Click HERE to watch the video
What's the best way to get hired?
Anyone directly involved in sales, marketing, leadership, or customer service, as well as anyone who produces art, music, professional services, or any other commercial product or service, has asked themselves this same question:
What's the best way to get hired?
Anyone who sells advertising, design, PR, promotion, social media marketing, e-commerce consulting, or other sales tools has not only been paid to answer this question for their own customers, but has also asked it about their own business.
What's the best way to get hired?
They've asked it, you've asked it, I've asked it. And probably more often than we like to admit.
What's the best way to get hired?
Because I'm committed to writing about real-world examples, and real-world solutions, and don't like putting others on the spot, I'll use my experience as the example here. The discussion should be general enough to give you good ideas for your business development. After all, when it comes to most activities, the facts might change, but the truths are universal.
Here's the case study:
I want to get hired to speak at more conferences and corporate meetings.
My potential clients are C-suite executives and their surrogates, meeting professionals, and speakers' bureaus.
My clients work for large companies and corporations, national associations, industry networks, and other organizations that hold conferences and events worldwide.
What's the best way to get hired?
The best ways I can sell myself to them are:
An attention-grabbing occurrence (such as a NYT best-seller or a big news story).
This has worked wonderfully well for more famous speakers like Captain Sullenberger, Brene Brown, Barack Obama, and almost anyone on Oprah. Sadly, this method is not often in our control, and waiting for it to happen is like counting on lottery tickets to fund your retirement plan. It COULD work, but I wouldn't count on it.
Speaking at other events my potential clients attend.
Nothing works better for me than this. I get two or three new opportunities each time I speak at a conference. It was my biz dev killer app until COVID froze the speaking flywheel.
Referrals, testimonials, and examples.
This works for most of the successful speakers I know – reaching out to their potential clients with examples of what they've done and testimonials from others who've hired them.
This method might sound impressive and sophisticated, but the truth is it's just the speaking version of a free sample – not much different than the delicious tidbits offered on a toothpick at your local Trader Joe's or Costco, or a test drive of a hot new car at your local auto dealer.
For example, I recently spoke to almost 2,000 conference attendees on a beautiful stage in Brussels. Besides hiring me for this fantastic opportunity, my gracious client also shared footage from the event. Now, we're editing the talk into quick, two-minute video bites I can share with potential clients so they can see what I can do. You can click HERE to watch the first one.
The next part of this equation is figuring out the best way to get this video teaser in front of as many relevant eyeballs as possible. To do that, I'll post it on all my social media sites, email as many potential clients as possible, and look for other ways to share my videos. If you know someone you believe should see it, please send THIS LINK to them.
Of course, I'll let you know how well this technique works because I believe you can also use it to promote your own business. In the meantime, start thinking of ways to encourage your potential customers and clients to sample your wares. And please share your experiences in the comments section of this blog.