How to Convert Your Audience into Sales
In this post I want to share with you my most prized and guarded secret.
I am going to pull the curtain apart and reveal to you the fastest, easiest and most effective way to use a presentation to sell your products and services.
More importantly, you are going to learn how to do that without feeling guilty about asking for money at the end of your talk, and your audience actually can’t wait to buy whatever you are offering!
Sounds like a load of bull?
Well, remember… I came from the world of seminars and pitch making.
I’ve personally experienced a long line of impatient buyers worried they can’t get their spot after I made the offer.
But here is a confession…
I’ve also done presentations where I stare at my navel after it and wondered why everyone disappeared like a bomb scare!
In this post I want to first share with you what works so you can replicate, then what are the common pitfalls so you avoid the heartache (it is wrenching… for experienced presenters, you definitely know how it feels…)
First – What works
Here are the elements that must be present for you to successfully pull off a presentation that sells.
- Control of the audience’s energy
- Topic must interest the crowd
- Audience convinced that you are the authority on topic
- Audience entertained, educated and empowered by your content
- Permission granted by audience to do your offer
- Proof shown that your offer works
- Urgency, scarcity or exclusivity of offer presented
- Reverse risk – give a form of guarantee / lower the barrier of entry
- Close strong
- Parting story / quotation by famous person/ statement
Students of copywriting will find this order familiar.
The order of elements to incorporate into a presentation that sells is similiar to a long form sales letter. If you are not sure what I am talking about here, then you needa get your ass cracking and learn copywriting!
This field of salesmanship will literally help you turn your words into money!
You will learn how to push emotional buttons in the correct order and close sales like a machine!
There is a science to influence and it has been well researched. From Claude Hopkins to Dr. Robert Cialdini, there is no lack of laws and techniques that you can apply to presentation.
Here is a kicker…
Knowing copywriting alone will not turn you into a presentation sales machine.
It is safer to use written words to persuade because the reader cannot see your body language or hear your tonality.
They can only infer your enthusiasm with your ALL CAPS or exclamation marks. They can only infer your pause for effect with your dot dot dots…
With a live audience… you are totally naked.
You have one shot to say the right things in the right way and rub off the rigth way. There is no backspace or taking a coffee break to think up your best line.
The trust and rapport between presenter and audience is as thin as a stretched plastacine.
Once you say something that offends them or makes them feel negative about you, you are gonna suffer in your close.
The energy of the room will be so toxic that you want to skip right to the closing statements just to get off the stage. You will perspire, you will blush and you will stammer when the audience stares straight back at you and wants you to die.
Think I am exaggerating? Heh… then you must be an amateur.
Pros know when this happens. And it happens to all pros when we do this long and often enough. There will be days when we bomb.
It is impossible to always find yourself in front of an audience that adores you and your offer.
The key is to know what to do in those situations and still win.
Go take a look at what was #1 in the list of elements essential for a presentation that sells. You’ll understand what I mean here.
So how do you ensure that you say the right things in the right way?
Here’s how:
You must use these 4 Speaking Models when presenting.
- Humble Monk/Nun
- Humility, open-ness, building trust and likeability
- Enthusiastic Child
- Energetic, funny, playful
- Inspiring Warrior
- Motivating, charismatic, confident, certain
- Caring Bastard
- No excuses, sick of whiners, frustrated at other’s lack of results, disdain for mediocrity
Oh yeah… I forgot to remind you. I am potty mouthed. Deal with it.
T Harv Eker in his $10,000 4 day trainer’s training seminar teaches that you need only 2 emotional states when presenting to sell.
- Heart
- Enthusiasm
The 4 Speaking Models encompasses the 2 must-have emotional states.
So how do you use the 4 Models?
According to your natural speaking style, you can pick one as a dominant Model.
But for maximum effect on your audience and have them eating out of your palms, you must master all 4, and use them at key parts of your presentation. This is something I learnt as a teacher in charge of “can’t sit still” classes. If you want to hook the attention of listeners, be unpredictable. Your values stay consistent (or your audience won’t trust you), but your behavior swings like a pendulum.
If it works for ADHD-like students, it’ll definitely work for your adult listeners.
When do you use each model?
- Humble Monk – asking for permission, asking for compliance, earning the right story
- Enthusiastic child – teaching content, facilitating Q and A
- Inspiring Warrior – story telling, teaching content, presenting offer
- Caring Bastard – presenting offer
Now let’s get to the common pitfalls of presenting that kills sales faster than bygone on roaches…
- Did not gain control of audience commitment to participation
- No passion for topic
- Poor energy in your speaking (A lot of amateurs says this makes them more sincere as speakers… that’s a load of crap)
- Did not get buy in from audience before launching into teaching content
- Did not prepare audience that offer is coming, too abrupt, no segue
- Did not build tension during offer presentation
- Did not research on what problems audience wants solved – offer does not entice them
- Offer is not clear. A confused mind always says no. Recall a time when you gave up thinking when you were offered 101 choices of the same type of product? Easier to walk away wasn’t it?
- No close in the the presentation. End up talking non stop preventing people from taking up the offer.
Well my dear reader…
This is it.
I’ve laid out pretty much a summary of everything I teach paying clients and personally do to make sales, generate leads and referrals from presentations that sell.
Please leave me a comment, feedback, or any questions I can help you with. 
P.S. Actually, I am getting sleepy typing this at 1:20am… Got lazy. Just wanna close this off. I promise I will elaborate further in my future posts… stay tuned! 
Tagged with: common pitfalls • Elements of presentation that sell • Models of Speaking • presentations that sell • structure of a persuasive presentation
Filed under: Articles • Speaking Models • Uncategorized
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