It’s crucial to keep time at a multispeaker event because if you go over time, you impact any other speaker that comes after you.

So here’s 2 great tips for keeping on time at your next presentation

1. Anchor to your slideshow the time you should be at, to each picture or point in your slideshow.
2. Use a clicker, like the logitech slideshow clicker, that lets you set your presentation time, and will count down until you have only 5 minutes left when it vibrates in your hand. It then does this again at 2 minutes to go.

This lovely young lady, Debra talks about why she loves the Shift Speaker Training web site.

Thanks Debra!

Jo

Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Audience

There Are 4 Key Questions You Must Ask Yourself Before You Settle On a Niche For Your Speaking. 

In the last blog article we determined if anyone is actually looking for information related to your topic and we looked at strategies such as Google Adwords and speciality magazines.

This week, the second key question to ask yourself before you settle on a niche is….

Are They Spending Money?

Are the people in your niche willing to spend money on your topic?

Here’s another way of explaining it.

In the recent Presentations Secret Seminar in London I had one participant wanting to niche in teenagers because he saw his purpose as helping to empower them. There’s one huge problem with trying to sell to teenagers though.  Do they have the money to spend on your product or service?  Even bigger problem is that this one can become a double sale because (a) you have to sell the teenager; and (b) you have to sell the parent with the credit card!

Therefore, even though you’ve picked a great niche, it’s challenging to get the money exchange happening!  If you do want to work in a niche that doesn’t have money to spend- you may like to niche into another area first for your business, and make this “penniless niche” your charity

It’s the same with doctors.  People have always told me that I should niche in personal development to doctors, but I’ve been a doctor and I know what doctors are like.  They don’t want to be told anything!  So, because I had familiarity with this group I knew they were unlikely to pay for my products or services I had specially created for them.  Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule (before you go writing in and telling me about a doctor you know who loves personal development!) but I want you to base a business on rules NOT exceptions.

Here’s three easy ways you can determine whether your niche has money to spend:

1. Market Research the People: Ask those you know personally. You’ve got your niche, you’re passionate about it and hopefully you have a community around you of other people who also share your passion.  These are your market! Ask them if you sold a product that did “x” would they buy it, and for how much?
2. Market Research the Product:  Are people already selling to them?  For instance (come up with an example, either the menopausal women or something new.)
3. Are People Advertising to Them?:  As a general rule you can assume that if people are advertising to a group – that group is buying the product.  You can measure this easily on the Google Keywords Tool I showed you last time.

Now you’ve got your niche and established you have a market, in the next article we’ll be looking at how you can access this market.