indieporsa.info

You’ve been making the same old presentations, year after year.

Same script.

Same slide deck with the same cute cat clip-art.

Same old brochures… same old proposals…

You know it. I know it.

What you might not know, however, is that while your presentation may not have changed, your results sure have.

Same presentation – diminishing returns.

No, putting a new cover on your brochure every year doesn’t cut it.

Nor does a new cat pic on slide three.

That is not a refresh!

The same material delivered in the same style will garner average results… and average results diminish your actual returns year over year due to rising costs and increasing competition.

Face it. You’re in a rut. A very costly rut.

Here’s how to snap out of that presentation rut without getting overwhelmed or breaking the bank.

Why your presentation Is failing you

The first reason why your same old presentation is failing you is all on you.

You’re bored. Most importantly, your audience can tell you’re bored.

When you give the same memorized presentation with the same supporting materials time after time, it becomes rote. You’re no longer thinking about what you’re saying, or paying attention to how your delivery is affecting your audience.

AGENT SMITH

You’re not engaged in your presentation – so why should your audience be engaged in it?

Think about that lullaby your mum sang to you when you were a kid. Now you sing it to your kids as you put them to bed at night. It’s a nice lullaby. But it’s also a routine. When was the last time you actually paid attention to the words you were singing?

Repeating the same memorized presentation is like singing your audience to sleep.

The second reason your presentation is failing you is because it’s not keeping up with the changes your company is going through.

Change is the only constant in business. Since you created that presentation, your business has certainly changed. Maybe you have new offerings, or a new customer service team, or a new purchasing process. If those changes aren’t reflected in your presentations, you’re missing a huge opportunity to share what’s new and exciting at your company.

And you’re missing the opportunity to get your audience excited about it, too.

The third reason your presentation is failing you is because a predictable old presentation delivered by a listless speaker is a recipe for a stagnant performance.

A good presentation is dynamic. The room, the stage and the audience all affect the delivery.

A stagnant performance encourages the audience to tune out. It also makes it less likely that your audience will remember anything you say. In fact, people recall nothing if they’re not paying attention, and the average adult attention span is only five minutes.

There are three elements to fixing a failing presentation and engaging your audience…

Element #1: Conversation – and It Only Happens When Prospects Participate

A successful presentation is a conversation.

And conversation only happens when the dialogue goes both ways.

Whether you’re giving a sales pitch to a buyer or presenting your quarterly business report to your organization, no presentation should be “shut up and listen to me talk for 30 minutes.”

Your audience should feel like they can jump in and ask a question at any point. And you should feel like you can shift gears to accommodate those questions and give a great response at any point.

Part of this comes from practicing dynamic speaking skills – which you can learn more about here. But you may be surprised to discover that part of this also falls to your choice in supporting materials.

You’re only human, and you can only remember so much. You’ll need to come to every presentation opportunity prepared with supporting materials, such as brochures, spec sheets and discretionary slides. If someone in the audience asks you a question you can’t answer off the top of your head, stopping the presentation to shuffle through a stack of paperwork or scroll through dozens of digital files will be incredibly distracting for everyone involved.

And sometimes saying “I’ll get back to you on that” just won’t cut it.

So keep everyone on track and engaged by having your supporting material well-organized an instantly accessible in a dedicated app. At Stun, we use Showcase Workshop for this.

Element #2: Excitement – the Secret to Waking Up Your Audience

The secret to an engaged audience is excitement. Yes, that means keeping the presentation dynamic and having your supporting materials easily accessible.

It also means rethinking your story for your current audience.

What’s new? Different? What’s exciting in your world? How has your product changed lives? What do your quarterly results mean for your organization’s future?

These are the stories your audience wants to hear.

Element #3: Encouraging Dialogue – Leave ‘Em Wanting More

Now you understand the need for conversation and excitement to keep your audience engaged.

The third element to a presentation that doesn’t bore the socks off of your audience is to encourage dialogue.

Don’t just prepare for questions – encourage them. Tell the audience you want them to ask questions. Don’t wait until the end for a formal Q&A. No one will be awake for that.

And ask questions of your own. Foster two-way dialogue by asking the audience questions that trigger responses you’re ready for, so you can use those responses to move seamlessly forward in the presentation.

Most importantly, tell the right stories to elicit an emotional response from your audience.

If you’re telling the right stories, your audience’s response will be “me too!”

They’ll want to jump in with their own examples of why what you’re saying is on-target.

They’ll pursue you for more information because what you’re saying is resonating so deeply.

They’ll tell you why they need your solution.

Tell the right stories and your audience will be anxious to hear more.

Don’t worry. You’re not on your own creating these stories. That’s exactly what we do here at Stun Sells. We help you uncover your story, and then construct the highest quality digital sales collateral to power that story. Hear how other companies have gotten better results from their presentations with better stories.

The key to a great presentation is in the preparation, if you spend the time and energy on getting ready to deliver by the time you come to making your speech it will be the way you want it and need it to be.

Here are five simple ways to make sure you’ve laid the groundwork for a talk that leaves a lasting positive impression on your audience.

Practice Your Delivery

It’s time to rope in some friends or colleagues and use them as guinea pigs. If you want to know how people will receive what you say there’s no better way to find out than to talk to some people. When you do this get feedback, and more importantly act on that feedback.

You can also video yourself, but don’t try and evaluate your performance by yourself. We tend to be too tough or too easy on ourselves, and videos can make us extremely self conscious. So ask someone else to go through it with you.

Focus on: Content and Style

Check the Venue

Spend some time in the place (if you can) where you will be delivering, look at the set up particularly where the audience will sit in relation to you. Look at how you will get to the space in which you present and keep an eye out for obstacles, there’s nothing worse than tripping over a cable prior to a big speech.

Focus on: Access and Comfort

Don’t Over Do It

If you over prepare you can end up with a formula but no magic. It can leave you stilted and robotic and people will perceive you as “going through the motions”. Trust in yourself and rely on the principle that once you feel 90% ready, you’re ready. The other 10% isn’t big enough to worry about and is almost certainly tiny detail that no-one else notices.

Focus on: Maintaining the flow and keeping it natural

Check the Tech

Look at the projector; make sure you’re familiar and comfortable with it. Practice with any controls and ideally learn to use them without looking. Make sure your PowerPoint keeps within style guidelines and isn’t full of annoying animations and swoosh effects.

Focus on: Avoiding distractions on the day

Visual Aids

Keep words to a minimum and use your visuals to enhance and maintain your talk. You’re the source of the speech not the slides. So graphics that illustrate and improve the content are great, thousands of type written notes – are not.

Focus on: Complementing not replacing your speech

How well do you present yourself and your company to a prospect? Are you too busy bashing your competition to tell your prospect what YOU have to offer? Stop telling your prospects that you’re the best choice and show them you are with an approach that your competition won’t be able to duplicate! Forget about the competition!

There are two methods of presenting yourself to a prospect:
A. Speak negatively about their current vendor to make your own company look good in comparison.
B. Show off your innovative concepts and solutions to present your company in a new and extraordinary way, without comparing yourself to the competition.

Which option do you think will most likely lead to a sale?

I hope you chose B. For some reason, many salespeople think that speaking negatively about their competition will make themselves look great in comparison. They see their prospect admitting their dissatisfaction with their current vendor and running to you, their new hero, with open arms. In the real world, this doesn’t happen.

Speaking negatively about your prospect’s current supplier will only evoke negative emotions.

This will actually distance you from your prospect and the possibility of making a sale. Consider common questions you may ask your prospect with method A: -Are you paying too much? -Are there hidden charges that you didn’t notice? -Are you getting the type of service that you deserve? All of these questions will produce negative emotions from your prospect. You will make your prospect feel ignorant and misinformed about a decision they made in the past, and make them feel stupid for doing business with their current supplier. What gives you the right to come into their office and start pushing buttons to make them feel this way?

Show that you are different

Basing your entire sales presentation on your competitor’s shortcomings will not only make your prospect feel bad, it will also make you look bad, because the approach is amateurish and lackadaisical. Customers know that it takes creativity and preparation to make an original and valuable presentation. If you want your prospect to think you are different from your competition, then you must bring something new to the table. Don’t ask the same questions and use the same comparison technique that other salespeople use. Find out what makes you different and let that be the driving force behind your presentation. What do you have, other than price and service, to single you out from your competition? Do you have something that will make them more profitable in their business? Do you have a unique concept that your future customers would enjoy hearing about? Of course you do! Now use it! Once you decide what your creative focal point should be, construct your entire presentation around it. Put those negative comments on the back burner and get excited about your creative approach to the sales presentation! Your enthusiasm and preparation will carry you from the initial phone call all the way to the signing of the contract.

Take it to the top

Choosing a presentation that is different from your competition will give you the distinction you will need to set up an appointment with a prospect at the top of an organization. With this attention, you will be in a position to speak with someone from the company who is not bound by existing budget restraints and has the power to make the decisions necessary to award you with business. Without this distinction, you would be stuck speaking with an administrator of the company, who would probably be more concerned with price than fresh business concepts. Their lack of authority and desire to make radical changes will often bring up obstacles that you are most likely used to dealing with. These can include current contracts that have yet to expire, budget restraints, and the lack of gumption to alter the status quo. Those who actually run companies are interested in new concepts that can make their business more profitable and more productive. Coincidentally, these people are the ones with the authority and desire to make changes when they have a compelling reason to do so.

Having a presentation that is positive and focuses on your innovative solutions and ideas will grab the attention of the actual decision maker. By abandoning the old fashioned presentation method of using comparisons, you will mark yourself as a leader in your industry. You will be seen as an expert in your field and will win sales at margins that support the level of service that your customer expects. In this position, you will be practically untouchable by your competition. Your prospects will see that the creativity and preparation of your presentation reflects your business practices. They will assume that you will be just as unique and thorough in their fulfillment and service after the sale. This will separate you from the competition and facilitate a level of trust and loyalty that can’t easily be matched. Because of your presentation, YOU will get the attention of the decision maker, and YOU will get the sale!