Month: June 2019

As seen on BigSpeak.com

There was a moment when Joey Coleman was on tour with the University of Notre Dame Glee Club where the importance of customer experience became crystal clear. His choir was on the start of a European tour, Coleman was first tenor, and the group’s first gig was booked in a huge, magical cathedral in Rome, Italy. Everything was great except for the audience—there were only seven people who came to the performance.

At this moment, the choir could have gone through the motions, treated it as a “practice” concert, and moved on to the next city. Instead, a senior member of the group gathered the singers around for a quick pre-performance talk. He said even though there were only seven people in the audience, these people would never get a chance to see the University of Notre Dame Glee Club perform again. This would be the only impression the choir would make and what did they want these people to tell others about the Notre Dame Glee Club?

The choir went on stage and performed a standing-ovation worthy performance.

Concentrate on the human experience.

Ever since that moment, Joey Coleman has been learning about the importance of human experience as part of the customer journey. As a criminal defense lawyer working in Iowa, Coleman knew the human experience was important. How people felt could mean the difference between his client going home free or spending a life behind bars.

Though the law presumes the innocence of an accused, most jurors come to court thinking a person on trial must be guilty of something. Coleman learned how to help the jury think differently about his client, to feel differently about his client, and to act differently towards his client. He treated the jury as his customers, giving them a personal experience. He did everything from designing exhibits to building dioramas of crime scenes to standing in front of juries using his persuasive skills.

Since his days as a trial lawyer, Coleman has continued to learn about the human experience in vastly different fields. He learned how to please audiences as a member of the Grammy-nominated Washington Men’s Camerata choir. As a legal advisor in the White House during the Clinton administration, he helped shape people’s view of what the Office of the President should represent. Then he moved on to help companies create brand identities to connect with their consumers as Chief Experience Composer for his company Design Symphony.

Never lose a customer again.

Now Coleman has distilled his years of experience into a must-read book and keynote experience called Never Lose a Customer Again.

Coleman’s Wall Street Journal bestselling book covers the 8 phases of the customer journey from the first interaction to making them a loyal fan. In his keynote experiences and book, Coleman covers each step of what a company can do to improve the customer experience, showing companies how to connect to customers on a personal level.

Getting personal has helped companies dramatically reduced churn and attrition rates among customers. The typical business Coleman works with sees an increase in profits of 25-100% and an increase in customer referrals of more than 30%

The biggest unintended effect from focusing on customer experience has been improved employee morale and engagement. Now that employees are spending time engaging with customers on a personal level, employees have been reconnected with the reason they go to work: their customer.

If you’re interested in reconnecting with your customer base and improving the customer journey, contact BigSpeak Speakers Bureau today to learn more about Joey Coleman or to book his keynote experience.

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Kyle Crocco is the Content Marketing Coordinator at BigSpeak Speakers Bureau, a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, and the lead singer of Duh Professors. He regularly publishes business book reviews and thought articles on Medium, Business 2 Community, and Born 2 Invest.

As seen on BigSpeak.com

You take a seat in the audience. The lights go down. The speaker bounds out on stage to a burst of applause. The presentation is smooth, polished, funny—but something is off. You’re not laughing and the material feels stale. This is a big name, New York Times bestselling author.  Yet, somehow, you’re not feeling it.

Then it hits you. You’ve seen this exact presentation before on YouTube. The only difference between this keynote and the speech the speaker gave at the last conference you attended is the company name and logo in the Powerpoint deck. If you feel had, imagine how the rest of the audience feels. Wonder what those “smile sheets” will reveal in the post-session surveys?

Don’t panic. There’s a cure for keynote déjà vu: moderated sessions.

This format is great for showcasing big-name celebrities. While your typical celebrity gives a great performance on film—after 14 takes, great lighting, and a bunch of editing—they usually don’t knock it out of the park with a keynote. Part of it is their performance and part of it is your expectations of perfection. BUT…imagine, if you will, a magic potion that makes it all better.

The fireside chat

I have to admit when I first started in the speaker industry, I wasn’t a big fan of the moderated session (also known as the fireside chat). I thought, why do you want to sit in on someone else’s conversation when you can see a speaker bang out three points you need to know to “shift paradigms for a pivotal game changer” (gag!).

But after seeing hundreds of keynotes, I now understand moderated sessions not only liven up a conference, but they can also be more powerful than the classic three-point presentations. Unlike your standard keynote, moderated sessions are customizable, smooth, conversational, and intimate, no matter how large the crowd.

Intimate setting

Take your typical keynote: In the middle of the stage sits a lectern and a huge screen. During the talk, the speaker either stands behind the lectern or paces back and forth across the stage, clicker in hand, gesturing to the screen. There is a clear separation between the role of speaker and audience and, usually, no interaction.

Moderated sessions, on the other hand, have a cozy feel. Instead of a lectern, there are two comfortable chairs facing each other as if the speaker and the moderator were in a living room together. The intimate feel puts the audience at ease, makes the speakers relaxed, and produces a much deeper and personal experience.

Role of the moderator

Another big difference of moderated sessions is the control the moderator has. The moderator can be someone from inside the organization or another expert in the field, as long as he or she has insight into the industry and the speaker.

Having the right moderator changes the dynamic. The best moderator is someone energetic, funny, and quick with the wit. It’s their job to control the pace of the session, to give enough time for answers, and steer the conversation in whatever direction best engages the audience to keep everyone involved. They are a friend, storyteller, and emcee rolled in one.

The key is in the questions

The biggest difference in terms of the audience experience are the questions. In your standard keynote, you get great ideas packed into a short time frame. Questions, if any, come at the Q&A and are usually rushed as the speaker has other obligations.

A moderated session, on the other hand, allows the questioner to unpack those ideas and go much deeper than they would in your standard canned speech. These questions yield details and stories relevant to the audience. The conversational nature also allows for surprise insights or an exclusive story not delivered in a standard session.

The moderator can ask very specific questions about current events, the industry, the company and even how it relates to the exact attendees sitting in the audience. Audiences come away feeling they have learned something relevant and unique.

If you’re interested in moderated sessions, BigSpeak works closely with our speakers to create insightful questions and to coach speakers on giving smooth, conversational answers that will delight and entertain an audience more than the standard keynote.

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Ken Sterling is the executive vice president at BigSpeak?, the leading keynote and business speakers bureau. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California and an MBA from Babson College. Sterling teaches entrepreneurship, marketing, and strategy at UC Santa Barbara. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and hypergrowth sales and marketing expert.