Many of you have opportunities to speak to people, whether that's onstage, one-on-one in phone calls and meetings, or on Zoom or through social media. My question for you today is, does it convert? 

Do your platforms of communication convert into leads and customers? Today, we are talking about raising that conversion rate. I'm Pat Quinn and I've been helping speakers and business owners just like you communicate more effectively for the last 20 years. I've worked with some of the greatest speakers in the world from Grant Cardone and Pete Vargas to Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi, but most of the people that I work with are not professional speakers. Most of the people that I work with wouldn't even call themselves speakers at all. I help my clients deliver their message in a way that compels their audience to want to take the next step with them.

Conversion is about taking a listener and getting them to take the action. 

I recently sat down with my friend, Hope Zvara, business coach and owner of Mother Trucker Yoga. I asked her a few questions about how she is converting in these areas and asked her to give our audience some words of advice as she’s seen success in her business. She gave us some insight into the mistakes business owners make that hurt their conversion rates.

#1. Failing to offer clarity in your presentation

We call this alignment. When you take that stage, is your talk aligned with your content? Is your content aligned with your offer?

Not having clarity about your message, your product, and what you are trying to accomplish can cause you to stumble around and waste time. This is where you risk the audience losing trust in you, and when it comes time to give your offer, they will struggle with wanting to go to that next step with you.

Don't start with your content. Don't start with your offer. Start with an opening story that will build trust and connection with your audience. You must be intentional about how you are delivering your message.

(For help with this, visit last week’s podcast which gives you practical steps to telling your story)

Remember, the purpose of the content is to help people, the purpose of the tactical offer is to direct people, and the purpose of the emotional close is to inspire them to take that action. 

#2. Failing to offer ONE clear call to action.

Many people ask me if it’s okay to sell something and give something away at the same time. THE ANSWER IS NO.  When you sell something from the stage, then in the next breath, you offer a free resource, you’re killing your conversion rate. Why? Because you're not collecting enough leads off the free offer, and you're not gaining buyers from your paid offer because people are confused. When you make more than one call to action, people freeze. When they're overwhelmed, they won't make decisions. Go for the sale! It’s okay to accept that you might miss some people in the room. But if you put a sale and a free offer in front of people at the same time, they will be tempted to hold off on the sale to opt for what they might get for free.

#3. Failing to establish certainty. 

When times are volatile or uncertain, people make decisions differently. You want to consider what’s happening in society.  When election time hits in the United States, it's going to feel volatile because everybody's scared that the sky is falling. You do not want to make the audience feel like things are out of control.

You will bring certainty and confidence to your audience when you do these two things:

First, slow your voice, lower your voice, slow your movement. When you’re too hyper and talking too fast, it makes your audience tense. This is not the state you want them to be in when you deliver your offer.

Second, frame your offer in a way that puts the audience in control.

Let's say I'm trying to sell a workshop and the workshop helps you grow your business. When I get to this point in my offer, I want to communicate to my audience that whether their business grows isn't up to who wins the presidential election or the economy, or whether there's inflation. It's up to them. The choices that they make today will determine whether their business grows in 2024. They get to choose. They’re in control.

I’m going to slow my voice. I’m going to lower my voice. And I’m going to instill hope and confidence and put my audience in the driver’s seat. If they are left feeling uncertain, they will likely NOT buy your product.

#4. Failing to address customer objections upfront

The person who gets to the objection and acknowledges it first is the winner! You do not want to allow the audience to form objections as to why your offer isn't for them. Your opening talk is a great place to overcome objections. If you know that people are scared to make a decision because they've been burned in the past, then part of your story should be how you were burned in the past and how you don’t want to do that in your new business. Get to the objection before they do, and you are in the driver's seat. If you let the audience form the objection (or possibly even multiple), there is no coming back from that.

#5. Failing to track your conversion rates

How can you improve and grow your business when you have no idea what your current conversion rate is? Every time you have the opportunity to speak, write down how many people were actually in the room and how many people took action. You need to be able to see how your conversion rate changes as you implement changes.

Hope Zvara also shared incredible insights into how to improve your conversion rates in one-on-one business settings and through social media. For the full interview, visit

And as a special gift to our audience, click this link to download your free ebook “Use Stages to Grow Your Business”

— the 10Xstages team