Arbitration & Mediation

Turning Speaking into Mediating and More, part 2

By Dina

You’ve selected your ideal market group and delivered a fascinating 20 minute talk that kept the audience engaged and asking questions for another 30 minutes. You’re thrilled and so is the organizer, who looks golden because of all your preparation. It’s definitely time to pat yourself on the back for a job well done, but don’t forget to ask an important question: what next?

Where do I go from here?

I find that new mediator/marketers tend to struggle with this question. You might feel the same way. You experience the thrill of getting that first contact, job, speaking engagement with a new company but then wonder how to keep this fledgling relationship going.

You might feel that doing a good job will naturally lead to new opportunities, but don’t be so sure. Remember, while you’re focused on this work, the group or person you’re working with has lots of other issues, tasks, people to deal with. Once the speaking engagement is done their attention will shift to other matters. Your goal is to suggest a few ‘next steps’ to keep the conversation going.

What to Suggest

A good sales person aims to make a sale. A great sales person plans for the third sale. You should be thinking similarly about your own interactions with new clients. Don’t be a one trick pony. Ask yourself:

What are the next three ways I can be helpful to this group?

Here are a few ideas that may work for you:

• Offer to present again to another segment of the group i.e. a different chapter, senior managers
• Develop longer program for their next meeting or annual conference
• Write a reference guide or short handbook that can be distributed to attendee and made available to others who weren’t in attendance
• Publish tips that can be included in their newsletter and include your contact info

The Power of Timing

Timing is important. You gotta strike while the iron is HOT. After a successful talk, you’ve got a some good things going for you.

You’re already a known quantity to the planner/organizer. She or he already knows that his audience appreciates or can benefit from your expertise. He or she gets the benefit of offering more great content/training to their group without having to do additional research to find a terrific speaker.

I like to hint at future collaborations early, during the final preparations stage, if I get a good vibe from the planner. Then, I follow up with a thank you, any promised materials and my easy and compelling good ideas afterwards. You can bolster those suggestions with the positive audience feedback you gathered after the talk- you did create a brief evaluation form, right?

Smart Marketing

Being thoughtful about leveraging all your marketing activities is smart. It’s time-efficient and les stressful for you to do something once, say create a custom talk, then use it in multiple ways for future consulting, conflict coaching, and products.

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Full post as published by Mediation Mensch on August 25, 2008 (boomark / email).