You know your audience. You have your topic. You have your information, stories, charts, videos, and images. But do you have the most important part of your presentation?
Getting the attention of your customers, whether in an advertisement, email, social media post, or presentation, can be a challenge. My guest blogger this week, business owner Ryan Scott, shares his tips to help you interrupt and engage your customer’s attention in print or in person.
I had a surprising online experience that just stopped me in my tracks. First, I thought it was funny. Then, I realized it was brilliant.* I was having problems with some email software that I pay for and, like many of us, found the FAQs in the Help section to be totally useless. So, I selected …
As different sides argue the causes of gun violence in America, one graph destroys the one that says videos are the cause, proving once again that a picture is worth a thousand words. Click here to see the article from Vox with the compelling chart from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation that proves …
You wouldn’t knowingly shoot yourself in the foot. Yet, inadvertently, that is what many sellers and presenters do in their meetings with clients when they use “waffle” language, words and phrases that undermine credibility. Do you use any of this “waffle” language? If you do, try the alternatives below. Words Matter Just as in I just wanted …
How do you distinguish yourself from competition in the minds of prospects? Get some ideas from this week’s Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People issue. Not unlike your business challenge, the editors needed to create catchy phrases and metaphors to capture the essence of each person on their list. What crisp, memorable description can you …
One of the hardest presentations to give is the “standard” company presentation. You know the one I mean, the confidence-killer one that uses this guaranteed-cure-for-insomnia sequence: “Who the company is, Where they are located, How many clients they have, and What products/services they offer. I recently coached a new hire in the construction industry who …
For readers who appreciate the underlying sales and presentation “Words Matter” theme of this blog, it is impossible not to note the power of language in today’s news. In this case, “Wall” and “Border Security” are so loaded with different meanings for different constituencies that they threaten a major government shutdown. This is a dramatic …
Fast Company magazine posed this question to Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin: “What’s the most important lesson that business leaders can take from [Presidents Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ]?” You needn’t be a senior executive to heed her response, which applies to anyone whose success depends on the ability to sell, persuade, or influence …
I have been cleaning out my files in preparation for a move of offices and came across newsletters that I wrote ten, fifteen years ago. It is amazing how even with the technical changes in our lives in this time period, how some things never change. For example… From Winter: 2000 “So, What’s Your Story?” Too …
If it is true that attention spans are short and time is at a premium in face-to-face meetings, that rings doubly true when you present on the phone. On the phone, with a “no” or “not interested” just a hang-up click away, every word you say counts, particularly in your opening remarks. Hopefully, you do …