Editor’s note: MFA is pleased to share today’s article from guest blogger, Lisa Sasevich.
If you’re like most people who plan to make an offer via a live presentation, teleseminar or webinar, or even during a one-on-one consultation, you worry about the last 15 minutes, otherwise known as “the close.” That’s when most of us make an offer to work further with us.
But if you ignore the beginning of your presentation, your audience — whether it’s one or 100 or 1,000 — might not even hear the end.
The key to keeping your audience on the line or in the room is to create a strong first impression by “positioning” yourself in the first 15 minutes or so of your presentation.
Positioning means that you put yourself and your work in the most advantageous view, and you want to do that in the following five areas:
1. Position yourself
Right off the bat, you want to position yourself for credibility so that your audience sees you as someone who is well worth their time. For instance, I might talk about the $25 million in sales we’ve done in the past five years, and the thousands of clients whose lives we’ve transformed in 134 countries.
If you’re just getting started in a new field, you can share your accomplishments in other work you’ve done or borrow credibility from the category you’re in. For instance, if you’re a new life coach, you can talk about the difference that having a coach has made for well-known people that your ideal clients admire.
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Equally important is to position yourself for vulnerability, so that people not only respect you, but connect with you too, and see you as someone who can help them personally. To position for vulnerability, share what got you to where you are.
For instance, many people can relate to how hard it was, years ago, when I was only doing one-on-one service in my business. And that even though I hit that six-figure dream, it wasn’t fun, because I had no time with my kids, my health goals were not being met, and forget about vacation!
2. Position your audience
Positioning your audience means showing them that they’re in the right place. You can do this simply by tapping into their pain, making sure to use their own words, so that they feel understood.
For instance: “This presentation is for you if you’re tired of reinventing the wheel all the time.”
Or if you’re in the relationship arena: “This is for you if you’re tired of investing a year, two years, with someone, only to end up back at square one.”
See how quickly that is done? The audience, knowing they’re in the right place, settles back to listen.
3. Position your topic
You position your topic by showing the transformation that’s possible from doing your work. This can also be done quickly.
For instance, during preview calls for my 6-Figure Teleseminar and Webinar Sales System, I position the topic by saying, “Teleseminars and webinars enable you to create personal freedom and have a life that you will love. You can touch people all over the world, make the difference you were meant to, and earn great money doing it.”
4. Position your talk
Positioning your talk is similar to that essay format you might have learned in school, where you outline the main points that you’re going to cover.
I recommend covering four points: the first describes what you’re going to talk about, the second why it matters, and the third point describes the teaching you’re going to do, which I suggest is something your audience can use right away.
The fourth point previews your transition to your offer, and might sound like this: “And then I’m going to show you how you can develop your own system for being in charge of your health.”
5. Position your offer
Your fourth point leads well into the fifth P, whose goal is to create trust with your audience. In fact, I call it creating “partnership from the start.”
You do this by letting your audience know that you’re going to teach them as much as you can in the time that you have, and you truly are. But you do have a limited amount of time together, so you promise that, before you conclude, you’re going show them how they can get more.
That way, when you do make your offer in the last 15 minutes of your presentation, they’re ready for it. They were expecting it. And they won’t feel as though it came out of nowhere or, worse, that they were somehow tricked.
You’ll also feel better as well, comfortable and confident in the knowing that you’ve secured their tacit permission to make your Irresistible Offer™.
Honored with the Distinguished Mentor Award from the Business Expert Forum at the Harvard Faculty Club, recipient of the coveted eWomen Network Foundation Champion award for her generous fundraising, and ranked on the prestigious Inc. 500/5000 list of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies for 2 years in a row, Lisa Sasevich “The Queen of Sales Conversion” teaches experts who are making a difference how to get their message out and enjoy massive results, without being salesy. To receive her monthly Sales Nuggets and FREE Sales Training sign up today at www.FreeSalesTrainingFromLisa.com.
