Comments on: Is Selling Products from the Platform Sleazy?

By: gogle earth

gogle earth — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 04:43:30 +0000

i’am really impressed!!

By: goole

goole — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:21:45 +0000

The information I found here was rather helpful. Thank you for this.

By: Mark Harrison

Mark Harrison — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:39:49 +0000

In an hour slot, I tend to do about 40 minutes content, 5 minutes “sales pitch”, and 15 minutes Q&A.

I’m amazed at how much more US audiences will put up with selling from the stage than UK ones. I suspect it has something to do with your television - you pay a monthly fee for your channels, and still get 15 minutes of advertising per 45 minutes of programming.

By: Jerret Hammons

Jerret Hammons — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 11:27:39 +0000

I believe the product references should be no more than two minutes. This should achieve two things. 1) Make people aware that investing in their favorite presenter is an option. 2) The presenter should offer ultra discounts, free product, or a mailing list to enable access to leads. Both of these are pretty much deal closers at my bootcamps. P.S. To sell more product, mention you would love to meet the attendees at your table. If you present your table well and have a few beautiful people working the tables, you will bring in tons more in revenue!

By: Alec

Alec — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:29:47 +0000

It’s fascinating to hear that two of the conferences I considered going to - Perry Marshall in Chicago last year and the Agora one in Florida - ended up being pitchfests.

The bar for marketers now has fallen so low, I don’t know what can be done to pick it up. All of these AV big box sets are absurdly overpriced.

Ninety per cent of marketing or other information is better communicated in a well-written book.

Frankly most of these people speak so poorly that having to listen to them drone on or blather or gush about their system is next to unbearable.

Our host’s books are wonderful and can be bought in stores. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The quantity of marketing wisdom that can be bought in books for the price of just one of these so-called special courses is enormous ($297, $497, $897, $1997).

The whole online marketing industry is rotten at the core at this point. It is a grotesque MLM circle jerk, a classic Emperor’s New Clothes scenario.

By: Tom Justin

Tom Justin — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 16:30:31 +0000

As a long time speaker, I’ve sold a lot of products from the front of the room. However, there’s no excuse for either the speaker or the producer (who sometimes gets a cut) to ever say, “I don’t have time, but you can find it in my (book, audio, DVD).

The value expected is a full and focused training on the subject at hand. If the speaker is any good, their products are likely pretty good too. The best values for these products are often found by attending a live program. However, those who just pitch instead of teach should not be invited back and the promoters should get an ear full from you as an attendee and don’t buy from them and tell them why.

By: Chui

Chui — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 02:37:01 +0000

Seminar-only discount makes no sense, and only serves to push up resistance. After all if what you said makes sense, invite them to your blog. Not everyone is rolling around in cash and time to absorb everything.

By: leslie ungar

leslie ungar — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 02:05:21 +0000

how ’bout sleazy, selfish, and short-sighted?

here’s the problem, if they are well trained speakers–
they should know that the art is in hiding the art.
It’s not that they are selling, it’s that these people are
not hiding the art.
Well done, it would not be noticed nor would it be stuffed into
the last ten minutes.
Well done it would be well appreciated. It would be crafted in stories and points made. It would not be “selling”. Even the amateur knows that the best way to sell is to tell. Not to sell.

By: Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 20:39:05 +0000

Tera is right — this is an issue for the conference organizer. Its their brand. If they want attendees to leave happy, tell their friends, and come back next year they will make it clearly against the rules to have sales pitches.

I’ll be on my first discussion panel at a conference in January. The organizer sends out a contract you have to sign that says you won’t sell or overtly promote your product/service/company. Yes, the attendees will know who I am and where I am from. No, I won’t spend ten minutes trying to sell them some ebook I wrote.

If the organizer is just pushing some fly by night seminar, no problem. The more you sell the marrier. If they want some long term brand value, its suicide.

The real question for the speaker is, does selling from the platform work? Do people buy more of my products when I push them for 10 minutes or mention them for 30 seconds? Does it help me short term? Could it hurt me long term? Does long term even matter?

One thing I have learned from marketing is that the things that make money don’t always make the whole world feel warm inside. But, if you don’t make your true customer feel warm then you may be in for a one hit wonder.

By: Gary Courtenay (UK)

Gary Courtenay (UK) — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 23:52:26 +0000

Hi Bob, my understanding is that most speakers who are accomplished platform sellers speak for free and do a straight 50/50 revenue split with the organisers on what they sell at the end of their pitch. Indeed the organiser probably won’t book them unless they have a reputation for selling a lot. In this way the speaker not only speaks for free but becomes a profit centre for the organiser instead of a cost - a very nifty manouvre if you think about it! I have been loyally attending the events of one oragnisation that specialises in information marketing. They have so bombarded me with one platform seller after another I simply found myself deserting as soon as their was an alterntative. Consequently I too attended the Agora event at Delray Beach last week (which clashed with the other organisation’s event)only to discover that they too have recently begun employing the same tactics and even shared some these same selling speakers with the other group. I have studied the techniques of these sellers and observe that they are dropping in all sorts of subtle items in to their talks right from the start all aimed at supporting the sale. The biggest problem for me is trusting the content and I find myself constantly evaluating what they’re saying to determine if it’s content or if it’s pitch. There’s a great USP avialable for the organiser who stands up and attacks platform sellng and promises and delivers a content rich event and leaves people to buy what they want from the back of the room or even outside of the room. However we live in a capatalist society and this practice is so lucrative sadly I will be suprised if it goes away despite the obvious distain of the veteran marketers writing here in your blog.