heartharmony.com.au

You don’t have to pay the national debt of a third world country to pick up great marketing lessons. Over the past 10 weeks I have sat through a group of Year 8 students from the local High School learning to debate – and the lessons that businesses can pick up from their experience is worth a motza.

1. Matter – manner – method. You will be assessed on your matter (information), manner (how you say what you say) and method (how organised is your approach and thinking). This holds true no matter which business you are in.
2. A little bit of confidence goes a long way. If you present confidently, it hides a multitude of flaws. Be confident in who you are and the power of what you have to say.
3. Drama is important. You need to create light and shade with your voice, build drama with your approach and use appropriate physical gestures to engage your audience. People love drama and to be entertained. No one bought something because they were bored into it.
4. You need to create signposts. People want to know what you are going to say, when you are going to say it and you need to remind them what you said at the end of your pitch. Signpost your pitch so people can follow along and they know exactly what you want them to do at each point.
5. Think of objections and counter them. People will always find reasons not to agree to your pitch. You need to think about what they may say and find real and compelling reasons to counter them. Even if you hear an objection you hadn’t considered, you need to find a great counter for that objection and persuade people that this objection is not relevant.
6. You can over-prepare. If you sound like you have pre-recorded your speech – people will not engage. People like the immediacy of your thoughts and ideas – which includes stumbles, falls and trips over words. People buy from people and not from recordings.
7. A smile is still important - as is eye contact. Use both regularly.
8. Take your time. When you pitch, you may come out of the gate speaking at a rate of knots. The floor is yours. It is OK to grab a sip of water and gather your thoughts before the first word is spoken.
9. Success is a team sport. You need to know the roles each of your team play in a pitch – and not cut across each other, but back each other up and reinforce each other’s points,
10. Facts are good – but don’t overdo them. Yes people like to hear the facts – but they also want to be engaged and emotionally involved. Long lists of facts put people to sleep. Balance facts with engagement and interaction

So there you have it. 10 brilliant marketing and copywriting techniques you can instantly apply in your business – and they came from a year 8 debating competition. And if the kids can learn this over a 10 week period through trial and error while still carrying full study workloads, there’s no excuses for business not to have a go!

Oh – and before you ask, yes … I am a proud mum. It was great to see the progress my daughter made over the time and given the constraints the team had. It was also interesting to watch team personalities come into play – with some of the kids more focused on self rather than team and winning rather than learning- but that is all part of the lessons of life that the kids have to experience. No … they weren’t ace debaters at the end. They did what they set out to do – which was learn, give things a go and to step up the plate. Each kid tried their best – even in the face of their fears of speaking in public – which is all you can ask of anyone.

Adults can learn a lot from kids at times. When was the last time you were willing to face potential public ridicule doing something new and terrifying – yet these kids all did it.

Look around you for other day to day opportunities to learn to build your business. Enlightenment comes from unusual sources.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter