Marketing Speaker: How to Get Clients by Speaking
The Challenge
Too often, professional services firms:
- Do marketing “by accident” or don’t do outbound marketing effectively
- Hope that “prospects will call us when they need us”
- Never know where their next lead is coming from
- Don’t market using their best asset – thought leadership
- Throw too many dollars into a “marketing black hole”
The Opportunity
Independent research with over 700 professional services firms proves that the #1 source of new business is “Making warm calls to existing clients” – and #2 and #3 are “Speaking at conferences and trade shows” and “Running our own seminars and events” yet if yours is like the majority of firms, you haven’t yet cracked the code on how to make this work for YOUR people to attract YOUR clients.
More research shows that 52-72% of B2B professional services BUYERS are willing to switch to new service providers across a spectrum of specialties. (Wellesley Hills Group, 2009 What’s Working in Lead Generation professional services market study)
Meaning: You’re always ONE good presentation away from closing new business.
The Payoff
Professional services firms and thought leaders within large companies can often do a MUCH better job in the following areas:
• Design and deliver a client-magnet presentation
• Generate leads without being salesy
• Use Before-During-After marketing to stay top of mind
• Maximize profits on a shoestring marketing budget
• Generate more leads, better prospects and bigger sales using irresistible offers and high-integrity techniques
...and in my experience working with clients like this, it does NOT take huge amounts of work; small, targeted shifts in your packaging, promotion, messaging, and followup makes all the difference (which we usually nail down over the course of 1 or 2 days together and then the floodgates open!)
Last Word: Marketing Skills vs. Presentation Skills
A decent presentation built for marketing and sales results will outperform a brilliant presentation built for a “standing ovation” or praise from your local Toastmaster’s club or high marks from a presentation skills coach.
Bottom line: I don’t care if you become a great speaker. I do very much care that you become a good speaker who consistently generates more leads, better prospects, and bigger sales each time you present in front of a roomful of potential buyers.
What do you think? Fire off some thoughts, comments, or questions in the COMMENTS section below. Let's talk about this one...