You know that speaking to civic, chamber and lead share groups will generate leads so you commit to be the speaker from time to time. Now the question to answer is "what do I speak about?"
No matter what products or services you and your company offer, you do NOT speak directly about them. That's perceived as a sales pitch and will generate annoyance or even harsh rejection.
Here are 3 topics that are "evergreen"--they are always of great interest to audiences. Customize the topics to your audience and customize the perspective from your particular company--but make sure it's about the audience, not about you.
1) How to make more money. Have you ever met a business who doesn't want to make more money? Of course not. So you must make a list of the top 3 ways your audience can make more money. The value to you is that you offer these tips from your perspective as an expert on whatever your industry is.
If you're a CPA, show your audience how specific decisions about corporate formulation affects the bottom line.
If you are a printing company, show your audience how your clients attribute increased revenue to their print materials.
2) How to improve customer service. Your company has its own customer service practices that have developed over the years. Talk briefly about what works for your company and how you arrived at your customer service practices. You make this topic relevant to all businesses by talking about customer service concepts: customer retention practices; special offer practices; employee training practices.
If you are a public relations firm, show your audience how asking great questions is perceived as customer service.
If you provide IT services, show your audience how you write, distribute and analyze customer satisfaction surveys.
3) How to gain visibility with your prospects. Every company benefits from prospects coming to them. Obvious methods to generate leads and customers are direct mail, advertising and sales calls. In your speech, you should talk about other approaches, beginning with speaking to groups like the one you're at. You can encourage everyone in the audience to get in front of audiences. You can also describe your other marketing strategies such as winning awards; providing sponsorship to other organizations; creating newsworthy activities and distributing news releases about them; doing research and publishing a white paper.
If you're the general manager or sales manager of a business-oriented hotel, talk about the results that come when people meet face-to-face.
If you're in financial services of any kind, talk about how your company differentiated itself from competitors by sponsoring a large community event or underwriting an ongoing program of services such as literacy, child care or employment skills training.
When you stimulate your audiences' creative thinking about how they could solve their burning issues, you become a resource rather than simply a vendor. People will come to you for more information, advice or suggestions, allowing you to develop relationships.
As you all know, relationships are what make it possible to increase your business and keep it going no matter the economy or what your competition does.
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