I attended two conferences last week. The first was the 14th annual WBEC-West conference, an annual event to bring women-owned businesses and supply diversity buyers together. The second was the EO (Entrepreneur Organization) Alchemy event.
The two events could not be more different in their focus, and yet they had one thing in common: both conferences clearly demonstrated to me that a certain marketing strategy isn’t working like it used to. I’m talking about hype.
Speakers Make an Impact
Event promoters take pride in their speaker line-ups. There’s nothing quite like a powerful speaker who engages an audience so completely that you can literally hear a pin drop. Many speakers, including myself, have gone through speaker training to learn how to deliver our messages in the most powerful ways (Here’s a link to free resources if you’re just starting out with public speaking). Some of us adapt methods that we learn from well-recognized trainers, and some take on the terminology of public speaking role models. It takes work and dedication to do it well.
Curious about the audience experience at one of last week’s events, I asked an attendee what he took away from a presentation that I also attended.
It Made Him Cranky
Yep, cranky. That certainly isn’t the reaction any speaker wants. The gentleman I spoke to said he had to leave the presentation because it irritated him, although he didn’t exactly know why. Finally, we figured it out together.
Hype Is Out
This speaker in question showed up with a sizzle reel all about how amazing she is and all the things she has done. The entire talk reminded me of a speaker trainer session that I took years ago. I knew what was coming and when, and unfortunately for her, so did the rest of the audience.
There was no throng of attendees rushing to buy her stuff at the end of the talk. People were bored and uninterested. The speaker spoke only about herself, not her audience, and she didn’t seem very energized.
The Intention Was There
I truly believe the speaker had her heart in the right place. However, what I saw was something I have witnessed again and again. Her delivery contained too much hype. And HYPE is not working anymore.
What this means for your business is that we must be very aware to not mistake our success stories and social proof as an invitation to plaster our clients with how great we are. It can easily come across as boring hype.
Focus on Problem Solving
As business owners, we seek to connect with those whose problems we can solve. For that, we have to establish trust and demonstrate a deep understanding so others feel that we get it, that we get them. This is the only reason we will ever be hired.
So let’s drop the hype and FOCUS on problem solving.
What are you going to do to shift out of hype selling into problem solving?
Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect and a results-oriented businesswoman with an entrepreneurial spirit and a proven track record in growing, building and scaling women’s businesses. Once $135,000 in debt and a single mother, she successfully sold her business to a global entertainment media company owned by Bill Gates in a multi-million dollar deal.
Through her online courses, one-on-one training programs and live speaking events, she mentors women entrepreneurs with her 5 Star Success Blueprint, developed with the knowledge gleaned from her growing, scaling and selling her own company. Beate has a deep commitment to supporting women.
She is the creator of The Women’s Code, the fourth step of Growth Architecture that is focused on Supporting Balanced Leadership. Her proprietary methods specifically address women’s obstacles and she leads from experience, having survived in business in a highly competitive male-dominated environment.
She is a respected speaker and mentor and is the author of the book “Happy Woman Happy World How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome”, a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.”
