The Controversial and Offensive Truth About Selling from the Stage

WARNING: I am not very polite in this article: Don’t read if you are easily offended.

This brief post contains the secret to creating MASSIVE sales from the stage and creating a feeding frenzy of people rushing to the back of the room at your events. The technique I’m about to share with you works BETTER than any other technique you would hear at any other speaker training program. Are you ready?

Hard close the shit out of your audience and constantly be selling throughout your speech.

That’s it… and I’m going to prove to you why this is the best technique if you want to make the most amount of money possible. The kind of speakers who follow this philosophy are nothing more than sleazy salespeople who only care about one thing: Making shit loads of money and making it as fast as they can. This is why they hard close like crazy and never provide any real value. Think about it. If there actually was a better way to sell from the stage, those sleazy sales people would be using that technique instead because all they really care about is how much money they make. Since there isn’t a more effective way to sell from the stage, that’s the technique they use. They aren’t hard closing because they are jerks (although I think they are). They aren’t hard closing because they get a kick out of it (although they usually do). They are hard closing because it works better than any other technique out there and all they care about is making money.

I will be the first to tell you that I do not have the highest close ratios of a lot of speakers on the circuit. But I can tell you this:

I sleep better than any of them.

I don’t care about creating a feeding frenzy in the back of the room, I care about creating loyalty in my relationships with my customers. And when you hard close people and constantly sell without providing any real value, they often regret their decision and eventually cancel anyway.

Now the guilty parties reading this would argue a different perspective. They would say, “Topher doesn’t believe in his product as much as I believe in mine. Because if he did, he would want everyone to have his products, like I want people to have mine. Everyone will benefit from my knowledge.”

And I would respond, “Really? You’re that narcissistic to think EVERYONE needs your product?” I am very proud of the products and services I offer, and I am not so arrogant to think that everyone in the world should buy them, and even if someone would benefit from them, it doesn’t mean they should buy them immediately without taking into consequence their other financial obligations.

I will happily sacrifice some sales at my events in exchange for peace of mind, knowing that the people who did buy made the right decision, and the people who didn’t buy also made the right decision for themselves at that time. This is one of my key beliefs that I share with my clients who hire me to train them as a professional speaker.

If you want to learn the best way to sell from the stage, then go to a training program that specializes in selling from the stage and doesn’t focus on the more important aspects of creating value, connecting with your audience, creating unforgettable experiences, and operating your business with a conscience. Those 4 aspects to speaking are what I prefer to focus on, and yes, I even teach how to sell from the stage as well, but it’s a technique I’ve developed over the past 20 years that allows you to incorporate the 4 key aspects of a professional speaker at the same time. You may not make as much money using my techniques, but the money you make will be clean, and you’ll sleep really sound at night.

If you like what you heard and would like to learn some more, then please visit: http://www.tophermorrison.com/events/7secrets

By the way, I do believe there is a difference between hard selling, and overcoming objections. If someone expresses interest in buying a product or service, and shares that they would benefit from getting it, but has some concerns – there’s nothing wrong with using your sales skills to help them make the right decision… but that is another article for another time.

Avoid These Promotor Scams

I just saw a speaker submission page on a website promoting an event.  When I clicked on the criteria, this is what I read:

1. We do not cover travel expenses or provide fees or honorariums for speakers.
2. We have a strict “no selling from the stage” policy that all speakers must follow. Speakers who expect to sell during their session need not apply.
3. We will not consider submissions that are incomplete or submitted except as described below.
4. Conference registrants are invited to submit speaker suggestions on their own behalf. We often choose speakers who are registered to attend.

This is basically a way to tempt wanna-be speakers into signing up for their seminar on the hopes that they will get chosen to speak.  If you do get chosen to speak, these people are basically saying, “Come share your knowledge with our audience that we have charged to attend and have profited from.  In return, we won’t do anything for you, but you’ll have fun knowing you’ve wasted your own time and your own money.”

And this company teaches how to succeed in business!  Its absolutely amazing how hypocritical people can be sometimes.  Don’t fall for these scams.  If you do, it sucks you further into debt and farther from your dream of being a professional speaker.

Now if this seminar company, or any others like them were to read this, they would defend their actions by saying, “But we are giving them exposure”  Hmmm… Facebook gives you exposure and you get it for free.

There are easier, and better ways to make money as a speaker.  Check out http://www.bulletproofspeaking.com/ to get some great tips and tricks for success in the business.  

Seminar Review for 7 Secrets Event in London

Here’s a recent review on my seminar entitled “7 Secrets to Becoming a Highly Paid Professional Speaker”   CLICK HERE

BULLETPROOF Business Tip #4

Just imagine having one of the best opportunities of your career offered to you on a silver platter only to walk away from that opportunity just 3 days before it came true.

Well, that’s exactly what happened to me earlier this month. A NY Times Best-Selling author was scheduled to speak in San Fransisco but due a serious illness he was unable to speak. When the promoter for the event contacted me to take his place it was one of the greatest privileges in my career.

As we negotiated and agreed on the terms, the promoter assured me he would sign the contract and return it to me ASAP.

When he would get the contract, he would call me and want to make a change, I would comply and resend a new contract, to which he would repeat the shady cycle. This went on for over a month. With only 3 days before the event he requested another change which pushed the deal beyond the scope of a win/win situation and clearly became a win for him and a lose for me. I informed him I would not be speaking and he could find himself another speaker.

This was gut-wrenching for me to do and you might wonder how this story can help make your business BULLETPROOF. Well here’s the part where the lesson becomes the most powerful: All too often, people are compromising their prices, standards, or ethics for the sake of earning business and in the long run, they work for a payment that costs more than they can deliver the product or service. Even in tough times, it doesn’t make any sense to cut your prices so low that you aren’t making any profit.

As much as I wanted to be able to represent this icon in the industry in the best way possible, I didn’t want to work with an unethical promoter. As much as I would have loved the income from such an event, by accepting his new terms I would have devalued myself and compromised my self-worth. While I didn’t get the paycheck, the ability to walk away from a bad deal was much more rewarding to my identity and in the long run, my profitability because to speak for a fee below what I’m worth is counter-productive to my bottom line.

So the next time you have a chance to get some business, before you accept the deal, make sure it’s a good one. You’ll feel much better walking away from a bad deal than saying yes and making little to no money or sacrificing important aspects of your identity. Remember, business should be fun!

Until next time, take care, dare to dream, and make each day an epic adventure!

BULLETPROOF Business Tip #3

Have you ever received such incredibly fast customer service that it left you stunned from greatness?

Peter Thomson, a UK entrepreneur and business mentor is my inspiration for this week’s BULLETPROOF Business Tip. Peter believes that in the eyes of a customer, speed stuns.

Whenever I have a conversation with Peter on the phone within minutes of hanging up the phone I will have an email in my inbox thanking me for the conversation.

If he tells me he is going to send me something in the mail, it arrives the next day via FedEx. I cannot recall a single event where Peter dropped the ball or delayed the game. His customer service is second to none.

So think about how you can speed up your customer service response time. Here are some ideas.

1. Follow Up Emails sent within 5 minutes of a phone call.
2. Overnight that package you need to send.
3. Tweet a thank you or announce to your followers that you just had an amazing conversation with your customer.
4. Post a quick thank you on their Facebook or social network page.

Until next time, take care, dare to dream, and make each day an epic adventure!

BULLETPROOF Business Tip #2

Today’s BULLETPROOF business tip is a great one, and I owe it all to one of my favorite customers. After last week’s tip, I received an email from one of my long-time customers Lyn Bromley. She wanted to thank me for the tip by giving me another.

She talked about the importance of not just sharing ideas with customers in our communication which is what so many of us do (including myself), but also listening to ideas from customers in a conversation. This way they aren’t just informed, they are engaged.

So the next time you have a chance to reach out to your network base, don’t just give them information, by all means, ask for some back. Create that involvement and you’ll discover two things. #1 You’ll get a more accurate read on who is listening to your marketing, and #2 you’ll create a better bond with your customer base.

And with that quick tip I’m going to reach out to you! I would love to feature you in an upcoming BULLETPROOF Business Tip like I just did with Lyn Bromley. Do you have any proven business tips in these areas? If so, leave me a comment and who knows, maybe you’ll be featured in my next tip!

1. Increasing Customer Loyalty
2. Wealth Creation
3. Making Yourself Irreplaceable in Your Company
4. Selling
5. Writing Powerful Ad Copy
6. Anything Else Cutting Edge and Exciting!

Until next time, take care, dare to dream, and make each day an epic adventure!

BULLETPROOF Business Tip #1

With today’s unstable economy, people more than ever, are trying to find a way to get the edge in business. From the top of the corporate ladder all the way down people wonder whether they will even have a job tomorrow.

So here’s a quick strategy to increase your level of stability. Remember this phrase all week long:

“Flexibility = Stability”

I know that sounds almost contradictory because often we associate being flexible to bending and stability to stationary and firm. But today, we can no longer afford to be rigid in our thinking or in our business strategies. It’s our rigidity that makes us dispensable.

For example, the #1 fear in the world is public speaking. This means that with so many people afraid of public speaking, when you conquer this and feel confident in your ability to lead from the front of the room this automatically puts you miles ahead of your competition that may be intimidated to go for a position in life that would force them to get up in front of people and speak.

What are the areas of your life that drum up fear? What things do you avoid in life because you are being a coward? Now is the time to take control of your fears and face them head-on. Be it public speaking or whatever else scares you. Your biggest financial opportunity just may be on the other side of your fears.

If you are looking for a great, inexpensive training program to become better at speaking in front of crowds, I highly recommend this product: http://www.totalbusinesscart.com/app/?Clk=3839612

Until next week, take care, dare to dream, and make each day an epic adventure!

Will Smith Motivational Video

One of the more popular viral videos currently making its rounds is a video compilation of Academy Award winning actor, Will Smith and his pearls of wisdom.

After posting it on my facebook page, one of my friends posed an interesting question. She asked if Will’s philosophy about not having a Plan B in life contradicted with my philosophy about accepting the best and worst case scenario.

In the video, Will says, “There’s no reason to have a Plan B because it distracts you from Plan A.” This comment, at first glance seems to contradict my philosophy in life that you should accept both the worst case scenario and best case scenario in life. Once you have, then you have the freedom to choose whichever one you want (assuming that a reasonably intelligent person would then choose the best case scenario).

In the video, Will also says that he attributes his success in life to his “ridiculous, sickening work ethic.” In fact, he says, “I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, but if we get on the treadmill together, there’s two things: Your getting off first, or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple.”

Here’s how I interpret this: His “worst case scenario” is dying while going for what he believes in in life. I think by and large, most people would have to say dying is up there in the “worst case scenario” category. Will says he doesn’t have a Plan B, but perhaps his Plan B is death — a plan that he’s perfectly willing to embrace if Plan A doesn’t come to fruition. And because he’s willing to accept that plan, he no longer needs to focus on it. Remember, the whole point of accepting the best and worst case scenario is so you can focus on the one you want without being distracted by all the fears of what you don’t want. Sounds to me that’s what Will has done in his philosophy.

Remember, in the world of motivational speaking, there’s nothing new. Every motivational speaker, be they full time, part time, or even an Academy Award winning actor, are all saying the exact same thing. We are all just rehashing the original motivational works from the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Bhagavad Gita, The Vedas, and the i Ching. It’s the motivators job to say their message in a form that makes sense to them, it’s the motivatees job to keep searching for a motivator that speaks their same language. If my message of best and worst case scenario doesn’t appeal to you as much as Will Smith’s theory of dying on the treadmill, it’s not a problem and visa versa. The important thing is that you make a decision for what you want in life, and move confidently in that direction.

Admittedly, this was a very brief, and incomplete description of my philosophy. If you are interested in learning more about it, you can visit my main website and look into a DVD product called, Winning the Mental Game of Life. It’s explained in much more detail there. http://www.thementalgameoflife.com/

Some People Just Never Get It

This blog is probably going to be a bit scattered because my thoughts are coming faster than I can type. At about 4:30 am my mind began racing as to why some people never seem to dramatically improve their lives despite how many personal development courses they go to.

I think the list is too big to generalize into one simple excuse, but I’m certain I’ve identified one major reason. And it’s probably the biggest frustration a speaker will ever have to deal with. So if you are in the biz, or getting in the biz, buckle up. Because this will be with you for the entirety of your career.

I think one of the main reasons why some people never change despite how much they learn is because what they need to really get, can’t be taught by someone else; they’ve got to get it themselves. Unfortunately, that one thing they need to get, they push further away by their own behavior.

Here’s a perfect example. One of the biggest motivators for people taking self-help courses is because they want to achieve a level of financial success beyond what they have done in the past. The, “I wanna be rich” mentality. Inevitably, the person who wants to be rich can’t afford the program. Money is their biggest issue, as a result, they make it their biggest issue in life, and it creeps up everywhere. So they use that as the excuse for why they can’t go to the program, or buy the product – or for that matter, do anything they want to in life.

This type of person will never get it until they get over it. And here’s the irony… the information contained in the course won’t help them get over it. The only way they will get over it, is if they just get over it. In other words, the person who finally says, “okay, I’m no longer going to use, ‘I can’t afford it’ as an excuse. I’m going to find a way!” Those people that find a way inevitably get it… and they transform. Not because of what they learn in the course, but because of what they taught themselves in order to get the course. Unfortunately, the way most people solve the “I can’t afford it” type thinking, is to find someone who already has the product, and bootleg a copy of it. I know too many people to count who have libraries filled with personal development courses that they never paid for. They just copied them from a friend or downloaded them from a site who prides themselves on helping people steal intellectual property like Seedpeer or Torrent. The problem with that is that it doesn’t give them the right lesson. Instead of them getting over their issue with money, it just teaches them how to cheat. Here’s the deal: Beating the game is different than cheating the game. The world of personal development is filled with too many people who have cheated the game instead of beat the game.

Isn’t it interesting that the one thing that people need to learn the most from a program is the one thing that will keep them from ever getting the program? And here’s the crazy part… the amount of money is rarely the issue. The issue is the money. Here’s a perfect example. For the holiday season I posted a special website that sold my two most popular products, plus a third brand new product. The whole purpose was to launch my new product and for anyone who accepted the offer, they received my two most popular products for free. This was nearly 60% off the regular price, AND I offered a 6 month payment plan making it ridiculously affordable. If you want to see the site, here’s the link, but depending upon when you read this, the link may not be active as it’s only a temporary site for the holidays. Now some people got the product, and that’s great, but you would be shocked at how many people sent emails to me asking for special favors, even greater discounts, or even names of people who have already bought it so they could copy it! One guy even emailed me and reminded me of a free seminar he won nearly 4 years ago, but he couldn’t afford to go to the free seminar (all he had to pay were his expenses) so he thought it would be a win/win if I just gave him all the product for free. It’s absolutely laughable. What he and so many people like him didn’t get, is that it would be a lose/lose. I would lose the sale, and he would lose the lesson that he can afford anything he is committed to achieving, provided he’s willing to pay. For some that payment is money, for others it’s discipline, or sacrifice, or generosity. The list goes on and on. Money is just a tangible example but this dynamic creeps its way up in many peoples lives, for many other reasons.

Here’s my point: The magic is never in the course. The magic is in getting the course; because for most people, just getting the course requires they overcome their biggest hurdle in life. But it’s not until they overcome that hurdle that they will ever be able to hear the true message contained inside the course.

Update to the Good with the Bad

To date, my blog on the Good with the Bad has sparked more comments, emails, and tweets than any of my blogs thus far. The majority of the response is from people asking me two main questions: 1. Who were the speakers? 2. Who was the promoter? So I thought I’d take a few moments to address these.

You’ve missed the point!!!

The message was about the importance of honoring your commitments, that’s all. The names of the speakers and the promoter is just gossip. I can say that the promoters are great people, highly ethical, and there were a number of circumstances, many out of their control that ended up with the poor attendance. Their promise of an audience of 300 were the result of over 400 + people signing up for the event. If they were to ask me back, I would agree. My experience of them as a company has been great and I don’t want anyone to think that they were bad. They just had a bad event. It happens to the best of us. In fact, on the last day, when 2 of the speakers decided not to show and he was left with a half day of no content, the promoter volunteered to stick around and personally answer questions for the participants until the end of the day. The promoter honored his commitments even when everyone around him wasn’t. I admire him for that.

I’ve said before, it’s who you are in the face of adversity that determines if that adversity will turn into an opportunity. Who are you currently being during your times of adversity?