Unless event planning is your speciality you’ll probably want to keep things simple at this stage. Why not host a VIP gathering for your clients and their contacts?

Giving your event a VIP label will make your guests feel special and by allowing your clients to bring guests of their own their clients will feel special too. Meanwhile you’ll get to speak in front of an audience and grow your list at the same time.

When I first started in my speaking business I hosted a small gathering and spent $17 on nibbles and by presenting my offer made $795 in sales. The second event I ran I took it up a level, spent $350, invited more guests and made $10,000 in sales! If you keep it small and intimate there isn’t much planning involved either.

Let’s consider the process of hosting a client gathering:

• Guest list:
  • How many people are you going to invite?
  • Will you invite all of your clients or a selection of your best clients?
  • How about inviting the clients who have signed up to your list but have never bought from you?
• Content:
  • What are the solutions your guests are most in need of right now?
  • How can your offer help them to find the answers?
  • Will your presentation entertain or educate?
  • Are you intending to invite guest speakers too?
  • How about partnering with another speaker in a complementary niche and jointly hosting the event?



• Venue:
  • Now you know the number of guests you’ll be inviting and the type of content you want to deliver, do you know where you can host your gathering?
  • Your home can be great for small groups but not so good if you’re expecting a lot of guests. If you’re not comfortable inviting clients into your home, where could you hold your event instead?
  • Are you going to offer chips and dips or a larger selection of food?
• Your ‘no brainer’ offer:
  • It is important that you consider your audience when creating your offer. Think about the solutions you are presenting to your guests and ask yourself if what you are offering is going to compel them to take action.
• Invitations:
  • How are you going to invite your guests?
  • If you already have their mailing address you might like to create a personal invitation and mail it to them?
  • We don’t hand write much these days but isn’t it lovely when you pick up your mail to find a hand written envelope addressed to you? It always makes me smile.
  • You can invite your guests in an email if you really want to keep it simple or if you’re good with technology you might want to create a website invitation?
  • However you decide to invite your guests, your copy should be compelling and state the benefits of attending your gathering.

Why not make a definite plan to hold a client gathering soon? They are a great opportunity to connect with lots of fantastic people in a great environment that you’ve brought together. Plus you’ll get another chance to show off your speaking skills in front of an audience which is always a bonus.

Have you held a client gathering? Please leave me a comment-I’d love to hear your ideas and whether there was a particular element of your event that made it successful?

“Dear Joey,

The more I listen to you talk about how successful your 1-day speaking events are, the more incapable I feel. You get hundreds of people in your room but when I recently ran a preview night for my 1-day workshop only 12 people turned up and only 3 people booked! Now my 1-day workshop is coming up early next month and I’m afraid NO-ONE is going to show up. Do I really have to go and do another preview night? How else do I fill this room other than market to my list?

I’m on the verge of giving up.

HELP!

In gratitude,

Susan”

Sound familiar?!

Knowing how to market your seminars and filling your rooms are such a common source of pain for us speakers, I thought I would share her email and my response:

Hi Susan,

First of all do not give up!

I hear stories like yours ALL the time. I’m not going to lie, filling the room is the hardest thing about speaking. Far harder than actually standing on stage delivering the content!

And before I share some seminar marketing strategies with you, let’s get things straight. I haven’t always put on huge events! It’s easy to forget that because I now have a fantastic team around me, that when I first started I was just like you. Remember, we all have to start somewhere.

In fact, I remember the very first event I put on – it was a client appreciation night in my own home – and I invited less than 20 people and most of them were friends and family! I was racked with nerves too but I made a few sales and I was over the moon!

You see, that small success gave me the confidence to go onto bigger and better things which ultimately led to me setting up my own business and putting on my own 1-day events and becoming who I am today.

So wherever you are right now is the perfect place for you! Give yourself permission to be small when you start out and that means setting realistic targets.

(Honestly, the amount of times I hear people who have NO list say they’re going to get 150 people + in a room in less than 4 weeks time. Yes that can happen, but it’s the exception to filling a room and not the rule!)

Now in terms of the practical advice, here are 8 key guidelines for filling a room:

1. 12 Week Lead-in

   Give yourself a 12 week lead-in for marketing your seminar. This means your sales page and promotional emails need to be prepared in advance of these 12 weeks. We’ve found anything between a 12-week to 8-week lead-in works best for our list.

   TIP: A lot of people either book right at the beginning or right on the deadline so remember to angle your email copy to those people specifically. Offer earlybird bonuses for booking quickly and then angle your copy to the ‘fence sitters’ toward the end.

2. Is Your Event A No-Brainer?

   Make it a no-brainer to attend your preview night or workshop. Offer good quality free bonuses and make sure you deliver exceptional value – not a sales pitch. Make it such a feast that the only choice is to attend!

   TIP: Use testimonials from happy clients as social proof.

3. Hire A Copywriter

   If you’re not a great copywriter, invest in someone to look over the copy for you. A few tweaks here and there could be all the difference between a 10% conversion or a 1% conversion on your sales page. The reason why copywriters can charge a lot of money is because of the money they make you!! Too often I see a great idea let down by weak copy. If you can’t afford a copywriter, then in your emails offer a clear message to market match, some clean bullets and at least 2 links to your registration page. Use of success stories also works well.

   TIP: Don’t be too salesy in your emails. Coming from the heart will create a stronger connection in today’s email saturated market place.



4. Is Your Niche Clear?

   This is really important and something I talk about a lot – make sure the event has a clear niche and that you have a very clear message to market match! For example, our niche are small business owners, coaches, entreprenuers and our message is how to leverage your time through speaking so you stop trading time for money and start reaching more people. Not nailing the niche is one of the biggest reasons events don’t fill or why you don’t get great conversions.

   TIP! If you don’t do anything else, just do this one!

5. Seek JV Partners and Alliances

   If you’ve only got a small list or even no list, I wouldn’t suggest going to the big promoters, but do find people who have approximately the same list size or a ‘step up’ from you. Offer them an incentive to send for you, for example a percentage of the ticket sales or if you do have a good-sized list, a reciprocal email for them.

   TIP! Make sure you write the promotional emails for their list – basically you want to give them everything on the plate already done to make it as easy as possible for send out to their list.

6. Set-Up An Affiliate Program

   Set up an affiliate program and make it easy to join! Again, take away any effort to someone being an affiliate. Offer 50% or more on the front-end ticket price. If you are selling something at the event, your money will come on the back-end so you can afford to be generous on the front-end.

7. Keep Building Your List

   Keep focusing on building your list with new prospects! The more new prospects, the more people you can market to with news of your 1-day event. Social media is a great way to engage new people, or guest talk on other’s webinars, write value packed blogs like this one and have your squeeze page offering a relevant free gift like ours:

   http://www.shiftspeakertraining.com/

   When you are building your list, the idea is to offer a free gift to draw people in and start a relationship with them. So you don’t want to be marketing your event to these new prospect straight away but at some point, you do want to let them know you’re putting on a live event to give them the opportunity to see you in person!



8. Social Media

   If like Susan, you’re just putting on a preview night, then use social media to its fullest! Set up an event for it on Facebook and then invite your friends and ask them to share the link with as many people as possible. You might want to film a short video and post this too. You could even put on a free 60minute webinar in addition or as an alternative to get people into your 1-day.

   TIP: If you are using social media, then remember to ‘seed’ your idea with status updates/tweets which are about your topic and invite interaction.

9. Be Realistic!

   Remember what I said at the beginning – keep your expectations realistic. If you’ve never put on an event before aiming for 20 people is a good start. Go up incrementally from that point on. Quality is always better than quantity in the beginning.

So, now you have some clear strategies for filling a room or getting people to attend your preview night. No-one ever said it was easy, but it doesn’t have to be that hard either!

If you’ve got any marketing seminar tips for how to fill a room, share them below or if you’re looking for JV partners, share that below too!

There are various reasons for icebreakers but the most obvious is because you want to get the audience on your side and loosen them up a bit. Everybody’s energy is going to be in a different place when they first arrive so your role as the public speaker is to bring them all together as one. This is even more important when you’re speaking on someone else’s stage and they perhaps don’t have a prior relationship with you.

As you have probably seen from your own first-hand experience – you get all types of people coming to live events! Shy, confident, outgoing, reclusive – believe I’ve seen THE LOT and then some . . .so that’s why ice-breakers are so good at bringing people together.

Remember also the context in how they arrived at your event. Some people might be naturally chatty but have had a stressful journey trying to get to the venue, or just stressed in general this particular day!

As the public speaker your job is to capture people’s attention, lower their guard and get them engaged in your presentation. Nothing is easier to do when it comes to building rapport, and raising the energy and involvement of your audience than using an icebreaker!

So what sort of things can you use as “Icebreaker Activities”?

Here’s a few simple examples that you’re welcome to use:

1. Long Lost Friends.
   Nothing breaks the ice like pretending someone’s a long lost friend. I invite people to go and meet 5 people that they don’t know, but greet them like they are “long lost friends”. This usually works well in a personal development type environment, but might not be too crash hot in corporate.

2. What’s your intention?
   In this exercise you send people off to introduce themselves to 3 new people they don’t know. Have them share their name, occupation and what their intention is for the workshop. This is a great idea because it has the added advantage of getting people thinking about why they are there and what their outcomes are.



3. Share a Dream Holiday.
   This is a great one because it gets people instantly in a good mood! Have participants introduce themselves to 5 people, share their name and where they would most like to visit on a dream holiday and why.

4. Memorable Moments.
   I like this because again it raises the emotional energy. Invite people to introduce themselves and tell the most memorable moment in their life so far, in a wildly inspirational way.

For my Icebreakers I prefer to send people off into small groups, or to network and meet people personally rather than having each participant stand up and introduce to the whole group. The reason is that the intention of my icebreaker activity is not only to get to know each other, but to raise the energy in the room. So the more noise, and fun, and hub-bub we can create, the better.

I also recommend playing some fun music underneath!

So why not at your next live event practice one of the above ice-breakers and see the instant effect it has on your room. And if you’ve got any tried and tested ice-breakers of your own go ahead and share them in the comments section so we can all benefit. Until next time!

As I recently ran an evening networking event in London I thought today’s post would be a great reminder of how to get the most out of any business event you attend.

So why should you make the effort to attend a business event?

There are 4 main reasons.

1. You can learn new skills
2. You can network with potential JV partners or colleagues
3. You can  get inspired for re-energizing your business
4. Or, if you are thinking about changing your corporate hat for an entrepreneurial one, an event is a great place to get ideas for starting off quickly and profitably.

Weekend events (such as my recent Professional Speaker’s Summit, my 3-day Presentation Profits Intensive or my upcoming Seminar Business School, are an investment in yourself and your business – one that you can easily offset with new contacts, strategies, and tools to boost your bottom line.

So next time you go to a business event, consider these top strategies to get the most from your experience well before you head out the door:

Research topics & speakers:

Always check out the website’s agenda or sales page for the event. If it’s a multi-speaker event, make a note of  who will be speaking and what the topics are.  Perhaps even go to their individual websites to find out more about them and how they can help your business. By doing your homework, you’ll be better informed, and be in the best position to get what you need from the training.

Know your business strengths and weaknesses:

As a speaker, you shine on stage and are an expert at selling your products or services. Or maybe you’re an ace networker and a dab hand at putting together a team . However, you also want to be aware of the areas where you need development, such as online marketing, the techie stuff, copywriting, etc. Before you attend any event, take a moment to consider what your current business strengths and weaknesses are.  This will then help you raise your awareness to what the event will present – either in terms of the content from stage or the people you meet!

Know your figures!

If you meet a potential joint venture partner, you may want to have a few relevant figures handy like your gross revenue or list size.  Be specific about your list – is it UK based, worldwide, what is the gender split, approx age etc.  Have your forecasts for next year handy as well.

Connect with your fellow attendees before and after

Seek out Facebook event pages or forums that have been created for your event. In our case, you can connect via either my Shift Speaker Training Facebook page or by Twitter. It’s a great way to virtually meet your fellow attendees before the event, so when you do meet in person, you’ll be best friends! Keep an eye out for any hashtags after the event Tweetups — impromptu gatherings of Twitter users — or better yet, organize one yourself.

Be alert for strategic alliances.

If you are just starting out in your business, you may want to form strategic alliances. For example, web designers and copywriters work hand-in-hand and refer each other clients. Consider what professions are your natural match, have them in mind, and you’ll be surprised how many of them you’ll meet at the event.

Plan your travel

If you are traveling from overseas, arrive at your event destination a day or two early to relax, get acclimated, get in the same time zone, and get accustomed to your surroundings. Stay at the hotel where the event is held to save time going from your room to the event, save money on car rental or cab fare, and increase your potential for connecting with other event attendees. (Your room is also a great place to get a little privacy and get a breather, so it’s nice when it’s close by.)

Dress for success.

For most events, business casual is the stated attire, but think about stepping it up a notch.  You’re representing you, your business, and your brand, and the better you look and feel, the more people will notice you and find you approachable.

Come prepared

You’re just about ready, but here are a few more must-haves: an empty water bottle for being “green” while you travel, a jacket, pashmina or coat in case the room gets cold, a few of your favorite health bars or snacks, and a method for jotting down lots of notes (I always suggest buying a special journal and pen for the occasion!) and your all-important follow-up list of action items when you get back home. Of course you’ll want to bring a stack of memorable business cards!

Be clever and memorable.

Do you have any event tips to add to this list? I’d love to hear more.

During any sales presentation the aim is to not to get a round of applause but to make as much profit as possible.  Whether you succeed or not is mostly down to the strength of your presentation, the passion in your pitch and the trust the audience have in you.

But there are also a handful of smaller details most speakers often overlook – but which can also have a subtle impact on you sales.

So here are some practical sales tips to help make your presentation as smooth as silk.

Presentation Sales Tip 1: Order Forms

For any sales of bigger ticket items (products or services with a high monetary value), you’re going to need some order forms with some legally binding terms and conditions. It sounds simple but believe me, get this wrong and you will miss out on sales.

So sales tip number one – make sure you’ve got more order forms than you think you’ll need as some customers like to keep a copy for their records. Also pay attention to the information you asking your customers for when they fill in your Order Form? Name, email address, postal address?

Presentation Sales Tip 2: How Are Customers Paying You?

If you are doing a sales presentation have you given any consideration to how your customers are going to pay you?  So sales tip number two – think about your payment methods.

Are you taking cash? If yes, remember to think about what you’re charging and what change you might need. For example, if you’re charging £47 for something, it’s pretty likely people will hand over £50 so make sure you’ve got plenty of £1 and £2 on hand. Might sound like common sense, but gets tricky if that’s the one thing you forgot to pack and it’s a Sunday and the banks are shut.

If you’re taking credit cards, there’s no cash involved but there are other issues. Do you  have your own merchant facility? Or are you running everything through PayPal? There are fees involved for each so get plenty of information.

When are you processing payments? If you’re processing them after the sales presentation, you may want to refrain from giving out any physical product or bonuses until people’s orders are processed and cleared. This avoids any difficulties afterwards.

Presentation Sales Tip 3: Payment plans – Yes, No, or Never?

Sales tip number three – are you going to offer your customers a payment plan?  The up side of payment plans is that they offer more flexibility for people to purchase your products who might otherwise not and means that overall sales are likely to be higher as a greater number of people can buy.

The down side, there will be people who default on their payments, whose cards expire and fail and who have changes in their life circumstances that mean they won’t be able to pay on time. This will take you (or someone in your team) TIME and EFFORT to follow up and manage

What’s your refund policy and guarantee? Think about it BEFORE you sell the product, know it, clearly state it, then stick to it.

Summary

A little bit of planning about what systems you are using in your sales presentations will make your product or event launch run smoothly. So next time you run a presentation, pay some attention to what information you’re collecting from your customers and how you are using it and how you can maximize your sales.

How to market your seminars is one of the greatest obstacles I find with people starting out in the public speaking business. But once you overcome this, you’ll be increasing your bottom line profits as you run full to the rafter events and seminars.

But first here are some questions commonly asked about marketing your seminars:

Who on earth am I going to present to?

Where are they?

And how do I get them into a room?

The first step is to locate your target audience. Because once you know who your ideal prospects are, it’s just a matter of marketing your seminar to them effectively.

So, let’s looks at 2 easy strategies to find your target audience

1. Pre-existing groups.
   This is by far and away the simplest strategy for effective seminar marketing. Once you have determined your ideal audience, the next logical step is to ask yourself:  

   “Where are groups of these people already gathering?”

   Your target market, more often than not, are already meeting together in groups somewhere:

   • clubs
   • associations
   • seminars
   • workshops
   • social groups
   • companies
   • small businesses

   All these organisations are having regular events or meetings looking for someone to come and add value and inspiration to their members or employees. Why not try marketing your seminars to them?

2. Create your own group
   If you already have a business or a client list – even if there are only 8 people on it- this is a great way to market your seminar. You market to the people already interested in you and your services and because they are already engaged, you increase the percentage of them buying again from you. 

   One of the simplest marketing things you can do is have a “Client Appreciation Night”.

   Invite your clients to bring a guest along to an evening. Put on a drink or two and share with them some ground breaking information in your industry. At the evening you then do your awesome presentation and make some sales right there on the night to people who already know and love you, and their friends.

   Of course if your database is 1000 people- the numbers get more fun more quickly, but I want to stress on you that you can start marketing your seminars on a small scale.

I often get asked for tips on public speaking.  Often, people think there is some kind of science or formula to being on stage.  But the truth to being a successful public speaker is much simpler than that.

Listen very carefully . . ..

. . . All you need to do is . . . .

Be yourself.

This means when you are on stage never try to put on an act or mimic or model another person. Instead honour yourself and the values you uphold.

Avoid This Mistake!

One of the biggest mistakes I see new speakers make on stage is when they try to be someone other than themselves.  Public speaking tip number one! Never do this!! Do not try to be someone you are not.  Do not model some polished hotshot American speaker you’ve seen, or try and be some kind of stand up comedian or anything other than your true self

The irony is – when you are your true self – this is when you have the most impact!

People really respond to authenticity. Audiences are not dumb – they can spot when someone is putting on an act.  So when someone is true to his or herself on stage people connect to this on much deeper level.

Ask Permission To Be You!

Well, if you’re not confident on stage or you have fear about public speaking – you could ask the audience: “Is it ok if once in a while I have to use my notes?” or “Is it ok once in a while if use my power-point presentation because this is my first time presenting this material.’ Your audience will respect your honesty and will warm to your authentic self far more than if you were to stand on stage and try to blag it.

You Don’t Have To Be Super-Human!

When you admit to your flaws and admit you’re not a super-human, people like that element of truth.  When they trust you . . . they’re far more likely to buy off you too.

Here’s another public speaking tip for you and maybe even more important than the last.  The first person you need to ask permission off is yourself.  Yes, it is acceptable to be you!  Authenticity comes from a place of acceptance and compassion.  It also comes from a place of self-worth.

Is who you are worth sharing with the world?

Authenticity is peeling back the layers of the surface identity to reveal the bright, shining light of YOU.

Your Turn

So this week, think about how authentic you are on stage or in your business.  If you’re not as authentic as you think you could be, ask yourself why and what steps you can take toward your own personal and professional authenticity.

Marketing your seminars is one of the greatest obstacles I find with people starting out in the public speaking business.

Who on earth am I going to present to?

Where are they all and how do I get them into a room?

Let’s look at 2 easy options for you to find your target market:

1. Pre-existing groups.

   This is by far and away the simplest strategy. Once you have determined your ideal audience, the next logical step is to ask yourself:

   “Where are groups of these people already gathering?”

   Your target market, more often than not, are already meeting together in groups somewhere:
   

   • clubs
   • associations
   • seminars
   • workshops
   • social groups
   • companies
   • small businesses

   All these organisations are having regular events or meetings, just longing for some great inspiring speakers to come and share their wisdom. Don’t discount yourself – every group, organisation or company is looking for someone to come and add value and inspiration to their members or employees.

   Advantages of pre-existing groups:

   • they are already meeting and often looking for speakers
   • they are closely knit and self-defining, so it is obvious if they are your market or not
   • they already have marketing in place so you don’t have to worry about it as much
   • they will pay for room hire and equipment
   • they might have colleagues, associates or other chapters that they will refer you to

   Disadvantages:

   • they have pre-conceived ideas about how speakers present and may be reluctant to let you sell
   • you have no control over the marketing, so its up to them to fill the room
   • it needs a little more organising from a “how do we collect the money and process orders” perspective
2. Create your own group

   If you already have a business or a client list – even if there are only 8 people on it- one of the simplest things you can do is have a “Client Appreciation Night”. Invite your clients to bring a guest along to an evening. Put on a drink or two and share with them some ground breaking information in your industry.

   At the evening you then do your awesome presentation and make some sales right there on the night to people who already know and love you, and their friends.

   Of course if your database is 1000 people- the numbers get more fun more quickly, but I want to stress on you that you can start marketing your seminars on a small scale.

   Advantages of Your Own Crowd:

   • you set the rules and you can sell as hard or soft as you like
   • some may have already bought from you, so they are more pre-disposed to buy from you again. Did you know that over 70% of your sales come from customers with repeat business rather than new clients?
   • you get to control every aspect of their experience: the lighting, the sound, the tea breaks. . .
   • you can manage how “ready to buy” they are by doing good marketing in the lead up to the event

   Disadvantages:

   • you have to do all the marketing, event management, as well as the speaking
   • it’s generally more expensive because room costs, AV etc are footed by you

   Food For Thought

   Now that you have 2 easy strategies to find to your target market, what about going out there this week and either planning a client appreciation night of your own or even approach an organization to book yourself a speaking slot!