Can I tell you something? You’re special! Yes… you’re really special. There is something else I’d like to share with you while we’re here too… you’re special because what you have between your ears is valuable!

In fact, your knowledge and experience is more valuable to others than your time! If you are still at the stage of trading time for money, I want you to let this sink in… your value to your clients is not your time… it is what you know!

Let’s take a step back while you ask yourself a few questions…

What do you know?
Which topic do you have so much knowledge and experience of that you are an expert in? What is it that you love to do and that you are passionate about that you can teach and inspire others to do too?

If you’re reading this and you can’t think of anything you are passionate about, let me tell you this… everyone has something in life that they love but not everyone feels passionate about something in their heart space.

Some people feel passion in their head space instead… my husband Greg would tell you that he doesn’t feel passionate about any subject but he has a real thirst for learning. He spends hours on Google learning new information… he totally loves to learn but it’s a head space passion rather than one he feels in his heart. It’s still a passion though.

What is yours?

Who do you help?
So we’ve established your topic, your passion… but who are the people who will be inspired or empowered to learn from your expertise? Who are the people that do or could pay money to learn what you know?

Actually, I guess the first question should be “do people pay money to learn more about your topic?” Then once you’ve answered yes to that question, the next thing to ask yourself is “who are they?” The answer to this question determines your niche.

You with me?

Now I’d like you to consider how you are going to share your message with the world… you have a duty to teach as many people as possible during your time on this earth but think about this;

You can teach one person at a time by working with clients on a 1:1 basis… in other words to reach out to 100 people you’d need to repeat yourself 100 times.

Or, you could speak to 100 people at the same time and you’d only need to share your message once.

The first option is what we call trading time for money… you need to work 100 times to get paid 100 times. The second option is one stage of building an “elegant business model”. You only need to do the work once yet you can reach lots more people.

Still with me?

So what are the lessons you have to share? Who are the people who will be willing to pay to hear your message and how are you going to build your own elegant business model and help more people?

Remember, there is nothing wrong with trading time for money… but it should be your premium offering. People happily pay more for expertise… YOUR expertise… and if you provide a high level of specialist information, then you should be placing a higher value on your time too!

Your expertise is the most valuable thing you have to offer others but your time is the most precious part of your life… don’t give either away for peanuts!

In my 1-day Presentation Secrets events I teach the steps to building your own elegant business model and share the four and a half secrets that made me a millionaire from speaking in just 12 months. There are now only a few places remaining and this is your last ever chance as I will not be running this training ever again.

Find out more and book your place HERE

Whatever stage you are at in your speaking business right now, at some point you will want to run your own event I’m sure. A key element of hosting an event is choosing the right venue that best fits the requirements for your event.

I wrote some time ago about hosting smaller client gatherings but for this post I want to look at larger scale events… seminars, workshops or maybe even an exhibition.

So how do you choose the best venue?

Clearly budget comes into play here… I’m sure you’d love to host a magnificent event at the swankiest hotel in town… but your financial situation may not be sufficient to grant your wish… yet.

So, your first objective is to work out your overall budget… how much you have to spend in total… and which proportion can be allocated to the venue.

Once you’ve established the financials, the next step is to start looking around at venues that are able to host the numbers you plan to invite. You can do this by;

• Asking your contacts for recommendations to venues they have used previously
• Looking online to find details of where events of a similar size have been hosted in your area
• Searching venue directories and making calls to the individual venues

Create a brief
At Shift, before we approach any venues for our events we prepare a full brief of our requirements. We do this so the venue can clarify they are able to deliver everything we need but also because it saves time for both parties.

It makes sense because if you think about it, you could find the perfect venue in the perfect location then when you get to confirming the smaller details, discover that they cannot deliver. For example, if you (as we do) require a space where you can be as noisy as you wish without disturbing others… the venue being the right size or able to provide everything except that one element won’t be the right choice.

Choosing a venue for your event takes some time and effort so you want to make sure a venue can tick all the boxes before you commit to the next stage… the personal visit.

Visiting the venue
I’d recommend you narrow down your selection to no more than three venues before you opt to pay them a visit. Set aside the time beforehand for you (or your VA) to call your original choices individually to ask the preliminary questions then book appointments to see three of those who exactly fit the bill… on paper at least.

I’d strongly suggest that before you go along for the visit; make sure you have a good idea in your mind of your preferred room layout…

• Where will the stage be positioned?
• How will the seats be set out?
• Where will your laptop and projector be located?
• Do you need space at the sides and/or back of the room to display your products?

When you arrive at the venue:
Make sure the space can accommodate your layout. Check the position of the power supply… is it conveniently located for your stage or will you need extension leads… and if so, does the venue supply them?

• Do you require a microphone and if so, does the venue have your preferred style of microphone available?
• Is the room air conditioned… is it controlled centrally or are you able to adjust the temperature if necessary?
• Do the seats fit in your optimal layout?
• Is there space for any tables you need?
• Can the lighting be adjusted to suit?

Walk around the space… look at it from your perspective of being on stage and also from where your audience will be seated.

The finer details
When you’ve clarified that the venue can accommodate all of your requirements, ensure you are given a comprehensive quotation before making any final decisions. Double check the quotation details against your original brief to make sure nothing has been missed off.

If you haven’t already, make sure you are clear on whether their charging policy is per room or per head as this can vary between venues. Watch out for little costs added that can amount to a larger unexpected amount… refreshments is one such example… a couple of bucks for tea and coffee sounds small until you realise you need to multiply that figure by 100 attendees!

However short of time you are, I highly recommend you are diligent during this process because once you arrive to host your event, any small details which have been overlooked may not be resolvable on the day… it’s always preferable to iron out any potential disasters as far in advance as possible.

This week sees the start of my Presentation Secrets events in London where you can spend an intensive day with me learning how to leverage speaking to grow your business. The first two dates are now sold out but there are a handful of places left for Friday 25th May.

At the end of last week we made a decision to add an extra date to the tour so if you haven’t yet booked; you now have the choice of coming along on Friday 25th May or Saturday 26th May.

GO HERE for more information and to book your place today

It’s fair to say I have seen hundreds of presentations over the years from lots of different speakers: I’ve seen some speakers deliver fantastic presentations and I’ve seen (and experienced) a few disasters… yet with those haven’t gone well, the failure could have been avoided with a little forethought.

One of the biggest mistakes speakers can make is to overlook the smallest but most important of details in planning for their speaking gig… and the biggest error that will almost certainly guarantee failure is…

Failing to check your presentation will work!

Ok, so you’ve created an amazing set of PowerPoint slides with lots of compelling copy, whizzy videos and audios embedded, interesting pictures… and you’ve spent hours bringing it all together to craft this awesome show for your audience… then you get on stage… and nothing happens!

Your presentation doesn’t work!

Imagine how you’d feel stood in front of 100 or 1,000 people and the main element of your gig just hasn’t turned up?!

So today, I’m going to tell you my tips for how you can avoid finding yourself in this embarrassing and costly nightmare.

Back up!
Depending on the event organisation, sometimes you will deliver your presentation from stage using your own laptop… other times you will need to load it into a laptop that is already at the venue.

Even if you will be using your own laptop, I strongly recommend you take a spare copy of your PowerPoint on a USB stick just in case you need it. If your laptop doesn’t load and you have to transfer it elsewhere, with no external back up you’re stuck!

Don’t rely on Wi-Fi
Never embed videos or audio directly from a website… if your laptop won’t connect to the wireless network or there is no connection, your videos and audio will not play!

I once watched a presentation where a speaker delivered a great build up to a couple of video testimonials, pressed the button to play the videos and they wouldn’t play! Download any videos and audio to a location on your computer first.

That leads me onto the next tip…

Keep everything together in one location
Create a folder on your computer and in this folder save your presentation PLUS any images, video and audio you use. When you back up to your USB stick, back up the folder, not just the PowerPoint file.

Why?

Because if you have to move your presentation to another laptop and your PowerPoint is looking for files in C:/My Documents/[Your name]… the folder won’t exist in someone else’s laptop!

Testing 1… 2… 3..!
Before your presentation is due to start… ideally when you first arrive at the venue, connect your laptop to the projector and check it all displays properly on the big screen. Walk to the back of the room to make sure everyone can read the slides and it all looks as it should.

If there is a problem with playback it is far better that you know early on when you have time to make any amendments. rather than waiting until you are on stage for real and it is too late.

Don’t forget power!
Is your laptop fully charged? Is there enough power to take you to the end of the presentation and do you have the power cable with you just in case?

I’ve got to put my hands up to this… I once went on stage having forgotten to charge my laptop and right at the critical moment when the laptop shut down ten minutes in… realising I’d left the power lead at home too!

That wasn’t my finest moment so please don’t make the same mistake! I was lucky that I knew my presentation well and could deliver it without the slides… but it didn’t have as much impact as it should have yet it could so easily have been avoided!

That leads me nicely on to…

Practice!
If you should find yourself in the unfortunate situation of not being able to use your presentation, you will need to do your very best to minimise the impact of that loss on your audience… make sure you know your presentation inside out beforehand!

Learn it and practice it… your audience will know if you are winging it and it won’t look good on you!

Have you experienced this yourself? Do you have any confessions or stories you’d like to share with me? Please leave me a comment… I love reading your stories.

This month I am running my 1 day Presentation Secrets events on 3 dates in London. During this intensive 8 hour event, you will learn the 4 and a half secrets that made me a millionaire from speaking in a year and come away with all the tools you need to successfully sell from stage immediately.

The 3 dates are

Friday 11th May 2012
Saturday 12th May 2012
Friday 25th May 2012

GO HERE for more details and to book your place.

There are now only a few seats left for each date so I urge you to book your place today if this event is right for you.

For a lot of business owners, the very thought of standing in front of an audience and speaking is terrifying. I also hear from people every day who feel stuck in their business… they’re unsure of what to do next that will attract new clients.

If speaking from stage is something you fear, you can rest assured that you are not alone. Apparently it is the number one fear that most people have.

And yet, the truth is that speaking from stage and delivering a great presentation is the most beneficial thing you can do to grow your business AND this one action will deliver a long line of new clients to you… no more chasing prospects!

Leverage Your Time
Do you find yourself saying the same thing, over and over to client after client? Now imagine being able to bring them all into a room together and you only needing to deliver your presentation one time? Speaking from stage is your answer.

So, it is really important that you try to overcome your fears and investigate speaking as the next step in your marketing plan.

One of my clients who sold security lighting was struggling selling 1:1… It was hard work to make one sale and sometimes a sale would require eight appointments. So he started to invite his prospects to hear him speak.

After his talk he would invite them to speak with him in a 1:1 appointment and since his presentation positioned him as an expert, he didn’t need to chase sales anymore… his clients were queuing up to buy! That one step made a massive difference in his business and it will have a big impact on yours too.

Just Get Started
Another of my clients told me that when she attended her first ever networking event, she was physically sick at the thought of speaking in front of 15 people for 60 seconds! Despite feeling shaky and near to tears she forced herself to go through with it.

The next week it was a little bit easier and with perseverance she gradually increased both the length of time she spoke for and the number of people she spoke in front of. A year later she spoke to a room of 500 people!

Once you overcome your fear and put yourself in front of even the smallest audience, your confidence will go through the roof!

You’ll feel you can achieve ANYTHING and 1:1 sales will become a breeze!

Get into a Positive State
I don’t want you to hold yourself back through fear. If you’re in business and want to be seen as the expert and grow your business with a stream of new clients, I’d love to help you face your fears and learn how to become a successful speaker. Can you spare me eight hours so I can help you?

I created a 3CD audio program that will teach you where your fears around public speaking and selling are coming from… taking you through a powerful mindset shifting process to obliterate those feelings for good!

In the 3rd CD I give you my “Visual Rehearsal Strategy” – this is the mental preparation I do every time before I go on stage. You’ll emerge with a new found confidence and self belief that will help you move your business up to the next level instantly.

If you’re one of the first 150 people to register for my last ever Presentation Secrets events in London next month, you’ll receive this audio set as ONE of your THREE FREE bonuses… it’s my way of saying thank you and rewarding you for taking the first step in your journey.

By the end of this intensive one day event you will be fully equipped with all the tools to create winning presentations and become the person that people are queuing up to work with… and if you work through the confidence audio program you will have overcome the fears that are holding you back from getting up there and making it happen.

Is your lack of confidence stopping you from becoming a successful speaker? Do you need more clients? This event will help you and I urge you to join me on one of the following dates in London next month;

Friday 11th May 2012
Saturday 12th May 2012
Friday 25th May 2012

GO HERE to check out the details and book your place.

As soon as your booking has been processed you will immediately receive the free bonuses so you can start working through your fears instantly.

One last thing… don’t panic that I’m going to make you stand up and give a speech… I promise you that won’t happen. But we will have a fun, educational and inspiring day together.

If you are just starting out in your journey to become a speaker and sell from stage, you may be feeling daunted by the prospect of preparing your slides presentation… I know it can be easy to spend so much time focusing on your content that you may overlook the finer details that bring the presentation together.

So today, I want to go back to basics and talk to you about the core details that you should be including in your own slides before you begin to consider the content itself.

Now, your presentation is representative of your business, so firstly, ensure that images and fonts are consistent with your business branding. The overall look and feel of your presentation should remind your audience of your business… don’t create the slides as a standalone piece of promotional material… treat them as an extension of your existing marketing.

Does that make sense?

To Begin…
So, open a blank slide and begin by placing your logo in a corner of the slide. Don’t make this image too large… your audience need to be able to see it there but you don’t want it to be their prime focus of attention. After all you want them to see your awesome content.

Add your website URL or telephone number to another corner… if your logo is in a bottom corner, perhaps add your website or telephone number to the opposite corner at the top of the slide to balance it out.

Depending on the slide template you select to work with, there is often a title box and content box already in place in the slide. Edit the layout of these boxes if you need to and edit the font to be the same one you usually use in your marketing. You may
also need to amend the font size too but remember it needs to be large enough to read from a distance.

If you copy this slide you will see a second slide appear which is an exact duplicate of the one you just customised. Continue copying the slide until you have the required number for your presentation.

If this is your first presentation, I’d recommend you create a set of template slides so they are available for you to add content for future presentations… I’d suggest a template of about 20 slides is a reasonable size.

Titles
At this stage you should return to slide one and create the title slide. Remember to use an attention grabbing title… think of the problem your audience have and in your title share how your presentation will solve this problem for them.

You may also want to add a colourful graphic image on your title slide too. This could be a larger version of your logo (if so, I’d recommend you remove the smaller logo you have already inserted in this slide) or perhaps a picture that depicts the problem being addressed in your presentation.

TIP: It is important that you own the rights to use any images in your presentation. Source images from reputable image libraries (E.g. iStock or other similar sites) and never just copy an image you have found in a Google search. You may have to pay to use the image but copyright infringement is a serious matter.

Content
You are now ready to being adding your content to the slides. If you’ve got this far and are feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how to build your content, I’ve got loads of resources to help you;

You may like to go back over some of my older blog posts where I share some of my strategies for building a successful presentation. Go here to return to my blog.

Visit my YouTube channel where you will find a wealth of videos where I talk you through the individual strategies I use to build my own presentations. Go here to see my YouTube channel and watch the videos.

I am also running a series of “Presentation Secrets” events in London this May… in these intensive 1 day events I will walk you through my elegant business model that made me a millionaire in just 12 months. You can learn the secrets of a successful presentation with me in person and come away fully equipped with the skills to sell from stage. Go here for more details and to book your place.

What techniques do you use to create your presentations? Please share your stories in the comments box.

Would you like to use this article text on your website or in your ezine? You can, as long as the information below stays intact.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr Joanna Martin

Dr Joanna Martin is an internationally acclaimed speaker and sought-after educator who has taught over 40,000 people on three continents. She is also the author of the new book “The Presentation Profits Blueprint”.

Today, she trains entrepreneurs and professionals alike in key communication, leadership, and presentation skills. With her partner Greg, through their business, Shift Lifestyle they provide strategy and support for business owners who want a lifestyle, not just a living.

For more information go to: www.ShiftSpeakerTraining.com

How well is your networking paying off for you? Do you secretly fear that spending valuable hours attending events is never going to give you any referrals and you’re wondering if all the effort is worth it?

You see, like anything, there is a skill to networking. There are people who seem to do very well and receive most of their referrals from networking, yet others attend every event but just can’t attract the same levels of success.

One of the biggest factors I’ve noticed is the mindset of people who attend events. I’m sure you’ve met someone who talks over everyone else, doesn’t show any interest in you unless you are asking them who to make the cheque out to and frankly, you can’t wait to get away from.

This type of person is memorable… but for all the wrong reasons. They aren’t going to be the person you think of when you want to buy the service they offer… I’m pretty sure you’ll give the referral to one of their competitors right?

Yet had they come along with the intention of building relationships, connecting people and spent more time listening to you and showing an interest in what you had to say, you’d be left with a positive impression of them and you would likely buy from them when you needed what they had to offer.

As a speaker, networking will be a large part of your game. The more people who are aware of you and your expert status, the further your reach and the likelihood of you being approached for speaking gigs increases. So I thought for today’s blog I’d share some tips on how you can improve your networking skills which should help you to get more of those much wanted referrals.

Practice
If you’re attending the formal style of networking events that require you to stand up in front of the group to share your story, I’d urge you to practice what you will say before you arrive. The benefit of practicing is that you can make the best use of your limited time… and it takes some of the pressure off you when you’re in the room.

Passion and excitement
You are the person who is most passionate and excited about what you do in your business so let that come over when you talk. If you speak with passion, your fellow networkers will pick up on this and will feel drawn to you. You know how they say that when you see someone smiling, you want to smile too… it will be equally difficult for people to not be inspired when listening to you speak with passion.

Props
There are so many people to fit into a short time that I’d recommend that you consider how you can make yourself more memorable to everyone else. Props are a great way to attract attention and even if people don’t remember what you say, they will likely remember what you held in your hand.

So, if you sell an online product, perhaps get a designer to make up a DVD or CD cover to showcase your product. You can buy blank cases very cheaply and by inserting your cover image into the case, it becomes a physical prop. Holding the case up while you explain the benefits of your e-course can attract offline sales.

If you are a Coach or Consultant, think about finding a picture that tells the story of the work you do for clients. Images are extremely powerful and as the saying goes… “one picture can tell a thousand words.” Holding up the picture while you tell a short story of a typical client can help people to relate to your words much more easily.

Listen with an open mind
I touched on this earlier but try to listen much more than you speak. Go into conversations with an open mind… we all make snap judgements based on first impressions but in a networking scenario, keeping your mind open can lead you to unexpected results.

The person you meet may not be the right fit for your business but they could have contacts that will benefit you… so explore any opportunities to connect and the universe may just have a little treat in store for you.

Can you see how the strategies I’ve shared in the blog today could work for you? If you are planning on using a prop at your next event, what will you use? How much time are you spending on networking and is it working for you?

Many people have told me that the skills that they learned from my 1 day Presentation Secrets events helped them enormously with their networking efforts too. Learning how to present effectively is not just a skill for speakers but will apply to other areas of your life including networking.

The next round of Presentation Secrets will take place in London this May. To find out more and book your place, I urge you to CLICK HERE

I’m forever thankful to have such an amazing group of people who join me for my events. However some people, for one reason or another, have their own agenda and these are the people you need to be mindful of.

So I thought today I’d share with you the signs you should look out for to help you detect potentially disruptive audience members to prevent any such situation escalating.

There are 6 types of difficult audience members that I want to highlight today;

Lateness and absenteeism
When I used to work in personal development I found that one or two participants would start being late or absent around days 3 and 4 of my trainings. Usually around this time the work we were doing would begin to require a deeper level of self analysis but rather than deal with their inner feelings, they would decide the training was not for them and lose focus.

You’ll find there are a few early indicators if you watch the non verbal communication (body language) of your audience members for signs of people

• Staring out of the window
• Chewing their pen
• Sitting with crossed arms and a scowl on their face
• Not participating when a question involves the audience raising their hands

Always be aware of the non verbal communication you are receiving from your audience. If someone is consistently demonstrating any of these warning signs, it will pay dividends if you can resolve the problem early on.

Avoidance
This type is trying to avoid the real issue of what is coming up in the training. The warning signs to watch out for are people

• Playing the fool or acting the clown
• Who don’t have the correct materials to complete the exercises
• Announcing they have a headache or another malady that means they need to sit elsewhere

There could be a perfectly legitimate reason for any of these but often I find the truth is that they are attempting to cover up an inability to deal with what is really bothering them. Left alone, this kind of behaviour will be distracting and could sabotage the journey for everyone else.

Hostility or acting out
Fortunately this is a really rare occurrence but occasionally in longer trainings someone will become hostile towards you. They want all the attention of the group to be focused on them instead of you… and become aggressive when this doesn’t happen.

I’ve found the best way to manage this is to wait until you are sure you have the audience on your side. If you try and face this situation or become defensive before the sympathy of the audience lies with you, the risk is that you may be perceived as the bad guy.

Manipulation
The manipulator wants to make the learning specific to their individual situation and will often ask questions to convert the experience from the group into their own personal journey.

For example, they may ask a question like “how do you see that working for a small business with three employees where two are middle aged women and the other is a school leaver?”. The question is so specific there is no benefit to the group in spending time and focus on it.

So I’d usually respond with something like “that’s a great question but it is very specific so the best thing to do is raise it with one of the crew during the breaks”

Recognise when someone is trying to manipulate the experience for their sole benefit and don’t allow them to lead the group off their own course.

The fall guy or victim
These people might be struggling to keep up with the rest of the group during the exercises or they arrive late because their car broke down or their train was late. There is always an unfortunate problem that befalls them and means they are unable to do this thing or that thing.

Watch carefully for this type as they create drama around themselves which can sabotage the experience for others. I’d suggest asking one of your crew members or event manager to work with this person 1:1 during the break so they can be supported away from the main group.

The brown noser
Otherwise known as Teacher’s Pet, this is the person who always rushes to answer questions first and generally wants to impress. This is attention seeking behaviour… They want your focus.

It can be so tempting to play along… having someone so engaged with your content is an enormous ego boost. However, if you don’t recognise this for what it is, you run the risk of alienating the rest of the group who could feel you are showing favouritism.

You don’t want to make any enemies in your audience so handle this with tact. I would respond with “thank you very much for that but [their name] has already answered several questions today so how about we let someone else have a go this time… would that be ok?”

They aren’t going to say no… and you can bring the rest of the group back in to contribute. If the problem crops up again, ask one of your crew to sensitively broach it with the person during the next break.

So these are the six most common types of audience members that might present a disruption at your event. How many have you experienced? how did you manage the situation? Leave me a comment and let me know.

We have just finished our amazing tour of Australia with Presentation Secrets and I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed connecting with you in person. It was so touching to hear your stories of how attending a Presentation Secrets event has helped you to make some great changes to your life.

Speaking and running events is like any other business in that from time to time and despite the best planning and intentions there will be times when you will encounter a problem at an event;

• maybe nerves overcome you,
• your tech lets you down
• or there is a difficult audience member who is distracting the rest of the group.

How do you deal with these kinds of problems and regain control of your audience? Let’s look at what kinds of problems may arise at speaking events

Nerves:

Even experienced speakers can suffer with stage fright occasionally. I always take some time before I go on stage to calm myself and get focused for the presentation. Make sure you can take ten minutes to yourself for quiet time beforehand…tell your crew you need time alone and ask that they deal with anything that crops up without disturbing you.

Nerves can also be brought on by lack of information or organisation. If it is your own event, make sure your events manager is fully briefed of how you want the day to run. If you’re sharing the stage at an event organised by others, ask for as much information as you need before the day and check in with the events manager again on arrival in case of last minute schedule changes.

Tech failure:

NEVER rely on your presentation to prompt you along. If your PowerPoint won’t load or your laptop won’t connect to the projector you’d be in trouble if you had no ‘Plan B’. I’d always recommend you have either speech cards or a hard copy of your presentation ready to use as back up if the worst should happen.

Problem audience members:

Occasionally you will experience an audience member who is working to a different agenda to you. They might appear disinterested, maybe behaving disruptively…returning late from breaks or they could be the ‘smart alec’ who disagrees with everything you say and thinks they know better.

Having one of these types in your audience can be really disruptive for the rest of the group. It is counterproductive to try and deal with this from stage so when this happens at one of my events, I ask one of my crew to have a discreet word with the audience member outside during the next break.

Don’t be confrontational; you can say something like “I feel that you seem unsettled and wonder if there is something troubling you that I can help with” which may get to the bottom of the problem. It could be something unconnected to your event; a personal dilemma perhaps but knowing what the issue is will help you to take the best course of action to resolve it.

If I feel the best option is to remove the person from the room then I ask one of my crew to collect their belongings to avoid them returning to the group angry or upset which is going to upset the dynamics for the rest of the day. If they request a refund, give it to them no questions asked. There is little benefit in getting into an argument.

Last week, tickets for our 1-day Presentation Secrets London events went on sale and are already proving very popular. We have several dates available in May so be sure to take a look at the link below and see which date suits you best.

Click Here For More Info About Presentation Secrets London

Have you ever experienced any problems at events you’ve organised or spoken at? How did you manage the situation at the time and in hindsight, would you do the same again? Please comment and share your funny or disastrous story and tell me what happened next?

So you’ve just delivered the killer presentation, your audience is excited by your offer but for some reason they seem reluctant to hand over their payment card…could it be that the immediate investment is too high?

Hang on, I’m not suggesting you discount your prices here…but have you considered making the immediate investment so low that for your audience the purchase becomes a ‘no-brainer’?

So, how can you do that without discounting?

The answer is flexible payment plans…otherwise known as installments!

Firstly, consider the cost of your workshop or product…is it low enough that most clients should be able to pay the full amount up front? If the investment is already small then it is possible that price isn’t the issue.

But let’s assume your offer requires a large upfront cash investment. In these cases flexible payment plans could make it easy for your customers to buy as it removes one obstruction to the sale.

Clearly you will want some form of upfront payment so consider offering an upfront deposit option plus one or multiple installments.
There are several options for flexible payments:

OPTION #1
2 payments…the first is a deposit at the time of ordering, the second due 30 days later (but full amount paid before delivery)

OPTION #2
3 payments…as before, the first is due at the time of ordering, the second 7 days prior to delivery and the third 30 days after delivery

OPTION #3
4 payments …collect deposit at order stage, and collect the other 3 at set intervals before and after delivery

If you are marketing a digital product, perhaps you could stagger access to modules in correlation with each payment stage (E.g: client receives instant access to the first module and future modules become accessible upon receipt of future installments)

Should you decide to offer flexible payment plans, I’d suggest keeping the choice simple by offering one flexible option alongside full payment upfront.

I’d also recommend adding a markup if clients opt for flexible payments options… there should always be an implied discount for full payment upfront. The reality of course is that flexible payment plans incur additional administration costs for you…plus a certain element of risk…so make sure you pass these costs on to your client.

For example; if your product costs $1,000, you might want to consider marking the cost up by 20% for flexible payments…therefore two installments of $600.

It goes without saying that your order form needs to have full terms and conditions stated. For clients choosing flexible payments, make sure they read and sign your T&Cs that clearly state all payments are payable…no ducking out after part payment.

Don’t forget to state the most important clause…that you will take action against non-payers!

For added protection, I highly recommend you obtain the full name, email address, all telephone numbers and home postal address details for client orders and keep this information secure…ideally with electronic backup.

I’d invite you now to take some time to think about your own payment options. Do you encounter regular resistance from your audience to place orders after your presentations? Give some thought into how you can overcome this obstruction and whether offering flexible payment options could be the right solution for your customers.

Are you offering your clients flexible payment options? Have you noticed a difference in the take up of your offer? Perhaps you have encountered the resistance from your prospects to buy and you’re wondering how you might be able to overcome this? Please do leave me a comment and tell me how installments work for you.

In my last blog post I shared tips for setting up and marketing your webinar. In this final part of the webinar blog series I want to share some of the lessons I have learned about running the event on the day itself.

If you’ve attended my one day Presentation Secrets event you’ll know I highly recommend webinars to really get your speaking business off the ground.

Nowadays I run webinars every week; either for coaching calls, my weekly catch up calls with my team or to promote upcoming events.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes in the past and so by sharing the lessons I have learned with you today, you will be better prepared from the outset.

Do a dummy rehearsal
Once you’ve become more proficient at running webinars you won’t necessarily need to rehearse but for your early events I recommend you do a dry run a day or two before the live event. Ask a few friends to sit in and act as participants and ask questions…you can always ask for their feedback too.

Why?

• You get to practice speaking your presentation out loud. Make sure it all flows smoothly and you’re happy with how your slides appear on the screen
• You can check you have allowed enough time. For an hour long webinar, I usually time my presentation to last for about 45 minutes which provides for a 15 minute Q&A at the end. The Q&A time is important because it gives you the chance to respond to any objections which may be preventing sales.
• Get familiar with the technical aspects. This is great for you and your buddy to familiarise yourself with the control panel, responding to questions and to check all of your settings are working ok. It is far better to have something go wrong in a rehearsal if you can avoid the same issue affecting your live broadcast.

You need a buddy
When I first started running webinars I thought it would be easy enough to manage on my own. The reality is that there is so much going on during the webinar, that it becomes distracting for you when you’re trying to deliver your presentation.

So I recommend appointing an organiser to help you. The presenter is the person talking (you) but you can have up to five organisers on the call with you who can take care of

Questions:
Throughout the webinar people will be sending you questions using the chat box. Your organiser can sift through the messages, respond to anything general and pick out the ones for you to answer in the call.

Tell your buddy when you can be interrupted as there is no benefit to having a buddy who will be constantly distracting you. Perhaps have a silent code between you if you are in the same room that lets them know you can be approached.

Technical problems
In most webinars I run I will receive a message from a participant who is experiencing difficulties with their audio settings…they can see my screen but can’t hear me speaking.

Now, there is one very important lesson I learned early on: If you receive this message from one or two people, then the chances are they have either not switched their speakers on, not increased the volume or they have accidently muted the session. In these cases, have your buddy reply advising them to check their own settings. The problem is at their end.

If there was a technical problem at your end, you would receive lots of these messages. In the early days I made the mistake of stopping the webinar believing I had a fault on my webinar setup when in fact it was only an issue for a minority.

So, make sure your buddy is aware of how many people are on the call in relation to the number experiencing technical difficulties…then you will have a perspective on the extent of the issue.

Record the webinar
Having a recording of your webinar is beneficial for a couple of reasons. Firstly it provides you with the opportunity to listen to the recording to assess how it went from the perspective of your viewers.

But it also becomes a tangible product for you…perhaps a free download to build your list or maybe a bonus to add value to a future coaching program or product sale…or both!

Relax
Running a webinar can be so much fun so really embrace the experience and relish the opportunity to connect with your audience. Having a buddy around to help will take the pressure off enabling you to just go with the flow.

Enjoy!
Have you found this mini series helpful? What did you do for your first webinar? It would be really great if you can share your own tips and experiences in the comments box to help other members of the community.

If you’d like to attend Presentation Secrets, we are over half way through the tour of Australia now but the remaining two dates still have a few tickets available. Go here for more details and to book

ADELAIDE 19th March

SYDNEY 21st March

Presentation Secrets will be in the UK in May for several dates in London. Tickets aren’t on sale just yet but go here to pre register and be the first to hear when places are relased.