The Saviest Rainmaker Agency Owners Do This Instead Of Selling From The Speaking Platform

An advantage of being an author is being invited to speak to groups of prospects.

Here is my advice for selling from the speaking platform: Don’t.

But, you might reason, I am speaking to get clients. True.

So I should close by asking for the order, right? Wrongo.

Once upon a time, I was the program chair for a group of 100 high-tech marketing directors. The agency owner I invited to speak did not prepare the speech he agreed to deliver (and people paid to attend to hear).

Instead, he took his 40-slide pitch deck and added two slides with some tips.

He actually said aloud, I kid you not, "I can't believe I was invited to give an advertisement for my agency."

Talk about a karma bomb going off in the room.

When you give your presentation, never sell your services from the platform.

People hate that and will go out of their way for the rest of their lives to never do business with you if they perceive your session to be a 45-minute commercial.

(If you want to hear me speak at no cost and demonstrate the technique, you can join me at for a no-cost questions and answer session at 10 am Tuesday, November 5. To register visit www.indiebooksintl.com/events .)

In the last decade, I have ghostwritten, edited, and published more than 170 business books and authored or co-authored 17 of my own.

Let me add that I believe in the First Amendment to the Constitution, which is about free speech. That's why I give free speeches every month.

When you speak, be an authority who doesn’t sell. Instead, give away all valuable secrets and tell your audience that anytime they have a quick question, they can call you for no charge.

Be sure to put your phone number and website address at the bottom of every page of your handouts. The people who call you are the ones you want to talk to anyway because they see you as the expert.

You cannot badger high-paying clients into buying. Maybe that works for selling $497 info products, but we are after relationships that will bring us thousands of dollars.

When trying to woo and win clients, agency owners need to remember that nobody loves a salesman.

?Just ask Scott Love.

“The problem with actively selling your professional services to prospective clients is that it screams, ‘I have no business right now,’” says Love, an author and an internationally recognized expert on leadership. “And if you have no business, how good can you be?”

?Love is my co-author (along with Mark LeBlanc) of my book Rainmaker Confidential.

The book is about how top agency owners and other trusted advisors make smart business development investments of time, treasure, and talent. Speaking is the number one investment of time we recommend.

?Love maintains that prospects only want to do business with the sought-after and busy agency owners, not the ones scrambling for new projects. How good can an empty restaurant be if no one is eating there? How good can a professional be if he has to actively solicit business?

?“Instead of selling, focus on bringing the business to you by creating the perception that you are the premier expert in your field,” says Love.

Being an author is the first step to being an authority.

The most effective way to build credibility is to create a perception that you are a go-to expert in your field.

?I’m curious: What is your most successful speech topic that positions you as an authority figure?

?