-Promotion
by Jeff mowatt, csP
One speaker to another,
who is a complete stranger.
SELF-PROMOTIONAL FAUx PAS:
“You should promote
my new book to your
database and add your own
incentives at no charge.”
This has become an increasingly popular practice for speakers who are attempting to launch a book that will make
their new release the No. 1 best-seller (for a single day) on
Amazon or BarnsandNoble.com. Two speakers, whom I’d
never met before, asked me to do this. At the time, I thought,
“What nerve!” Unfortunately, I do not view either of them in
a positive light now.
If you have a close personal relationship with a colleague,
however, and can reciprocate in-kind with your equally large
database, then I believe it is acceptable to ask for this kind of
assistance to promote your book.
Bottom line: Speakers need to promote themselves,
but attempting to make a quick sale may hinder the
long-term goal of building a well-respected reputation
among clients and in the industry.
Based in Calgary, Canada, Jeff Mowatt, CSP,
shares his customer service strategies through his
Influence with Ease® presentations. A full-time
speaker for 17 years, Mowatt has served as
national president of CAPS. For more informa-
tion, visit www.jeffmowatt.com.
A speaker to employees at a
company’s in-house event.
SELF-PROMOTIONAL FAUx PAS:
“You should buy my
$200 back-of-the-room package.”
It’s great to sell from the platform at industry events—I do
it all the time. But if employees must attend your session—
whether they want to or not—they usually figure their company should buy your stuff for them. Don’t try to sell at an
event, though, if the organization doesn’t buy in volume from
you beforehand, or if a manager or meeting planner resents
being put into an awkward situation. (The exception is
a $20 book or other small-ticket items that don’t dip
deeply into employees’ pockets.)
This practice leaves such a bad taste in clients’
mouths that not only will they resist re-hiring
that speaker, they’ll think twice about bringing in any outside speaker in the future. That
hurts all speakers, and makes the proverbial pie
smaller for all of us.
