An interview between Bob Chesney and Patricia Fripp
Professional speakers, business coaches, presentation skills coaches, seminar leaders, consultants, and entreneurs all have something in common! How do we position ourselves ahead of the competition. We do that when we can help our prospects get to know us in advance of their emails or calls. If you have been to my website fripp.com you know that whatever service you click on small “mini fripps” talk to you one on one about the reason you are searching for a speech coach, keynote speaker, or sales presentation skills trainer. Assuming this is something you would like to investigate for your own business here is an interview with my secret weapon and business adviser Bob Chesney.
Patricia: My guest is, Bob Chesney, President of Chesney Communications. Bob helps business owners, entrepreneurs, professional speakers, and consultants digitally clone themselves. Bob Chesney, what is digital cloning?
Bob: Patricia, it’s the way to actually be marketing and promoting your services or business 24/7, 365 without ever leaving your bed or pool side, whichever you prefer to spend your time doing. It’s a marvelous tool and it centers around a couple of technologies that are readily available but greatly underused. One of them is the website. If you look at 99.9% of all websites, you will find that it’s nothing more than a boring brochure.
It’s pictures and words. If you look at some of the progressive marketeers out there, you will see exciting videos that really communicate the value proposition that people like you bring to the marketplace. And obviously you, as the premiere early adopter, are using the same technology, so people are getting to know Patricia Fripp, they’re getting to understand what you can do for them, and they’re able to put money in your checking account 24/7, 365.
Patricia: For people who haven’t actually seen this used, what are the bottom line benefits?
Bob: Well, the product we all sell is connectivity. All things being equal, people will do business or hire professionals or businesses that they connect with because the barrier to entry today is so high. Everyone has credentials. So if you took, let’s say the world of professional speaking and you said, well I am certified speaking professional, CSP, or I am a speaker hall of fame, CPAE, there are a large number of them. The question is, what then differentiates Patricia Fripp or whoever that individual is from the rest of the pack and that is their ability to connect. Let me move to a different subject. Let’s say a doctor. You say well a doctor is board certified. A doctor is obviously trained. But do I connect with that doctor? Take an attorney. We know he’s passed the bar; she’s passed the bar. We know they’re cognizant of all of the nuances of law. But do I connect with them? So it’s all about connection. And this technology, which is readily available, is right now not being used by almost 100% of people who have a website, sad but true.
Patricia: How do we do it, Bob?
Bob: There’s three steps to the process. Number one, you want to be sure that the message that you put up fits into a category, which I call yell, tell, smell or sell. Now let me just give you a quick overview. Many people create a video or a promo or a trailer that is literally no more than just yelling. You could stand on a street corner and yell out Patricia Fripp and believe it or not somebody would stop the car and say, I heard that name. Tell me what she can do for me?
Bob: Yelling in not an effective tool. But if you do see videos on the web, you’re going to find the majority of them yell and they yell like heck. The smell is when they’re so poorly produced that they literally smell. There are some TV commercials that you see, some things on YouTube, that just smell. And then there’s the tell. Many people feel if I just tell you and tell you and tell you till you fall asleep that you will then want to engage the services of that professional. But my forte is in helping people create a selling message. Now that doesn’t mean a late night attorney, hard sell used car salesman, but something that’s persuasive, something that’s communicative, and something that helps people connect to that individual. So the first thing of the three part process is figure out your objective. Do you want your digital cloning to yell, tell, smell or sell? Obviously I opt for the sell portion.
However, not the hard sell. The soft sell. The second thing is you want to plan a final action step. Now I would suggest in the speaking business that rarely do you open your mailbox and find an unsolicited check written out to you for your speaking or coaching services. Normally that comes after you’ve had a consultation with a prospect who then becomes a client.
The objective always needs to be, how do I get that person to a private consultation? So that’s the second objective. Don’t just make a video on the website that just yells, tells, sells or smells, but have one that leads then to a logical conclusion, which is let’s have a consultation or let’s have a meeting. And the third part is, how do you integrate this into your website to where you’re not creating a design debacle and run up all kinds of charges from your web master.
There’s several techniques that are used, but the most important one is the one that, again I use these ridiculous numbers, but almost 100% don’t use and that the auto-play feature because when they go to a website that video should auto-play. I can just see a lot of people wincing saying oh I don’t want that, I don’t want that because it might irritate people. Well, I would suggest that if it irritates them on the website, they’re not going to think too kindly of you when you show up to work with them.
The auto-play is important, but there is an irritant factor if every time you go to the home page and the video pops up again, this could be irritating. So one of the things we recommend is that your web master put a cookie in the video that has it say okay, Patricia Fripp is visiting my site, she has seen this video, I will now not make it automatic. The next time she’ll have to click to see it. And that’s a very simple process that most web masters could do. Obviously I’ve invested in that technology and that’s available to people who get a chance to work with us.
Patricia: Bob Chesney, you work with businesses of all sizes—entrepreneurs, professional speakers, coaches, and consultants. It sounds as though any business, no matter what the size, could benefit from simple digital cloning. Now you have also introduced me to another way of digitally cloning ourselves through email. Do you want to talk about that?
Bob: I’d love to. It’s ironic that you brought this up because I was having dinner with a colleague and the owner came over to chat and one thing led to another and he said I really want to expand my restaurant business. He then engaged my colleague and I immediately to set up a marketing campaign and the first thing we did has already reaped him enormous benefits. When they present the check they have a simple little business card that says may we keep you informed of special events here at the restaurant.
All we ask is your name and email. We promise we will not subjugate its use or take unfair advantage. The minute they have that card he sits down in front of his little iJot camera, which by the way is on every computer sold in the last three years, the video camera. And he says Patricia, thank you for coming into my restaurant. It was really joyous to meet you. I hope you enjoyed the meal and I personally enjoyed getting to know you a little bit. Please come back. And tell your friends. So that took what, 20 seconds?
When was the last time you ever got a video email from a restaurant that you dined in where the owner actually thanked you for coming in?
Patricia: Never.
Bob: And you probably never will.
Patricia: You have an unfair advantage over your competition.
Bob: Exactly. So that was the first step we did. The second step we did is he’s now creating video messages saying on Tuesday night, which is, it doesn’t say this part of it, our slowest part of the week, we’re having a special event where I’ll be talking about saki and its origin and blah, blah, blah. So they’ll have special events where people can come. Why? Because they were invited. And so, we’re bringing back the oldest and most predictable marketing success and that is connectivity. If you connect with me, I am much more prone to do business with you. Now on his website, when we evaluated it, he had the most gorgeous pictures of sushi and his wonderful dishes. And when we contacted him back I said you’ve got a beautiful website. There’s only one thing missing and that’s the most important thing you sell and that’s you. You’re not on it. You need to be. To which he was really stricken. He never heard of anything like that.
Bob: It’s a truly unfair advantage. And guess what? It’s so inexpensive. Literally a dinner pays for the whole thing.
Patricia: Bob Chesney, as anyone who reads or listens to this knows, you are a real expert in helping entrepreneurs and businesses and coaches and consultants with their overall marketing campaign. How would you like people to contact you?
Bob: I’d like them to go to www.speakersdemos.com They will see an example of how I welcome people to my website. They will see the auto-play function. They’ll note how it floats in the site, much like yours do. And most importantly, they’ll see how I ask people not to listen to what I have to say, but to meet my clients. And just below me they’ll see on that page a link to several of my clients that I’m honored to serve and they will tell my story. One of them is, of course, Patricia Fripp that will come on automatically. Now the reason for that is I don’t want to have them looking at the pictures and guess what to do. So Patricia Fripp comes up and starts talking about me, but then you’ll see Les Brown, you’ll see Jack Canfield, you’ll see Nido Qubein, and many of the other outstanding professional speakers who I have been privileged to serve in my 20 years with NSA.
Patricia: And one more time, of course, in case people are a little overwhelmed by some of the celebrity of some of your clients, this is very affordable technology for businesses of all sizes.
Bob: It’s less than the cost of a laptop computer.
Patricia: Perfect. And when they click onwww. speakersdemos.com they can send an email to you as well?
Bob: Absolutely. And I welcome the chance to consult with them about their business because although I am joyous about working with the names of the industry, my biggest thrill is seeing a new person come into the speaking profession, get the right guidance from the professionals, and really exceed their expectations and grow quickly in the market. That’s one of the joys of the National Speakers Association. We learn from each other. The question is, whether you learn the right ideas at the right time and not have to invent the wheel. They help people to do the right things at the right time, and therefore you save money.
Doctors and lawyers and restaurants can also benefit from www.speakersdemos.com. Don’t be confused if you’re not a speaker.
Patricia: Thank you, Bob Chesney, President of Chesney Communications.
If you would like to listen to this interview you will find it along with others of great value at…
Patricia, I totally agree with auto-play. Most people say they don’t like it but if the content resonates with them they won’t care that the video started automatically.