Reader Question...
You speak of marketing and sales techniques. Isn't public speaking part of this? What can someone do to improve their public speaking or communication skills?
Roxanne's Answer...
The answer is YES! public speaking is definitely one of the great ways to capture prospects. I've known master marketers who got all their prospects that way.
You can only improve your public speaking abilities by practice. I know that’s scary but that’s why organizations like Toastmasters are excellent for people who want to do this because you’re in a room with a lot of other people who have the same fears and goals. So you are all practicing.
The first thing you need to know about public speaking is you have just a few seconds to capture someone’s interest. But many speakers start off with all the gory details of who they are, who their company is, blah,blah,blah. Who cares?! Your introduction doesn’t need to be blah,blah,blah and blah. It needs to be ATTENTION GRABBING. Make a bold statement, a headline if you will.
A bold statement for someone presenting an educational product or service might be “87% of students will fail one course in the next five years”.
For someone who is a financial advisor looking for more clients, they might start with…
“One in four of you in this room will no longer be working for the same company or working at all in the next three years and 70% are unprepared!”
For someone selling a management program it might be…
“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B !…..James Yorke said that and it’s true. The problem lies in that most people don’t have a plan “B” and are flying by the seat of their pants. It is said that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Where are you in your business…failing to plan or planning to succeed?”
You can get headline ideas to grab attention by looking through magazines and books to see what short phrase, story or "headline" grabs your attention.
The point is...if you're going to use public speaking to get prospects and clients, make sure you are worth listening to!
Happy Prospecting!
Roxanne