Meta Groselj is an expert Public Speaking & Inner Influence coach helping people profit by using their voice. Her clients are leaders & experts who want to overcome imposter syndrome anxiety to develop that inner power and confident presence to master any spotlight of business and life.
Selling from the Stage is a subtle art that requires a deep understanding of human psychology and a lot of finesse when leading one-to-many conversations. You want to push the right buttons, leveraging emotional triggers with an ethical approach, meaning you help people "make good choices" to take action – when you call them out to take action. Many speakers avoid selling from the stage as it can easily make you look bad if you're doing it wrong. No one wants to come across as pushy, and salesy, devaluing your personal and professional brand. So you rather avoid it altogether. Some speakers push through their fears and offer their service, but unknowingly do it in such an aquard manner, the results don't follow. So.. what's the point, you might ask? This article is about doing it right! Selling from the stage is a must – if you believe your offer truly improves people's
1. Can you sell from the stage at any event?
My answer based on a decade of experience helping leaders and entrepreneurs from all over the world sell from the stage is a definite yes! You can sell from any stage! But you might have to broaden your perception of "the stage" namely, what a speaking opportunity actually represents. When you are a speaker at an event, you get social proof to be the expert you claim to be. Event organizers are giving you recognition. You can use pre-sales or follow-up conversations to present your offer if the event does not allow it. Let's look at TED as an example. Ted talks are not meant to be about sales promotions or brand awareness. Content needs to be informative, and structured motivationally (meaning stories).
If you leverage your talk and promote your upcoming appearance on social media, you can always add a lead magnet or a lead-generating offer in the comments. But even events such as TED talks that especially forbid selling from the stage sometimes have seen elements of name-dropping, seeding book mentions, and subtle subliminal messaging your brain can effectively pick up on – to look it up online. The key takeaway of point no.1 is to keep in mind you don't start “selling” when on stage – it's how you promote your appearance and follow up with that particular community that manifests the overall results.
2. Speak to one, not many
Imagine there are 1000 people in front of you. How will you adjust your offer to suit all of them? If you were speaking to them 1:1 (and let's say your business was at capacity to do so, you could adjust your offer to cater to their individual needs) In reality, you and I both know businesses can't scale this way. This is why you must pick your Audience Avatar – the ideal customer, ideal persona – the person you want to continue the conversation with and get down to business. You talk just to this person. Your intro, stories, and social proof, are all designed to resonate with your Audience Avatar.
Depending on the size of your audience, hot or cold to your subject, your conversion rate is around 20%. Depending on the business you're seeking to attract – the conversion rate can be 1% meaning you get just one sizeable customer, so ... my point is, know what your end game is about and who exactly are you addressing with your talk. I once helped prep a company for a seriously important pitch they had to deliver to an audience of 60 people where only one single person was an advisor to the advisor of the advisor to the manager who works directly for the sheik (you get the picture… it’s a long chain of command). We had to pitch to this individual, informing him of the value of the company's innovation and influencing his decision to make further introductions. You can imagine the amount of finesse we needed to display to make sure it was “his idea” to follow up by the end of the 20-minute presentation. He did. The company made millions. The key takeaway of point no.2 is to always let your ideal audience “qualify themselves” meaning you set up your content in a way that leads them towards deciding to take action way before you call them towards taking action. You never make that decision for them.
3. Understand the real problem, not the one you think they have
There is Knowing the audience, and then there is Understanding the audience. Knowing demographics such as age, sex, interests, job roles, etc., is not the same as understanding psychographics – pain points, gain points, fears, and desires. To truly understand a person's pain or desire, you need to dive deeper, and illustrate the context of their situation, the story! Where it happens, why it happens, how it happens, and if nothing is done about it – what consequences can follow – but can be avoided! Both positive and negative. Lately, the world of selling from the stage tends to lean towards “desire-based” storytelling whereas, in the past decade, it has pushed on a more “fear-based” approach. I'm glad this shift arrived, as newer generations are not as fearful of the future, their driver pushes people's self-representations higher on the energy scale (to love and joy instead of guilt and shame).
If you want to influence your audience avatars' decision to take immediate action on your offer, you must tap into their deepest heart desire or their most deeply rooted fears (best to do both) and create captivating stories around their contexts that will connect you in vulnerability in an authentic way. The key takeaway from point no. 3 is powerful storytelling that opens you up to people as the one who "gets them" – and this is done in a way that shapes any story you tell around an intense psychographic motivational driver your ideal customer is willing to act upon. I might have to warn you here – this might just be the most difficult thing to do – it's why companies hire me to consult them on their content – not just teach them how to deliver it.
4. Showcase value through trust and credibility
Focus on the benefits and value of your offering rather than just listing features. It's not about what you get – is what you can get using this, that counts! Explain how it can solve problems, improve lives, or provide unique benefits. Here’s when you use clear and relatable social proof, examples of how other companies (just like yours) took these same tools and put them to work. You can storytell through very specific and technical used cases, or deliver motivational client testimonials to illustrate your value proposition. On one occasion, at a very technical conference, we designed a chart full of dull numbers, exciting features, timeframe, and results for companies using the product we showcased, but we didn't just list the ones who demonstrated amazing results, we showcased the entire learning curve, focusing on exact improvements that raised the bar. Showing them we had bugs we fixed created that space for trust to appear.
Sometimes disqualifying is an even better strategy to showcase your product's uniqueness. Tell your audience what your product doesn't do! Tell them who it doesn't serve! Tell them why it’s so – this is a great way to maximize the superiority of value offered by making it one of a kind. The key takeaway of point no.4 is that trust can be built by being brutally honest with your audience, and honesty is the capital that will harvest big time when you finally deliver your offer CTA.
5. How to deliver your CTA?
Let me remind you that when the time comes to deliver your CTA, your audience avatars are already comfortable to take that actionable step. But make sure it's an easy step. Don't offer the ring on the first date! Offer a coffee, a conversation, or an exchange of information. You have to be the most confident you are providing value! It's a bit like you are confident everybody would want to date you! You need to deliver proud of what you are offering. This means you mention your offer more than once, making sure people don't overhear and know how to follow the instructions (so they don't get lost on the way. Why? Because you, really, really want them to take that step as you know they will love it! Here’s the thing, most speakers hate that annoying part of the presentation, when it’s time to call to action and this is why they rush through it. Instead, slow down. Think of it like asking someone out on a date.
"How would you like to meet for a coffee sometime?"
Yea... Just coffee… we'll talk about that problem of yours and how you can start solving it...
20 minutes. I know where they serve the best coffee in town ... I might have some good tips for you…
See, I mentioned it 3 times…
Keep in mind, this part is not THE selling. A person has to like you before you ask them out to say yes to your offer. You are selling all of the 20 or so minutes of your talk. Sales are not just offers and checkouts. Sales are meaningful conversations about problems, solutions, results, and the steps people need to take to get these results. Sales are about comparing notes with other people who’ve gone this route to where you want to be! Sales are about the entire talk – and the CTA is merely pointing out a specific step your audience avatar should take – available in a downloadable PDF format on this link. Get it :) If you go through these last couple of sentences, you will see, that I’ve just given you a complete decision-making presentation structure explained in a couple of sentences! The key takeaway of point no.5 is that it's you who needs to be sold on the value of your offer first. So that when the time comes for you to risk rejection, you are ready to face it head-on!
In conclusion
There's more I could tell you about selling from the stage, but let's leave it here for now in the hope you've reshaped your mindset around calls-to-action which are the most painful points speakers must tackle when the event is supposed to bring about new business. If you need help prepping for your next industry event, you know where to find me!
Meta Groselj, Public Speaking & Inner Influence Coach
Meta Groselj is an expert Public Speaking & Inner Influence coach helping people profit by using their voice. Her clients are leaders & experts who want to overcome imposter syndrome anxiety to develop that inner power and confident presence to master any spotlight of business and life. She is also a master Storyteller & Art of Persuasion specialist, helping entrepreneurs and founders create impactfull decision-making presentations that "sell" from the stage and generate measurable business results. She calls her clients Future Voices as she is on a mission to shape up the voices of leaders changing the world.
