Sales Presentations Training

Presentation Skills Training, Public Speaking and Humorous Presentation Coaching

Part 10 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 3:10 pm on Tuesday, May 30, 2006

 

Not Painting Great Visuals With Words. If I say the work Hawaii your mind immediately paints a beautiful picture of white sand, blue ocean, swaying palm trees, beautiful flowers and magnificent sunsets, right? Your mind does not spell out H-A-W-A-I-I. Use this to your advantage and make sure your words paint vivid images of prosperity that will have your audience tripping over each other to get your services.

 

Steve Mertz
Use Million Dollar Words!

Tags: , , , .

Part 9 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 9:59 am on Friday, May 26, 2006

Not Enough Humor in Presentation. Money is serious business but audiences learn better and retain more when they are laughing. You can make some pretty profound points by using humor. Rather than pick on the audience I always use self effacing humor to be on the safe side! If you are humor challenged email me and I will send you some recommendations of world class humorists who can punch up your presentation and even make your compliance officer smile!

Steve Mertz
Laughing Out Loud!

Tags: , , , .

Part 8 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 9:55 am on Thursday, May 25, 2006

Killing Them With PowerPoint. You knew this had to be in the top 10 offenders list didn’t you? Don’t start with a Powerpoint presentation and put your material in between the slides! Slides are meant to clarify or emphasize critical points-not be the main attraction. Your words are more important to your audiences. Believe me when I tell you that no one really cares what the Dow Jones Average has done since 1926. Your audience wants to know how you are going to ensure their prosperity today!One of our main goals in any public speaking event is to keep those eyes opened! So, please remember that after you have fed your prospects and dim the lights for that snappy slide show-darkness is not your friend! Your audiences are just like you-when they are being persuaded they like to see the other persons eyes as much as possible. It is a crucial way that audiences gauge our passion and credibility!

PS Garr Reynolds has a great post today on PowerPoint called Al Gore: another presenter extraordinaire?

Steve Mertz
The Eyes Have It!

Tags: , , , .

Part 7 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 8:30 am on Wednesday, May 24, 2006

No Pauses in Sales Presentation. Have you ever noticed how world class speakers and comedians will ask a question in their presentation…And then pause? Wait five seconds and let the audience answer the question in their minds. They can be forming a powerful bond with you during this pause so don’t be a rookie and move on too fast! 

This is also a very powerful technique when you are making a thought provoking statement-just pause and let it just lay out there for a few seconds. It brings the audience “in” to your presentation and if there mind was wandering it brings the audiences attention back to your message. Try the pause-it’s very powerful!

Steve Mertz
Are These Sales Tips Helping You….

Tags: , , , .

Part 6 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 6:41 am on Tuesday, May 23, 2006

 

Heavy Emphasis on Intellectual Connection. It’s imperative to give solid facts and figures but don’t forget the emotional connection you must establish with your audience. All things being equal, people are more likely to buy from those they like and trust! By using powerful stories with characters that your audience can relate to-you will be head and shoulders above your competition.

 

Steve Mertz
Make the Emotional Connection

Part 5 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 6:07 am on Monday, May 22, 2006

 

No Great Stories. Some of those great “campfire stories” may help you weave compelling and memorable stories in your sales presentations. A great story helps us paint a picture in our minds and is a great way to anchor one of your major points in sales presentations. Some of the great stories that help entertain your friends and colleagues may be a good starting point-even if you are the CEO of your company.

 

For example if your company has a great new product that you are showcasing for big$$$ clients you could say this: “Our Easy DECON DF200 is an EPA approved decontamination solution which effectively neutralizes chemical and biological agents, developed by Sandia National Labs.”

You may also consider this approach: “Two days after hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana I got a call from Charlie Jones of the EPA. The EPA needed an office decontaminated from fungus and offered us the job on a no bid basis. I left on the next flight and a week later Charlie and his staff of twenty were up and running in the building we had neutralized with our DECON DF200 solution!”

We covered a lot of ground by adding a short story and including a ringing third party endorsement! For you PowerPoint users Imagine the impact of Charlie’s image and hearing his endorsement!

Steve Mertz
Master Story Teller!

Tags: , , , .

Part 4 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 4:45 am on Friday, May 19, 2006

 

It’s All About Me. It’s all about getting an appointment and getting millions under management. Make sure you make it all about your audience and the value you will provide. Here’s my favorite technique(Yes, I do use this) to measure your effectiveness. Type out your entire presentation and then get some colored markers. For all the facts in your presentation, highlight them in red. For all you witty humor, highlight that in green. For audience participation, highlight in blue. Now, step back and look at your masterpiece-What you see no green, very little blue and a sea of red-go back to the drawing board!

I feel like I’ve been hacking away at financial professionals and the financial industry…but this really is a great technique for anyone doing any public speaking. I won’t take credit for this idea because I learned this from either Susan Carnahan (on the left)

 

 

or Glenna Salsbury-two of my very favorite speakers and members of National Speakers Association. Glenna actually takes this one step further and has her material color coded with her at the podium. So, judging by the audiences reactions she can add or subtract material as needed! She is also the consumate professional so you may want to practice before you try this on a live audience!

Try this technique and I promise you will see a dramatic improvement in your sales presentations-or I will give you a free hours coaching! You can’t lose :)

Steve Mertz
Ladies & Gentlemen Start Coloring!

Tags: , , , .

Part 3 of 15: Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 6:00 am on Thursday, May 18, 2006

Lecturing to Audiences. I know you are simply sharing your brilliance but it can come off sounding like you are lecturing. Make it more conversational and invite comments and experiences from the audience. This is kind of a “clubby” post for those who have been in the trenches as an financial professional. When I got out of training with Merrill Lynch our class was told that we now knew more than 90% of the people on the street. They meant to give us some self assurance but sometimes financial professionals can become a little over zealous in their new found knowledge :) If it were really true that fear and greed were the only motivators for money it would be much simpler to give presentations! 

I’ve seen countless sales presentations where the speaker gives the presentation and at the end asks for questions-Don’t do this! You want to end on a powerful note so entertain questions before the end of your presentation. Temper enthusiasm and knowledge with interaction from your audience-they will love you for it.

Related Posts from Sales Presentation Training: Sales Training Tip-Why Audience Interaction is Best
From Bert Decker: Get the Spotlight OFF of You.
From Guy Kawasaki: Steve Jobs at the Cupertino City Council.
From Patricia Fripp: Find An Immediate Connection With Your Audience.

Let me ask you a question: Does it help you for me to include links to additional thoughts? Please leave your comments-Thanks, Steve

Steve Mertz
Don’t Preach-Be Inclusive!

Tags: , , , .

15 Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 5:51 am on Wednesday, May 17, 2006

This is tip number 2 for Sales Presentations Mistakes. Shooting From the Hip.


Many Salespeople try to make their presentations informal with the intent of more audience interaction. Planned chaos is the best plan! Your prospects time is valuable and people love structure-so give it to them. It also keeps you from rambling and missing key points. Have you ever walked out of a presentation and said it was enjoyable but you can not remember key points? We all have-Keep it tight and on topic!

 

Related Posts: Preparing For a Sales Presentation
From Bert Decker: Audience Expecations:Time
From Guy Kawasaki: The Venture Capitalist Wishlist This is the most critical audience you will ever present to-from personal experience :)
From Garr Reynolds: The “fish story”
From Patricia Fripp: Want Your Audiences to Remember What You Say?
From Rob Cottingham: Speech Structure-101

Enjoy!

Steve Mertz
No Shooting From the Hip

Tags: , , , .

15 Biggest Mistakes Salespeople Make in Financial Presentations

Filed under: Career Training — Steve Mertz at 12:44 pm on Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Robert Louis Stevenson: “Everyone lives by selling something.”

Salespeople make it all happen and there is nothing I enjoy more than being around that energy and creativity. Having been an Investment Advisor for 15 years I gave and saw hundreds of sales presentations. In the next few weeks I am going to outline the 15 biggest mistakes that salespeople are making in their presentations before our coaching sessions. Master these mistakes and you will increase substantially increase your closing ratio!

1. Weak Opening. Don’t open your presentation talking about you and your firm. This information should be in front of your prospect in the hand out you have given them. When you open, don’t waffle, get to the point and “sing your best song.” If you and your significant other paid $500 a ticket to be in the front row of the Rolling Stones concert you want Mick to strut out, singing one of your favorites-not something you have never heard, on their new album.

Related Posts: Your Opening Says Everything
Sales Presentation Tip-Don’t Waffle
From Tom Peters: My Shtick
From Jill Bremmer: Open Your Speech With Style
From Dianne Legro: Slam Dunk Speech Openings that Grab your Audience
From Bert Decker: 6 Do’s to Open Your Presentation
From Guy Kawasaki: How to Get a Standing Ovation
From Patricia Fripp: Open Your Speech by Relating to the Immediate Situation

Enjoy!

Steve Mertz
Sales Presntation Training

Tags: , , , .

« Previous Page — Next Page »