Public speaking: the key to getting more clients

A lot of people ask me, “What’s the best way of getting clients?” Over the years I’ve tried many different marketing strategies, and I’d like to share with you the most effective one I’ve found: giving talks and presentations. However, giving a presentation with tonnes of helpful information often isn’t enough to get you business from it. During the last three years or so I’ve been studying what really makes a difference in turning a presentation into a queue of clients lining up to work with you. Here are my top three pointers:

1. Make an offer in your presentation

A big mistake that many people make is to expect members of the audience to contact you after the presentation. Although this can work occasionally, the problem is that you will lose out on a lot of business opportunities because people don’t get around to it or they forget about it once they leave. You need to give people a specific offer so they have a reason to be in touch and act now.

2. Be confident when you make your offer

You don’t want it to sound like a sales pitch when you make your offer - so anything that makes you sound like a market trader is out! The problem for many people who don’t like selling is that they can be tempted to go to the opposite extreme. That doesn’t help you, as you can end up rushing through your offer, apologising, or even not making an offer at all. Things to keep in mind are that you want to feel confident; that you want to know that the offer you are making is attractive to your group; and that you should take your time as you talk the audience through what is available.

3. Give valuable information

It’s important to give useful information in your presentation, so don’t be afraid of giving some of your top tips. Doing this will demonstrate your expertise and credibility - you want the audience to understand and appreciate the value of the services you offer. However, you don’t want to give away the whole shop and tell them everything; it’s more like giving people a taster. 

• If you would like to learn more, follow this link to book a place on my upcoming Bite-sized learning session: Get more clients by public speaking

Lisa Farr

Inspired Marketing

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