Last month at Acceleration 365, my live event in Florida, I felt like a rock star. I opened the conference with an inspiring message and really connected with my audience. The program was going so well, I was thrilled.
But then it happened…
The big wah wah wah (said like the Peanuts school teacher)…
It was during the part of the program when it came to selling the final two seats in my Inner Circle Mastermind program. My posture changed. I went from rock star to shrinking violet in about 30 seconds. Fortunately, my amazing coach Lisa Larter was in the audience and mentioned it to me at lunchtime.
Alan Weiss of Million Dollar Consulting always says “the first sale is to yourself.” Oh boy, is that ever true.
Let’s say you get to the end of your speech and you go to ask for the business in the form of the “help me speech.” This is two lines right before your closing story that says, “As you can see I am passionate about [Insert Topic]. If you know of anyone who could benefit from this program, please come and hand me your business card when we are finished”. This is a concept derived from Thom Winninger that some of you might use when starting out and delivery freebies.
But what if when you go to say your two lines, inside your head, your little green monster is screaming “selling from the stage is wrong… Ewww, don’t do it”. Or if like me in Florida, you don’t “like” to pitch people who have already paid to be in your room.
Then what will happen?
You might just lose your posture.
And if you lose your posture, you have lost the sale.
Wah wah wah…… deflated, shrinking violet.
You have to believe in what you are selling.
To further my own posture mistake, when I did circle back to pitch it, I was selling features, not benefits and outcomes of my program. I should have been saying things like…
If you are tired of getting lower fees than you are worth and you want to focus on filling your pipeline with more quality clients.
Or… Maybe you want to build the confidence to close full fee deals, then you might want to consider the Inner Circle Mastermind.
Instead, I was sharing that we meet every month and do quarterly one-on-one sessions. Those are features. Those are mechanics. They are not outcomes and not benefits.
I did believe in my program, but I didn’t believe in pitching from the stage and therein lies the rub. I have to believe that if people flew halfway across the country to spend the weekend with me, then they would WANT to know what all I had to offer. They WANT to know about the opportunity.
I will get better at this!
How about you?
Where do you need help standing tall in your fees? Where do you lose your posture?
We’d love for you to share a comment below!
See you soon, Wealthy Speakers!
6 Responses
Awesome points, Jane. Easy to remember, tough to apply some times. Always room for a good therapist to integrate good ideas into good practice. My posture is currently scrunched. Guess it all starts with awareness! Looking forward to seeing you in person on Saturday here in Vancouver!
Thanks for sharing David, now I have a goal for Saturday! Unscrunch David!
That explains why my back was so sore!
As a semi-professional conference attendee, I can share with you, Jane, that from both a mechanical and outcome standpoint a defined conference program can only do just so much for attendees given the time allotted. And of course, large audience events need to be tailored for a wider range of attendee skill and interest levels, and therefore tend to be more general in content.
However as the expert, only you are keenly aware of the real world benefits deeper study into a subject can produce………..the challenge is to connect as personally as possible with those unique individuals whose growth path is ready to receive advanced training that will meet results-producing expectations. Reaching the deeper drivers we all have is the key to coaching success, I believe.
Your new transition into the selling (perhaps mentoring or coaching is a better mind set position term) phase of your presentation is right on target.
I have mostly absorbed your two books in the last few weeks and your approach to sharing your expertise certainly connects with me. And your visit to our PSA Chapter this Friday on Mercer Island couldn’t be more timely.
The room is somewhat reverberant, so come with your best lower register voice in good shape to assure the best intelligibility.
I’m just back from voice training with Roger Love at the Colburn School in downtown LA, and we found that as good as their theater is for musical presentations where controlled reverb helps to fill the total sound picture, the audio engineers had to roll off the speaking stage mics at 190 dB in order to clear up low end rumble and poor intelligibility problems. Just too many delayed reflections in the room.
In Voice Over work, low end roll off is usually done gradually below about 80 hZ. So I imagine during our training in LA that most of the male voices were perceived as being a little thin at the bottom end since the roll off was set so high.
You’re still my hero…………see you soon!
Thanks Trey. I assume you mean NSA Chapter and Bellevue, WA? (you said PSA Chapter this Friday on Mercer Island)
Yes, indeed, NSA Northwest Chapter is correct.
Meeting location address is: The Den at Aviara, 2441 76th Ave SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040 12:30 to 4:00 PM
It’s a multi-unit building and The Den is up a flight or two. (elevator)
Mercer Island sits within Lake Washington near the City of Bellevue on the eastern shore of Lake Washington. A bridge connects the island to the mainland on the east and west sides of Mercer Island.
Driving is closer from the Bellevue side of the lake, and you’ll find a full range of hotels in Kirkland, Bellevue and Renton. Also lots of hotels at the airport if that’s better for your schedule since you will be off to Vancouver for Saturday. Or you could even fly up there in a float plane from Kenmore Air out of either Lake Union (Seattle) or the City of Kenmore on the north end of Lake Washington.
If our chapter has changed the location I haven’t been notified. Best to contact our President if they gave you another location. (then let me know…..ha ha)
A stunning new lakefront property in Renton is the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Southport, 1053 Lake Washington Blvd. N, Renton, WA 98056 425 203-1234. A remarkable site: One king bed ranges from $171 to $296 depending on how Large you like to live! Info is available on their website.
If you need any other assistance to assure your trip is smooth with no surprises, please let me know. I’d be more than glad to help.
Best Regards,
Trey Shelton