When you first start your home business, it can be a fun and exciting time. However, growing that business can be a hard-sell, especially if your potential clients or customers know little about you and the type of business you sell. One of the means of promoting your business often overlooked…the ones you want to buy your services have to know you before they hand over their money.
This is especially true with businesses that sell services such as employee training, but is also true when providing home and business services. Decision-makers at a business typically choose the company based on reputation and if they don’t know anything about you, chances are you will not get the job.
Before you can build your customer/client base, you have to have a reputation that builds trust. While testimonials can help establish a certain degree of integrity with your business, many corporate owners look at testimonials with a jaded view, wondering how much you paid for the words of praise heaped on your business. Not to say that testimonials should be eliminated from your portfolio, just to say don’t pin you hopes on them alone to build your reputation.
In most communities there are service organizations comprised of business owners and managers that are constantly looking for “guest speakers” to address their members. Choosing the organization to address is as important as the message you will deliver. If your business is a home-repair service business, addressing owners of large companies may not be the best venue. If you offer continuing education for managers of small business, you may find success with organizations comprised of small business owners.
The message you present should never be about your business. Instead of spending the valuable time you might be offered talking about how great you and you home business are, talk about the mutual needs of the organization’s members. How they are affected by new business laws or how new labor relations rules can change the way they do business are always relevant topics for business owners.
When planning a speech for a community organization, begin by considering your audience. By knowing the companies represented at the meeting, you can find common ground…that is something that will interest all of them instead of just a few. This way you can hold their attention and create interest in your message.
At the end of your presentation, which must be kept short and within the time limit you are given, it’s OK to mention that you are available to answer any questions they might have. Also, have enough business cards available to hand out to those that request them. Leaving them on a table will generally do nothing more than leave something to pick up when you leave.
Finally, remember the purpose of your talk is to offer important information to business owners and managers. Do not use the talk as an infomercial about your business. The quickest way to turn away business is to try to convince them how great you are. This is not a job interview. This is a short speech about a relevant topic used to allow your audience to get to know you and build respect for you in the industry.
