live Teleseminars, Webinars and Webcasts to inform my prospects and make sales.
  8. I use evergreen and on-demand recorded Teleseminars, Webinars and Webcasts to inform my prospects and make sales.
  9. I (or my support people) use an iPhone to capture leads from business cards we receive and automatically follow up.
  10. I always get the maximum number of prospects to register and attend my Webinars, Teleseminars or Webcasts.

If you answered “False” to six or more of the statements above, sign up and watch this free video series with strategy after tip after demonstration showing you how to automate the ways you collect leads, connect with them and close each sale.

Once you opt-in, you’ll learn about the “Instant Customer Plus” system that can help you with:

  • building a list — fast
  • selling products you create
  • gaining authority in your industry
  • finding rapport with your buyers

I put it to use at one of my events last month and I was thoroughly impressed — attendees were able to opt in to my list before I left the stage, and for those who didn’t, all I had to do was scan their business card with the iPhone app and they immediately went into my automated follow-up campaign.

As a solopreneur — or even with a limited support staff — you have to have an automated sales process or you’ll become your own bottleneck. (If you’re nodding your head in frustrating agreement, do yourself a favor and watch this brand-new free video series from marketing technology guru, Mike Koenigs.)

Here’s a sneak peek at how the “Instant Customer Plus” system can transform your business:

When you opt-in to get your “21 Ways to Instant Customers” video series sent to you, you’re going to discover how to turn on MULTIPLE channels of communication between you and the people that want to buy your products and services.

Register here, and you’ll also have the special opportunity to test the system for yourself for just $1.

Are you the steward or the star?

by Shawn · 6 comments

2011 08 Michael Buble 23
Creative Commons License photo credit: marbla123

Just a simple question for you this week, and I’d love to hear your feedback:

Do you see yourself as the steward or the star in your speaking business?

One definition of steward, according to Merriam-Webster, is “one appointed to supervise the provision and distribution of food and drink in an institution.”

I like that, but it’s not food and drink you’re distributing, obviously. It’s your message. So…

What if, for speakers, we change the definition to “one appointed to supervise the provision and distribution of an inspiring, empowering message among the people”?

With this definition, the attention shifts from you to your content, or your message — a message that, while not quite as essential as food and drink :) , you believe people need… right?

Your job, then, is not to position yourself prominently in the marketplace… not to make sure you look good on stage… not to make sure you get all the praise…

Instead, your job is simply to propagate your message and make sure it is consumable by as many people as possible (within your target audience).

You are an essential piece of this puzzle — don’t get me wrong. You are the one who has been inspired with your message and you have unique gifts and talents for delivering the message.

But does this slight shift in thinking change anything?

Now what is your objective when you market to prospective clients? Not just to get a booking and collect a paycheck, but to “distribute provisions” to a hungry, thirsty audience.

What is your objective when you write articles? Not just to add another credit to your list or get exposure, but to help even more people.

What is your objective when you create products to sell? Not just to diversify revenue and create “passive income,” but to make your content consumable for more people, and to make sure there are funds to support the further spread of your content.

Am I being too idealistic? Too dramatic?

Or, is it possible that seeing yourself as a steward could transform your business? (And is it possible that it could, coincidentally, result in you becoming a star?)

Comment below and tell me what you think!

What’s Your Value As A Speaker? It’s Not About What You Know

by Shawn · 0 comments

Your value as a speaker is not in what you know… It’s in what you can help others do.

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Last week we wrapped up the Succeed Speaking Summer Marketing Camp, and I opened the final session by speaking about Dr. BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model. (Dr. Fogg is founder of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University.)

Fogg’s model states that three elements must converge at the same moment for a behavior — or action — to occur: Motivation, Ability, and Trigger.

In other words, someone must be motivated to do something, s/he must have the ability to do something, and there must be a trigger to prompt the action. And if an action doesn’t occur, you know at least one element is missing.

This was very relevant to our marketing camp, because we knew our participants had the motivation to market themselves better (because something about their current marketing wasn’t working), and we gave them a trigger to stimulate action by inviting them to our camp.

But could we give them the ability to market themselves better?

That was our prime objective, and that’s how we’ll ultimately be judged in the weeks, months and years ahead.

It’s the same for you… when you take the stage as a speaker, when you write your books and when you create supplemental products.

But how do you do it?

Dr. Fogg says there are two ways to increase ability:

  1. Train people and give them more skills, and/or
  2. Make the target behavior easier to do — in other words, simplify the desired behavior.

“Training” is the easiest place for us to go as experts — we can share ideas, strategies and tactics all day long.

But as Dr. Fogg says, “Training people is hard work, and most people resist learning new things. That’s just how we are as humans: lazy.”

If you really want to increase the ability of those you speak to, focus on showing them how to easily implement what you teach — or better yet, what they already know! — in their daily lives.

At the end of the day, that’s what drives up your value as a speaker:

It’s not how much you know about selling. It’s how much better salespeople you help your attendees become.

It’s not how much you know about motivation. It’s how much more motivated you help your attendees become.

It’s not how much you know about leadership. It’s how much better leaders you help your attendees become.

It’s not how much I know about the speaking business. It’s how much better and more successful I can help you become.

Right?

There will always be someone who knows more than us.

But if we can simplify the target behaviors and actions to the point that we help our followers do what they need to do and experience better results…

That’s what it’s all about.

Simplicity.

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How Many Spokes on Your Content Wheel?

by Shawn · 2 comments

This week’s newsletter is inspired by a statement from Mark Schoenwald, the new CEO of Thomas Nelson (the sixth largest American trade publisher and world’s largest Christian publisher, according to Wikipedia):

We can no longer think of ourselves as just a book publisher, but as a content provider. That means that we have to be able to deliver our content in any format, in any delivery method that the customer chooses… We have to view the content as the product rather than just the published book. So that’s been our biggest paradigm shift.

It’s not easy to come to that conclusion, but since when is the right thing easy?

I believe you can — and should — say the same as a speaker: “I can no longer think of myself as just a speaker, but as a content provider.” (You may recall that I identified being a “content creator” as one of the key qualities of the top 1% of speakers last year.)

While this may sound intimidating at first — “But I just want to be a speaker!” — the great thing is that the foundation for this transformation has already been laid, beginning with Mark Sanborn and others commissioning The Expertise Imperative in the early 2000s.

At that time, Mark said this about speakers in the changing marketplace:

It won’t be enough to be a good speaker. Being able to develop, demonstrate and enhance expertise and then communicate it effectively and powerfully will be key.

“Being able to develop, demonstrate and enhance expertise” = content creator

When The Expertise Imperative was written, the focus was still on speaking as the way to “communicate [your content] effectively and powerfully,” and indeed speaking may remain as your central focus.

But today — largely thanks to technology — you have many options to distribute your content “effectively and powerfully.” As a matter of fact, a recent National Speakers Association white paper, The Professional’s Imperative, says as much:

With online conferences, web-based seminars, self-directed learning modules, and a wide variety of instructional formats with the ever-increasing possibilities delivered by constantly changing technical capabilities, the platform is evolving upon which professional speakers deliver their words of expertise.

So with all the mediums of content delivery available to you, why would you not want to take advantage of them? Instead, follow Thomas Nelson and other publishers and share your message “in any format, in any delivery method” that will allow you to reach more people… and build a stronger business.

You might think of your content as the hub of a wheel, and all the methods of delivering your content are the spokes — like this illustration:

 

Speaker Content Wheel

Sample "Content Wheel" with 9 spokes -- there are over 30 different ways you could package and deliver your content.

Not only does every new spoke allow you to reach more people with your message, but it also adds a new profit center to your business. The more spokes you have on your wheel, the more protection you have in the event that one spoke fails.

Just look at what happened to speakers’ businesses in the recent recession.

Do you know any speakers who went out of business — or at least had to supplement their speaking business with other endeavors — because their primary revenue stream went dry?

In contrast, do you know any speakers whose business actually grew because they had “spokes” that thrived in the new economic environment?

This is why Succeed Speaking is about much more than just speaking. There are plenty of other resources you can go to if you just want to become a better speaker. I want to help you build a better speaking business. (And I hope that’s what you want, too.)

So… Here are some questions to ask yourself this week:

  1. How many spokes are currently on your content wheel?
  2. What spokes could you add?
  3. What help do you need to make it happen?

HINT: Leave a comment about #3 below and I’ll see if I can point you in the right direction!