How to Use Speaking to Get Clients

By Margaret Gill

What do you think is the #1 “marketing strategy” to secure clients?

If you guessed SPEAKING, I would agree with you 100%.  

Now if you are like I was, the word speaking will send you running for the hills so for those of you, who are scared witless by the thought of speaking, KEEP READING, as I have an idea for you below!

Let's first define what I mean by speaking.  You have a couple of routes…

You can use speaking as a business within itself and grow your talents as a professional speaker.  

Or, you may use speaking as simply a marketing strategy to fill your natural therapy practice.  

By speaking, I mean a host of opportunities, ranging from speaking for free to local networking groups, bookstores, businesses, etc., to conducting workshops, to launching a professional speaking career.

The idea is that you start small, perhaps even at your own association where you have friends in the audience who can be bribed to sit there smiling at you.

In the early days you don’t even have to charge for the event so it takes the pressure off you to deliver a blistering keynote to 5,000 people the first time you step onto the podium.  A group of 20 people at your local neighbourhood learning centre is a much less daunting prospect and people love a free talk.

Why is speaking such a powerful way to get clients?  There are many reasons in my opinion.  Think about it.  Who is the “star” at an event where there is a speaker?  Who is “the expert?”  Who is the person that the attendees gather around during breaks and after the presentation?  Who creates and controls what's being taught?  

THE SPEAKER!  

Imagine creating and delivering a speech to a room filled with people who are your TARGET MARKET!  You are the leader, vs. an observer. Rather than going to the event to network with a handful of people, YOU ARE THE EVENT!  If you conduct a powerful, informational presentation on a topic that you are knowledgeable about, people will naturally be drawn to you and want to learn more.  

The trick is to always speak on your topic or area of expertise and make sure you are passionate about that topic.  This is a massive secret because I can be quite over the top and entertaining when speaking about therapists growing a business but put me on stage to speak about the functionality of a domestic toaster and you would quickly be throwing tomatoes at me. 

Always let your audience get to know you, because people like to know a little about the people they want to work with.  Always tell a few stories how people with the issues you are describing found ways to overcome their problems.  This gives people the message that you can help them too.  So the trick has to be to always speak to an audience that want to hear your message.  I don’t speak outside the health and wellbeing industry simply because they wouldn’t “get” me.  If you stay passionate and you have people in the audience that are passionate about the same thing, and you a simply giving your opinion on the topic, then you have a recipe for success.

Toward the end of your talk you can then have a special offer for audience members to come and implement what they learned in the speech!  This offer should take no more than a couple of minutes and should never be a hard sell.

For those of you who do not wish to speak, you have three choices… You can GET OVER IT!  Learn to be a speaker!  Focus on other marketing efforts such a networking but remember you are going to have to get really good at networking to fill your practice this way.

For me when I started out in this business I was petrified of any form of public speaking.  But one day after returning home from a particularly devastating networking experience I realised that the only person in the room who won that night was the speaker.  I wowed I would overcome my fear of public speaking so I never had to go to a networking event again.  I’ll tell you a BIG secret – once I got over the speaking fear then networking events got much easier too!  What was missing for me was self confidence and the internal fight to become a speaker fixed the problem at a higher level.  I over came the fear by learning (and looking for new ways to learn) from some of the best in the industry.

You can listen here to an interview I did with one of my mentors Robert Rabbin.  We talked about RealTime Speaking which teaches you to be real and speak with authenticity and integrity. 

You can listen here

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Margaret Gill is a business coach who has a proven system that helps natural therapists grow their business, be more profitable and have a balanced life. Her dream is to work with natural therapists all around the world to achieve strong, healthy and abundant practices in all ways. www.abundant-private-practices.com

margaret@margaretgill.com

www.Abundant-Private-Practices.com

This article orginally appeared on Samantha Richardson's fabulous Empowering Women Website

© 2008 Margaret Gill