Early on, when I was just starting out, I lost some sales after speaking. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you…that hurts! It hurts to lose the money, but even more so to experience someone changing their mind about moving forward. (I have a lot more to say on that topic!)

Since then, I’ve developed three simple practices you can quickly and easily put into place to make sure that after you give your heart and make that sale, you get to keep it!

So here’s my magic formula:
3 Simple Strategies to Retain Your Speaking Sales

1. Get Them Started Right Away
Buyer’s remorse is a natural reaction, as is a person pulling back after stretching beyond what he or she has done before. After buying your offer, some people will question whether they did the right thing. What you need to do is show them that YES, they did. One of the best ways to do that is to engage them right away in what they bought.

For instance, if they just bought an expensive course, you could send them home with more than just a receipt. I’ve seen everything from gift bags with a starter CD or a book signed by the speaker to iPods with the course audio preloaded for immediate enjoyment. When they get home, they should also find an email that tells them how to get started right away with the items you gave them.

A very simple strategy is to provide a questionnaire, checklist or a worksheet for registrants to fill out before the program starts. Just think about what will get them busy in the program, and then provide the means to do that. That way, their mind is engaged in the new possibility, rather than in doubts that can easily creep in.

2. Check Registration Forms While On-Site
This is a mundane but very important point. You want to check the registration forms while your buyers are still there, so that you can track them down with any problems. Make sure that the email, name and credit card numbers are legible. You don’t want to have to go back to them after the event, because if they’ve cooled off, you’ve given them the perfect opportunity to change their minds, and you might lose the sale.

Just recently I spoke with a woman who had registered for a $100,000 program at an event and was vacillating about staying in because they were having trouble processing her credit card deposit. She was taking that as a “sign” that maybe it was a bad investment. Ouch! I bet they wish they had double-checked those credit card numbers!

3. Process Orders Quickly
This was a really hard lesson. When I first started I went to a multi-speaker event and sold $10,000 of my coaching. I was shocked and thrilled. I was in a beautiful mountain location with no Internet access. I remember seeing my colleague, Suzanne Falter-Barns, every day driving down this insane hill that you wouldn’t want to drive down more than once. I wondered why she didn’t just relax and enjoy the location.

Turned out, she was driving down to process her orders because she knew that with four days of multiple speakers a day, people start getting confused and overwhelmed and change their minds. Plus, they start hitting the maximum limits on their credit cards, and you don’t want to be the one getting the decline notice and not being able to get them started in your fabulous program.

So, process your orders quickly, and then have an exciting welcome waiting for them in their inbox. Remind them of what they bought and why they bought it. Reconnect them to that moment when they glimpsed the transformation that they could have from investing in themselves through you.

The bottom line: Take the details seriously — check the forms, process the orders quickly — and then engage your registrants right away. If you do that, you’ll not only keep the sale, but begin to build an enthusiastic, loyal following who just can’t wait to see what you’re offering next!