Communicating ROI -

Your Speech Itself

It’s critical that your speech continually reinforce the ROI proposition—not just getting value but the idea of getting far more value than the investment made.

It’s the goal of every speech I make to get another speech, obtain a consulting contract, or sell my educational materials. It’s the mission of every speech I make to give my audience ideas they can use to be more profitable, but it’s the goal of every speech to generate more business. You can accomplish both objectives if you focus on the ROI proposition.

Your audiences will implement your ideas and be more successful if you can demonstrate that your ideas work through the use of case studies and testimonials. Every time you can demonstrate the value of your ideas—a greater return than the investment made—you reinforce your audience’s belief that they too can be successful.

And, every demonstration of ROI creates more demand for your educational materials by a higher percentage of your audience at a higher price.

My speeches are packed with stories of how my clients and I have made money by implementing my ideas. I’m careful to balance my own success stories with those of my paying clients. People might not be able to identify with you but they find it easy to identify with people just like them.

The stories always include:

- the problem

- the solution (my ideas and strategies)

- the outcomes and results

- THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT

One of my favorite stories is how I helped a men’s clothing store make $1.2 million. When I tell the story, I set up the problem—rising competition. Then I share my ideas to combat the problem of competition. After some detail to create interest and give my audience strategies they can implement to deal with the same problem of competition, I give them the result--$1.2 million in additional sales to existing customers.

Finally, and most important, I exclaim that the investment the clothing store made to get $1.2 million was only $120,000—for a 10 to 1 return on their investment.

If you don’t finish your success stories with the ROI proposition, you leave your audience asking themselves, “I wonder what it cost to get that result?” Left to their own imagination, most people are skeptical and think the worst.

Note that I used three methods for demonstrating the ROI proposition at the end of my story:

- raw numbers ($120,000). To a lot of business people that’s a manageable investment to get a $1.2 million sales increase

- percentage of the return. 10% is a reasonable amount of money to spend in marketing to get a huge result

- ratio of return. 10 to 1 is a significant return on investment. Any one in the audience can identify with and desire a 10 to 1 return on their marketing investment—regardless of the amount of money involved.

Note also that I only tell stories whose problems I solve with my strategies are problems that anyone in the audience could have. Universal problems such as (for MY audiences) competition, sales slowdowns, customer service, shrinking profit margins.

A story about problems with investor relations might be interesting to the entire audience, but applicable to only a few. A ROI proposition only works for the entire audience if the entire audience can identify with the problem—and more importantly, desire the same outcomes and return on investment.