Ride the Wave workshop: Make the Most of Your Opportunities with Julia Chanteray

Gerry Thompson of Positive Comedy training and coaching recently attended a Ride the Wave workshop on making the most of your opportunities, led by Julia Chanteray.

I found this workshop very valuable and also very entertaining – a good combination, in my book. There was a great deal for the audience to take away and apply in their own business ventures. It was free – and there was chocolate!

In this interactive session, Julia divided the business strategies offered into the following categories:

1.Who to sell your services or products to, and how to attract them

2.What excites your potential customers, and how to talk to them

3.Making it easy for the customers to buy from you

4.Overcoming objections to buying

Julia suggested that we have to get customers excited about what we have to offer, because people buy emotionally and from a gut reaction, rather than with a totally intellectual or rational perspective. Here are some factors that excite customers:

• getting their problems solved
• being given something
• being done a favour
• being told a story that brings out your merits
• humour or fun

Here are some of Julia’s suggestions for talking to potential customers:

• keep talking to prospects – for years, if necessary
• keep the conversation and the relationship going
• be interested in them
• use diary prompts and tracking methods to keep on top of this
• offer something of value to them
• offer something exciting or interesting to them
• send newsletters

Here are some of her suggestions for making it easy for customers to buy from you:

• have ‘calls to action’ easily visible on your website and other communications, as Amazon do
• make it easy for them to get in touch with you, to start talking to you
• give a free ‘starter’ offer for them to take up, in order to start engaging with you as a customer
• address their potential objections

Julia also suggested having and exhibiting a fee or price structure that cuts out the customers you don’t want – time wasters, tyre kickers, late payers and those who always want more stuff for less money. Go for the clients who want what you can offer, and can pay for it.

The key concepts, then, were being attractive to customers, then offering them a route to what you have to offer. She gave us a lot of free chocolate during the session.

Julia offers her services as a consultant, and I took her up on the offer; it turned out to be very helpful. She helped me get clearer about what distinguishes the services I offer – helping people develop better communication skills, through individual coaching and company trainings, drawing on methods from stand-up comedy and improvisation – and how I can expand the range of services I offer under this umbrella and tweaking the prices a bit.

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