Public Speaking is a quick, easy and effective way to attract more clients and to build your coaching practice. If you have something unique, special and helpful for an audience then create a presentation and look for opportunities to share that information. It might be networking events, it might be industry specific events, it might be multi-speaker events, it might be podcast interviews and so on.

When you stand on stage a number of key things happen:

1. You Become The Expert In Your Field

The key to success in any coaching practice and the secret to getting booked out months in advance is becoming the kind of coach that everyone wants to work with. This kind of coach is not the one who is looked up in the yellow pages or googled online. The cornerstone to any coaching Business is your credibility – we all choose to do business with people who are recommended to us or with whom we already have a relationship.

And that’s where speaking comes in.

Nothing builds your credibility quicker than being the expert in your field and nothing positions you quicker as an expert in your field than speaking. Some people recommend you write a book but personally it takes me 3 years to write a book whereas it takes me 3 hours, and in many cases much less than that, to put together a presentation which can position me as the expert. What’s more I can test my material and see what people most respond to – which is an added visceral bonus you don’t necessarily get with writing a book.

As soon as you stand up in front of a room (or in front of an online audience) and you share some great information that is going to make a difference to their lives you’re automatically seen as the expert. You then give your prospective clients a choice: do they choose the coach they saw online and whom they know nothing about or do they choose the coach they’ve seen first-hand deliver an engaging and compelling presentation.

Ask yourself. Who would you do business with?

Speaking is the best way to target a room full of prospects and position yourself as your clients’ number one choice. There are many opportunities out for you to speak and we have a number of blog posts about how to get those speaking gigs.

2. Build The Relationship

When you stand in public and deliver a presentation in front of an audience you do more than just become the expert in your field – you also form the beginnings of your coach/client relationship.

A lot of business, especially coaching, is built on trust. Your client wants to know they are in safe hands with you and speaking is a great way to kick-start that relationship.

But not everyone in that room will be ready to commit to coaching straight away.

So what you don’t want to do is let them walk out of the room without giving them an opportunity to know you further. Give away something for free in return for contact details to build your community. This could be a free subscription to a fortnightly newsletter, a podcast series, an ebook or something similar which offers a free entry point to get to know you further.

Once you have got their contact details you can continue to build a relationship where the client can choose to do further business with you. See that first speaking gig as just the starting point! Ongoing emails or newsletters builds that rapport and later down the line, the client might well book their first session with you and go on to become your most valuable client!

3. Make Sales

Speaking is also a fantastic way to get actual paid clients there and then, not just prospects. You can have an appointment book at the back of the room and offer just 5 places in your close. Or you could offer a coaching program at a discounted rate – only available to people in the room. Either way, you make the offer relevant and irresistible to your audience, some kind of scarcity in the offer is key to making sales there and then. It’s got to be exclusive, something they can’t find on your website, as it’s this urgency and exclusivity which will create the sale.

Remember, practice makes perfect. Even if you only make one sale on your first attempt, keep fine-tuning and honing your presentation.

So, here are 3 ways in which speaking helps you to attract more clients. In all of this, the key is to become the kind of speaker that people want to hear and book so put some time and effort into creating the kind of presentation which is effective. We’ve got lots of information on how to help you do that on the website and our other blog articles.