What is the Best Way to Grow Your Business?

Delivering a killer seminar – hands down! Can you think of a better way to showcase your skills, value, smarts, and market your business? Seminars work even better if you have an audience! People that actually want to listen to you, learn from you, work with you, refer you, and even invite others to your next seminar. Does it get any better than that? Heck, it can even be fun!

I have an absolute blast when I deliver presentations as part of agency kickoffs, corporate initiatives, new hire trainings, top producer roundtables, recruiting focus groups, or sales meetings. I’m telling you, if I were a financial advisor, insurance agent, broker, producer, rep, manager, or whomever; I would be delivering presentations to audiences on a regular basis. When I say regular basis, I mean up to three talks a week!

So why don’t all advisors deliver seminars? What gets in the way?

Yesterday I delivered a seminar on public speaking to a firm. I asked them similar questions.  The attendees were advisors at all levels ranging from brandy new to conference qualifiers. Here are some of their responses:

I need to overcome my fear of public speaking. I lack the knowledge of my topic. I don’t know how to make my topic interesting. I don’t know how to begin and end my presentation. I’m not sure how to engage the audience. I have a fear of being asked questions I can’t answer. I’m not sure how to ask my audience to hire me without being too salesy.

Here are a few concepts that may put these concerns to rest:

Overcoming Your Fears

Yes, public speaking is ranked as the number one human fear according to The Book of Lists. Death ranks seventh. So as Jerry Seinfeld says, at a funeral you would rather be lying in the casket than delivering the eulogy. I digress. Anyway, how do you overcome your fear? First, you have to know your material backward and forward. Insurance, retirement, annuities, long term care, whatever it is, you must know your stuff cold! If you don’t, you have no right to be speaking to an audience. It’s a waste of your time and theirs. You may want to co-present with an advisor that knows more than you so you can learn the ropes. Once you know your content, then practice, get feedback, and practice again. Getting feedback is important because if you just practice, you could be rehearsing your mistakes over and over again. Not good. Get feedback on your material, delivery, and rapport with the audience. Toastmasters Inc. is an excellent resource to get your practice swings in.

The Elephant in the Room

One of my favorite approaches to speaking is introducing the elephant in the room upfront. By “the elephant”, I mean concerns that may be on your audience’s mind. In most seminars offered by financial advisors, the audience knows that you’re looking to sell them something – that may be your elephant. This notion may create tension and prevent the audience from being more engaged. Simply address concerns at the beginning, right after your big opening (discussed below). You may say something like, “Let me be upfront. There are two reasons I’m delivering this seminar. I love to teach and help people with financial matters because I’m good at it and it’s important – especially these days. This event avails me the opportunity to do so. Also, I’m a financial advisor and business person, and therefore always looking for clients that I can help. I’m not here to pitch or sell you anything. I will remind you again at the end but if you think I can help you in any way and you’re interested in discussing that with me, that would be great and I invite you to do so. However, if you’re here to learn, get your questions answered, and get a cup of coffee out of the deal, that’s great too. I only request that you refer others to my monthly seminar if you think it’s of value and it can help someone.” How’s that for an introduction?

Beginning and Ending Your Presentation

Depending on the length of your presentation (we’ll base this on a one hour talk), you may want to have only 5 components – your open, 3 main points, your close. Make sure your open is about the best thing you can deliver for your audience and for you. Try not to begin your presentation with, “My name is….” Boooooring! Your opening has to be a message that you know you can deliver flawlessly. Confidence is high here. Make your open a compelling quote, statistic, or ‘did you know’. (“Did you know that 68 million people in the U.S. are uninsured or underinsured according to LIMRA?”) I like to use opening stories or a question that I can pose to the audience that’s interactive. (“There are only 5 reasons why people network. What are they?”) Your 3 or so main points should be succinct and important. (1 – Why do you need life insurance? 2 – Different types of life insurance. 3 – Best life insurance coverage for you.) Your close should be powerful and all about inviting your audience to take action. You should not demand your audience to hire you as their advisor. I know advisors that do this and it compromises even the best presentations. Simply invite them to do so. If there’s value, they will!

The truth is if public speaking was easy, everyone would do it. But it’s not easy. It takes a lot of work and practice. Being a successful financial advisor isn’t easy either but delivering a great presentation almost guarantees you of being successful at both. Get practice, get booked, and get good!

What’s more, when you’re networking, you won’t be looking for your next client, you’ll be looking for your next seminar. And that’s the elephant in that room!