Positioning Yourself For More Speaking Engagements

12 essential Steps to Attract Your Ideal Customers

With all due respect, love and admiration, why do you, some of our planet's best teachers (professional speakers) think that all you have to do is throw up a website to get invitations to speak? What's with the trend to try to build relationships only over the Internet? Can you imagine the response of a meeting planner if the author of the best-selling "how to" book actually picked up the phone and called the CEO of an organization to suggest a way in which she/he can solve at least three of the organization's five challenges?

Yes, of course, you can imagine it. Then I'd like for you to tell yourself that the only difference between you and the high profile speaker is positioning - and OK, I'll concede, more experience. There are so many ways to showcase your expertise to the world, and I'm going to show you the most basic, yet essential steps that you can take to keep from being on the endangered speakers list.

No cynics, please. If you're excited about building your speaking business, this is one of the most important articles you'll read. No matter how many different formats I use to communicate this information, these 12 Positioning Steps are critical to meeting planners taking you seriously.

These steps are based on my experiences in booking more than 2,200 paid engagements. They include simple steps that Mark Victor Hansen taught me back in 1982 and the current strategies that Internet marketing experts recommend.

Positioning Yourself Creates the Clarity You Need to GROW Your Business

I believe that it's ideal for you to have someone represent you full time, rather than do it yourself. But since many speakers begin their speaking careers with another primary source of income, it's a transition that can be costly unless you have thoroughly positioned yourself. Besides, when you have done what's necessary to position yourself, you will more readily attract a commissionable salesperson (and bureaus) because you won't be so darn hard to book! Once you have clarity about your positioning, you'll find low cost ways of implementing the on-going strategies.

Whether you're an emerging or active speaker, review these 12 Positioning Steps and set the stage to finalize each step. Be willing to take responsibility for not getting booked as much as you'd like to be. I'm giving you the system here and once you begin to complete each step, you'll be ready for the next one.

Taking 100% Responsibility for Where You Are Now, Begin with #1

1.) List your core competencies. Your core competencies are the source of your competitive advantage. By combining a set of core competencies in different ways and matching them to the needs of your target market, a speaker can launch a business. Core competencies are the glue to your business model. What do you do best? What do you know the most about? What are your strengths?

2.) Make a list of facts about yourself. As a speaker, you are hired for two reasons: facts (about you) and third party endorsements (of you). Have you won any awards? Have you addressed eight of the 50 chapters of your professional association? Are you a voice in your industry? What are the results of your expertise in a particular industry? What are your professional credentials that separate you from your competition? Are you a top producer in your sales field?

Are you a published author, have you written home study guides and or recorded educational CDs that demonstrate your value in your target market? Are you a columnist in your local newspaper? By the way, if you're a beginning or emerging speaker, one of the best things you can to to build your credibility is to get published. You don't have to have an agent or a publisher, you can self-publish. Or you can write an ebook and sell it from your website.

3.) Make a list of third party endorsements. The first reason as stated above that you are hired is because of facts about you. The second reason is third party endorsements. You get hired more often than not because of referrals...others who believe in you and pass on the good word about you. Meeting planners will focus on the results you've gotten for others. The more you can focus on the results that you have provided for others, the more others will pay attention. That's why people buy.

4.) Compose your I AM, I DO statement. The advertising term is "unique selling proposition" or USP. It's the same thing as your "elevator speech." I've created a template in one of my products called Let Me Introduce Myself where you create two sentences that succinctly describe your expertise and your value to your target market.

Choose the appropriate adjectives, adverbs and direct objects that separate you from your competitors. These two sentences reveal exactly how you will bring value to your target market. Even high profile speakers who fail to continually refresh their USPs can track their lack of bookings to fuzzy USPs, making the erroneous assumption that their celebrity is sufficient, or their past accomplishments will secure their future invitations to speak. Wrong! Too much new talent coming out to secure anyone's future who has remained stagnant. Your clarity about your value to your target market is imperative and should be very clear in your USP. This is your marketing message.

5.) Craft your signature speech. When you're beginning, focus on one presentation topic. This should be the one that you are most passionate about communicating. It should be no more than two paragraphs plus bulleted deliverables; in other words, the bullets are the audience takeaways. This will prevent the presentation topic from being all about you and/or your philosophy. Your prospective buyers want to know what's in it for them, not what's in it for you! It should reflect your ability to influence others to have more productive lives, have greater success at work, reduce stress, generate new ideas, overcome the odds, increase performance and or reduce costs, etc. The more experienced you become, the more your presentation topics can be described in ways that benefit the buyer.

6.) Identify your target market or your ideal client. Craft your ideal client profile. For instance, if you are a top producer in real estate, your target market might be the real estate industry which would include all companies and all associations in the real estate industry. Your ideal clients would be real estate agents who want to become top producing Realtors®.

Once you excel in that niche, you can broaden your outreach to include a secondary target market such as general sales. All commissioned sales individuals are seeking ways to increase production. You already have the proven systems, the daily sales activities, the marketing strategies that lead you to become a top producer, so why not expand your outreach? Ask your clients what they struggle with and figure out how to help them increase their production or decrease their losses. The more experienced you become, you may even be able to expand to other secondary markets.

7.) Create a compelling website. Your site can be simple if you have the necessary elements to describe your expertise and your value to your target market(s). The eleven (11) standard elements are:

1.) Info about you/ your biographical sketch containing facts about you
2.) Third party endorsements - These can be under a "reviews" section or these can be integrated into the site or on flash pages, or using scrolling text
3.) Your signature speech with descriptive paragraph and bullets and other presentation topics if you have more than one
4.) A DVD of you in action, speaking
5.) Articles about you or by you
6.) Meeting planner's tools - This is a valuable meeting planner resource page such as various photos (color and black/white) of you that can be uploaded, your introduction, your pre-program questionnaire, your AV requirements
7.) Products that you offer to your client base
8.) Your shopping cart - Offer your extended learning materials here such as CDs, books, training manuals, study guides, ebooks, teleclass recordings, boot camps, continuing education courses and other products that bring value to your ideal customer. A good shopping cart tracks your customers and profits coming into your company.
9.) Create an opt-in box on your landing page. An opt-in box is the tool that makes it possible to build and track your customer base notifying them of your new products, your blog, helpful articles, etc. You'll want to provide incentive for them to opt-in by giving away free information, reports and tips. Free information that you offer will builds your list, leverage your outreach and increase your profit if used wisely. Speakers with large databases are appealing to those experts who host boot camps and educational intensives. The opt-in box is an ideal way to grow your database.
10.)Privacy policy
11.)Site map

8.) Establish your speaking fee with options for generating a profit. Fee flexibility can be the key to making money speaking in this economy. There are 7 ways to earn money when you speak:

1.) Fee plus expenses
2.) Fee only
3.) Expenses only
4.) Fee + expenses + product sales
5.) Product sales only
6.) Product sales + expenses
7.) Pay the organization a % of your product sales

9.) Turn your expertise into products. These include CDs, manuals, workbooks, teleclasses, DVDs of you speaking, CE courses, coaching/consulting programs offering accountability systems (most people get better results when they're in a program). Bundle various products that you've created. You can interview industry leaders, top producers, successful managers, community activists, radio personalities and association executives and turn your passion for speaking into an exciting educational opportunity for yourself.

10.) Identify all of the possible marketing activities that you can do to attract your ideal clients/your target market. If you do something in several of these categories on a daily basis, covering all of them in a month, you'll begin to build a stead flow of inquiries and clients.

11. Systematize the marketing process into daily activities.

This should be a repeatable process the week days of every week. Eventually you can rely on a schedule so predictable that it can all be on auto-pilot. You can even hire virtual assistance to do many of these tasks for you. No more panic attacks in the middle of the night about how you are going to pay your bills. It's properly positioning yourself and systematizing your marketing activities that is going to make a difference. Spend time every day working on multiple activities so that you aren't waiting by your phone for it to ring. You're being pro-active in evaluating the success of each step and considering new ways of implementing them. If you continue to take action steps every day, you will develop a belief system in your company, in yourself and in what your value is to your target market.

12.) Make contact with your prospective buyers. Make it a priority to contact your prospective buyers once you are positioned. Have your systems in place so that you can dedicate time each week to contacting your past clients and future clients. Do not assume that you can reach out to your customer base without picking up the telephone. It's a great way to introduce yourself to meeting planners if you're positioned properly. If you are, you will not get ignored. You'll be making hot or warm calls. But if you're not positioned properly, you'll be making cold calls. See the difference?

The path of least resistance feeds on the natural tendency of people to fear prospecting. Cold calling has become a dirty word associated with high pressure calls and unscrupulous tactics resulting in no sales. If you're a beginning speaker or a speaker who is not generating inquiries with your website's SEO, if your database is still small, if your email blasts are not yet generating telephone inquiries, it's time to complete the Positioning Steps above so that you'll be comfortable with reaching out and actually contacting your buyer, either face to face or via telephone.

How's Your Current Positioning Working for You?

Do you live in the world of cause and effect? It's a great advantage if you'd like to get to the truth of why you are not booked as much as you'd like to be. When you devote the time and attention to undertake these 12 Positioning Steps, you'll have a system. You'll know what to do. You'll know what to say. Your telephone will ring. Your web inquiries will increase. You'll begin holding new dates on your calendar. Stand back and watch how big your voice becomes in your target market.

Mary McKay, speaker marketing specialist, is the founder of the Turnkey Speaker Booking System, where you learn to position your expertise for more paid speaking engagements. To get your F.R.E.E. weekly tips, relevant articles and coaching on positioning and marketing your expertise and attracting more clients, visit http://www.TurnkeySpeaker.com.