At a recent networking meeting Jana asked for a recommendation for a public speaking coach. She was starting to speak in front of audiences, and wanted to polish her presentation skills a bit. Before anyone else got a chance to reply, Elise jumped in to recommend her coach, Kelly. “I have been working with Kelly for two months, and I have already seen results from working with her. I am much more confident during my presentations, and I see that my audience is more engaged and more responsive. She is great; I will e-mail you her contact information later today.”
Later that day I spoke with Elise about Kelly. Elise has always been interested in public speaking, so when she heard about Kelly about a year ago, she put herself on Kelly’s mailing list. She enjoyed what Kelly had to say, learned more about her practice, but didn’t take action to actually buy anything from Kelly until an opportunity came up for Elise to conduct a few workshops with another colleague. Once she started working with Kelly, she confirmed that she was as knowledgeable and professional as she appeared in her newsletter. Kelly, with his professionalism, knowledge and proven...