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Jeffrey Gitomer

Are you the ‘Toast’ of your meetings?

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I’m giving a 10-minute talk at Toastmasters in NYC tomorrow night. Subject? Humor – what it is, how to create it, and how to use it.

I am challenged to help the club members (who all have humor as the basis of their speaking) find new ways and new ideas to make their audience laugh and engage.

MAJOR CLUE: At the end of humor is the height of listening. If you’re at a comedy club, and the comedian tells a joke, and you’re laughing so hard that your drink is coming out your nose, as soon as the comedian starts to talk again, you immediately stop laughing and start listening. You don’t want to miss what’s next. At the end of humor is the height of listening. Got it?

Presentation skills are one fifth of the sales process. The other four being your selling skills, your product knowledge, knowledge of the customer, and your attitude.

Most salespeople study presentation skills and positive attitude skills THE LEAST. When in fact, if you weigh the five elements, those two are at the top of the list. Why then are you not studying presentation skills?

If I ask everyone reading this column to put your hand in the air if you are a member of Toastmasters, not many hands would go up. (Yours included.)

Finding your voice, and combining it with your courage equals speaking in public. Speaking in public is arguably your best networking, notoriety, brand building, and confidence building opportunity in existence. And a great place to learn is Toastmasters.

Got speech?
Got courage?
Got (meaningful) subject matter?

If you’re in sales, speaking in public is critical to your success.

  • Learn the science of speaking and presenting.
  • Join and practice at Toastmasters.
  • Graduate to speaking at civic organizations.
  • THEN look for opportunities within your market.

Topics? Speak about something the audience will value and respect you for.

  • After ownership, how do I use…
  • Maximum productivity
  • Memorable service
  • New ideas
  • Morale in the workplace
  • Profit

BEWARE and be aware. The experts are not experts. Most “expert” advice about public speaking is weak and generalized. Here are a few examples (IN BOLD) of what NOT to do:

  • It’s ok to be nervous. If you go into a presentation and you’re nervous, in my book that’s NOT okay. You have to go into a presentation or sales presentation wreaking of confidence. The reason you’re nervous is because you’re unprepared. And being unprepared is one of the best ways to lose a sale or an audience.
  • You don’t need to be perfect. Really? When I see a rule like “don’t try to be perfect,” I always think to myself “exactly where would you like me to screw up?” When I am building rapport, when I am presenting my product, when I am trying to understand customer’s needs, when I am talking about my value proposition? Or maybe when I am trying to complete the transaction? (AKA: close the sale)
     
    NOTE WELL: Heck, if there is someone I want not to be perfect—it’s my competition. Let them screw up. Let them blow the sale.
  • Know your subject. DUH! When you’re giving a presentation ‘knowing your subject’ is a given. The rule should be “know what your audience doesn’t know, and talk about that.” What you need to know is how your customer uses, benefits from, and profits by owning your product.
  • Practice, practice, practice. When an expert tells me to ‘practice, practice, practice,’ the first question I want to know is, ‘practice what?’ What it should say is build your presentation skills daily by giving presentations and recording them. When you’ve done the recording, play it back immediately. If you’ve ever wanted a dose of reality, I promise you that playing back your presentation will be the funniest, most pathetic thing you have ever seen or heard. For most people, it’s the grimmest dose of reality.

THE VALUE OF RECORDING YOUR PRESENTATION: When you record yourself, it’s the exact evidence of what you said and how you said it. How impactful it was. How transferable it was. How persuasive it was. How convincing it was. And ultimately, how successful it was. Recording your presentation will reveal every blemish, every error, every weakness, and give you a report card on your effectiveness.

The average salesperson (not you of course) is presentation-weak. This is predominantly caused by lack of study, lack of creativity, lack of belief, lack of preparation, and lack of recording.

Wouldn’t you think with all this at stake, that presentation skills would be one of the highest priorities in a salesperson’s life? Well, luckily for you, the average sales person doesn’t feel that way. The average salesperson is home right after work hunting around for the TV remote instead of hunting up new facts for their presentation tomorrow. They’re hunting for a can of beer instead of hunting for a Toastmasters meeting.

Hunt for a speech. When you find it, there’s money attached.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey GitomerJeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at salesman@gitomer.com.

Recommended Resources – Winning Strategies for Power Presentations

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StrategyDriven Recommended ResourcesWinning Strategies for Power Presentations
by Jerry Weissman

About the Book

Winning Strategies for Power Presentations by Jerry Weissman is a vast collection of presentation best practices focused on gaining and retaining the audience’s attention and effectively conveying the message desired. Jerry takes his presentation lessons from history’s many great orators and presenters. These collections are grouped by topical area including:

  • The Art of Telling Your Story – 30 best practices
  • Graphics: How to Design PowerPoint Slides Effectively – 15 best practices
  • Delivery Skills: Actions Speak Louder Than Words – 12 best practices
  • How to Handle Tough Questions – 8 best practices
  • Special Presentations – 10 best practices

Benefits of Reading this Book

All professionals at every organizational level must effectively communicate in order to be successful for it is only through a well conveyed, received, and understood message that we influence others and shape the behaviors around us.

StrategyDriven Contributors like Winning Strategies for Power Presentations because for its thoroughness in addressing each aspect of public presentations. Jerry’s book is well researched and truly gathers the best presentation practices from renowned influencers throughout history. Within his book, we found numerous gems of wisdom, particularly regarding the language and syntax used by successful presenters, that will help us to take our presentation skills to the next level.

We had two criticisms of Jerry’s book. First, while the best practices are contained within well-structured collections there is no overarching process for ‘pulling it all together,’ to create and deliver a powerful presentation. Second, we would have liked to see more and more detailed illustrations of the points Jerry made in the Graphics section of the book; providing a visual example for the points being made.

Winning Strategies for Power Presentations provides readers with a thorough body of best practices needed to elevate their presentation development and delivery skills. Each recommendation is clear and concisely conveyed enabling the reader to quickly select and extract the specific insight needed. For its deep insight and actionable conveyance of how readers can improve a vital business skill, Winning Strategies for Power Presentations is a StrategyDriven recommended read.

For a Powerful Presentation, Begin with a Bang, Finish with a Flourish

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Planning a presentation? Once you’ve analyzed your audience and determined what you want to say, give lots of attention to the presentation’s two most critical parts: the opening and the close. They’re the parts the audience will remember best – and each of them serves a vital purpose.

Begin with a Bang

Begin the presentation by seizing everyone’s attention with what we at Communispond call ‘the grabber’. Wake them up. Shake them up. Involve them. Create an opening that makes the audience members put away their hand-held gizmos and focus on what you’re saying.

Among the most compelling of grabbers is a dramatic story. That’s because everyone loves a story. We’ve loved them from early childhood, since mankind’s early beginnings and they’re loved across all cultures. Telling a story does much more than command the audience’s attention, though. It helps you make an emotional connection with everyone.

[wcm_restrict]With any audience, whether it’s one person or many, you have to appeal to both the head and the heart to be persuasive. You’ll find your path to the heart with your story. Every successful communicator is a great storyteller. Among today’s business leaders, GE’s Jeff Immelt and Zappos’ Tony Hsieh are widely known for their ability to connect with audiences by telling stories.

An executive in a power company who was presenting to an important sales prospect opened his talk with a story about a company employee who cut short his vacation and drove 300 miles to help restore power after a hurricane. The executive used the story to illustrate that the company prides itself on serving its customers. The story painted word pictures – the howling wind, the fallen trees that blocked roadways – to involve the prospect in the drama.

As you plan the story that opens your presentation think of how the great authors and moviemakers tell their stories. They portray heroes, battles against adversity and colorful settings. Let yours do the same. Keep the stories simple, though, and make them link directly to the major point your presentation makes.

Your story can be real or hypothetical. It can deal with history or what’s current. It also can be a personal experience. A personal story can let you project warmth and human fallibility if you begin by saying, for example, “Did I ever tell you about the time I fell flat on my face?”

Another very effective grabber is a question. It gets the audience members involved because it prompts them to think of an answer. You have to make the question relevant to the interests and needs of the audience, of course. And, as with stories, the question should lead into your presentation’s key message.

Addressing a managers meeting, Brian Halla, CEO of National Semiconductor Corp., began his presentation by asking, “Do you know what keeps me up at night?” Listening with their full attention, the audience members heard Mr. Halla talk about his concern about the economy, then lead to the need for managers to look for near-term opportunities for growth.

You can ask many different kinds of questions. You can appeal to the imagination: “What would happen if ….” Or to the audience’s self-interest: “Does everybody here know how to make a million dollars?” You can make them think, wow, what’s he going to say next if you begin with: “You know what makes me want to kill?” You can pose a problem and ask for solutions to it. You also can ask a series of questions that ask for a show of hands. Doing this will generate audience involvement – and let you tailor your presentation to meet the group’s particular needs.

Yet another good grabber is the startling fact. It can be inside information about the company or its industry or something that might be unrelated but leads to the point you want to make. Check out the search engines for ‘little known facts about …’ or ‘trivia about …’ for ideas. (Check the fact for accuracy, though, because you can’t trust everything you see on the Internet.) State your startling fact, and pause for dramatic effect before you continue.

Should you use humor for your grabber? You shouldn’t unless you’re very, very good at it. We’ve all seen presenters use humor that falls flat and immediately loses the audience. Begin with a story, a question or a fact instead. Whatever way you begin, though, be sure your opening makes it clear that what follows is important.

Finish with a Flourish

Plan your presentation’s close so it meets your objective, whatever its purpose. Perhaps you want to impart information – at a senior management briefing or a staff training session, for example. Alternately, you may want to motivate the audience to take action – to support a policy change or maybe provide extraordinary effort to meet a new challenge. Presentations with different purposes need different endings

For presentations that provide information you have to reinforce your main points with a clear and concise summary of the talk’s content. This isn’t the time to enumerate all the features of the product you’ve been describing – and especially to introduce any new information.

As you sum up, you can reinforce the points you made by continuing the story from your introduction. If you asked a question, reiterate the answer. If you presented an unusual fact, expand on its implications.

You can help the audience remember your main points with short catchy phrases. For example, the instructors in Communispond’s presentations skills training classes use the term ‘Turn, Touch, Talk’ to help the learners remember the sequence of physical actions for using a flipchart. You can create original mnemonic devices with acronyms and rhymes. The ABC song helped generations of children memorize the alphabet and ROY G. BIV remains an internal presence in physics.

To close a presentation that’s intended to move an audience to take action, you have to make it clear exactly what you want everyone to do. Spell it out, step-by-step. Point out the personal payoffs they’ll get by supporting your plan.

To get them excited about the plan, you have to show them you’re excited. Use a higher level of energy than you used in the earlier parts of the presentation. Move across the front of the room in long, confident strides. Emphasize your major points with movement of your arms and hands, head turns and changing facial expressions.

Continue the story you began in your introduction – and give it a really dramatic ending. Let it lead to an acronym or other mnemonic device that sums up what you want the audience to do. Once the audience is solidly behind your plan, ask them to shout back the acronym to you.

For whatever kind of close you use, be sure you keep a fast pace. Audiences tend to tire at a presentation’s end. Attention spans keep getting shorter and people’s work gets more demanding. You’ll earn points for keeping your presentation short.

And Remember the Basics

For your beginning with a bang and your finish with a flourish – and at all points in between – remember some of the basics of making an effective presentation:

  • Maintain strong and steady eye contact with one person in the audience at a time for as long as it takes to say a phrase, then move to another face; avoid scanning the room because this would give your brain too much information to process and increase whatever anxiety you may be feeling.
  • Don’t let your visuals dominate the presentation; it’s you who’s the star of the show.
  • Watch your posture; maintain an erect yet comfortable stance throughout the presentation.
  • Avoid non-words like ‘um’ and ‘ah’.
  • Rehearse the presentation so well that you can toss the script and speak as if you’re unscripted.

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About the Author

Bill Rosenthal is the Chief Executive Officer of Communispond Inc., an organization that has taught business communications skills to more than 600,000 persons. Bill is responsible all aspects of the business including sales, marketing, content development, and the delivery of Communispond courses by certified faculty. Prior to joining Communispond, Bill was CEO of Digi-Block Inc., a K-12 education publisher focusing on mathematics. He also served as President of Kaplan College, a division of Kaplan Inc., the well-known test preparation company, where he developed and launched the online college that offers Associates and Bachelors degrees and certificates in Business, Information Technology, Nursing, and Law. In a previous role as President of Ziff-Davis Education (now called Element K), Bill oversaw the leading supplier of computer training products worldwide and supervised the operations of ZD University, the leading web-based computer skills site.

How to Give a Briefing that Impresses the Boss

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Let’s say you have to brief the boss on the status of a project. How can you do it best? Here’s a five-step process you can use for a meeting, an email message or a stopped-in-the-hallway request for an update. This process will help you make it obvious to the boss that you’re on top of the project. You’ll also show you’re a clear and crisp communicator who values the boss’s time.

[wcm_restrict]Step 1: Give the big picture

Don’t begin by describing what you’re doing toward completion of the project. Start instead by giving a concise picture of the project’s status – a realistic one, of course. If the boss isn’t clear on the project’s purpose, describe its goal. It might be a good idea to reference a previous discussion to help the boss connect quickly. You may want to quote the boss’s own words about the project’s goals.

Step 2: Report the headlines

Net out what’s important. Resist the temptation to tell the boss every little detail to show you’re ready for all possible glitches that could delay the project. Nobody wants a data dump, especially a busy boss. Give an overview, in the context of the exact request the boss made. Describe the next step to be taken and its target date. The headlines may be all that’s wanted.

Step 3: Ask for Feedback

Ask the boss’s opinion about what you’ve reported. You might get some thoughtful advice about what to do next. Even if you don’t need an opinion, you’ll show polite deference by asking the boss’s thoughts. If you absolutely need to know what the boss thinks, on the other hand, you should ask whatever questions you have during the ‘Report the Headlines’ stage of the briefing.

Step 4: Add some critical details

Any additional information you give should relate to the headlines. After all, this is a briefing, not a tutorial. If more information is wanted, the boss will ask. If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it and promise to get back with the data.

Your critical details can include evidence that support your solutions about the project’s status. The evidence can include facts and figures, data on the results similar projects produced, or an evaluation made by someone the boss respects.

Step 5: Be ready to answer questions

You probably can anticipate the questions the boss might ask. They’ll probably center on cost and anticipated outcomes for the project. Prepare concise answers to them. As you answer questions, keep your answers brief. Don’t get defensive if the boss’s question sounds impatient. It may be due to time pressures. Answer with assurance. It’s all right to give some background before you answer, but don’t overdo it or you’ll appear evasive.

What should you do if it’s necessary to present bad news? Don’t wait for a request for a briefing to present it. Report what’s happening as soon as you realize there’s a problem and be candid about its scope. You’ll get credit for taking the initiative and you’ll get the needed help.

Other Uses of the Process

You also can use this five-step formula for project updates with your staff or with interdisciplinary teams. Be certain the audience knows why you’re conducting the briefing. Some of the people there might not have been told its purpose. If action by the audience is called for, be certain you’re clear about what’s to be done.

It’s important that you speak with the audience’s level of expertise in mind. Nothing is more off-putting than talking down to an audience. Nothing will confuse an audience more than talking over their heads – with acronyms they may not understand or examples that aren’t in their frame of reference.

Everybody loves straight talk delivered clearly and with a respect for the listener’s time. Follow this five-step process and you’ll bring across the information that’s wanted – and demonstrate that you’re an excellent communicator.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Bill Rosenthal is the Chief Executive Officer of Communispond Inc., an organization that has taught business communications skills to more than 600,000 persons. Bill is responsible all aspects of the business including sales, marketing, content development, and the delivery of Communispond courses by certified faculty. Prior to joining Communispond, Bill was CEO of Digi-Block Inc., a K-12 education publisher focusing on mathematics. He also served as President of Kaplan College, a division of Kaplan Inc., the well-known test preparation company, where he developed and launched the online college that offers Associates and Bachelors degrees and certificates in Business, Information Technology, Nursing, and Law. In a previous role as President of Ziff-Davis Education (now called Element K), Bill oversaw the leading supplier of computer training products worldwide and supervised the operations of ZD University, the leading web-based computer skills site.

Conquer Your Nerves with Eye-Brain Control To Make a Strong, Fearless Presentation

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Do you get sweaty palms, a dry mouth, and butterflies in your stomach when you have to get up and make a presentation? Well, you’re not alone. It’s well known that public speaking or presenting is one of the scariest activities for businesspeople. In fact, surveys over the years have regularly put fear of public speaking right up there with fear of heights, fear of insects, and even fear of death.

We’re going to share a technique that will help you control your nerves, connect better with your listeners, and even gauge your audience’s reactions to what you’re saying. The technique is called Eye-Brain-Control.

[wcm_restrict]When most of us stand in front of an audience – whether it’s a large or small one – we tend to scan the room. We either move our eyes rapidly from side to side or glance with random darting motions from point to point. This tendency comes from a nervous, almost primal, instinct to see everything and everyone all at once.

But when you scan an audience you take in an overwhelming amount of information – colors, shapes, facial expressions, movement by audience members, etc. The information is actually irrelevant to you but it bombards your brain as you’re trying to remember what to say. The faster you scan, the more information your brain receives, and the more nervous you become. You’ve created information overload for your brain. This makes it harder and harder to remember what to say. And in the worst case you might just draw a complete blank.

It’s frightening, isn’t it? But the solution is really fairly simple: Talk to one person at a time. Actually, lock eyes with one listener and deliver one complete thought and then lock eyes with another listener for another thought. We call this technique Eye-Brain Control, because you’re actually using your eyes to control and lessen the amount of input to your brain.

What happens when you practice Eye-Brain Control? The one person with whom you lock eyes will be in clear focus. No blurring. And, therefore, the amount of stimulus to your brain goes way down, leaving your brain free to concentrate on the message you’re delivering. And with fewer stimuli to the brain you’ll feel far less nervous. This is a simple straightforward technique, but it does take a bit of practice because our instincts push us in the opposite direction.

Here are some tips for practicing Eye-Brain Control: If you’re alone in your office or at home, pick out or place a couple of objects around the room. You can use the mirror on the wall across from you or the flowers on the table. If you happen to have photographs of people place them around the room so you can look right into their faces. Now pick a subject that you know very well. It could be a hobby, or your kids, or what you do at work. Look at one of your selected objects and start talking. Complete a thought while looking directly at the object. If you catch yourself glancing elsewhere, look back and start again. After a complete thought, which should be approximately five seconds, move your eyes to the next object and deliver the next thought.

This will feel funny at first. Remember, though, that it’s just because it isn’t a habit yet. Keep at it. Practice will make a huge difference. And, of course, you don’t have to wait until you’re delivering your next formal presentation. You can try Eye-Brain Control in your next discussion with a group of people. You’ll find that this technique works just as well in small informal settings as it does in larger more formal ones. Keep practicing the Eye-Brain Control technique at home and in any group setting and you’ll be ready to make a strong, fearless presentation.

Additional Information

This is the second of a series of articles, developed exclusively for StrategyDriven, that highlights the breadth and depth of Communispond’s LearnTO Library. This on-line, on-demand library includes an ever-growing set of modules that provide concise, easy-listening instructions for meeting a wide range of business communications challenges. LearnTO Library materials come in a wide range of formats and are available for organization-wide access on an annual subscription basis. Click here to learn more about Communispond’s LearnTo Library.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:

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About the Author

Bill Rosenthal is the Chief Executive Officer of Communispond Inc., an organization that has taught business communications skills to more than 600,000 persons. Bill is responsible all aspects of the business including sales, marketing, content development, and the delivery of Communispond courses by certified faculty. Prior to joining Communispond, Bill was CEO of Digi-Block Inc., a K-12 education publisher focusing on mathematics. He also served as President of Kaplan College, a division of Kaplan Inc., the well-known test preparation company, where he developed and launched the online college that offers Associates and Bachelors degrees and certificates in Business, Information Technology, Nursing, and Law. In a previous role as President of Ziff-Davis Education (now called Element K), Bill oversaw the leading supplier of computer training products worldwide and supervised the operations of ZD University, the leading web-based computer skills site.