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Are You A Speaker?

Over the years I've tried every traditional prospecting method out there. From "warm markets" to cold calling, I've done it all. Eventually I became exhausted of the fair to middling results. Something had to change.

In my book, I mention that the first thing we need to sell is ourselves. Getting on a soapbox and telling everyone how great your company is will work sometimes, but first and foremost, we need to promote ourselves. With this in mind I've refocused my energy. And I ran across a great article by Dew Tinnin, which confirmed my suspicions.

Instead of promoting my business, Surf Financial Brokers, which I've done for the last few years to mediocre results, I've decided to market myself. Surf Financial will still be there. It's not going anywhere, but looking for people one at a time is a slow, hard process. And trying to get referrals from them is tougher.

Image may contain: one or more people, text that says 'WHEN YOU DISCOVER YOU LIKE PUBLIC SPEAKING'

I took an honest look at my business recently and decided that in order to increase sales, I needed to try something else. With several years of Toastmasters under my belt and a book on Amazon, I considered using these as assets. I set up a speaker page and have started marketing myself as a speaker. And the best part is that I can speak to local groups about insurance, or I can speak to other groups about sales or using sales as life hacks.

A few months back I spoke to a group of real estate agents. This was going to be a dry run and I went into the experience with eyes and ears open, waiting to see what kind of feedback I would get (I gave each participant a feedback form). Due to bad weather and a holiday (Good Friday), the audience was small, which gave me an opportunity to be more interactive. Overall, my audience was pleased. One nice lady gave constructive criticism that I should be more "industry specific". The icing on the cake was that I sold a copy of my book. Baby steps.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and now I want to do more speaking engagements. I'm currently looking for opportunities to talk at sales conference, workshops, seminars, etc. If you or your organization need a speaker, look me up at www.ChrisCastanes.com.

The best part is that by speaking to groups, I can cast a wider net, get more appointments and keep my pipeline full.

Have you tried speaking more? Let me know what the results are.
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