Nothing to be afraid of in public speaking

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith. | Provided photo~Sun-Times Media

Today is Halloween. For the last few weeks, cable stations have been running scary movies while parents have been buying or making those annual Halloween costumes. Then there is all that buying of those trick-or-treat candies.

Halloween is recognized as a day of fright, of fear, a day to be scared silly. For many small business owners and business professionals, Halloween is not just a one time annual scary event. Let me explain.

Last week I attended the Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce first business-to-business networking tradeshow event, Fall into Business, at the Patrician in Schererville. This business networking event was sold out with more than 50 vendors displaying their solutions and engaging in that first purpose of marketing – attracting attention. As a side note, this was one of the better local B2B tradeshows I have attended and truly look forward to next year’s event.

What was interesting was how many people appeared to be scared and even somewhat fearful. These folks avoided eye contact, quickly grabbed information and seemed like they couldn’t get out of the place fast enough. The last thing they wanted was to talk to someone.

According to several surveys including one authored by Gallup, speaking in public is in the top two greatest fears held by Americans, along with the fear of snakes. Speaking in public is something most of us have been conditioned to fear. Remember, don’t talk to strangers? This conditioning now has us in a scared state. Who knows, maybe that other person will bite us?

For small business owners and business professionals who want to grow their businesses, to increase sales to continue to expand their brand, being scared is probably not the best behavior. To be fearful of others does not establish trust and trust is one of the sales buying prerequisites.

How many times have you as a business professional attended an event where someone responded to this fearful question of “What do you do?”

• Have you heard the stammering, the stuttering, the ums or all those other fillers?

• Can you physically see the person being nervous almost scared of having to respond to that supposedly fearful question?

• Do you feel confident in her or his response?

• Would you buy from that individual?

With the majority of small businesses being sole proprietors to employing less than 50 people, business-to-business networking is required to increase sales. This means talking to strangers, to people you don’t know because they are your potential new customers, centers of influence or strategic partners.

If speaking in public to strangers scares you, then join a local toastmaster’s club or a professional business-to-business networking group where in “safe harbor” environment you can overcome that sales-strangling fear. By taking this action, Halloween with all if its scary fears should only come once a year and that is the way is should be.

P.S. Shout Out: To all Chambers of Commerce in Lake and Porter counties that provide annual business-to-business networking events for their members.