There are tons of professional speakers who have a product but find it hard to sell that product when they’re in front of a crowd.
Maybe you have a product and when you’re speaking, the sales aren’t even close to where you think they should be…so why is it so freakin’ hard to sell your product?
What can you do differently that will allow you to sell more while you’re speaking?
Here are four reasons why professional speakers have a hard time selling products:
1. You made the wrong product
Unfortunately, most professional speakers make a product and then go out and try to sell it. They make the product how they want it and by doing this, you end up making your speaking business a lot harder than it should be.
When you make the wrong product, you’re making what you want, not what your audience wants. So maybe you want to tell them about some super cool thing that they need to do which can make them a millionaire in 24 seconds, but maybe the audience wants something else.
Instead of making a product and then trying to sell it, you have to see what people want to buy and then give it to them.
You can use Amazon to do research by looking up books in your topic. Looks for the best books and then look at the comments of those books. What are people saying? What did they like? What did they hate? What do they want to see more of?
You can easily find comments that will allow you to create your next product that people actually want to buy instead of you creating a product that has to be sold.
2. The positioning is wrong
This is a tough one to swallow because speakers who have products with the wrong positioning don’t know that they have the wrong positioning.
You might be on the verge of a great product but you have to show your target market that it’s really want they want to buy. And if you have the wrong positioning, then the content might be exactly what they need but they won’t know it.
Lets say you’re a mindset speaker…you speak about how to change your mindset to become more successful.
This is a cold, hard, truth about speakers who speak on mindset…most audiences don’t want “mindset” stuff.
Selling mindset products are the hardest products to sell…but it’s the biggest industry out there. Personal development is huge but tons of speakers have a hard time selling their mindset product. Why is that? How can you be in one of the biggest speaking industries but have a hard time selling the product?
The reason…
People don’t think their “mindset” is the problem.
Let me ask you this…you’re a speaker…what problems do you have in your business? Or in life? You’re not getting speaking gigs? You want more money? You want get more healthy?
Whatever problem you think you have, you never say, “I have a mindset problem.” The problem is that you need more money, you need more speaking gigs, you need to go to the gym, you need to eat healthier…but your problem is never, “I need a better mindset.”
Mindset is the solution, not the problem. Unfortunately, most speakers lead with the solution without telling the audience that they understand the problem.
People don’t buy mindset because we don’t see it as the problem. The problem is outside of us (lack of money, not eating right, not marketing the business right, etc). And when someone comes in to tell us that the problem is our mindset, we say, “Yea yea I heard that before. Now show me a marketing technique.”
Most products (like mindset products) have the wrong positioning.
The key to selling your product when you don’t have the right positioning is to change the positioning.
Small-Business audiences think if they learn new tools of marketing then it will change their lives. Corporate audiences think if they learn about leadership then it will change their lives. Position your product in a way that talks about their problem and the content of your product is the solution.
3. Unqualified Audience
Sometimes, no matter how good you are when it comes to selling your product as a speaker, you might not have a qualified audience.
If people aren’t qualified to buy then they just won’t buy.
Maybe they don’t have the money or maybe they’re just the wrong crowd because they have different problems…either way…if they’re unqualified then you can be the best speaker in the world and sell a whole lot of nothing.
But how do you know if an audience is qualified?
The key is to do your research. If you’re in the seminar industry then you need to do research on the person hosting the seminar. Look to see what type of material that person teaches and what they of people they attract. If they attract the same type of people who buy your product then you will have a qualified audience.
Don’t be so gung-ho about getting on a stage to speak.
Several speakers want to get on a stage so bad that they will speak to any audience. But you’re not doing any good for anyone. You’re speaking to the wrong people, with the wrong message, so now they’re going to think you suck, and when you don’t sell, you’re going to wonder what you did wrong.
4. You need better selling skills
It might be tough to admit, but you’re not the best at selling on stage. All speakers can improve their skills and this could be a big reason why you’re not selling products.
But how do you know if this is the problem and all you need are better sales skills?
An easy way to test if you just need better sales skills is to pay attention to how your audience responds to you after you speak. What do they say to you? If they come up and say, “That was a great talk,” but they don’t buy anything, then that means you need better sales skills.
You’ve heard the term…”People vote with their wallet.” Well, it’s true. People might say your talk was great, and maybe it was, but they didn’t buy anything so it wasn’t great enough.
Improve your platform selling skills and you will improve your sales.
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