If building a better speaking business is one of your goals, then you’re a marketer and a salesperson. As such, there’s a quote from legendary marketer and author Seth Godin you should hear:
“There’s no shortage of remarkable ideas, what’s missing is the will to execute them”
The driving goal for our team at S3 (Speaker Sales Systems) is to help speakers get out from under the myths about growing a speaking business and equip folks like you with the knowledge, systems and best practices to actually grow a speaking business.
Every week, we focus on the intelligence we’re capturing from the very front lines of selling in this industry. Why would we peel back the curtain on our own business to help other speakers?
We want you to see that by leveraging systems you can think differently, grow your business and create more predictable results and revenue. Crazy, huh?
The Problem
There’s one myth circulated in the speaking community that we need to dispel immediately.
When many speakers start their businesses, one of the myths they’re told goes like this: Read books, attend speaking conferences, and if you can implement just three things you’ll be successful.
Why is that a myth? Because everybody treats it as a truth, when it’s not! The first time we heard this was at a national convention – a convention designed to help speakers grow their businesses!
When that myth was passed onto all the speakers in the room, it made a lot of sense because everyone leaves conferences like that with a notebook full things to implement.
Looking over 80 or 100 new ideas is overwhelming, so the myth makes sense on the surface – just pick two or three things and get them done. What solves this problem?
The Solution:
To overcome this myth and others like it, recognize that you can be in the driver seat when it comes to your business, your income and your lifestyle. Too many speakers are in the backseat and are waiting for a meeting planner to email them with an inquiry or folks to rush the stage after their next keynote. To hop into the front seat and implement the things that will get your business down the road, managing dozens or hundreds of things requires a system to plug ideas into.
That way, the ideas themselves have a framework to live in. Otherwise you are limited as to the number of ideas you can remember. If you (and your bank account) can wait the decades it takes to remember the thousands of things million-dollar speakers do, then keep listening to the myths.
If you, like us, wanted to see better results in a shorter amount of time with your speaking business, toss the ‘implement three things’ myth out the window with that suit or dress you’ve had since 1997. It’s out of date.
Do This Now
- Commit to shifting from a gig mentality (how do I get the next gig) to a business mentality (how do I get a handle on my current and future revenue?)
- Capture your processes with social media, marketing and sales so you can plug an infinite number of new ideas into them – not just three per conference!
- Focus on generating revenue in a predictable way.
- Get a basic system in place (a CRM) for your business
- Document your sales process and review results to modify it – and your business.If you’re ready to begin building the systems that build speaking businesses, we’re offering a free speaker sales masterclass beginning soon: