[This is a continuation of our article in providing audio content]

Once you understand the value of having an audio presentation do the work for you, what should you include in it?

Simply put, You want to educate your potential clients, but also sell them on the benefits of engaging your services.

Some thoughts you can use to to create your own audio product...
Introduce Yourself: tell the listener a little bit about who you are, and begin with your lead in statement. It has to be meaningful and engaging, so couch it in how you solve a problem. People will pay money to solve problems.

And if you can't solve a problem that your prospect is experiencing, then how can you expect them to open their cheque-book to hire your help?

For me, my lead-in statement would be "Hello, I'm Gordon Jackson, and I work with small businesses who are struggling to think of and implement effective ways to get more customers".

Consider if you were a small business owner, and you asked me what I did, and I told you that. Wouldn't you be interested in my services? Most will follow that up with "how do you do that?" - that's what I want them to say, and I reply with a couple of easy techniques they could use.

So if you're a dental technician who helps those with crooked front teeth who is too scared to visit a dentist, you could say "I'm a dental technician who visits clients in the comfort of their homes, to improve their oral hygiene in a familiar environment"...

Once the lead-in line has been delivered, you can focus in on an area you figure has special importance to your prospect. People respond to problems, because they would rather avoid pain than make gains. Focussing their attention on pain they may be feeling ("not enough customers").

So in my case I would say something like "Do you work a 20 hour day, just running your business and fire-fighting, and wonder if you'll ever manage to move your business forward? Do you wish you could focus more on working on your business rather than in your business?"

"Do you sometimes wish you had someone, who could help to be more focussed and to get more done - a partner to bounce ideas off of who is completely independent from your business, with fresh thinking, learned from other industries."

"If so, I invite you to listen to this brief message..."

Call attention to their problems, to get them nodding their heads saying "yes!", and they are open and willing to listen to the next part of your message.

Tell the listener what you do
For instance, tell them "you help small businesses get more customers - and more spend-per-customer, by assessing their offerings and their current marketing strategies. Then developing and implementing new effective strategies to take their customer base to the next level".

"I investigate their current business processes then work on improving them with simple fixes that can be implemented quickly with little risk. The low hanging fruit."

"Then I help develop and implement a marketing system that will give you consistent results that you can eventually put on auto-pilot. Systems that will grow your business, even when you're not there".

So, we tell the listener/prospect what we do, without giving too much away. They are still thinking - "wow, that sounds good. How exactly does he do that?"

At this point, we can tell a couple of short examples of how we've improved some businesses we've worked on. People relate to stories a lot better than simple fact, served up cold. A story is just a case study.

An effective case study
This comes in three parts.
1. Tell them what's wrong
Give them an example, "I recently worked with a sandal store who was top of his customer satisfaction list for Birkenstock Sandals, but wanted to make some more sales with a new range of heavier footwear - Blundstone Boots. He was having a difficult time announcing this service to the market - he couldn't get their attention."
2. Tell them what your solution was
Give specific details of how you helped the retailer announce the product. In my case, we were coming up to a Fringe Festival, with prizes for the most interesting, effective and eye-catching window display. The theme that year was 'Space Travel'. With a slim budget, I worked with an artist to make sure we had the winning display - and notified the local newspaper who had been running 'Fringe' related stories, and this was another they could print." A little imagination and some free publicity, and the retailer was now the premier Blundstone seller in town.
3. Expand on the results.
They went from selling n pairs of Blundstones, to 5 or 6 pairs a week following this free publicity. Simple and effective.

But of course, if you're just starting out, and you have no stories to tell (or so you think), then you can draw on any experience you might have had with a regular employer. For instance, from my background as a developer of online trading systems, I've written press releases and print ads for my specific product. I can tell stories about that, and what the impressive results were. [Read on]

[photo: Miguel Karbage]