Persuasive Presenting

Recently I was co-presenting a workshop on Business Communication along with my wife and business partner, Sandee, and it involved participants coming forward and making a presentation in front of the class while being videotaped. It struck me how self conscious we all are when making presentations. So much so that we focus on our mannerisms, speech and delivering the content while forgetting that we are in the business of persuasion.

A business presentation is usually a persuasive argument. You are trying to persuade the audience to believe in your point of view. Therefore your focus should be on the audience not on yourself or your PowerPoint slides. You should be looking at them for cues of attention and understanding. And the audience recognizing that you are speaking to them will increase their listening to your presentation.

I therefore thought I would share a few points that I have learned along the way that helps me be a more persuasive business presenter.

Prepare before you Speak
Before making the presentation, present it to yourself in front of the mirror until you are confident you have a full grasp of what you are planning to say, how you will use it to persuade your audience and how you will counter opposition to your ideas.

Use your Own Style
Speak from who you are, don’t pretend to be someone else. You don’t have to be Barak Obama to get your audience to listen. People want to hear what you really believe — there’s power in honesty. It’s not what you say, but how you say it, and how they hear it that counts. Over 65% of communication is in the non verbals and voice intonation with content being only 35%. Powerful speaking comes in many styles, and even a quiet-spoken introvert can learn to make himself heard.

The goal is not perfection, but persuasion.

Tell a Story
A story is one of the easiest and best ways to make a point. Recently I gave a one day workshop and later in conducting a performance review with my audience, I was surprised to learn, that the number one thing that the audience remembered was a story I told in passing, to make a point. People love stories, and it makes them know you are real. Stories stay with us forever.

Practice, practice, practice 
The best performing athletes at the recently concluded Olympic games all credited their success to the long hours of practice. It is said that world class players probably spend about 30 hours of field practice and film-watching for every 60-minutes of the game. Practice allows them to learn from their mistakes and perform better.

You will be more comfortable in making your presentation by time spent practicing. Arriving early to visit the site, testing the equipment and visualizing the audience can increase your comfort level.

Use Power Point as an aid
PowerPoint, is a useful tool it is not the presentation. You are the presentation. Far too often I see presenters stand and face the screen and present with only a casual glance back at the audience. Start and end your talk with a blank screen, so the focus is on what you are saying. The letter “B” on your keyboard blanks the screen.

- Start with a short story — something emotional, controversial or visual that makes an impact.

- Keep text to a minimum. Don’t read from your slides.

- Less is more. make fewer points per slide.

Make visual contact with individuals in the audience. If you connect with one, chances are you’ll be connecting with them all.

Good luck and persuasive presenting.

Teaching as Selling Ideas

Recently at one of my online seminars a participant asked me the question, “As a High School teacher, how do I sell an idea to my class?” And I thought I would repeat my answer here for the benefit of the teachers.

As a Coach I also am a teacher and I face the same difficulty and I understood her problem. Selling an idea to a class can be difficult, especially if its youths who  are very cynical, but the process is no different to selling a knowledge product or service to a customer.

As I say in my seminars “In todays knowledge age we are all sellers of ideas!” As knowledge workers we work with information to produce and distribute knowledge products and services.

Thomas Friedman says in his book “The World is Flat” that in this knowledge age the competition is global competition between individuals.

Yes, a teacher today is a seller of ideas in competition for the mind of her students against all the other idea sellers out there- the Internet, Facebook, movies, television, peers and the local drug pusher.

So as teachers how do we sell our ideas? We follow the selling process (i) Making the customer feel at ease (ii) Understanding the customer’s needs and problems (iii) Presenting our ideas as solutions to these specific needs and problems (iv) Proving that they are effective solutions (v) Closing the sale

The selling process is a sequence of activities. We do not move on to the next stage before we have adequately covered a step. And if we do prematurely move on we return to the incomplete stage and complete it.

So in stage (i) The teacher is required to make the student feel at ease by gaining his/her confidence. In this first stage we recognize that the student is suspicious of our motives as teachers, anxious and probably intimidated or in some cases distrustful. Before we can proceed to sell any idea we must first gain the students trust. This is done by showing genuine concern for his/her well being and welfare. You must show that you have their best interest at heart.

This calls for dedication and integrity because students are particularly turned off by what they see as double standards or selfish motives. It is often repeated by delinquent students that they joined a gang because the members understood them and cared about them more than their teachers.

Once you have gained their trust you move on to the second stage (ii) Understanding their problems.

I’ll continue with this topic in another episode. Until then - Happy Selling!!

Believe in Your Service

Recently a participant at one of my seminars said to me “Coach I am not doing well in Sales because I am too honest. My Sales Presentation goes well but when it comes to closing the sale I speak the truth and often it results in a lost sale. My peers do not tell the truth and succeed in closing the Sale.”

I could see the anguish and look of hopelessness in her eyes and I was moved by her pain. My immediate response was to use the opportunity to correct an often mistaken belief, that selling is trickery and deception. It is true that some less than honest individuals and companies deceive customers but I do not call them sales persons or sales organizations but crooks. Deception is short lived and cannot sustain customer loyalty.

A true salesperson on the other hand solves a client’s problem with his product or service. All products have strengths and weaknesses. And a master sales person communicates how his product or service’s strengths can solve the customer’s problem. He focuses on the benefits of the service and explains its value and proves it can solve the problem or meet the need. A master sales person, if required, communicates how weaknesses of the product or service can be compensated for with additional service.

In this case my participant had a problem and even though it was in a seminar with others I was determined to solve her problem with my solution. I explained to her that more likely it was either a weakness in her closing skills or a lack of total product knowledge. Either way we would deal with these skills during the course of the seminar. Later during the respective parts of the seminar I paid special attention in helping her build those respective skills. I am glad to report that she left the seminar more knowledgeable and confident in her closing skills.

A successful sales person believes in her product or service. And believes she is truly selling an appropriate solution. If she doesn’t believe the service is a solution its normally because she does not have sufficient product knowledge. I believed in my service and was confident that I could help her overcome her mistaken belief.

If you’re serious about dramatically growing your sales then you must truly believe in and know your product or service and believe that you are truly helping solve the customer’s problem.

Improving sales confidence is one of the areas I deal with in my seminars and workshops. If you would like to dramatically grow your sales then email me at coachbengo@gmail.com or coachbengo@mac.com