3 Simple Steps to Turn Media Interviews into Sales

3 Simple Steps to Turn Media Interviews into Sales

Many people don’t understand what an engaging messaging strategy is when it comes to the publicity that gets them featured—and beloved—on radio, TV, podcasts, and print.

In other words, they don’t know how to create sound bites that sell.

They don’t know that it’s not enough to be clever, entertaining or quippy. That might make TV, podcast and radio hosts happy, but it often won’t bring in the kind of results you’re looking for: to grow your business and brand, attract the right partners or opportunities, sell more products and books, get new clients, more customers, prestigious speaking gigs, a book deal, or increase your fees.

You want to develop sound bites that speak to who you are, what you do and how well you do it. Sound bites, or talking points, are the essential messages that will create recognition and sales. They consist of anecdotes, analogies, acronyms, stories, statistics, facts, vignettes, and one-liners that you can speak in 15-30 seconds.

They should be singly focused on what you want your audience to know. To turn media interviews into sales here are three things you can do.

1. Incorporate Your Past into Your Present Experience During Media Interviews.

Camus says, “We are the sum of our choices.” We want to know how your childhood dreams have influenced the career you’ve chosen. Your past often has predictors to your future interests and life decisions. If you don’t want to go back as far as childhood then go back in your professional career.

Another way to tie past to present is to show how your passion drives your profession. “People think I am disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference,” says Luciano Pavarotti. Choose the words that show your devotion.

Sarah Newton, The UK’s Top Teen Coach, who was taken on by a top talent agency after completing my Zen of Fame course, said that when she was a juvenile corrections officer what she heard from teenagers most was that they didn’t feel heard, understood or respected. “The most important thing a parent can do is listen,” says Newton.

Often sound bites like Newton’s seem simple. But it takes work to distill your ideas down to their essence. It’s the unadorned statement that is often the most powerful.

Today, Newton is a popular speaker and beyond being named the “UK’s Top Teen Coach, The Family Peacemaker, The Supernanny for Teens and The Grade Maker by the press and her clients she has appeared on over 80 Radio shows, 10 TV stations and over 60 newspaper articles, including full features on her work in The Telegraph, The Times and The Mirror. Consulting with MTV, Paramount, ITV, NCS and BBC.” She also hosted her own TV series which has aired in America, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Scandinavia! 

2. Include Client Successes Whenever You’re Featured in a Media Interview.

How has your product, program or service impacted your clients, customers or patients? Tell a story that centers on that success. Marty Friedman, seminar Leader and author of Straight Talk for Men About Marriage, who was in one of my publicity workshops says, “An attorney who came to one of my seminars said he didn’t really think he got much out of it—until he got home and his wife wanted to have sex with him—for the first time in months. “I guess I must have learned a little something,” the attorney admitted.

Friedman tells a very succinct story with a potent punch line. And this sound bite lets you know that his methods are so powerful they work on non-believers and hard-sell cases like attorneys.

3. Show Your Suffering In Every Media Interview.

The people I’ve known who have suffered the most are funny, sarcastic, and wise, but never saccharin. Saccharin is all this sweet talk about love and understanding and comes off as facile. They don’t announce, “I’m being vulnerable.” Or, “I’m being transparent.” They embody it.

Love, understanding and forgiveness aren’t sickly tender. They often come out of bitterness, hopelessness and heartache. We trust those people who have suffered or who have failed over and over again and are willing to share their insights—in a non-showy or sappy way.

Former client Dr. Vicki Rackner, Founder of Thriving Doctors, and Medical Editor of the Hope Health Letter which reaches over 3 million people says that at age 40 she made a radical choice: to close her private practice to be with her son. “As the operating room door closed, another opened. I can’t tell you that everyone lived happily ever after because we’re just at “Once upon a time.” 

Closing her practice, the choice she made to to forgo surgery in favor of becoming a patient advocate, goes against the grain of what society could deem is proper for a board certified surgeon with a full practice. You know right away that she is thoughtful and has tremendous empathy and insight. As a patient wouldn’t you want her on your side? As a doctor practicing in these difficult times wouldn’t you want her wisdom?

After learning to speak in sound bites Vicki is regularly quoted and has become an in-demand media guest who has been featured on CNN, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, Real Simple, Bottom Line Health, Woman’s Day and more.

Sound bites, speaking in condensed language to convey your points, is an art to be practiced daily in and out of media interviews until it becomes a natural way of speaking.

If you incorporate your past into your present experience, include client successes, and show your suffering during an interview you’ll be perceived as an expert, increase your sales, and develop a following all while demonstrating your humanity and doing good work in the world.

Check out our PR and Media Training Workshop to Jumpstart your Publicity