I speak several times a year. I love presenting and teaching, but mainly, I do it because it's great PR, offering me a way to market my services without cold calling.
That said, I regularly anguish over "step 2": when the presentation is over and everyone is happy with the information, many wanting more — I don’t always do a great job of converting hot leads into paying customers. I figured I wasn’t alone, so I bore my soul on the Public Speaking Network Group on LinkedIn.
Not surprisingly, I received a bounty of terrific tips from the group. Here are the highlights. Enjoy, and may prospects follow your words.
- "You need a way to continue the conversation you are beginning with your audience, so create an ezine, workshop, webinar or program and pass out a signup form to "capture" the information of those who want to know more." - Janet White
- "Offer to engage them after the fact without necessarily costing the audience. You can offer free gifts, articles, industry specific material that will benefit them further. People do business with those they know, like and trust…and that comes with a relationship." – Scott Schilling
- "While you are speaking ask them to tweet about your presentation to others using a hash tag (#). Let them know you will be analyzing their tweets and will contact them later. Be absolutely transparent, print it on your handouts, and have it in your presentation. Collect their Twitter accounts and those they tweeted to, these are the ones interested in you and your content. Offer them a newsletter with an opt out and a sign in of course. Use the comments tweeted to guide future presentations as it indicates what was actually important to your audience.” – Gail Buesnel
- "What I do during my keynote is that I give them a small assignment and ask them to send me an e-mail with the answer/solution to the question. Not all of them do, but I’m happy to say that 20 to 30% actually send me that mail. For my Keynote on Public Speaking I ask them several times to write down what they will do with what I just said in their next presentation. And at the end of the keynote I ask them to send me an email after their next presentation with the successes – the things that went better this time compared to before they heard me speak. Often I then receive mails with some successes, but also some 'cries for help.' This then is a good opportunity to discuss coaching." – Peggy Richie – Overmeer
- "I am also a mobile marketing coach so I engage them by having them opt into a text campaign where they get a bonus. The campaign has key points and questions that I give them access to as a bonus. I do not want to violate the rules of the group so feel free to reach out to me for details." – Oakland Lewis
- "Craft your presentation in such a way that it leads the attendees to want more from you and ask for it. Then you can use the suggestions above to collect their requests and move them further down the funnel." – Steve Schumann
- "Get an attendee list if possible and follow up. Say "I hope you enjoyed my program. Do you think it would make sense to bring me in to speak to your company? I also suggest you visit my blog and read posts on picking target markets, prospecting, qualifying and selling. Free." http://www.BookMoreBusiness.com/blog – Lois Creamer
