Patricia Fripp Blog

Isn’t it frustrating? Often it appears your prospects are almost completely walled off from you. Kurt Smile

Okay, that’s not entirely true. But for all practical purposes, it may as well be. Your prospects are busy with multiple priorities and they are definitely not waiting around for a mass email message from your marketing department or a cold call from you.

Reaching prospects that way is about as easy as winning the Powerball – only with worse odds.

The Harvard Business Review tells us, “90% of decision makers never reply to a cold call.”Kurt

They’ve walled themselves off with caller ID, spam filters, voicemail and something else they’re going to invent next Thursday.

If you want to amp up your sales my best advice is to revisit your strategy, the quality of you sales questions, conversations and presentations, listen in on my conversation with best selling sales author and authority Andy Paul. You missed the live event, however, at the end of this post you will find it.

Andy Paul is the author of Amp Up Your Sales: Powerful Strategies That Move Customers To Make Fast, Favorable Decisions and Zero-Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps to Accelerate Every Company’s Sales and sought-after speaker and business coach. fripp money

5 Ways to Amp Up Your Sales With Powerful Sales Presentations

In your business, how long does it take for you to go from an inquiry to a serious sales presentation with the buyer or executive team? Weeks? Months? When the time comes, are you prepared? Do you know exactly what to say in order to customize your presentation to meet your client’s interests? Or is your presentation the same no matter who the client is?

Executive Speech Coach & Sales Presentation Expert, Patricia Fripp Introduces FrippVT

Successful sales presentations are always focused on your prospect’s problem, goal, or challenge – NOT on the product or the service you are offering. If a prospect believes their needs are not seen, or not of interest to you, they will never become your client. This is true for all avenues of sales and marketing. My friend Lois Creamer is an expert in branding, marketing, and sales.

In the mean time, Lois shares this excellent advice for professional speakers and consultants on why and how to create and use a positioning statement. She reminds us that in order to be effective, our sales and marketing efforts should always let our potential clients know how we can solve their problems.

Lois and I collaborated on a web training to help speakers Book More Business. You can watch a replay of this web event at the end of this blog post.

Position Yourself For Success!

by Lois Creamer

My friend and colleague Lois Creamer works with professional speakers who want to book more business, make more money, and avoid costly mistakes. We teamed up for a web event to help you build your professional speaking business, but our suggestions will help you in any professional services practice! Enjoy the video replay below.

Lois “Book More Business” Creamer says, “If your goal is to get more speaking engagements, it is necessary to connect with those professionals who actually book speakers. You may find them on the phone by calling. However, social media is a great way to find and connect to executives in the companies who could well hire you. Unless you have an existing relationship, an email to discuss how you might help them in their next meeting is unlikely to be opened.”

100 Dollar Bills — Are you afraid to talk about money? If you aren’t willing to assign a value to your work, your prospects will do it for you and your work will probably be undervalued.

As a speech coach, I work with professional speakers to help them develop more powerful and persuasive presentations, my friend and colleague, Lois Creamer works with professional speakers to help them book more business, make more money, and avoid costly mistakes. Lois and I joined forces for our virtual event, How to Book More Business and Get Invited Back. At the end of this post, you can enjoy a replay. We shared industry-insider strategies to help speakers, trainers and consultants. Here is Lois’ expert advice for speakers, explaining how to determine and negotiate your professional speaking fees:

Money Talk: Book More Business Style!
by Lois Creamer

So many times when I talk to professional speakers I hear the following, “I hate to talk about money!” My reply (and I’m only half-kidding), “Then you better get a different job. Perhaps something in retail where price tags are used.”

JamieFoxxScreenShotSmall — Jamie Foxx receiving the Best Actor award for “Ray” in 2005.

In anticipation of the Academy Awards this weekend, Toastmasters International shares their picks for the most memorable moments from Oscar® acceptance speeches of the last 20 years. What would you say if you were called to the stage? Even if you aren’t an Academy Award nominee, it’s always a good idea to prepare for times in your professional or personal life when you might be called on to “say a few words.” Enjoy!

Toastmasters Picks 7 Most Memorable Oscar® Quotes from the Last 20 Years

Patricia Fripp explains the secrets to successful executive presentations through FrippVT. — Patricia Fripp shows you how to design and deliver powerful persuasive presentations through FrippVT.

“Why are executive presentations so boring?” Unfortunately, I hear this question often. Corporate leaders rarely receive the honest feedback they need to become powerful and persuasive communicators. Public speaking is the number one tool of leadership. Good presentation skills are no longer a nice skill to have; they can mean the difference between career life and death.

When you’re a leader, even if you have a communications department or an army of speechwriters working for you, YOU must be actively involved in the creation of your own presentations. Fortunately, even if you are not a born communicator, the strategies behind powerful presentations can be learned. As a leader who can speak publicly with confidence, you have the power to persuade, influence, and inspire others; build confidence in your corporate strategy; cultivate loyalty within your organization; move your team to action; and demonstrate to others why your products, services, and ideas are truly valuable.

To be powerful and persuasive, you must connect with your audience both intellectually and emotionally. Enhance your connection with your audience by customizing or personalizing your message for each specific audience. Customization is indispensable for professional speakers. However, even if you’re not a professional speaker, you will find that taking the time to tailor your next presentation to your audience’s unique interests and concerns will help ensure your success. I share this brief video sample from Fripp Virtual Training that explains the importance of customizing your speeches and presentations:

Every successful speech begins with an underlying structure.

As a professional, you know that when it comes to advancing in your career and boosting your income, good presentation skills can make the difference between stagnation and success.

Understand the payoff

When your message is memorable, your communication clear, and your presentation powerful, you will position yourself for greater success. You are smart enough to know that being ambitious, intelligent, and well educated is not enough. If you are going to reach your true potential you need to be known as someone who speaks in a clear, concise, and credible way.

A valuable asset to every communicator

Throughout my speech coaching career, my Fripp Speech Model has been well received and often requested. You have the confidence of knowing that it is used by professional speakers, corporate executives, and sales teams. They would not consider putting together a presentation without it.

When you organize your thoughts to create a speech or presentation, start with the basic key elements.

Make your presentation powerful

The key elements are your opening, your closing, and your premise. You will have access in this brief video below and The Fripp Speech Model and more.

Your speech begins with questions

In the video below, you will hear questions to ask yourself about the make-up of your audience. Also, what are the unanswered questions you need to answer in your presentation?

My gift to you – valuable resources

Because they will save you time and thousands of dollars.

The Fripp Speech Model and more

Executive Speech Coach Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Seven strategies to become a great speaker:

1. Consider learning to speak to be a long-term goal, not a one-day seminar.
2. Learn from someone who knows more than you do on this subject.
3. Practice with safe people – your supportive friends or others with the same goals.
4. Use web-based training for repetition and reinforcement.
5. Take your message to an audience.

Expert Advice about Presentation Skills
from Patricia Fripp

Are Your Prospects Walled Off From You?

Amp Up Your Sales: Powerful Strategies That Lead to Favorable Decisions

Expert Advice – Solve Your Prospects’ Problems & Book More Business

Professional Speakers – Do You Want to Book More Business?

Professional Speakers – Do You Hate to Talk about Money?

And The Winner Is… The Most Fascinating Oscar® Moments

The Sure-Fire Way to Influence, Persuade & Inspire

Connect with Your Audience – Why & How to Customize

How to Organize Your Speech – Focus on The Basics