On Valentine’s day the only fluttering hearts should be those in love. BUT, if your heart flutters more than you like when you present, then download a free copy of my new ebook: No One Hears Your Pounding Heart! The Ultimate Guide to Presentation Confidence. 50+ tips for controlling nerves from a survey of business people, from celebrities …
How often do you try to persuade clients or colleagues to do something they should do, but don’t want to do? We present facts. We cajole. We remind. And still nothing happens. Instead of continuing down the same fruitless, logical, left brain path to change minds, can you get the result you want with a …
What do a US President and an animal researcher have in common? At face value, very little. But both recently used the same technique to hook people into listening to their otherwise tough message, in one example, and dry message, in the second example, a technique that you can use as well in your B2B …
The article “What Verbal Tics May Be Saying About Us” that ran in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlights a really important point for anyone who sells or presents big ticket products or services. The “Tics” the article notes are phrases that you are totally unaware of that can torpedo your message and kill a potential …
Looking for a great way to freshen up your presentation arguments? Use the news. Every day there are stories in the media with high drama to them: success, tragedy, victory, triumph, defeat, heroism. With a little creative thinking, you’ll find many ways to use them to drive home your point. Here’s an example. You couldn’t …
As we begin anew in 2014 with gung-ho big ideas, it pays to remember the little things as well. Years ago, I stayed at the Ritz Carlton on assignment for a client in Maclean VA. Having traveled all over the world for business, I thought I had seen everything when it came to good service. …
Oh, God, yet another holiday networking event! Elevator speech? Check. Smile and business cards? Check Shoes shined? Suit pressed? Look like a million bucks? Check Objectives set? Check Up on latest news for smart conversation? Check. Discussion questions memorized? Check. With everyone pretty much a networking clone by now, how do you get real interest in you? Surprise people. Ask this …
How many times do you offer a brilliant solution in a brilliant presentation only to hear your listener say, “Your price is too high,” “We don’t have that in the budget,” “I can get it elsewhere for less,” or a variation on that theme? Objections to price generally come down to a lack of perceived value received for the dollars spent. How do you change that perception? You can drown buyers with the flood of benefits they would be getting or, a better strategy, you can ask very specific cost questions.
“I can’t see you. You are too far away.” {The first double row of chairs was about 20 feet from the stage.] “I know I am going to put my security guards into a state of hysteria, but, everyone, please pick up your chairs and move closer to the stage.” And with that, to the horror …
In the last week, by coincidence, I found myself mentoring a young woman entrepreneur, giving career advice as one of five panel members to a group in a communications program at a local university, and running a workshop for Dress For Success—all of which were immensely rewarding experiences. The entrepreneur was excited by what I …
By now, everyone knows the Obamacare roll-out has been a disaster, but what’s interesting from a presenting point of view is not the politics but how many different metaphorical worlds the media sourced to describe the concept of its failure. That diversity of vivid descriptions is instructive for all of us whose success depends on selling, influencing, …