Introduction: Selling from the Stage
Melina Palmer: Welcome to episode six of The Brainy Business. Understanding the psychology of why people buy this episode is called how to sell from the stage. This is going to be fun. Let’s get started.
Announcer: You are listening to The Brainy Business podcast where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now here’s your host, Melina Palmer.
Melina Palmer: Hello everyone. My name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to The Brainy Business podcast. Last week I told you the truth about pricing and how it is not about the cookie. If you have not yet listened to that episode, I recommend you revisit and listen to it before starting this one as they’re built on the same foundation. You can find that episode in whatever app you use or by going to thebrainybusiness.com/five. If you go to that page, you can get a freebie worksheet to help you along the way. And there’s a similar but modified one for this episode as well, which you can download by going to thebrainybusiness.com/six. Because this is episode six. If you can download it now and use it while you listen, great. If not, no problem. I will remind you at the end of the episode so you don’t have to try and remember that tidbit. During our time together today, I want your conscious brain able to focus on what we’re talking about and not on remembering to go download something later so you can just listen and learn.
Melina Palmer’s Speaking Background
Melina Palmer: Before I get into the details about speaking from the stage and how to use this information, I felt it would be useful to give a little bit about my background in speaking and being on a stage. For those of you who don’t know me, it’s been really exciting to watch the stats for the podcast. You know, you launch something like this and you don’t know who’s going to listen or where they’re going to be from, and if it’s just going to be your mom or friends, which, you know, hi, mom. But happy everybody who is here that knows me. But it’s been really cool to see, I think, by the time of this recording, there have been listeners and downloads in 21 countries, and I’m fairly confident I don’t know people in 21 countries, also five Canadian provinces and 34 states, I think, at last check. So thank you to everyone who’s here and where you’re listening from. It’s been really exciting to watch. So what that means is I know that a lot of you don’t actually know very much about me or credentials or anything like that. So before I get into selling from the stage, I’ll let you know why I know about being on stages. For me, I’m one of those people that really loves to be on stage. I did a lot of acting as a child. I grew up doing dance, so I did ballet for twelve years, and there are a lot of performances for that. But I was also a vocalist and I competed singing opera in high school and went to state. Hooray. And I also did, like I said, some childhood acting. I was actually in the Screen Actors Guild. I have done voiceover work. I know some of you have said I have a nice voice for the podcast and an ability to focus on my diction and pronunciation of words and things like that. And it does come with some of the training that I have had over the years. As I said, I used to compete singing opera, and so I am comfortable with a microphone and without, I can project very well in front of an audience when I’m on a stage. If microphones fail, as they tend to do, technology can get messed up. I also used to sing with a country band in the Seattle area before I moved. about. I guess it’s been 18 months, no? Yeah, 18 months now. Wow. Crazy. And the biggest audience I have ever been in front of was when I did the national anthem for the Seattle Mariners back in 2015, I believe. And I think there were, you know, 20,000 people there, maybe. I’m, I’m looking forward to the day that I will be able to speak on a stage and talk about my research and my work to an audience that’s about that big. So someday, that’s sort of the dream. Like I said, I love being on
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Melina Palmer: stage. My bio mentions some of my previous vocal background, and it’s kind of a fun social experiment for me to see when people will ask if I will sing something for them. It happens rarely, I guess. I’ve done some volunteer speaking to a high school group over the years, and usually the high schoolers are more likely to ask me to sing for them, and I will often do that when I get asked just as a heads up, I guess if I’m speaking at an event, as long as it wouldn’t be weird for the people putting on the conference or something along those lines. I do still get asked regularly to sing the national anthem for my alma mater, the University of Washington, as well as other schools in the area. I have taken a lot of improv classes through my life, including one as an adult, through a program at my old corporate job with a group of five or six of us, which was a very fun and interesting experience for the group. And let’s just say I know how to be on stage and to work with an audience. I’ve been through it seems like it happens to me more than others, but, I’ve had all the technology fails of the world, including one time where I was having to present for a best in show award and the audience was voting live for who would win based on the presentations. The technology didn’t work at all. It was a, total back and forth where there was nothing on my slides and somehow I was able to pull it off and we ended up winning. So it’s. I love being on a stage, I love to talk about this and being able to help people. And as I said, it is definitely built on the same foundation as any sort of pricing conversation. You are selling something in any conversation that you’re having. You’re trying to get the other person to buy what you’re doing, and being on a stage is no different.
Recap: The Cookie Story and its Sales Principles
Melina Palmer: Speaking of which, let’s go ahead and get started with a brief recap of last week and information about that foundation that I’m talking about. Last week I started by telling you about the conference I had just returned from in Dallas and how much I love to watch great presenters. I gave examples of how a true master of selling can get you begging for an item and make their audience drool like Pavlov’s dogs, while an amateur could be given the same product or pricing structure and completely blow it. And why is that? Because it’s not about the price, it’s not about the product, it’s not about the medium. It’s all in the delivery in the right order. And there’s a method, which I unlocked for you in that episode. This all started with a story about walking down the street, chatting with a friend, when you suddenly smell the intoxicating scent of freshly baked cookies and how it gets your subconscious brain excited. You became distracted searching for the source of the smell, and by the time you found it, you might not be able to stop yourself wandering in, at which point you’re given a free sample and told about a special offer for today only of buy three, get one free, and before you know it, you and your friend walk out eating cookies, each with a spare for later. As I outlined in episode five, a lot of things happen during that experience, and their order matters. To refresh your memory when it all happened in reverse. The experience and outcome is completely different. The story starts the same. You’re walking down the street with your best friend, engrossed in a great conversation. Suddenly some rude salesperson shoves a flyer in your face and says, today only cookie special. Four for the price of three. Want to get some cookies for the family? I have samples. You become very irritated and think, how rude. Couldn’t he see we were having a conversation? And your friend might get back to the previous anecdote at that point. Or maybe you start a new conversation about, rude salespeople and begin one upping each other with terrible experiences you’ve had in the past. By the time you get the front door of the bakery and smell chocolate chip cookies, you might be so irritated that you would say, yeah, right. There is no way I’m buying cookies from these guys. And yet you’re going to write a terrible Yelp review
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Melina Palmer: about how rude they are and that, ah, they’re probably not that good anyway. Same bakery, same offer, completely different experience. And why? The smell of the cookies got your subconscious buying brain excited and made you interested in getting something sweet. By the time you found the sign for the bakery, you were practically begging them to sell you a cookie. And then they gave you a sample and a discount. It was so nice of them, and it is such a great deal today. Only your conscious brain will very quickly begin to logic its way into doing what the subconscious wants it to do. And this is an example of an expert versus a novice sales approach. And as you can see, it’s about nuance. And even if those first cookies were more expensive, expensive, it wouldn’t have mattered. The second cookies could have been twenty five cents, fifty cents, whatever it is, and you wouldn’t have bought them. Similarly, the price of the cookies in that first example was a final consideration. Remember, those could have been very expensive, specialty cookies, $3.25 a piece, whatever it happens to be. And you already bought them in your mind before you walked in the door. And what you want to be able to do is build any of your pricing on this same foundation, which is what I’m talking to about today, even if you’re selling from the stage. Last week I talked about your individual business and how to apply the lessons of the cookie experience to your product offerings and pricing. As you will see in this series, it’s not about the cookie applies to any selling or buying experience. And I want you to know that when I use the terms buy and sell, it does not mean money has to exchange hands. Internal conversations in an organization, or really any conversation, are, based on this concept as well. When you are talking to someone, you are trying to sell them on your position, to get them to buy in on your perspective, and they’re doing the same thing with you. That is why next week for episode seven, I will be extending the it’s not about the cookie scenario to one more instance, change management and non monetary conversations. And I’ll get into that a little bit at the end of this episode. As well as not every conversation or pitch on a stage is about selling something monetary in that moment. Actually, a majority of it is not.
The Scent of the Cookies: Drawing Your Audience In
Melina Palmer: Again, I’ll get into that at the end, but let’s start with the foundation of how this all works with selling from the stage. The five components of it’s not about the cookie were the scent of the cookies the free sample, perceived ownership today only, and buy three, get one free. When selling from the stage, this same formula applies, and I’ll break each item down for you in today’s episode using that context. Once you know how to use these steps and you become great at it, a master in selling from the stage, you will be able to get an audience excited about absolutely anything you want to sell. And if you’re not a public speaker or don’t aspire to be on a stage, don’t discard these tips. They also work in networking scenarios or ongoing conversations with potential clients. It can follow the same basic formula. Last week in episode five, this was all outlined based on pricing, products and services and how to best offer them on a website pricing sheet, etcetera. If you already got that worksheet, awesome. You should also go to the website and download this one as it does have some tweaks and is set up specifically for public speaking. Again, you can find that at thebrainybusiness.com/six.
Melina Palmer: Alright, are you ready to get to the scent of the cookies? Me too. In the bakery story earlier in the episode, the good scenario started with the smell of the cookies. This is something so interesting to your subconscious, so appealing and distracting, that it breaks through the clutter and causes
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Melina Palmer: it to flag your conscious brain. Typically, if you are a speaker on a stage, you already have one huge benefit. Most of the people that are there are likely interested in what you have to say. They are focused on you, your presentation and your message. And whether they admit it consciously or not, they expect you to sell them something along the way. Sure, some will be skeptics, the people who will naysay or judge anything you put out there. The first thing you need to know is those people are not your people. Don’t worry about them. Don’t try to change their minds. They are not who you care about. Are you familiar with the Pareto principle? Even if you don’t know it by that name, I’m sure you’ve heard of it before. This is more commonly known as the 80/20 rule. If you apply this principle to your speaking, 80% of your sales would come from 20% of the audience. Those are the people you are talking to. And on the flip side, 80% of the grumbles would likely come from 20% of the listeners. It’s a standard rule of life, and you should focus on the positive side of this equation. In case you’re interested, there is a fun article from Forbes on the Pareto principle I link to in the show notes. As a reminder, when I mention interesting studies or articles or previous episodes of the podcast, they will always be linked in the show notes. Even if I don’t call it out directly, you can find them inside the app you listen on or by visiting thebrainybusiness.com/six and if you ever find you were expecting something in the show notes and it doesn’t have a link, send an email to Melina@thebrainybusiness.com and I will put together some resources for you when you’re giving a presentation, the scent of the cookies happens long before the event even takes place.
Crafting Irresistible Presentation Titles and Descriptions
Melina Palmer: This is the title and description for your session. Think about the last time you decided to attend a conference. What did you look at first? I’d be willing to bet that the list of speakers and topics was probably in the top three, competing with the date, location, combination, and price. Perhaps there was one topic that stood out that made you think, I have to go to this. And that could have driven you to go ask your boss for budget, or checking your calendar, or maybe even moved things around to be able to attend. What was it that made you so intrigued? The title description headshot of the speaker? It’s likely a combination of all those things. The same title you use for the website and pre conference materials will be used on the official agenda when you arrive at the conference, and that reminds people of why they wanted to attend, and it will help them make the tough decisions if there are two topics they’re interested in that are happening at the same time. I have actually had some conferences book me to do the same presentation back to back, so people have more than one opportunity to see the topics presented in a breakout session. That way, if they’re on a break and someone says, were you in that amazing session? Consumers are weird. I learned so many awesome things about how our brains really work and how we have been messaging incorrectly to our customers. I can’t wait to get back to the office so I can apply the tips Melina gave us. The person they’re talking to doesn’t have to say, aw, man, I can’t believe I missed it. Maybe I’ll see her around instead. They can say, thanks for the tip. I’ll go catch it after the break. And trust me, this type of response does not happen if you do not apply the tips I’m giving you in this episode in the right order. And it all starts with the scent of the cookies. Getting as many people into your session as possible increases the benefits of the 80/20 rule. So once the attendees check in at the registration desk and gotten their agenda book, they start flipping through the options and which are the ones that are going to make their eyes glaze over? Remember those ones that have too much information? They’re too boring, too literal, too vague. Does this remind you of anything? Revisit episode two of this podcast, the top five wording mistakes businesses make, because
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Melina Palmer: the tips in that episode absolutely can be applied to writing a great title and description for your presentation. There is also a free worksheet with that episode which you could download to work through. As you set up your title and your description, make sure you’re meeting all the requirements so you’re not making any of those five wording mistakes.
Melina Palmer: Let’s revisit my signature talk. It’s called Consumers Are Weird: How Irrational Behavior Impacts Your Company. That title is interesting. It has people wanting to learn more. It’s different, and it’s much more effective than a title like behavioral economics and how it affects insert industry here. People don’t know what behavioral economics is yet, and it’s really important for me to address what people are trying to accomplish versus the terms that I get in academia. So how about digging into the other presentations listed on my speaker sheet instead of calling this next one what’s new in branding or niche marketing or niche or however you choose to pronounce that word? I have gone with Neuromarketing: Working with the Brain to Build a Better Brand instead of Change Management Strategies. My presentation is called Brain Shift: Leading Change with Customers and Inside Your Company. And finally, instead of something like product trends or trends in products, my session is called Irresistible: How to Build, Price, and Present Products People Will Buy. I invite you to take a minute and scroll through the titles of my podcast episodes as well. I put a lot of effort into coming up with titles that are interesting and will get people to click or want to listen. Instead of using the name of a, behavioral economic concept like loss aversion and why it matters to you, or hyperbolic time discounting. I lead with things my listeners will care about and that they know they’re interested in problems they want solved. I listen to conversations around me. As I’ve said, I’m very observant. I take notes on how people ask questions, either to me or to someone else to help identify pain points and figure out what people might be searching for. As I said, this applies to much more than standing on a stage and speaking to a group. And, like the pricing discussion, it starts long before you make an offer. It’s about the nuance and it’s not about the cookie. In this stage, you’re going to need a title and description that is nearly irresistible to your ideal client. What do they care about? What will draw their subconscious mind in? So it’s interested enough to flag the conscious and get them to actively look for you. Go out of their way to attend your session and ideally engage with you after. It needs to be really, really good to break through the clutter. One trick I use is incorporating questions into my titles or descriptions. Those of you who have listened to episode four know how much I love questions. One reason I do this is because they get the mind engaged differently than statements do. However, this can easily be done wrong. If you’re going to use questions, make sure they’re ones that people will say yes to. You don’t want to go in this negative space. You want to be asking questions that get them saying, yes, I’ve had that happen. Yes, I’ve had that happen. Yes, that sounds like me. Because then you have sort of the call to action at the end of the session of and you want to be here, you won’t want to miss. And they say, yes, I don’t want to miss that. Versus if you have a negative approach of, you don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do this. It makes people think, no, no, no. And then their brain gets sort of on this tract that then they don’t want to go, that you sort of get stuck in the wrong lane of no, no, no. And they’re saying effectively they’re saying no to you. You get associated with that negative space, and you want to be associated with a positive space. You can solve their problem. You understand them. You know what they’ve been dealing with, you know what their pain points are. You get it. You will help them overcome and get to this new space. That is how you can use questions to your benefit. I’ve done this in marketing campaigns as well, where you can be asking somebody a question that you know that they’re going to say yes to or very likely to. Because again,
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Melina Palmer: getting that small yes will make them more likely to be positively associating with you saying yes to coming to your session and yes to whatever it is that you’re offering them throughout or at the end of your session. Okay, now that you have their interest, they’re coming to the session. They’re going to be there. What are they going to get? What are you giving them to keep that interest and help them to learn a little bit more about you? And don’t worry, I didn’t skip to the end of the presentation. As I said last week, speaking from the stage is different from a pricing strategy or other relationship because you’re essentially accelerating the entire process, which could take days, weeks or months, depending on your conversion cycle, down to an hour or sometimes less. I’ve had to do my presentation in as little as 20 minutes, and that’s really the shortest that I like to give my signature talk on. It’s much better suited for an hour or more. I do offer my ebook for free at the end of every presentation I do. But while it could be confusing to you at first when I say this, that’s not the free sample phase of public speaking. So whatever your offer is at the end, even if it’s free, is not the free sample in this explanation. Instead, the free sample, think about it as giving them a taste of what it’s like to work with you, what you do for your clients or your customers. Show them your personality and please, oh please, be relatable. Engage with your audience so they’re able to enjoy the experience. And while you might hate it, and most of us do from time to time, you need to find relevant opportunities to sprinkle in statements like, when I’m working with my clients, I will tell them to or my customers most frequently ask me why. This is like the pre-sell, the free sample that gets their brain thinking about how they would work with you and what it’s like for those who do. You may think it should be implied. They should know you have clients and people work with you and you shouldn’t have to say it. I wish that was the case. Unfortunately, it is not and the reason you need to do this is perceived ownership. While our brains are amazing and capable of processing a ton of information at once, it also means that they are processing a ton of information at once. Remember the example I gave in episode one, which is from the book The Buying Brain? If you think about your brain like a computer, the subconscious can process about 11 million bits per second. That’s a ridiculous amount of information. And it’s using rules of thumb to decide what makes it through the filter to hold the attention of the very limited conscious brain, which can only process 40 bits per second. 40 to 11 million. This is why it’s nearly impossible to hold attention for an entire 1 hour presentation. Our minds wander. You need to be constantly reminding the audience of things that are important and consistently giving them reasons to bring their conscious attention back to you. If your presentation is boring, or you’re reading off note cards or reading information off of a slide, that their subconscious brain is able to read much faster than you can be reading out loud to them. The conscious brain has jumped ship. They’re thinking about what they’re making for dinner tonight, or wondering why their neighbor is sitting so close to them, wondering what time lunch is going to be, considering, if they can sneak out and anyone will notice, checking their email, whatever it is. But when you use statements that trigger interest or can grab attention, like when I suggested this approach to my client, we were able to increase conversion rates by 200%. Or you get the rest of the audience to laugh or raise their hands or whatever it is, you can bring the conscious brain back to you. Remember, it’s not that everyone’s attention is going to be wandering and gone at the same time. Assuming you have a certain level of interesting content and intonation in your voice and all of these things, that you’re going to be able to hold attention of probably 80% of the audience, and then they will be bringing constantly working on, bringing back the 20%. You know, you’ve got a constant
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Melina Palmer: flow, and if you’re not paying attention to that very quickly, you’re going to have your runoff increase to the point where maybe 20% are paying attention and 80% are checking their email. By explicitly sprinkling in phrases that show how people work with you. It’s like giving them multiple free samples to bring their attention back and instill perceived ownership of what it’s like to work with you. Their brain starts thinking about what it would be like for them to get a 200% increase. Maybe they would get a raise at work, or what does that mean for their sales if they’re a small, business owner, things like that. One note and word of caution. I said sprinkling. Sprinkling. This should be done sparingly, intentionally, and not feel like they are being blasted with a fire hose. If you sell and bring it up too much too early, the subconscious brain will raise a flag for another reason, sleazy sales. And that is nearly impossible to overcome.
The Power of Framing and Scarcity in Presentations
Melina Palmer: Remember the cookie flyer? There is an art to it. It takes practice. And as with everything I talk about, it’s a delicate balance. There’s nothing worse than getting into a presentation you were excited about with a great topic and description, only to have it be a bait and switch that is all about selling the speaker’s products and services the whole time. I’ve been to some that were described as sharing tips on what was new in an industry, and the session was literally an hour of showing a demo of how their product worked and telling the audience why they needed to buy it. Yuck. I will never buy from that vendor. I have a terrible. Just sort of, you know, you get that taste in your mouth that you say like, no way. I will absolutely not get that. The too much of that sale is going to turn them off. So you need to just be intentionally sprinkling. And when you can subtly stimulate, the brain’s ownership response, which I will not get into too much here, since I talked about it in the last episode, you can use it to your advantage. Even something as, simple as saying, picture this can have an impact. Remember when I talked about mirror neurons on the last episode? This is part of the experience in an audience as well, thanks to these beautiful little neurons. When our brains are encouraged to picture others experiences, we empathize and automatically internalize that as if it were happening to us too. This is critical because it makes the brain more receptive to the offer when it comes. It doesn’t want to lose out on this new situation that it thinks it would be able to achieve same results. And coincidentally, that is the next step. I’m certain you have heard someone use this coming tactic in a live presentation, and if not, you have definitely experienced it in an infomercial. This is the today only step, which is a special offer the audience can only get if they act now or in the next week, or is only available to those at the conference who get a special code or something like that. This is the concept of scarcity. And just like last week, because scarcity is a more common term, I’m, not including any links in the show notes, but email me if you would like some references I mentioned infomercials intentionally. If you want to see behavioral economics in action, watch some late night infomercials. Phrases like the first hundred people to act now will get or with this special TV offer. Infomercials are cheesy, yes, but they work. And why? Because they are speaking to that subconscious part of the brain, and you can learn from them. When considering how to position your offer, don’t be sleazy or cheesy or shout at the audience, but do think about the fear of missing out. Whether people want to admit it or not, this is a real thing. It’s a huge motivator for us as a species. You may not like it or try to rebel, but every human brain reacts to scarcity, at least a little, especially for something it’s already excited about. Knowing the opportunity is fleeting makes the subconscious brain send more and more flags to the conscious brain, especially if you’ve already put in place those other steps of perceived ownership and the brain doesn’t want to lose the item it has built a vision around. At the conference I recently attended in Dallas,
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Melina Palmer: nearly every offer was a special conference discount, and they had varying degrees of urgency. Some had to be taken advantage of before the end of the final session, which was maybe a day or two later. Others were before the break. After that session was over, you had to go to the staff at the back of the room and sign up during the 20 minutes break, or you lost out on the discount. This is also genius, because whether it’s conscious or not, everyone in the room can see the line at the back, and you know they’re only there for one reason. Anyone who needed to talk to conference staff for something else wouldn’t go battle the line at that time. Right? So everyone’s taking advantage of the offer. At least it looks that way to your subconscious. And that gets your subconscious, thinking things like, should I have taken advantage of that? Was it a better deal than I realized? If everyone else is doing it, and your subconscious just might overtake your logical, conscious brain and force it to sign up, since you can always cancel later, or the offer likely came with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So, you know, this type of guarantee is playing on your brain’s response system as well. And knowing that the vast majority of people will never return an item or ask for a refund, even if they are unhappy and they actually feel better about not asking, they sort of blame themselves instead of the company because they know they could have asked for their money back. It’s a fascinating phenomenon. The average of people that do end up asking for a refund or returning things is 5%, according to an article in Time magazine, which also referenced a study from the Journal of Retailing which summed it up beautifully. They say money back guarantees evoke a positive emotional response, thereby increasing consumers purchase intentions and willingness to pay a price premium. I’m going to add this to my list of future episode topics, but for now, know that money back guarantees encourage buying and spending more than people would otherwise. And they don’t tend to take advantage of that offer. So the benefit you get of people opting in will be better than the percentage you will lose of people that would maybe take advantage or claim. And really, if you’re offering a, money back guarantee, you should know that you’re offering a good service. As with any of these, there’s the balance. you know, last week I talked about if you got had the best cookie scenario, you get into the store, and then the cookies are $100 a piece, your people will walk out. So if you have terrible, obvious bait and switch, you’re not upholding anything. You don’t do anything for them. You know that 5% return would go way up, that more people would be asking for refunds. But if you do have a good service and a legitimate one, offering something like a guarantee can get people more excited about moving forward and willing to take advantage of an offer. And that offer could include something like the buy three, get one free. In the cookie scenario, hopefully you remember from the last episode that when things sound better, including rhyming or using alliteration, the brain is more likely to think of them as wise and remember them. In the good cookie offer, the message was, buy three, get one free, and the bad offer said four for the price of three. The way you frame the message impacts what the brain hears and how it will react. If I were to ask you, how do you keep the doctor away, what would your response be? Did you say an apple a day? Do apples actually keep the doctor away? Or would an orange be better? They have vitamin C, which you’re supposed to take when you’re sick. And in today’s low carb world, you’re actually advised to stay away from apples in a lot of cases. But did that stick in your head? Does it still come to mind now? And do you feel like there’s some truth to the apple a day keeps a doctor away, even though there potentially isn’t any truth to it at all? It’s because of framing and because it sounds good, rhyming and alliteration help with that. There’s a reason my speaking topic on neuromarketing says working with the brain to build a better brand or price and present products people will buy,
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Melina Palmer: it makes a difference. Framing is everything. And just as with pricing, it isn’t what you say, it’s how you say it. Just like it isn’t what you’re selling, it’s how you sell it. It’s not about the cookie.
Two Types of Public Speaking: Sales vs. Informational
Melina Palmer: And when it comes to public speaking, whether people buy from you or want to work with you or take that next step is not about your final offer. All the stuff that leads up to the offer matters more than the offer itself. I have found there are two types of public speaking. The ones where you’re encouraged and expected to make a special offer, like the conference. I was just at one. That is for this conference event only, and you have a big pitch. These are very much like an infomercial and would use the same tactics I presented at the end of the pricing episode relativity and anchoring and adjustment. If you are prepping for that kind of session, revisit episode five and download its freebie at thebrainybusiness.com/five to learn the best way to present your offer. Similar to an infomercial, make sure you say the value first, the anchor this high number, and then work down to the lower price you’re giving as a benefit at this conference, which uses relativity. However, if we apply the 80/20 rule, I would say that type of presentation is less common. The 20%, about 80% of the presentations are in the vein of not making a hard sale or pitch at the end. In many cases, people do not want you to sell your services or mention pricing at all. And in general, that’s the tactic I take. Even if I could put pricing out there, I typically don’t, which may have you asking, what was the whole build up to in this episode? Why did we lay that whole foundation? If you aren’t selling at the end, why does it matter? It matters because it’s a long term strategy. Most of the presentations I give are informational at conferences or trainings, and people want to learn, so I’m able to provide them with additional resources which can further their learning. For me, sprinkling the sprinkling phase, that free sample kind of goes on beyond the presentation, and you should keep that in mind as well. Eventually people will get some sort of consulting from me or look at booking me to speak at another event. Things like that so in my case, I always end my presentation with a slide about how to download my free ebook, the ten behavioral economics concepts you need to know and how to apply them. This is when it is important to apply the small steps approach. If you could have your audience do only one thing, what is it you would want them to do? You can’t give them too many things to do, and you need to know why you want them to do the thing you’re asking them to do. I also talk about now I’ll be talking about my podcast when I’m presenting during sessions, and I’ll be able to find if listenership goes up, do downloads of the book go down, and be able to see what’s going to work with me long term. Remember, this is, a test and try it out, see what happens. My ebook is my lead magnet. And remember, episode three was all about lead magnets. And getting someone to download my ebook gets them onto my list. That means they will get regular content from me, podcast episodes, information for when I’m putting on workshops, speaking at an event near them, when I write, and eventually sell a book or online program, whatever it is. They’re now in my nurture sequence, a term I personally like much better than drip campaign. I can give them little reminders of me because I know their brains are busy and how well reciprocity works, and 80% of them will probably never buy. But they might tell someone about the podcast or share a video, and the 20% that will get something are being communicated with at the the same time. Win win. So in the case of most public speaking, your sale is actually a freebie that gets them into your family. You need all the lead up to get people interested in talking to you at the end. When you’re done speaking, people should not be flooding the doors trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Your goal should be encouraging people to talk with you more and want to learn more from you. Your presentation should make it clear you know what you’re talking about and that you are open to speaking with them. More inviting questions for anyone who wants to work with you or find out about working with you.
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Conclusion and Podcast Milestones
Melina Palmer: Thank you for tuning in to episode six of The Brainy Business podcast today, how to sell from the stage. I am confident you have the foundation to make your presentations more impactful and beneficial to your business, and I am so excited about the milestone the podcast hit this week. On Sunday, just 16 days after the launch of the podcast, we hit 500 downloads. And the really fun thing about the stats is looking at where those came from. As I believe I mentioned early on in this episode, listeners are in 21 countries, five Canadian provinces and 34 states. The other oh so cool thing is in iTunes now. If you search brainy, this podcast comes up as number two. And if you search behavioral economics, The Brainy Business is now the number one result. I am amazed and thankful and it is super exciting for me to watch from the bottom of my heart. Or perhaps I should say brainstem. Thank you all for listening, rating, reviewing and subscribing. I appreciate you. If you are finding value in the podcast, would you do me a favor? Can you think of one person who you think would like the information? Who would also find value in the tips provided here and share the episode with them? Do you know someone who speaks or aspires to speak? If you’re listening on iTunes, you can do it directly from the app, or you could simply provide them the link, thebrainybusiness.com/six if you would. I would be so grateful. Thank you in advance. I hope you tune in next week for episode seven, which, as you know will apply. Apply the lessons from these last two episodes to internal communication and all those times where the sale doesn’t include any monetary exchange. Until then, just remember it’s not about the cookie. Thanks again for listening and learning with me, and remember to be thoughtful.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to The Brainy Business podcast. Melina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops, and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.
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