Sales Presentations Training

National Speakers Association has always taught us that when we have the platform it is a privilege and should be treated as such. So, as I reviewed Guy Kawasaki’s public speaking presentation I had mixed emotions. As an entrepreneur I found myself jotting notes and smiling. However, as a professional speaker I was cringing. Kawasaki wasted the first seven minutes of his presentation warming up and waffling on the opening. Why would you use offensive language if you know it will offend your audience? Why wouldn’t you respect the audience and meeting planner by adhering to the allotted time?

I’ve been following Kawasaki’s career since he stopped schleping diamonds and became the chief evangelist for the Macintosh-Quite an accompishment in itself! I’ve always known that his ego is bigger than the Grand Canyon-and for an entrepreneur that can be a good thing. I am disappointed that a grown man has to induce an audience into a standing ovation when his material can stand on its own merit. I find all of his other antics to be a distraction. Where do you stand?

Steve Mertz
Great Presentations Stand On Their Own Merit!

Tags: Sales Presentations, Guy Kawasaki, Chief Evangelist, Public Speaking.

I’ve previoulsy posted about Guy Kawasaki. Many people consider him to be a world class speaker. I’ve followed Guy’s career for years and as an entrprneur found him to be very inspiring.

I’m going to point you to a video of Guy speaking, it is 39 minutes long and will post my critique on Saturday. Some of the points you may want to consider are the following:

1. Does he have a killer opening?
2. Does he stay on subject matter?
3. Is he passionate about his topic?
4. Does he involve the audience?
5. Does he use memorable stories to reinforce main points?
6. Does he say anything that a meeting planner/audience might find offensive?
7. Does he speak for himself or for the benefit of the audience?
8. Does he respect the alloted time?
9. Does he use humor effectively?
10. Does his PowePoint enhance his speech?
11. Would you give him a standing ovation?

Here is the link to The Art of The Start Video.

I would be curious to hear your thoughts or comments…so don’t be shy

Steve Mertz
Have a Fabulous Weekend!

Tags: Sales Presentation Training, Presentation Coaching, Guy Kawasaki, Public Speaking.

The Mystery Shopper (me) was out and about last night. I attended a Public presentation for a new product. The presenter was looking to sign up additional afflilates for this program. The presenter was very good. She was articulate, energetic, sincere and used PowerPoint that actually enhanced her presentation!Near the end of the presentation-the call to action, if you will, she went to a board in the front of the room and proceeded to show the aprticipants how they could make money in this venture-with her back to the audience. My regular readers know how “this drives me to drink!” She is too good of a presenter to make this mistake!
Here is what I would suggest she do in the future:

1. Give the audience a handout where they can fill in the information. This not only includes your audience (more buy in), but they have something tangible they take home.
2. Here is another option. Invite an audience member to the front of the room and have them write the figures on the board while other audience members write on their handout.
3. She did not offer her audience an evaluation form of her presentation-Didn’t we just talk about this? This is a missed opportunity to get great feedback and maybe great suggestions for future sales presentations.

4. She could have also used an overhead for this part of her presentation but I really prefer the handout and the audience interaction.

Would you have had her do this differently? Please feel free to comment!

How do you get your audience to fill out evaluation forms? Tell them to please fill out and pass to the front and put them in a box. Have an audience member draw one out and they win a door prize-a gift card from Starbucks, a free sample etc..

Steve Mertz
Helping Craft Great Sales Presentations!

Technorati Tags:
public speaking, sales presentation, sales presentations, eye contact
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Whenever you speak in a public forum or if you do a lot of in house presentations-give your audience a speaker evaluation form that they fill out anonymously. This is one of the most powerful tools you can use to catapult your presentation skills!
A few weeks ago I was speaking with a mutual fund wholesaler-they promote their mutual funds to investment advisors to sell to you, the public. He told me he speaks over 100 times a year and considers himself to be a “very good” speaker. News flash…We all think we are good speakers-that’s why it’s critical to get a second opinion-the audience.

The audience may share some invaluable information with you that maybe you have never considered. They may offer great suggestions for additional topics and they will point out your flaws!

Here’s the rule I use when I’m reviewing audience evaluations. Throw out the most glowing and the most critical. There are those who will tell you that you are the most fabulous speaker ever and there are those who are mad as hell about being at your presentation and they will let you have it-deal with it! It’s imperative to make your evaluation form very easy for the audience to fill out and give you feedback-don’t expect them to write a book or for that matter bother to fill it out.
Sooner or later, you will get great feedback that will help you deliver a more powerful, engaging sales presentation.

If you don’t have an evaluation form and would like to “steal” mine please shoot me an email and I will send it out to you in a word document. I will not share your email address with anyone nor will you receive any spam! Email: smertz@msn.com

Steve Mertz
Evaluation Forms are Critical!

Do you have a critical public sales presentation coming soon? Will you be doing a presentation to your peers in the very near future? If you have ever wanted to pick up the phone and get immediate help from experts…Help is now a phone call away.

Beginning next week we will begin offering a monthly subscription service for $97 a month. This includes an initial coaching session with follow up email coaching and a monthly group sales call. This service would be a tune up in between face to face coaching sessions or for those that have an established presentation and want to work on specific issues. These might include the opening or closing of your presentation, presentation structure and incorporating memorable stories in your sales presentations.

There will be discounts for subscribing for a full year and about that free Apple Video iPod-For the first 100 subscribers you will be qualified for the drawing. We will draw one name and that person will get the iPod! We will have further details later in the week as well as a secure site for credit card registration.

We decided to implement this service in addition to our in person coaching sessions we offer because many of you have indicated a desire for a tune up now and then.

Steve Mertz
Phone Coaching Coming Soon!

No…Steroids will not help your public speaking presentations, however an Apple video iPod is a great idea. The Colorado Rockies have started a trend in baseball. Video is downloaded to the iPod so pitchers can study opposing batters as well as see their performance. Great idea and one that is very useful in sales presentation training. 

By having your presentations or practice sessions downloaded into an iPod you can critique your presentations as well a see where you can make improvements. I would recommend if you have a good presentation you may want to edit out the blunders so you use this tool for positive feedback!

Christie and I will be offering several new services to our clients including reviewing presentations that you can send to us. Christie will be surprised when she reads this but we are also going to be giving away an Apple video iPod. More details will follow as well as the additional services we will be offering.

Steve Mertz
Baseball, Sales Presentations and iPods!

Technorati Tags: Public Speaking, Sales Presentation Skills, Colorado Rockies, iPod

Excellent sales presentations have two things in common: they are memorable and repeatable. I have posted here on tips from David Hornick on how to make your presentation memorable. Hornick made two recommendations that can leave room for exceptions: those are Don’t use a tagline and Don’t sing. When I read that I immediately thought of one of my buddies from National Speakers Association, David Glickman. He’s that good looking guy in the picture. I have seen David in front of audiences and he is an absolute master at taking a corporate message or tagline and incorporating it into a song. Clearly, this is a special gift to be able to put out a compelling message and be able to sing it! It’s been three years since I saw David do this but I can still remember the corporate message being sung to the tune of “Knock Three Times” by Tony Orlando and Dawn. Don’t act like you don’t remember the song…Because now it will be playing in your head for the rest of the day If I had a client that this would be appropriate for, I would not hesitate to recommend David and his magic. Otherwise, I agree with David Hornick, don’t try it at your sales presentation. 

Steve Mertz
I Can’t Sing!

Tags: Presentation Skills, Memorable Sales Presentations, David Glickman, Tagline .

One of my favorite blogs is called Venture Blog, A Random Walk Down Sand Hill Road. The main contributor is David Hornick, a General Partner at August Capital. David is a Venture Capitalist and has seen thousands of presentations. I thought you might enjoy this post of his from February of 2005 entitled “The Dos and Dont’s of Presenting at DEMO.” DEMO is a yearly event where entrepreneurs are given 6 minutes to present a compelling argument for their product. For those who need a quick read I will give you a summary but do read his article in its entirety before you do your next sales presentation-you will thank David for his excellent advice!

The Dos
1. It’s all about the demo-make your product or service the focus of the presentation.
2. Leave room for spontaneity (or at least appear that you have) Translated, Don’t read your presentation.
3. Have FUN. Even though you may be sick to the stomach, hide it. Your audience will pick up on your insecurities.
4. Have a backup plan. This needs no explanation.

The DONT’S

1. Don’t praise your own product. If your product or service is that great others will sing its praise.
2. Don’t use a tagline. It may look good on paper but it may not speak well. Don’t risk it.
3. Don’t say what you’re looking for at DEMO. The VC’s will find you if you have presented a compelling presentation. For our general purposes we will disregard this if you are in fact doing a sales presentation.
4. Don’t list your partners unless they are great. Remember, it’s about the product or service.
5. Don’t try to be funny if you aren’t funny. This can and will bite you if you don’t heed this sage advice.
6. Don’t sing. There is always the exception but most of us aren’t clever enough to devise and sing a jingle, are we?

Tags: Sales Presentations, Venture Capitalists, David Hornick, Have Fun .

Most financial advisors think they give a pretty good sales presentation. After all, they are knowledgeable, dynamic, a trusted advisor and have a genuine desire to help people. Now consider this fact: Several surveys have shown that something close to 70% of all licensed drivers consider themselves “above average”-a statistical impossibility! For all financial advisors who feel they are in the “above average” category, I applaud you and trust that your conversion ratio from prospects to clients reflect your skill. 

Yesterday, a friend of mine told me about a recent financial sales presentation that she was invited to attend. The luncheon was at a very nice hotel here in Denver, Colorado. There were over 100 qualified prospects sitting in the audience in a school type setting. Most people were sitting by themselves and just waiting for the big show. The financial advisors and money manager were near the front of the room conferring about the program while the prospects ate lunch. Then…The lights dimmed and the Powerpoint started, for over 30 minutes. The advisors then asked the audience if they had any questions for the expert and informed them if they had additional questions they would be available after the program…And the audience bolted for the doors! Obviously, these financial advisors were not in the “above average” presentation skills level.

What would I do differently?

1. It starts when your prospects enter the room. Greet them and have something of interest to say. It’s also a great idea to introduce them to other prospects who may have the same interest or career path.

2. The advisors as well as the money manager should be mingling at lunch not huddled at the front of the room. It appears that you are “plotting” against your prospects.

3. You know how I feel about Powerpoint, and this audience has proven once again, how ineffective it can make your sales presentation.

4. Engage your audience before and during the presentation. It does not work for the “expert” to talk and overwhelm your prospect with facts-and then ask if they have questions at the end.

These are the glaring problems that need to be addressed before the next presentation and further comments will follow.

Tags: sales presentation trainingSteve Mertz
Colorado Sales Presentation Expert

I read this book about Barbara Corcoran several years ago, before she changed the book title to be a little flashier! Barbara started a real estate company in New York with $1,000 dollars she borrowed from her boyfriend. Around 2003 she sold her company for a boat load of money-I really enjoyed her book and learning about her tenacity. But there is only one thing that really sticks out in my mind-the time she met Donald Trump. She went to his office to meet him and hopefully generate a big deal. According to her, when Trump shook her hand, it was like a dead fish! From that point forward she did not trust him. Before you take your team to a sales presentation practice shaking hands-seriously! It is one of the first impressions that “the committee” will remember and be sure to look them dead in the eye when you are shaking their hand. Men expect a decent handshake from other men. Firm, but not too firm and don’t pump my arm off! Women get cut a little more slack in this area but a woman with a great handshake is an awesome differentiator so do practice. I know it’s a small, picky item but in this day of intense competition at sales presentations-it could be the difference.
PS While I’m on the subject of first impressions-make absolutely, positively sure that your fingernails are spotless and well groomed. The same goes for your shoes. Have a great sales presentation! 

Steve Mertz
First Impressions are Huge

Tags: Barbara Corcoran,Sales Presentations