|
Are You Just a Small Fish in a Big Pond?
When potential clients are choosing a speaker for their next conference
or a trainer to run some in-house work, are you just like all the other
speakers, trainers and consultants? Or does your business stand out
because it offers much more than anybody else?
Don't be a small fish.
Most speakers, trainers, coaches and consultants only offer themselves
as their product. In other words, they waltz in, deliver their presentation,
and run off, leaving the clients to fend for themselves.
If that's all you do, then be aware that you'll be treated just
like everybody else. This means that clients will choose you based on
one of these criteria:
- Price - That's fine if you're the cheapest in the market, but it's no
way to operate a sustainable business;
- Referral from somebody else - This is an excellent position to be in,
but could restrict your fees;
- Reputation - This is also a good position, but it only gets you on the
short list;
- "Fit" - If all other things are equal, they will choose, say,
a female speaker under 40 to balance out their program (even though
officially they won't tell you this).
Some of these can work in your favour, but you still face an uphill
battle convincing the client to choose you from their list of
potential candidates.
What if you stood out?
However, what if you turned things around so that you're not just
one of many? What if you stood out, offering far more than anybody
else? That would be music to a client's ears!
To do this, you have to sell your value above everything else.
Paint such a glorious picture of what you can offer to your client
that they can't help but choose you.
To promise value, give value!
The solution, of course, is to deliver value - but in a way that
doesn't require you to spend five times as much time as everybody
else.
This means that the added value you offer comes in the form of
on-going support material. In other words, instead of just walking
in and walking out of a presentation, you deliver on-going support
to help reinforce the learning and consolidate the message.
For example, most people retain very little of what they learn in
a training environment. You can use that to your advantage by
offering a 90-day follow-up program (delivered automatically by
e-mail, so there's no effort on your part) to add value to the
learners.
Use our Fast Forward package.
Our Fast Forward Web site package includes many of the
facilities for creating on-going support, including:
|
