Make Marketing Suck Less

Is Speaking to Sell Ruining Presentations?

When you’re listening to a presentation do you ever find yourself bracing for it?

You find you can’t immerse yourself in the speaker because you know it’s coming.

When it comes, it’s high-pressured, overwhelming, and makes you feel downright awkward.

What is the IT that I’m talking about?

The sales pitch.

It’s become a ubiquitous part of presentations given by entrepreneurs. And to steal a lyric from Carly Rae this is what it feels like:

“Hey, I just met you. And this is crazy, but give me money. And I’ll call you maybe.”

And speaking as a passionate advocate of your audience – we are quite frankly over it.

You see we have figured out the formula you’re using. The “speak to sell” or “make 6-figures from your next speech” template. Let’s face it – that formula is probably not working as well for you as the guru you learned it from. In fact, it leaves you feeling ICKY!

My imaginary boyfriend, Simon Sinek, has a great explanation for why:

“People are more likely to trust a giver — a speaker that gives them value, that teaches them something new, that inspires them — than a taker.”

When you sell from the stage, you’re a taker – which is a huge audience turn-off.

Simon goes on to say that audience’s can spot a taker a mile away. I’ve seen this happen. A speaker is doing a spectacular job, and then there is a shift energy when she gets to the pitch. Her confidence decreases, she stumbles over the words, and starts fidgeting more. As the audience you know what’s coming next – the sales pitch. As a speaker, that’s an uncomfortable place to be. For the audience, it’s awkward.

What turns an audience on?

Giving. Not overreaching. Make them the star of your speech. Speaking for impact not for dollars.

Let’s turn the audience on because once they are engaged they spread your message, see you as the established expert, and you become their results oriented resource.

That kind of cache is worth more in the long run than a few extra dollars in your bank account now.

When you Speak for Impact, you start with this simple question:

As a result of hearing me speak, how will my audience change?

Simple is not easy. But at the heart of Speak for Impact is the audience.

How you can make their lives easier, help them grow, or do something better, faster, or more efficiently than ever before?

How can you give them exactly what they need instead of creating another problem for them that only your product, program, or service would solve?

How can you give your best ideas away for free? No strings attached.

This sounds counterintuitive but it’s at the core of growing your business with speaking.

What does speak for impact look like?

Meet Tara Gentile.

In August, I attended a free Creative Live workshop hosted by Tara Gentile, “Market, Launch, and Sell Your Next Big Thing.”

Over 3-days Tara taught us how to turn an idea into something we could sell, showed us exactly how to write a sales page (and she wrote one live in under an hour), and how to use email marketing to launch our next big thing.

It was amazing. These were ideas and concepts she had been working on for YEARS. There she was giving the keys to her kingdom away for free.

And for me – I wanted more of what she was offering.

She didn’t even have to ask, but I immediately signed up for her newsletter list, started stalking her on Facebook and Twitter (in a good non-creepy kind of way), and devoured her blog.

Even though I was DONE with business coaching for 2014 – I enrolled in her signature 10 Thousand Feet Program (now Quiet Power Strategy).

Here’s the thing: I wasn’t the only one obsessed with all-things Tara after Creative Live. She created a small army of us who saw her as a trusted mentor, an expert, and their go-to business strategist.

She told me “I don’t sell in those, but man do I get a great return on investment.”

No formula. No sales pitch. No solving one problem just to create another problem. No overwhelming the audience with so much information that their overwhelm makes them plunk down cash (and regret it an instant later).

Just 100% giving. Bringing your best self and your best ideas to the people who need to hear them.

If you want to get people obsessed with who you are and what your business does, ditch the speak-to-sell formulas.

Speaking formulas never feel right because they are NOT you. Simply, those formulas are something that worked for someone else.

Be yourself. Give it away. Know exactly how you want to change your audience.

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