February 28th, 2010
So I am back at my home away from home. I think I must have been at Las Vegas Trade Shows 25 times in the last 10 years. Las Vegas is busy this weekend, or at least the Paris Hotel and Bally’s are. If people are not spending money, they must be some other people. It was a good weekend for those who live off of the tourists and gamers on The Strip. There was also a NASCAR race in Las Vegas this weekend that pulled a lot of people. Still people left time for the Olympics. I heard lots of screams and groans when the US tied Canada in hockey. I was having a snack in one of the restaurants, but could hear everyone clearly from the sportsbar. I sure heard the noise when The US beat Canada in overtime.
I am here to promote the PhoneSmart business, act as a business speaker for a round table session and a presentation to regional managers on sales training initiatives. I hope to spend some time with current clients and some future clients. It all kicks off early Monday.
Tags: bally, business, hockey, las vegas, nascar, olympics, paris, the strip, trade shows
Posted in Travel, business speaker, marketing | Comments Off
February 20th, 2010
Today I was teaching and doing face to face marketing at the Kansas City home show. We had a lot of people pass our booth. We had a simple sales goal: get a post card with a “special offer” in the hands of everyone who passed by. So as a business speaker, I needed to develop a great script to use.
At home shows, you hear the cooking demo people and the tool demo people doing their pitches. Some of their pitches are long and involved. I realize their goal was different then ours. They are trying to make sales and collect revenue at the show.
But our script was simple: “here you are”, “Here is something you can probably use”, “Did you get one yet?” were our phrases.
Then we had to perfect the physical business. We learned to extend the arm all the way to the person passing by. We learned to leave our hand with the card out in front of the person until the card was accepted. You can’t get much simpler than that. We also handed out about 1,500 offers. We had a good day.
Tags: home show, kansas city, post card, sales goals, special offer
Posted in Management, Travel, business speaker, marketing, sales | Comments Off
February 19th, 2010
A business blogger is a business speaker
A speaker has more than a few ways to let his voice be heard. Standing in front of a group trying to make a point, teach a lesson or motivate some action is certainly one way. Writing a story around a point is another. Writing a blog post works too.
There are so many voices competing for people’s attention that sometimes people do not have the time or the interest to listen to a business speaker. Some times people only have a few minute to devote to skimming a blog post. So how do you get your voice heard in a short post? Get to the point.
Make a point worth making. Prove your point. Then let the reader go. You said your piece. Your voice was heard. Now let the reader go. If your point was interesting or useful, the reader will come back again.
So when a business speaker cannot get in front of a big group for a long period of time, he can get in front of a small group for a small time in a blog. Now that you are in front of me, I feel like I may have made my point and I will let you go now. I hope you come back.
Tags: blogger, motivation, speaker, teaching, writing
Posted in Management, business speaker, people, personal growth | Comments Off
