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NB: This newsletter is published every Monday. Point your browser to www.tayosolagbade.com/sdnuggets to read at least ONE new post added to my SD Nuggets blog on a different category from Tuesday till Saturday (sometimes even Sundays) in line with this publishing schedule

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1 of 2: PUBLIC SPEAKING – Gatekeepers Can Stop You From Marketing to CEOs (4 Tips to Evade Them)

In marketing for paying clients, smart experts know it’s always best to target a decision maker who can sign a VALID paying cheque. Depending on the company size, and how they operate, you may or may not be able to readily access the CEO.

Yet it ALWAYS pays to aim to meet with the CEO at first…

So many good things can happen for YOU much quicker if you establish a direct relationship with the top decision maker/CEO or business owner from the word go.

And that’s because there will rarely be delays arising from “waiting” for approval from the boss. Once s/he buys in to your idea, everybody else basically falls in line!

Unfortunately, but understandably, such persons are rarely easy to get a hold of. One reason for this is that tend to have certain individuals who screen any prospective visitors they get.

This could be a PA (Personal Assistant), Manager or other designation. What really matters is the role they play – which will often be to keep their “boss” from being “bothered”, except really necessary.

In certain circles, persons who play the above role (or screening the boss intending “visitors”, are called “GATEKEEPERS”.

Now, some individuals are quite competent in playing this role, and do so to the ultimate benefit of their boss, by ensuring they always make the right people meet their bosses.

However, I have had dealings with others who played that role as if they were there to make most people who tried to see their boss feel unqualified to do so.

During my early years of pavement pounding as a struggling startup entrepreneur, I had countless experiences like that.

Over time however, as I applied the lessons I read in James Cook’s Startup Entrepreneur, about developing a thick skin, I evolved my thinking to explore creative ways to get around annoying gatekeepers.

Today, like I’ve said in several past write ups, I no longer do any pavement pounding to make sales…

Instead I focus my efforts on attracting buyers using my customizable Web Marketing System(WMS)* coupled with data mining of my existing database of subscribers. Quick hint: I continue to earn income at less cost, and with less effort this way.

[*My WMS makes total strangers who need solutions I offer, discover and contact me – often ready to buy.]

But that’s not to say I do all I do online ONLY. Every once in a while, I still go out…but with strategic intent to achieve a purpose that complements my WMS.

For instance recently in Lagos (I’m typing this in a Cotonou cafe) – I visited a high profile computer training centre, to discuss my Excel-VB club and competition offer.

What struck me about the company was the tasteful furnishing, as well as expensive flat screen TVs and computers installed on the walls and tables. Plus, there were students taking classes in all the rooms. The AC units kept the rooms cool, and as I shut the door behind me, the noise from the big petrol generator became muffled.

So, in terms of the physical dimensions, they seemed to have it all fairly well covered.

But I was there to establish the DEPTH of the MS Excel training they offered, in particular.

To my right was a cubicle in which were seated two prettily young ladies, chatting with a well dressed male colleague. The following conversation ensued:

[NB: Keep in mind that my purpose was NOT to see the MD/CEO. Instead it was the person in charge of MS Excel training that I wished to speak with, in order to establish what kinds of Excel training they provided, and what it actually entailed.]

First girl(turning to me): Good morning, how can I help you?

Me: I’d like to speak with your MS Excel trainer please.

First girl: Speak to me. What do you want to know?

Me: Are you the one who does the Excel training here? I don’t think so. You see, this is not the usual kind of enquiry you get. I’m not so sure you can give me the answers I need.

Second girl (cutting in): Excuse me, there is nothing you want to know that we cannot give you an answer to. That’s why we’re here. So, what is your question?

Me(smiling with exaggerated patience now): Okay, if you insist. But I’ll remind you when we’re done that I suggest otherwise.

Second girl (acting impatient): Please ask your question

Me: What topics do you teach learners in MS Excel?

Second girl (laughing mockingly): We teach everything!

Me: Everything? What do you mean everything? That’s neither possible nor practical. I’m sure you will have topics for different levels of Excel learners.

First girl: Look oga, there is nothing about MS Excel that we don’t teach. People come here a lot as you can see (ends waving her hands in the direction of the packed lecture rooms)! If you’re not convinced tell us exactly what topic you want to learn.

Me: Like I said, my enquiry is a bit unusual. I’m not exactly here to register to “learn”. Instead I want to find out what people learn here, to guide a suggestion I wish to make to your trainer – and by extension, your company.

First girl: So what is the topic you want to know if we teach?

Me: Do you teach MS Excel Visual Basic for Applications programming?

First girl(looking confused): Heh, what’s that one?

Me: Excel Visual Basic…it’s the programming language used to automate MS Excel.

Second girl (coming out from the cubicle to stand face to face with me): Okay, I’ve not heard of that before. What is it about?

Me (shake my head slightly): Do you remember I told you it was simply not possible for you to teach all the topics in Excel? Do you also recall that I expressed my doubts about your being the ones who teach MS Excel to the learners?

Well, your answers to my last question have confirmed what I said.

Now, can you please let me speak with the person who does the actual MS Excel training in your company. I am reasonably sure that even if s/he does not train people at that level, s/he is likely to at least know what Excel-VB means.

Second girl (now fairly sober): Okay. Please have your seat, and I’ll get him (second girl makes a point of focusing hard on a notebook on her desk as I glance briefly towards her).

Seconds later, I’m shaking hands with a smallish gentleman in shirt and tie, about my age, who confirms he is the Excel trainer.

As soon as I ask him about Excel-VB, he confirms he knows what it is, but quickly goes on to say: “Here we don’t make promises to learners that we cannot keep. We only offer training in areas where we have competent hands. Excel-VB is not one of them. So we do not offer that training.”

We went on to have a useful conversation. Among other things, I told him about my decision to start an Excel-VB programming movement by promoting access to my home study video tutorials and coaching for business users and kids via my Excel-VB club and competition.

I told him if they invested time/effort to develop in-house Excel-VB expertise, they could begin offering training in that area to independent professionals and corporate executives.

Before I left, he insisted on taking down my website address for the Excel-VB Solutions and my phone number, saying he would discuss it with his boss.

Now, remember that I said I did not go there to meet the CEO. It was the trainer I wanted to see. And I did get to see him – after proving to the receptionist that they did not know enough to make it unnecessary for me to see him!

Interestingly, the trainer on his own went on to suggest discussing my suggestion with the CEO (who was out at the time).

Recall I NEVER asked for that. In fact I told him I did not come looking to get hired, that I just wanted to suggest they start offering Excel-VB training.

…but the impact I made led him to think it!

Indeed, he even asked how much my Excel-VB programming training costs if done for ONE person only…possibly thinking of himself (Pssst: It’s N150k by the way).

Here’s What You Can Take Away From The Above Narrative With Regard to Handling Gatekeepers…

1. Have Enthusiasm and Self-Confidence

The former helps keep you from feeling deflated by snobbish remarks, mockery or outright hostility that you are likely to encounter as you try to get past gatekeepers.

The latter (ie. self-confidence) you should have if you know your stuff, and possess hands-on competence. That way, no matter what happens, if/when you’re asked to SHOW or DEMONSTRATE what you mean, you’ll be able to do just that.

Recall how I responded by asking the girls about Excel-VB? I knew just from speaking with them that they did not know about it. Otherwise they would never have said “We teach everything”!

2. Speak Articulately

This takes practice, and lots of focus. Especially when you’re facing a busy and/or impatient potential buyer who says “You have 3 minutes to tell me something interesting enough to make me speak with you now, or give you an appointment to meet with me later“.

That’s actually happened to me several times.

And those experiences trained me to speak with great articulation – stringing words together in a manner that is convincing and compelling enough to change the mind of the listener in a matter of seconds.

One time, I kept a CEO so wrapped up in what I was telling him I could do for the company using a Web Marketing System that he phone someone he had a meeting with, who he’d kept waiting since I got there: “I’m really sorry. Let’s reschedule.”

That CEO went on to hire me to incorporate a WMS on their existing site.

You can get similar results…

This process begins with you THINKING about what you need to say BEFORE you find yourself before the prospect. Having an elevator speech can help, but sometimes you may encounter a potential buyer that your elevator speech does not fit well.

So, you’ll have to improvise and adapt it to deliver the message you prefer to give that person. All of that may have to happen in a matter of seconds too!

I’ve done this for years, so it’s easy for me now.

But there was a time I was learning to get it right. There were times/days I would leave a prospects office feeling good about how everything came smoothly out of my mouth. Some other times/days, I came out feeling like the most stupid idiot on the planet, because I rambled so much that the prospect walked me out!

Even if you were born a stutterer or stammerer, you CAN train yourself to overcome it(and many have), in order to self-regulate when you’re under stress, thereby suppressing it. I once read somewhere that John Major, one time UK Prime Minister, was a stutterer. Aha!

3. Know Your Target Audience & Use Strategic Intent

This is short, but the most important. Decide what you’ll need to say to throw a gatekeeper off balance, so you can HAVE YOUR way.

Notice in my above conversation with the receptionists that I waited for the right time to ask them if they taught Excel-VB? I knew that would stump them, and give me the opening I needed to insist on being allowed to speak with the person I originally requested.

It pays to be familiar with the society or culture you are in, to succeed in doing this.

A tendency people from my part of the world have, to: (a) focus on superficial aspects…and (b) “commoditize” learning, made me reasonably certain my strategy would work. So, know your target audience demographics!

4. Bypass The Gatekeeper: Get the CEO or Decision Maker’s Contact Details and Reach Out Directly to Him/Her

I always try this first, before considering going out…

You can choose not to even showing up before a gatekeeper. Today, PC and Internet technology makes it easy to get contact details of many decision makers and CEOs.

Use Google. Find the company or personal website. See if s/he comes up. Many creative ways exist to get his/her name. Speak to the security personnel, casually asking for such details. Watch out for names mentioned in media reports, brochures, flyers, Annual Reports etc.

Depending on the individual concerned, you may be able to connect via Twitter, Facebook and other relevant social media platforms and send a response generating message – at the least.

This list is not exhaustible, but it can get you up and running productively, if used right.

Good luck!

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This newsletter (which I use to promote Burt Dubin’s Speaker Mentoring Products/Services) serves experts-who-speak. Starting – Monday 13th April 2015 – it MORPHED in name and content served, to a 2 part Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, to better serve them. You just read the “Public Speaking IDEAS” part above. What follows below is the “Web Marketing IDEAS” part.

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Burt Dubin works with people who want to be speakers, and with speakers who want to be masters. Click here to visit his website NOW and submit a contact form message telling him what challenges you’re facing, and how you’d like him to help you. Tell him I sent you, and you’ll get a pleasant surprise offer from him.

Burt Dubin’s monthly Speaking Biz Strategies Letter [Signup & get a 7-Part Email Course on “How To Succeed And Get Paid As A Professional Speaker“]

Get Burt’s mentoring at any of the 3 levels below:

1. Top Shelf [Click here]

2. Mid Range [Click here]

3. Budget Delight [Click here]

2 of 2: WEB MARKETING: To Achieve Sustainable Success, Closely Monitor News About Current Affairs and Politics! [FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD]

“If you want to achieve sustainable success in business (especially in a volatile market place like Nigeria), it’s in your best interest to develop interest in current affairs and politics, because those are the two key ingredients that really keep this country from having a stable sociopolitical climate.
And for as long as that stable sociopolitical climate does not exist, every person running a business will probably have to sleep with one eye open.” – Tayo K. Solagbade

It’s FREE for all my Web Marketing/farm business clients, and ALL members of my Inner Circle as well as for ALL subscribers to THIS newsletter.

If you are not yet ANY of the above, just send me a message here to let me know.

If you want me to send you the full MP3 recording, just say so in your message.

NB: If you’re already a client or subscriber, email me via tayo at tksola dot com and let me know you want it

Alternatively, click here to request the FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD.

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Question: But who is Burt Dubin, and why do I (Tayo K. Solagbade) think you should you learn from him?

Answer: Burt is a 3 decade veteran in the professional speaking business. After achieving top level cross continental success as an expert-speaker, he has established a reputation for mentoring some of the highest paid speakers in the world. He owns SpeakingBizSuccess.com, SpeakingSuccess.com and BurtDubin.com.

Burt helps those he mentors (experts-who-speak) to Position, Package, Promote, and Present* themselves successfully to clients (*He calls them the 4Ps). That’s why it’s no surprise that on Burt’s website, considerable space capital is devoted to useful business marketing articles as well as products.

It might also interest you to know that MANY years back, Burt established himself as one of the best marketing minds in the world. To really put this FACT in proper perspective, I’ll provide more specific details in form of an example.

A few years ago, Burt contributed an article to a powerful publication titled “The Most Effective Articles Ever – By The World’s Top Marketers“. That 574 page ebook features timeless marketing advice from 71 of the world’s top marketers – including Jack Trout, Joe Vitale, Yanik Silver…and Burt Dubin.

That’s ample proof that (in addition to Public Speaking), Burt would be a great resource to learn business marketing from!

Full Disclosure: I represent Burt as Sole Agent for his products/services, which means if YOU buy from him, I get paid.

But that’s NOT the main reason I represent and recommend him. I have benefited in many ways by learning from Burt. Through his writing, his audio recordings, and from directly relating with him.

Before we teamed up in 2011, I’d been studying his work and adapting it to succeed in my work from way back in 2002. It does not matter what part of the world you’re in. If you know how to adapt them to suit your peculiar local needs, Burt’s ideas and strategies WILL work for you. I am living proof of it!

That’s why I never tire of CONFIDENTLY recommending him to others.

If you need help putting the ideas shared above to use, let me know HERE.

Click here to tell me which of Burt’s speaker mentoring products or services you are interested in.

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Learn about Burt Dubin’s speaker mentoring products (books, audios etc) below…

If you need help purchasing ANY of Burt’s products (like “Presentation Magic”), call me on +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic, my base) or +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria)  or email tayo@tksola.com

Have a great week :-))

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