Sales Presentations Training

For all of those of you who have wondered if there really was a Christie Ward, Sales Presentation Trainer extraordinaire-Please enjoy the following:

For the third year in a row, I was training business presentation skills to the new hires at Johnson & Johnson last week. One of my graduates from the program the year before stopped in to tell me about an experience she had shortly after being part of the group last year. Kelly said that a few days after the class, she was asked to give a presentation. Fresh from the class, she prepared a captivating opening, a solid close, created opportunities for interaction and used minimal PowerPoint. After watching a A PowerPoint parade of other presentations prior to hers that put you to sleep, she stepped up and delivered her well prepared talk. It was short, but it captured the attention of the senior executives in the room and literally catapulted her career. She has been seen as a rising star ever since. This bright young woman was in a room full of people many years her senior in age and experience, yet she was able to steal the show with her freshly minted presentation skills. She couldn’t thank me enough!

The next time you question the value of a presentation coach, think again. What is it costing you to NOT get a coach? How are your presentations perceived? Do you stand out as a rising star or sound like an old falling star that just needs to sit down and be quiet!

There are elements that make a talk successful. You probably even know what they are. You certainly know when someone Doesn’t deliver them! Next time you prepare to stand up in front of people who can impact your career, think about consulting a coach ahead of time. We can help! Just talk to anyone who took the time to work with us first.

Christie Ward
The Impact Institute

Tags: Sales Presentation Training, Presentation Coaching, Presentation Training, Denver Sales Training.

I recently had an opportunity to view 8 presentations given to Venture Capitalists. These were all small businesses seeking capital for expansion. Here are some observations of mistakes that my readers of the blog would never do: 

1. In one ten minute presentation there were over 25 PowerPoint slides-not one of the slides enhanced the presentation.
2. Presenters were reading the slides to the committee.
3. The type on the slides was to small for anyone to read-had their been information that would have enhanced the presentation.
4. Presenters turning their back to the audience and going to the screen to point out information on a slide-Never turn your back to the audience and spend $2 for a pointer!
5. Presenters “waffling” on their opening-they wasted the first two minutes getting to the point.
6. Not clearly presenting the problem and the solution.
7. Not clearly defining the “exit strategy” for potential investors.
8. Not clearly identifying the use of the money they hoped to raise.
9. No humor and no audience interaction-You can do both of these very effectively, even in a ten minute presentation.

Based on what I saw last week in Denver, there are not enough readers of the Sales Presentation Training blog. Make the world a better place and forward this blog address to someone in your organization or association. Otherwise, you may be in the audience one day when they commit these fatal 9 sins of Sales Presentations

Steve Mertz
My Readers Would Never Commit These Sins!

Not Interacting with Audience before your Presentation.

I once was in the audience when Keith Harrell, arguably the best motivational speaker in the world, was speaking. Keith also happens to be one of my favorite speakers in the world! Before the presentation Keith went down the front row introducing himself. He then used some of our names in his presentation! Keith had the audience eating out of his hand by including us and being so humble as to introduce himself before the presentation.

Force yourself to talk to audience members, get names, and maybe a nugget that you can incorporate in your sales presentation-Your audience will love you for it!

Steve Mertz
Interact with Your Audience!

Sales Presentation Tip #14 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Their financial Presentations. Minimizing Your Knowledge. It is a fine line in a sales presentation between not making your presentation all about me and minimizing your knowledge! A great way to accomplish this task is by sharing third party endorsements of your work. By sharing actual problems and solutions with your audience via third party endorsements the focus is still on the audience-and how you can solve their problems.

Because of your assocaition with other financial professionals you have seen the future. You know what financial strategies work and which are destined to fail-this knowldge is powerful beyond measure and cannot be stressed enough!

Steve Mertz
Share Your Success Stories!

Sales Presentation Tip #13 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Their Financial Presentations. Failure to Clearly Define the Exit Strategy. Your prospects as well as clients get inundated about how to create wealth. Deep down, your prospects want to hear how they are going to have a steady stream of cash flow when they want to spend their day collecting sea shells in Maui! This is a great opportunity for you to share your “financial exit strategy” as well as some of your most successful clients’ strategies. This emotional bond with the audience will distinguish you from your competitors. 

It’s ironic that today we would be talking about clearly defining the exit strategy for your clients because tomorrow I will be attending an all day conference for entrepreneurs. The conference is the Rockies Ventures Club 18th annual Denver conference. A chosen group of entrepreneurs will give presentations to Venture Capitalists-I hope they have been reading this blog because Venture Capitalists are a tough audience!

I’ll report back to you about the good, bad and ugly sales presentations that I will witness tomorrow!

Steve Mertz
Exit Strategies are Critical!

Tags: Sales Presentation Training, Exit Strategy, Presentation Training, Denver Sales Training.

Sales Presentation Tip #12 is Not Enough Preparation. Advisors pride themselves on being quick on their feet and able to occasionally shoot from the hip. That’s great, but when it comes to your sales presentation there is no substitute for practice. At the very least record yourself and for even better results get a video of your sales presentation. This will help you eliminate any distracting movements that public speaking seems to bring out in all of us. It will also help eliminate those annoying Uhs and Hmm’s from your presentation. 

Steve Mertz
Practice Makes Perfect!