|
|
| Presentation Information |
|
Business Presentations - Use Power Pitching - Get the Personal Edge
Whenever and whatever you're pitching, dozens of factors will figure in the final decision of your prospects. All else being equal, you have the edge if you can establish a personal connection. Connect emotionally and intellectually, so they like and trust you more than your competitors. How can you get your prospects to like you? Try these tips. * Focus and be sincere. If you appear nervous or unsure, you may seem devious or incompetent. If your sales presentation does not respond to their concerns and you just grind on with a prepared pitch, they will decide you don't care about them and their problems. Look people right in the eyes and convince them that you stand 100% behind the ideas, products, or services that you want to sell them. Pick up on their concerns, and address them. * "Divide and conquer." If you're doing a sales presentation, shake hands with everyone as they enter the room. Connect with them so you see them as individuals, and you become more memorable to them too. (People are usually more shy of groups of strangers than in one-on-one contacts.) * Use technology to enhance your sales presentation, not drown it. PowerPoint can keep you on track, but it can't establish trust. * Keep it simple and memorable! When your prospects have a debriefing afterwards, you want them to remember what you said more than anything your competitors pitched to them. Break your talking points into snappy sound bites that are easy to write down and remember. Make them interesting and repeatable. * Steer clear of technical language and jargon. Rehearse your presentation in advance with your spouse or an intelligent 12-year-old across the dinner table. If there's anything they don't understand, it's too complicated. * Tell great stories. People are trained to resist a sales pitch, but no one can resist a good story. Let's say you're trying to get money to fund your software company. Tell a story about how the prospective investor's life will change when you bring the product to market: "Imagine that a year from now you'll come to work and use this software to do in 5 minutes what now takes you 45 minutes. I don't know what that would do to your life, but in all our test markets or pilot programs, people tell us..." Then add more stories. Take a lesson from Hollywood. Give your stories interesting characters and dialogue, plus a dramatic lesson that your prospects can relate to. Don't say, "Certain companies have used our software." Don't even say, "IBM has used our software." Instead, say, "Joe Smith at IBM said to me, 'If we don't increase sales turnover by 20%, we want make our projections'. We guaranteed them they could if they used our software. Six months later, Joe called and said, 'You guys saved us.'" If you are pitching a product that hasn't been built yet, build a story about what it will be like for someone using it. Everything else being equal, you're way ahead of any and all your competition when your prospects relate to you, like you, and trust you. Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based sales trainer, executive speech coach, and award-winning professional speaker. She is also a Past-President of the National Speakers Association. For more information on her sales training; executive speech coaching; books, CDs, DVDs, and videos contact: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035 or visit: http://www.fripp.com Patricia Fripp offers this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included.
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Four Different Ways People Process Your Information There are four different ways that audience members assimilate information. They are: visual, auditory, auditory digital, and kinesthetic. While all members of the audience will process information utilizing all four of these approaches at different times, each audience member will individually will individually tend to rely on one of these approaches more than the other three. Clear Communication: The Benefits and How to Achieve Them Communication is a complex and often difficult process for both the receiver and sender. Barriers on both sides of the process often deflect the real meaning of the message and inhibit clear, open, and rewarding communication. Research shows that a major portion of an organization's problems are caused by poor communication, while an even greater part of an organization's progress stems from good communication. Dump Your Speeches For Leadership Talks The CEO of a worldwide business asked me to help him develop a talk he planned to give to several hundred of his top executives. He said, "I feel as if I'm Daniel going into the lion's den." Choosing the Right Work Shirts for Your Small Business Company attire says a lot about your business philosophy to your customer. Company shirts project professionalism and advertising. Too loud of a shirt turns people off and certain colors tend to washout your message. A small business which has yellow as part of it's company colors would be advised to use the bright yellow and not florescent yellow, which looks green at times. You should stay away from the florescent shirts if at all possible. Qualities of Good Communication Webster's Dictionary defines communication as "a giving or exchanging of information, signals, or messages by talk, gestures, writing, etc." The primary goal of communication in a training setting is to transfer information to participants in such a way that a maximum amount of the message is understood and retained. Tips to Temper Speaking Anxiety People take it for granted that leaders have achieved some skill in public speaking. Yet anxiety persists because leaders face very challenging situations and have a great risk of embarrassment. Here are some tips for tempering those anxieties. Painless Presentations Did the "Painless" part of the title get your attention? Problems with the Lecture Format ALTERNATIVES TO THE LECTURE FORMAT: How often do you use lectures as your sole training technique? Nearly always? Often? It's not unusual for trainers to use the lecture technique exclusively. After all, this is what we have all seen and are familiar with. The format is easily mastered, and innovation may not seem necessary when the traditionally accepted technique garners no complaints. Unfortunately, while there are several conditions under which a lecture may be useful to the trainer, for several reasons it is not a very effective tool for changing behavior in trainees. Presentation Paranoia "The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public." (Sir George Jessel) Cross Cultural Presentations The international flavour of many people's jobs naturally means that there is greater interaction between people from different cultures. Within the business environment, understanding and coping with intercultural differences between people is critical to ensuring that interpersonal communication is successful. Trade Show Victory! So you're going to have a booth at a trade show. How exciting - or how terrifying - depending on your state of mind! The Relationship between Information Sender and Receiver: The Art of Communication For communication to take place, a message must be transmitted by a communicator and correctly received by a listener. If the message is not understood, there is no communication. There is only noise. Between the transmission and reception of a message, much can go wrong. Communication, by definition, involves at least two individuals, the sender and the receiver. There are certain filters or barriers which determine whether or not the message is actually transmitted or received. Media Training 101: Mastering the Television Interview As I travel around the world I always enjoy sampling the media in different countries. Death by PowerPoint! The most critical job of a manager, when you boil it all down, is communication. To be successful, a manager has to be effective in communicating one-on-one, in writing and in groups. While weakness in any of these three disciplines will compromise the ability to lead, the weakness most often seen in managers is in group communication. And it's the most conspicuous. How You Can Save On Conference Calling In recent years, companies have recognized the need to expand their businesses in the international arena. Breakthroughs in communications and transportation have facilitated this move and have enabled these companies to trade in various countries all over the globe. It is now easier for company representatives to travel armed with business proposals and tap or create connections in remote places. Writing The Query Letter The query letter is simply a business letter that serves a dual purpose. It is an introduction of you to an agent, and an inquiry as to whether the agent would be interested in seeing a particular piece of your work. The query letter is the first "picture" an agent will have of you and your work; and is perhaps your strongest selling tool. The Missing Link in Presentation Skills Training Imagine you are the most amazing figure skater who ever lived. When rehearsing in a peaceful, empty rink, you demonstrate the ultimate in athleticism and artistry. You defy the laws of gravity as you leap in the air, landing with flawless precision. You spin with effortless grace and power; you execute jumps other skaters only dream about. On that ice, you are in your element, doing what you love to do and doing it perfectly. Audience Respect One of the biggest mistakes most presenters make is in not considering or respecting their audience when preparing their talks. Showing respect means not boring them to tears with a data dump of information which is meaningless to them. Leaves Your Audience Hungry For More! -- Presentations That Get Results Regardless, if your goal is to make a sale or educate. You don't want to fall prey to the mistakes that many presenters make -- loading us down with piles and piles of information and communication hodgepodge. Excellent presentations are designed to anchor in the key points that are relevant for influencing the listeners to take some kind of action. Choosing a Company Shirt vendor Where can you choose a company shirt vendor? There are many catalogs out their with more than competent companies selling logo'ed attire for small, medium and large businesses. Online there are many great companies too which have low costs for shirts and then put on your logo and send them to you. Many small businesses wish to do business locally; is this a smart choice for a company shirt vendor?
|
|
|
| Home | Site Map | Salesmanship Ebook | Motivational Ebook | Job and Resume Posting| Affiliate program | |
|
| 2006 All Rights Reserved. by Mp.sg Term of use and service for the articles and information |