Sales Presentations Training

Andy Beal is an expert on Search Engine Optimization and he has a post about one of his biggest beefs when it comes to experts speaking at conferences: “They Turn Speaking Engagements Into “Sales Pitches”.

“It’s a sad fact that most “expert speakers” don’t understand what their audience wants to hear from them. I’ve seen too many speakers stand-up and provide the audience with high-level theories and concepts. They then hit their audience with a double-whammy of atrocity. First, they never actually provide solutions to the problems they’re discussing – fearful that they’ll give away too much information. Second, they compound this by turning the presentation into a sales-pitch for the company they represent. Arrgh!Want to know which speakers end-up getting a fistful of business cards at the end of their talk? It’s the ones who’ve shared so much great advice and information with the audience that the attendees think to themselves…

“Wow, that’s really going to help our company, but it sounds so complex and time consuming. I know what, that guy seems to know his stuff. If he shared that amount of information in a 20 minute presentation, imagine the amount of info I’ll get if I hire his search marketing firm.”

I always encourage financial advisors, executives and small business owners to speak at conferences to gain exposure and establish themselves as experts. This is an excellent way to gain credibility quickly but as the above comment points out it can be disastrous if you abuse your invitation. Here are some tips on maximizing your speaking presentation at conferences.

1. Have a very clear understanding of your topic and stick to it.

2. Ask the meeting planner if you can give a handout or include a link to your website.

3. Don’t be afraid to share your “best” information-it will only enhance your expertise.

4. Be respectful of your allotted time-do not go over your time slot.

5. Have your presentation in modules so if you are given less or more time you can make it happen without stressing out!

6. Remember to incorporate some humor that is specific to the conference attendees.

7. Ask permission to interview 3-5 members who will be attending to gain inside insights to their specific problems or concerns.

8. Make your slides available to the audiences. Simply have the attendees write “slides” on their business cards and you can email them the slides.

9. Be available to the audience after your presentation.

10. Thank the organizers. It’s a small world and a small thing like a thank you will buy you a lot of good will!

11. Have fun

Steve Mertz

Break a Leg!

Technorati Tags: Public Speaking, Sales Presentations Training, Search Engine Optimization, Andy Beal, Sales Pitches

Conversational presentations happen every day at my favorite Starbucks. I’ll see a group of five to six individuals clustered around a table with a serious business agenda taking place. Our society is a lot more relaxed today and you may find yourself giving a very important sales presentation in a relaxed environment. Here are some presentation tips to bring to your table:

1. Have a specific agenda you are going to cover and share that with your group

2. The atmosphere is relaxed but make certain about the four or five main points you are going to cover. You may have these written down on a 3×5 card, DayTimer or on your computer.

3. Acknowledge the noise and energy around you in this public setting and draw from it.

4. By the very nature of this setting it is meant to be conversational so do ask a lot of open ended questions of the other members.

5. Take short notes when the other members give you feedback-it is nearly impossible for you to remember all the key points that will come out.

6. Gain a consensus on what the next step will be-a formal presentation, you provide more information etc…

7. At the end of the meeting if you don’t have a handout of the information you have covered offer to send all the participants an email with an overview of the key points discussed and what if any resolution was achieved.

Conversational presentations are a fact of live today and we all have to be able to adapt quickly. Use these tips as a starting point for your more relaxed sales presentations and please offer any suggestions that are absolutely golden for you!

Steve Mertz

Relaxed Presentations Can be Powerful!

Technorati Tags: Conversational Presentations, Sales Presentations, Public Speaking

If you do any amount of public speaking you will serve yourself well by building a humor file. This file can include humorous quotes, pictures and anecdotes You can get this information that is pertinent to your field from trade journals, association literature and a plethora of public sources.

I use to keep all of this material in a huge folder but now I scan it and put it on my computer. By doing that it eliminates that huge drawer of junk and it much easier to put into PowerPoint presentations or overheads. A humor file is always a great way to make a succinct point and draw your audience into your presentation. For example, if you are giving a financial presentation you may want to incorporate an idea like this in your presentation. It was a cartoon of a wealthy, old geezer sitting by a cozy fireplace. His grandchildren run over to him and say: Grandfather tell us again how you shorted the stock market in 1929!” You can take this cartoon and go many ways with it in your presentation but it just gives you another chance at humor in your presentations.

Do you keep a humor file-any other humor tips you might add?

Steve Mertz

Humor is Good!

Technorati Tags: Humor, Public Speaking, Career Training, Presentations Skills

I’m putting together a new resource site for you. The articles will cover Coaching, Public Speaking, Sales Training and Presentation Humor to name a few. If you have suggestions for additional topics let me know. The site is called Sales Presentations Articles.

Steve Mertz

Sales Presentations Resources

Technorati Tags: Sales Presentations Articles, Public Speaking Tips, Presentations Coaching

I was recently speaking with a mutual fund wholesaler who asked for advice. First, a definition, a mutual fund wholesaler is responsible for convincing brokers, financial planners, etc…to sell their mutual funds to clients. Typically, the wholesalers offer to buy lunch to advisors and make the case for their funds-wholesalers have a ton of competition, just like in your businesses!

His comment was this: It’s extremely hard to get people to come to a free lunch and watch a PowerPoint presentation. The same can be said for advisors trying to sell to clients! Your business may not be a mutual fund wholesaler but we can all face the same problems. Here are the suggestions I offered the wholesaler:

1. Quit offering free lunches-make it more exclusive.

2. Work with advisors who already believe in his product.

3. Forget the PowerPoint canned presentations and offer more Presentation coaching tips to producers.

4. These coaching tips could be success stories, critiquing their public sales presentations, helping make hand outs more informative and persuasive.

5. Offering input on how advisors can put together a great feedback sheet from their audiences. Audiences will tell you what they did and did not like about your sales presentations-you have to know how to ask for their input.

6. When the wholesaler does get in front of advisors for a luncheon meeting I gave him some presentation tips that will enhance his presentation and yet not be too stiff.

He was initially surprised at the advice-However, he is a good presenter and since the advisors he works with already have product knowledge he can offer valid presentation skill tips to help increase product sales. I reminded him that all sales people are in the communications business and the more eloquent and persuasive we are, the better our chances for conversions!

Steve Mertz

Coaching for Increased Sales

Technorati Tags: Presentation Skills, Career Training, Public Speaking, Mutual Funds

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!

Losing Sight of The Goal is #11 of Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Their Presentations. The goal of a sales presentation is to get an appointment and get more money under management. An important part of your sales strategy is to give the prospects so many benefits of your expertise that the only reasonable next step is to engage you for all their needs. 

Remember the old “T” bar example of features vs benefits? It’s still very applicable today when preparing for a sales presentation. Make sure that you are giving your audience benefits and not features of your services.

I will confess to being a major offender of this when I was actively giving financial sales presentations. It’s easy to feel so naked in front of a huge audience and the tendency is to tell them everything you know. My real fear was that they might question my knowledge and wisdom. Don’t fall into this trap-trust yourself and leave them “hungry” for more of your knowledge and expertise. Keep on goal and let your sales presentation work to accomplish your goal of an appointment!

Steve Mertz
Remember “The Goal”

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