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Recently, public speaking has become a big part of my life. In the last year alone, I have spoken at an average of four to five industry conferences, universities, and startup accelerator events per month.

People often enquire me why I do it, and more oft, how I do it.

The "why" is simple. Public speaking is a highly effective (though often underutilized) platform for any proficient content marketing and sales strategy. Chances are your directors and C-level executives are industry experts, and industry experts are highly sought after for public speaking engagements. And public speaking (if you do it properly) gains you and your brand additional press and manufacture credibility, which makes it easier to sell your products and services.

The "how," on the other paw, requires a more than in-depth caption.

Y'all Have To Give Before You Tin Become

Public speaking is an incredibly valuable sales tool. It'south so valuable, in fact, that I simply charge for about 50% of my speaking sessions because they help me generate and then much revenue. That said, at that place seems to be a lot of misconception out in that location nigh how to effectively sell at speaking engagements.

Many of the tech companies and inventors I advise have read the words "public speaking" and "sales" together at some point and assumed that their speaking sessions need to be structured equally sales pitches to sell their products. But the nearly powerful feedback I've ever received after giving a spoken communication was from someone who said "Thank you for not trying to sell us anything. Every other speaker hither has just been peddling their products without giving any real value."

The master goals of public speaking are to:

  • Enlighten and engage an audience.
  • Make your audience think.
  • Constitute interest and brownie in your brand.
  • Build and nurture relationships that can after turn into sales.

It may audio counterintuitive, simply public speakers should avoid directly selling or pitching any product or service during their speaking sessions.

The sales generated from public speaking engagements are more indirect. They are the result of heightened brand sensation and increased brand following. But you lot volition only come across a elevator for your make if y'all are giving your audience something that makes them trust you and want to learn more nearly yous and your product.

Yous should call back of your speaking sessions as a way to initiate a new relationship. You then take to nurture that human relationship by giving, giving, and giving some more earlier y'all ever consider asking for annihilation in return.

That's right, in lodge to exist an effective public speaker you take to requite something away. Your audience has to come up away from your voice communication with something of value.

Some examples of what yous can offering your audition include:

  • Advice on a topic your audition cares about
  • Statistics that enlighten your audience
  • A story that touches them on an emotional level and makes them expect at the world differently

This means you have to requite your audience quality content -- don't bore or annoy them. Only then volition they intendance nigh what else you accept to offer.

Gary Vaynerchuk wrote a not bad commodity with more insight into this strategic approach to sales that's worth a read.

Perfect Your Content And Commitment

An audition'due south perceived value of y'all is adamant 100% by your oral communication and how it is delivered.

It should go without saying that you demand to spend fourth dimension and focus on perfecting your speech and its delivery. All too often I have seen speakers who tried to finalize their speeches or presentations 15 minutes earlier an outcome and suffered because of information technology.

A poorly delivered voice communication is a huge waste of time for y'all, your company, and almost importantly, your audition. Why invest in a strategy and spend resources on public speaking if y'all aren't going to practice information technology effectively?

To develop a 1 hr presentation, it usually takes me about three days:

  • 1 day to draft the content and presentation
  • Another day to practice the delivery and make revisions to the content for better flow
  • And one more mean solar day to exercise the final presentation

Exercise is key for a good presentation. Just similar athletes and musicians practise the same moves and songs over and over once more, you should be practicing your presentation until y'all have it memorized.

To exist an engaging and effective public speaker, your audience needs to feel like you are having a personal chat with them, not that yous're reading from a script and talking at them. This ways that yous need to understand who your audience really is. There'due south a large difference between how entrepreneurs, business concern professionals, and higher students communicate so it'southward important to speak to your audience in a personalized way they will connect with.

Other methods I utilize to connect with my audience include:

  • Telling a story
  • Making jokes
  • Using metaphors

For more tips on how to develop your presentation and content commitment strategy, check out this listing by Joe Pulizzi.

When It'due south Time To Sell, Maintain Your Brand Feel

With public speaking, y'all usually need to have multiple conversations with people before you tin initiate the sales process. Personally, I have spent more than six months and 30+ speaking sessions to found brownie with a given audience before initiating sales conversations with them.

This procedure tin have some time, so be patient and pay close attention to your audience to determine the right time to motility into a sales engagement.

With this approach, it's also of import to remember that you lot've adult a potent brand image and perceived value with your customer through your speaking sessions and y'all must maintain your brand experience throughout the sales process.

I believe there are five principles to keep in mind to sell products or services after speaking sessions:

  1. Drive multiple interactions. Develop your presentations with standalone content such as statistics and graphs so your attendees tin leverage the content again in the future.
  2. Differentiate yourself. What exercise you offer the customer that nobody else does?
  3. Brand your value easy to empathize. Don't tell your client what your product does, tell them what they tin can do with information technology.
  4. Maintain your experience. The customer is used to hearing the way you communicate in your speaking sessions so make sure to give them a consistent experience during the sales process.
  5. Repurpose your content. Reuse phrases and images from your speech and presentation in articles, blog posts, promotional materials, email templates, and over the telephone.

Public Speaking Is a Marathon

With so many people out there wanting to demonstrate their thought leadership to enhance their brands, public speaking tin can be quite competitive.

Personally I have about 100 local competitors and several grand global competitors in my specific niche (content marketing). So what's my strategy for maintaining a strong public speaking presence?

Every bit I've already mentioned, I do an average of four to five speaking sessions per calendar month and only charge for about fifty% of these sessions. 2 or 3 of these monthly appearances are unremarkably local to me and i or two of them are global. About 65% of the time I am invited to speak but the other 35% of the time I make an try to speak at strategic events that will aid me continue to develop my personal make.

The main benefits of this strategy are:

  • You proceeds more experience.
  • Y'all larn how to work with different audiences.
  • You can perfect your content.
  • Y'all bulldoze more traffic to your website and social media channels.
  • You gain more followers for your make.

Public speaking is like a marathon -- you have to maintain a steady step in society to win the race. This is why it's so important to maintain a regular schedule of speaking sessions at strategic events that will generate constant visibility for your brand while yous go on to evolve as a public speaker.

This commodity by Neil Patel will give you some more than insight into the marathon strategy for public speaking too every bit how to choose the right speaking events for your make.

All of the concepts we have covered will help you effectively leverage public speaking to take your content marketing and sales to the next level. But y'all'll have to put in some time, attempt, and commitment to succeed in this channel.

Are you using public speaking to sell a product or service? Is it working for you? Why or why not? Let u.s. know in the comments beneath.

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Originally published Jun 10, 2015 8:00:00 AM, updated February 01 2017