Staying Front of Mind with Decision Makers

February 9, 2012 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 6 Comments

One of the challenges for speakers seeking speaking engagements is how to keep your name in front of decision makers even when they are not making decisions!

I advocate calling a prospect only when you have business to transact. I’m talking about what you can do between the time of initial contact and the time they are in a decision making mode. Key to getting the attention you want at decision time is by staying “front of mind”. How to do it?

There are several things you can do. The first thing to send is a great one sheet after the initial contact. It gives your prospect an overall sense of your business and what you can do for them as well as whom you have worked with. I think sending an article you have written that will be meaningful to the prospect is a great way to stay in touch. I consider any writing “intellectual property on parade”! Those of you who follow me on twitter (@loiscreamer) know I send out this tweet often:

Thought leaders are writers. What have you written today?

You make a positive impact by writing. Blog posts are also meaningful. I hope by now most of you are writing blogs. The posts you write can be great selling points to your prospects, and great resources for your clients. Not to mention it can provide great discipline to keep on writing!

I also think it’s great to send an article you may find in a periodical. I send (and tweet) articles and posts from the Wall Street Journal, my city Business Journal and, my favorite, the Harvard Business Report. You can find great stuff that will impress the heck out of your clients and prospects! Check out their website and see what I mean. All kinds of information you can post on social media as well! (It’ll make you look really smart!)

One of my favorite ways to keep in touch is by faxing (yes, faxing) testimonial letters. One day after collecting a great testimonial in my mail I wanted to share it with others. I sought out ten people who I had recently contacted and decided to share my letter with them. I faxed it because no one, repeat no one is faxing anymore! I copied the original and wrote on the top, “I’d love to do a great job like this for you!” No cover letter. Keep it simple. If sending to a large company write the name of the person to whom you are sending on top, but NO cover letter. If someone doesn’t recognize your name they probably won’t open an attachment in email. That’s another reason the fax works. Note: I do not fax someone with whom I have no relationship.

This turned out to be one, GREAT idea! I got two pieces of business from sending ten faxes! I share this story at conventions and chapters all of the time. I get emails constantly from those of you who have implemented this as part of your marketing telling me it has worked well for you too.

I’m sure you can think of other ways to keep your name in front of decision makers. I hope you will share them with me!

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Lois@BookMoreBusiness.com
Twitter: @loiscreamer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/loiscreamer
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/loiscreamer
For more information on Lois’ business check out http://www.bookmorebusiness.com as well as http://www.bookmorebusiness.tv!

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Target Marketing: Are You a Lobster or a Clam?

January 31, 2012 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 3 Comments

I remember an old joke about a woman who went to a seafood restaurant. She needed to “powder her face” (good lord, how old am I?), and went to find the women’s restroom. What she encountered was two doors. One labeled “Lobsters” another “Clams”. You can take it from here.

Being an expert who speaks is all about knowing what you deliver and the value you bring to every client. Clarity and focus. Knowing whether you are a lobster, or a clam. Knowing what you deliver is also discovering exactly how valuable your information is, and to whom is it of greatest value? Here is where the expression “pick a lane” comes to mind.

I often get approached by individuals who want to start a speaking business. After asking questions regarding expertise I ask, “Who do you think would be interested in this information?” Too often the reply is everyone! “Everyone needs this message” they say. Then I say, “OK, go call everyone and see if they are interested.”

If you want to be highly successful in the speaking industry you need to know what industries and markets are a good fit for your information. Not only do they value and need your information, but are they willing to pay for it!

I mind-map targets for my clients. It’s really not a hard exercise. First, I look for where they have had business experience, any business experience. Then I ask about interests, etc. I suggest you seek to have one or two target industries and then pick markets within those industries.

For example, say healthcare is a good fit for you. Healthcare would be your industry and we would find markets within the healthcare industry. For example: pharmacutical companies, hospitals, manufacturers of equipment, insurance companies (can fit both healthcare as well as the financial services industry), uniform providers, etc. Associations within healthcare are so numerous I won’t even give you a list! You get the picture.

Years ago, we used to buy copies of the “Salesmans Guide to Corporate Meeting Planners” as well as the “Salesmans Guide to Associations”. They used to and still do weigh a ton! (Maybe that’s why I have a bad back.) Now you can get this resource as a CD or online. This information can be very expensive. I just found some used editions on Amazon for a client. Even if the edition is a few years old, odds are the organizations haven’t changed. The contact associated with the listing is never the decision maker so that makes no difference. Further, now we can access this information online with google for free by doing searches.

The payoff in marketing by target is obvious. Your testimonials are received more warmly! Prospects can see you have experience and sense that if you were a fit with one group you ought to be a fit with them. Further, if you really target, you can become a celebrity within a market! That’s when you hear prospects say “Get me Joe Smith or a Joe Smith”! You will also find you can charge more and meet less fee resistance – a beautiful thing!

So go out and target market. If you find the answer to who is a lobster and who a clam, let me know.

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Voice Mail Hell! Are You a Hater?

January 12, 2012 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Are you hater? A voice mail hater I mean. One of the tweets I send out periodically reads: “If your voice mail messages are not getting returned it means you suck at voice mail.” And I’m serious!

So many tell me that they hate voice mail. Sure, I would rather talk to someone, however, we know that voice mail is a reality we have to deal with, and deal with effectively. How to do it?

One of the things that I’m known for is creating “positioning statements” for my clients. It is a statement indicating the concept and outcome of working with you. Some call it an “elevator speech”. I don’t like elevator speeches because I think they are long. I suggest an “economy of words”. I think positioning statements have more impact. My clients will tell you they are transformational in their businesses. They always know what to say about what they do. All the time. To anyone. You’ll see mine at the bottom of this post, as a signature on my email, at the bottom of an article, anywhere and everywhere.

Here is my script for a great voice mail message:

Sorry I missed you. This is Lois Creamer. I work with professional speakers who want to book more business, make more money and avoid costly mistakes. I’m calling to see if my services may be a fit. (Speakers say I’m calling to see if one of my programs may be a fit for an upcoming meeting). I’d love to send you something but want to make sure it would be welcome. Could you please let me know if I can do that? If I don’t hear from you, I’ll try you again. Again, my name is … . And I can be reached at … .

Make sure you repeat your phone number TWICE slowly.

If you’re lucky enough to have a great positioning statement you can see how effective it is. If you don’t, well, give me a call … I can’t wait to work with you!

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10 Questions to Book More Business

December 15, 2011 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 11 Comments

In a previous post I shared my qualifying system. Very easy. Based on the 3 M’s. Meeting, money and motive. In order to find out whether a prospect has any or all of our 3 M’s we need to ask a series of qualifying questions. I call them my “10 Questions to Book More Business”. Here they are:

1. Does your company used paid, professional speakers? I say paid because many use speakers, not all pay.

2. How is the decision made regarding speakers? I’m asking the person I’m speaking to to confirm he/she is the sole decision maker.

3. Who have you used in the past? This may give you an idea of what topics they have historically used and how much they have paid for this information.

4. Do you have a specific meeting date set? Pretty obvious what we want here.

5. When do you begin to plan your meeting? Great to know when the meeting is, but important to know when plans are made so we can make sure we are talking to them at the optimum time for getting the booking.

6. Where will the meeting be held? Here I’m looking to see if I may create some kind of competitive advantage for myself. For example, I live in St. Louis. If the meeting is going to be in Chicago my expenses would be very reasonable. If they are deciding between me and a speaker in LA, I may get the job based on travel.

7. Is there as theme or focus to this meeting? Again, pretty obvious.

8. Is there a budget I should be aware of? Here is the money question! We need to bring up fee! Remember to talk about your fee as if it were a commodity. See previous post on fees.

9. What type of meeting is this? Is it quarterly, annual, semiannual? We want to find out how many opportunities a year this prospect may have to hire us.

10. Is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you would like me to know about your meeting? This is really a closure question. They will bring up any other questions they may have.

If you have the answer to these questions you should be able to quantify how likely it is that you two will be working together or not.

That’s it! 10 little questions that will move you from prospect to client! Now go do some prospecting!

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Reputation Aggravation … Ask Penn State

November 29, 2011 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 8 Comments

I spent much of my childhood growing up in Pennsylvania. I always assumed I’d go to Penn State. When you live in PA, it was almost as prestigious as Harvard. Note … was.

Sad things happening there lately. You’ve heard the news. There are updates daily. And that will continue to be the case. New victims coming out of the woodwork and contacting authorities. Sad indeed.

We all need to be aware of our reputation. It’s your badge of honor in business. A great reputation begets customers begets more customers begets … income.

Damage to your reputation is a serious concern. It may not even be a BIG event that will send you into damage control mode. In the speaking business, every time we take the platform we stand (no pun intended) on our reputation. It’s one of the reasons we get hired.

We risk every time we take the stage. Delivering a poor performance can be damaging. So can small things like not returning calls, answering inquiries, returning queries from speaker bureaus. Speaking is a very public business. You can be make an idiot of yourself in front of literally thousands by making a stupid comment, saying something inappropriate or not being fully prepared. We see people doing it all the time on social media.

For us, it may mean our business drastically. We lose customers, opportunities. As small business people, we won’t be hiring an agency in New York to “manage” and “mitigate” damage. We’re on our own. An uphill battle.

I heard a commentator discussing Penn State and saying that they will never recover from their damage. Imagine .. never recover what they once had. Another said it will take years. Donations will dry up. In turn expenditures will dry up. Athletes will choose other schools to play their sports. And on and on and on.

We can learn a lesson from the Penn State debacle. Namely, NOT to get into a reputation ruiner in the first place. Public relations firms make a fortune out of saving people from these kinds of disasters. Some firm is going to get a lot of money from Penn State. So, where does Penn State go, where do we go to get our good reputations back after a disaster.

I think recovery has much to do with how quickly and effectively you deal with damage. You need to face it head on and go. Walk into the fire.

As a speaker, you need to insure that the mistakes you made in a program don’t happen again, the power point will always work, and you arrive early enough to do a sound check. You need to make it up to the client. Perhaps even refund a fee. Whatever it takes. If it is with a bureau, again, you need to do whatever it takes.

We need to be in the reputation management business every day.

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Speaker Bureaus, Agents and Mixed Breeds .. Part Two

November 18, 2011 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 11 Comments

This is part two of this blog post. Working with speaker bureaus was part one. The next question we will address is:

Should I hire someone and pay them a percentage of my fee? I hear this so often! A speaker will want a part time or full time employee to sell and pay them a percentage. Whenever anyone brings this up I always say … forget it!

Speakers who pay commission only will not have a very long relationship with their employee. Lead times in the industry are shorter now, but consider this. If they started selling you right now, it could be months before they get a booking. Why would anyone want to sell speaking services for you based on the promise of a percentage coming months down the road? Also, this arrangement can lead to misunderstanding. Don’t ask the employee to do other duties, administrative stuff, if they are not going to be paid for it. An employee hired and paid a percentage will not last long. By the time you train and they learn your business, they will be gone.

The best scenario for a staffer? Pay an hourly fee to honor the other duties they do for you as well as a percentage based on your fee. If you want an employee to really stick around, offer a year end bonus consisting of a percentage of what the business net profits are for the year. Doing this creates a staffer who is just as concerned with what is going out as what is coming in! You will have a real partner in your business.

Pay for Play. That’s what I call the solicitations we all see from companies wanting you to pay a monthly fee in return for leads. My best advice? Forget it. Most of these types of businesses are in the business of collecting fees, not speaking engagements or leads! Will you get some leads? Yes. Will they be quality leads? Maybe …. but. I have heard too many examples where they send the same leads to anyone and everyone who sends them a monthly fee. This results in some poor soul getting hundreds of calls from speakers asking about a meeting. (A meeting that may or may not even exist.) Are all companies that do this the same? No. I just have yet to hear about one that is worth your monthly fee. Next time you get a solicitation like this, ask them to take their fee out of the bookings they procure for you. You’ll hear a lot of silence.

Remember, you are responsible for your own business growth. Don’t abdicate that responsibility to anyone else you don’t know and trust!

Tagged: book speakers, business growth, commission, hiring, speaking services, staffer

Speaker Bureaus, Agents and Mixed Breeds .. Part One

November 16, 2011 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 14 Comments

My next two blog posts are going to address some questions I’ve been asked constantly ever since I started my consulting practice for speakers. They are:

How can I get a bureau to book me?
I’d like to hire someone to get me bookings and give them a percentage of my fee. Is this a good plan?
I receive solicitation emails from companies offering me leads if I pay them a monthly fee. Is this a good deal?

I’m going to talk about bureaus exclusively in this post, and the next two questions on part two of my post. If I had a buck or two every time I’m asked one of these questions, I’d be enjoying an umbrella drink on a beach somewhere.

How can I get a bureau to book me? My short answer is .. you can’t. Don’t waste your energy. Use your energy towards getting your own bookings. Bureaus are interested in working with “working” speakers. Speakers who are in demand. Those who are getting great reviews out in the industry for delivering great information in a compelling way.

If you don’t work with a bureau, you may want to see if one of your colleagues would offer an introduction for you. Your colleague will want to have seen you and really believe that what you have to offer is a fit for a particular bureau. Your friend may contact the bureau and ask his or her bureau representative to take a look at your material and see if he thinks your information would be a fit for their clients.

All bureaus don’t work with all types of businesses. This is an epiphany to some some. There are bureaus that work primarily with corporations, associations, health-care, agriculture, financial services and more. Your program must match the bureaus emphasis and their clientele.

Some bureaus host “Speaker Showcases”. They invite speakers to do 15-20 minutes of their best stuff in front of bureau clients and reps. Some charge for this, some do not. It is a great way to get in relationship with a bureau. It is only effective, however, if bureaus reps show up at the showcase.

Also, be aware that bureaus will expect you to provide what they call “bureau friendly” marketing materials for them. This simply means that your contact information should not appear on the material. The bureau wants the client to contact them, not you. You will want to have printed and PDF’s bureaus friendly.

Bureaus ask for a percentage of your speaking fee as payment for getting you the engagement. Current average is 25-30%. Some speakers think this is too high, and that bureaus are greedy. I don’t. If a bureau brings business to your door, handles all of the details for you, I think it’s worth every penny. Whenever I hear a speaker begrudging paying the percentage I always say, “Don’t work with them!” Bureaus can open doors that many would not be able to open themselves. If you work with a bureau for pete’s sake don’t whine about what you are paying them!

Besides paying the bureau a percentage, you are expected to promote the bureau during your visit and encourage the client to return to the bureau for future meetings. Also, audience members who enjoy the speaker and may want to use him/her are to book through the bureau. This is considered “spin-off” business. If not for the bureau, you would not have gotten the opportunity.. You are expected to contact the bureau and let them do the paperwork,contact the client and take care of the details.

Some bureaus even have “exclusive rights” or an “exclusives” with the speaker. This is the same as having an agent. It means all business goes through the bureau or agent and they take their percentage. Even if they didn’t get the business, if you have an exclusive arrangement, you must run it through them. I suggest to my clients that they never agree to an exclusive arrangement. It will actually cause other bureaus to lose interest in you. They will be expected to split their percentage with the other bureau, and many don’t think it’s worth it. Ultimately it may cause other bureaus to stay away from you.

Because bureaus get paid by percentage of fee they aren’t interested in working with speakers who are real beginners. It only makes sense! They have to make money too.

I always encourage my clients to work with a bureau if a situation presents itself. It’s a great addition to your own efforts to grow your business. You can learn a lot from bureaus about the business of speaking. I have. Some of my clients have been bureaus who hired me to work with their reps to sell speaking services more effectively.

All in all, working with bureaus can help you cast a wider net and that’s what it’s all about!

Tagged: professional speakers, professional speaking, speaking, speaking services, target markets

Brand X or Brand Next?

November 8, 2011 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I participate in #speakchat on twitter hosted by the multi-capable and multi-talented Michele Price (@prosperitygal). It is held on Monday evenings at 8PM CST. Last chat we were discussing contracts/agreements, cancellation clauses and other business materials. It reminded me of a speaker client I worked with several years ago.

Prior to working with a client who does one of my consulting programs I ask that they send me everything they currently use to market themselves. If they have written a book, I even read it before we meet. I believe in doing my homework before sitting down with a client.

This particular client sent everything including her agreement. It was awful! It had the longest cancellation clause I had ever seen. Not only did it lay out what would happen if the client cancelled on her, it included a clause indicating what would happen “if I cancel on you!” I couldn’t believe she would even raise the spector of cancelling on the client. Aarghh! (Of course I later found out this clause was written by a lawyer. No surprise to me. Don’t be hater lawyers .. nothing personal!)

She agreed to change her cancellation clause to one similar to mine. My clause, and entire agreement, is one of the simplest out there. My cancellation clause reads “In the event it is necessary to reschedule our work all of your deposit (which is an industry standard 50%) will be applied towards a new, mutually agreed upon date to take place within one year of the date of the agreement. All fees will be “fee in effect” at time of reschedule.” In both my consulting and speaking I say that I will be “the easiest speaker/consultant you have ever worked with!” Even my agreement reflects my brand!

Everything associated with your business including your agreements should reflect your brand in some way. This particular client was a very successful humorist. I said “There is nothing funny about your agreement!” She agreed with my assessment and changed things. It now contains some humor as well as a less punitive cancellation clause!

Everything you do in the market is a reflection of your brand. Your agreements, your bios, your preprogram questionnaires .. everything! This also means as your brand may change and evolve, so should your materials.

Do your materials reflect your brand? Maybe it’s time to review things!

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Creating Additional Revenue Streams in Your Speaking Practice

October 21, 2011 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 12 Comments

You know from earlier posts that I consider you to be much more than a speaker. I consider you to be in the intellectual property business. Meaning, we get paid when we deliver (in whatever way) what it is that we know. It’s all about delivering your expertise.

Your first revenue stream is, of course, your speaking fee. It is the one where you make the most profit. But it shouldn’t be your only revenue stream.

Products really add to the bottom line. Make a live recording of your speech. Sell it as a CD or MP3 file. People love this kind of product!

Write a book. Books are a great way to share your intellectual property. I suggest you approach writing a book much like the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”

Write an article on a dozen main points that you cover in a program/speech. Good size for articles is about 600 words. Embellish the article by adding a few stories that illustrate the point you are making. Then let’s call it a chapter! Repeat a dozen times and you have a book! My approach makes it really doable. That’s the key. A decision that must be made now is to publish with a publishing house, or to self-publish. More on that in a future post.

If you have a book, you have an eBook. I also share that you can take a collection of blog posts, tips and articles and create an eBook in days! I’ll bet you have more content already than you realize.

How about taking your program and creating a companion workbook to go along with it? Then you have a type of “learning system”. Perhaps a self-led version of your program.

Perhaps you have a program that could lend itself well to a licensing arrangement. By this I mean that someone else would deliver your program for you. Typically in this type of arrangement, a percentage of the fee is paid back to you. There are all sorts of ways people set up this type of plan.

You should be recording your speeches on a digital recorder and selling them. If people like what you have to say, they will want “more of you”. You’ll only gain from having speeches on CD’s and MP3 files. Every product creates more interest in what you do.

I sent out a tweet that said: blog post = article = speech = book = eBook = learning system = licensing agreement = ??? I’m trying to point out that there is great value in leveraging your intellectual property in these ways. It is not only lucrative, but creative as well.

So, now that you are in an intellectual property business how are you going to leverage that property? Go out and create a new revenue stream now!

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Productivity In Selling Speeches

October 14, 2011 | By Lois | In Uncategorized | 7 Comments

In order for this post to be most meaningful you need to read the previous post on speaking services. That post discussed how to approach, who to approach, what to say when you approach and more.

I’m going to share my qualifying system in this post. In order to be highly productive doing outbound selling either by phone, email or social media, you need to have some type of system that will tell you just how interested the prospect really is in you. I base mine on the three M’s.

M = meeting. Do they have a specific meeting date? If they don’t plans are still very uncertain.

M = money. This one is simple. Do they have enough to pay your fee.

M = motive. This means have the used someone like you in the past, or if not, do the seem interested in you and your information.

Pretty simple huh? The three M’s. Here is the system to implement further.

If a prospect has 3 M’s, they are the hottest of prospects! Highly interested. If you don’t work with them on this specific program odds are you will later.This is a level 1 lead.

If a prospect has 2 M’s and two M’s, this is still a high qualifier.Perhaps they have meeting and money but have yet to decide on motive or topic. This is a level 2 lead.

If a prospect has 1 M, it is a low level lead. Typically when qualifying someone here they have the one M of meeting. But they don’t have any planned, so of course we aren’t going to talk budget either. I also call level 3 leads “people who like to get stuff for free and suck the life out of your business.

I list the levels 1,2,3 in my ACT database (contact management system) under ID/Status. This allows you to pull out each as a group. Perhaps you want to send an email to levels 1 and 2 only. Easy!

Now this is productivity! Remember the levels are fluid. Perhaps a prospect is a level 1 lead but chooses someone else. Mark them down to a level 2 and proceed from there.

You should seek to “touch” each prospect who is a level 1 client once every 30-60 days. When I say touch, I don’t mean call! I only believe in calling a prospect when there is business to transact. By “touching” I mean keeping your name in front of the prospect. You can do this by emailing a newsletter, tip, sending an article, forwarding a new marketing piece or information about a new program, sending a testimonial or anything else that will make you “front of mind”. Postcard marketing is still very effective! It is high touch, low tech, and if you do it, you will stand out.

If you do these things, you will really be running a speaking practice where we have prospects in the planning mode coming up at all times.

I hope you’ll try my system. Let me know how it works for you!

Happy hunting!

Tagged: outbound selling, productive, qualifying system, speaking practice, speaking services

Staying Front of Mind with Decision Makers

Target Marketing: Are You a Lobster or a Clam?

Voice Mail Hell! Are You a Hater?

10 Questions to Book More Business

Reputation Aggravation … Ask Penn State

Speaker Bureaus, Agents and Mixed Breeds .. Part Two

Speaker Bureaus, Agents and Mixed Breeds .. Part One

Brand X or Brand Next?

Creating Additional Revenue Streams in Your Speaking Practice

Productivity In Selling Speeches

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