Tag: lead generation

Hi David! As an Equine Gestalt Coach, I get to work with a wide range of people in my heart-centered business. However, even though I am always learning about marketing and selling I can't seem to get consistent clients despite my best marketing efforts. I feel like I might be sabotaging myself, but I can't pinpoint what it is I’m doing.

Can you give me any pointers or suggestions on how to identify and correct this?

It could be a sales issue.

It could be a copywriting issue.

It could be an exposure issue.

It could be a marketing issue.

Let me see if I can help you pinpoint the issue so you can narrow your solution.

Based on your website, it appears that you have two completely different and separate groups of clients; corporations and conscious women.

This means you need two completely different marketing and sales plans.

For the corporate side, do you have a strategy for reaching out to corporate decision makers so that when they are in the process of hiring outside providers to help with team and communication issues, you’re at the top of their list?

For the conscious women’s market, do you have a strategy to get in front of large groups of conscious women who are willing to invest in their own growth? Do you speak and/or sponsor events regularly (at least once per month)?

If you answered no to any of the questions above, you have a front-end lead generation issue. Meaning, you just don’t have enough people who know about you and identify you as an expert.

If you answered yes to all of the questions above, you have a sales and follow up issue. You may need in-depth sales training or a strategist to help you with follow up sequences and funnels.

Now you can see what the issue truly is and get specialized support!

Just Believe,^®

PS: The Neagle Code: Directions for Life is a weekly no-cost program that is open to everyone! Each week, I'll select and personally respond to one question received via the above “The Neagle Code” page that I feel in my heart will help the most people. (You may choose to remain anonymous if you wish, with our full support.) It is my deep, heartfelt intention that ~ in answering your questions ~ I may provide you with the Universal Truths that in committed application, will set you free. Simply submit YOUR burning question at: www.DavidNeagle.com/ask-david to participate.

Let’s say that you just got a speaking gig in a wonderful venue, but then the host tells you that you absolutely can’t sell anything from the stage.

What?! What are you going to do now? You definitely don’t want to cancel the gig, because you can still turn that event into a very profitable situation. How? By collecting as many leads as you can and selling to them later. In fact, in some venues, selling to the attendees later on could be even more profitable than your on-site, back-of-the-room sales would have been. So lead collection is not something to dismiss. You just have to do it in a way that’s acceptable to your promoter, and do it well.

Give Something of Value Away

Don’t ask for business cards. Don’t do the fishbowl thing. Don’t do a raffle. Those are tired techniques, and they don’t work anymore. Instead, give away a CD or an ebook or something else that your audience would appreciate. That’s much more effective than the old techniques, because everyone can get something, not just one winner. Plus, people will appreciate the gift, and likely not resist when you follow up later.

I was once told that I could sell as much as I wanted, but I couldn’t do a hard close from the stage in the 800-person room. So I had a bunch of purple bracelets made up that read “Just Believe,” and I invited the audience to visit our product table, where we would give them a bracelet and collect their contact details in order to send them some free information. At the table we added hundreds of people to our database, sold 92 copies of our Just Believe program and did about $300,000 in coaching — all without a hard close.

Walk Them Through, Show Them the Steps

A client of mine, who wasn’t even allowed to have a table in the back of the room, handed out a card for attendees to fill out in order to get a bonus. While it was a lot of work following up, he generated a lot of leads — and a lot of business from those leads.

This might feel awkward, but if you’re going to hand out a card, walk them through filling it out. While you’re on stage, pull out a pen, and write your name and contact information on the card, while asking them to do the same.

What you’re doing is creating a mild, uncomfortable situation. People pretty much do what they’re told to do, so they’re not going to just sit there like a schmuck. They’re going to fill out the card too. Then what are they going to do with the card? They’re going to give it to you. This kind of stuff really works. You just have to be calm and confident when you do it. If you have that confidence in yourself, you can walk in to any situation and turn a profit. So even if they say you can’t sell, just smile, because you’ve got the know-how to make a mint.

As I said last time, even if you’ve never spoken publicly before, you can start making sales with speaking right off the bat.

Before I get into the steps for crafting your speech to make those sales, I want to give you five things you need to consider in order to set yourself up for success.

5 Ways to Set the Stage for Prosperous Presentations

1. Consider Speaking for Free
If you don’t have an established speaking career, I definitely encourage you to consider speaking for free. Your real money is not going to come from a speaking fee anyway. It’s going to come from back-of-the-room sales.

In fact, many speakers I know make a lot more from sales than they’d ever make in speaking fees or keynotes alone.

Yes, it is sometimes possible to both get paid to speak and make sales. However, there are a lot more opportunities to speak if you’re willing to do so for free. Numerous organizations in your own community would be happy to have you.

2. Is Your Objective Leads or Sales?
Sometimes, even when you’re speaking for free, a particular venue will not let you sell. That’s not necessarily a reason to turn down the opportunity, because you can still make the event very profitable by getting leads. Leads are the names and contact information for attendees that you can contact later to offer your products and services.

You just have to make sure that you collect those leads in a way that doesn’t upset your promoter. I’ll tell you all about that later in the series.

3. Build Your Talk Around Your Product or Service
You want the subject of your talk to be directly related to what you’re selling. This may sound obvious, but some people miss that point.

For instance, if you’re offering financial consulting packages, you might do a talk on what to invest in during a down (or up) economy or how to save a bundle on your taxes.

That way, your package or program expands upon what you teach the audience during your talk.

4. Learn About the Room
You have to know something about the people you’re speaking to so that you can tailor your content or delivery somewhat. You don’t have to know everything, but you should know their background, the promoter’s background and the primary reason they’re in the room.

I’ll get into this more next time and tell you how I learned this lesson myself—painfully.

5. Get the Ratio Right
Your speech can be as long or short as you like, but ideally it’s about 90 minutes. That gives you time to follow all of the eight steps, create value and sell your product.

80% of that time should be devoted to teaching them something that they can apply in their life or business, and 20% should be devoted to the close, to overtly selling your product or service.

If you devote more than 80% to providing value, you won’t have time to do an effective close. If you close for more than 20% of the time you’re onstage, your audience might feel gypped or misled.

You’re actually selling the whole way through, but during the value portion, the selling is subtle and embedded in what you’re teaching.

The goal is that by the end of your speech, your audience wants what you have.

You don’t have to sell them anything.

They’ve already sold themselves.