Last night I attended a meeting of a new public speaking club called Hamwic Speakers- Southampton.  Hamwic have only been going since March but are doing extremely well.   At last nights meeting I was entranced by a wonderful speech by a young man called Rich Watts, who talked about “A trip to grandma’s“.

On the face of it, not the most exciting of topics but Rich delivered a most entertaining and excellent speech in which, by describing in vivid detail, what it was like to visit his grandmothers, from the perspective of his five year old self, he evoked powerful memories and emotions in all of us.

I was particularly impressed with the way Rich matched his energy and pace of delivery to the story he was telling.  At the start his pace was slow and measured as he described the rather boring car journey where he was too small to see much out of the car window but clouds.  Then, when he arrived at his gran’s the pace picked up dramatically as he described zooming into her house (an Aladdin’s cave for a five year old boy!) with his arms outstretched behind him pretending to be a plane.

The pace stayed high as he described how he explored and played and then slowed a little as he started to describe the other family members present.   The pace slowed further as he brought us up to the present day and how things had changed.  How his granny wasn’t as energetic as she had been, how the food wasn’t as home cooked as it had been and so on.   This “gear change”change of pace brought a poignancy and a sense of reflection to this speech that worked beautifully and lead us up nicely to Rich’s take away message.

Rich finished with two key messages, about remembering the importance of Granny and perhaps even more important, remembering (& not losing) the sense of wonder and playfulness we had when we were younger.

I hope this short article has captured the importance of being able to change gear in any speech or presentation in order to be a more effectie story teller and influencer.

I choose not to buy into all the doom and gloom that is going the rounds but I do accept that right now, the prevailing economic conditions are tough. That’s why it’s more important than ever to evaluate our sales pitches to see if they are still good enough.

Ask yourself these questions and then make some small changes based on the results:

• When was the last time you reviewed the performance of your sales pitch (written or verbal)?
• Are your closing ratios really good enough?
• Calculate your average order value per sale and then work out how much extra revenue a 10% improvement in closing ratio would make in a month, in a quarter, over the whole year?
• How many of your existing customers have you re-sold in the last three months? Is your follow up pitch still effective?
• How many sales enquiries did you fail to follow up on within 7 days?
• If a friend owned your business and you were advising them on how to improve their sales, what advice would you give them?

If you want any help with this process then please give me a call or drop me an email, It’s amazing how effective a fresh pair of eyes and ears can be!

I do a lot of networking and one thing I have noticed recently is how  many small businesses are starting to expect the worst from the current economic situation.  Their heads are going down and they are in danger of creating a self fulfilling prophecy.

We can’t avoid it given the amount of negativity around in the media but we can do something about it.   And I don;t just mean stopping buying doom laden newspapers and listening to less news (although that is not a bad start and is a philosophy I practice myself).  One of the great things about being human is the gift of free will that allows us to choose our response to a given stimuli.

Jim Rohn, the American personal development guru once said that the most important lesson he learned when he was a young struggling buisnessman was that it was not the economy that was holding him back it was his philosophy!

Our thinking patterns and approach are the key to our survival in these challenging times.   The good news is that you can do something about them.   It’s a simpler three step process!

Step 1:  Notice when you are thoughts are holding you back

Step 2:  Re-tune your mental radio to a different, more empowering station.

Step 3: Take action from this more resourceful mindeset.

It is that simple but I didn’t say it was easy!   It takes time and effort but it can be done.   I guess the question is do you want to put in the effort and take control of the wheel or are you happy to followthe masses.  I know what I am going to do and I invite you to join me.

I spent some time in George Best International airport in Belfast recently coming back from a fundraising workshop with the charity Concern Worldwide UK

When I entered the airport departure lounge I saw the usual television screens with departure and arrival information but I also saw something I had never seen before…

Normally, when your flight has not been called, the screens show the message “Please wait in lounge”  but in Belfast airport thy had a different message!   Somebody had clearly thought about the impact of words and had harnessed their knowledge to see if they could increase the amount of money people spend whilst waiting for their flight.

Can you guess what they did?

They changed the message from “Please wait in the lounge” to “Relax and shop”

To me this is a classic example of how changing the words people read can have a major impact on their behaviour.   If you want your audience to do something, then tell them what it is you want them to do!

How could you use this simple lesson to become more persuasive and influential

I’d love to hear your examples or comments!

Today I was phoned by a guy who I have met on a couple of occasions at local networking events.  he works for a company called the disc directory, a local on-line business directory covering Portsmouth and Southampton.

Now I’m pretty hard on tele-sales people but his approach was so refreshing that I just had to post on it.   He called me up, started by saying something like ” Remember the good looking guy who’s been bumping into  you around the local networking scene regularly> – Well that’s not me!  I’m the ugly one and I promised to call you”  – So far so good, he made me laugh and his tone and delivery were congruent.

Then he said”   I’m going to be really direct, it’s Friday afternoon and I’ve got my targets to hit  so I am prepared to offer you a great deal.  Three categories for half price?  How does that sound?”

I paused and he said ” I know you are just wondering which of my arms you are going to bite off to take this great deal.  Well I can tell you that they are both equally tender so it doesn’t have to be difficult.  What do you say?”

Again he made me laugh and I was hooked and after a bit more discussion I agreed.

Now I am not saying that this irreverent and cheeky approach is the one to use all the time but it has it’s place.  He had ready my right and decided to give it ago and it paid off!

What’s the cheekiest sales pitch you have used or had used on you that has worked?

As part of a recent presentation skills coaching programme for a large client, I have been reviewing videos of some of their top directors presenting at a company conference. Some presenters got it right and got great evaluations and others clearly didn’t and,as an external observer the reasons for the latter were clear

• Lack of connection with the audience
• Lack of clear purpose (as perceived by the audience)
• No obvious audience benefit
• Presenting only lists impersonal statistics, facts and figures with no clear structure, point or flow
• Wooden, unexpressive “professional” performances. If the presenter doesn’t appear to care about the subject why on earth should the audience?
• Boring word dense, image scares bullet point slides. Written text is a poor excuse for a visual aid!
• Lack of audience involvement

So if you have a presentation to give in the next few weeks or months what can you do to ensure that you win the audience attention and motivation stakes?

Preparation:

• Have a clear purpose for your presentation. What are you trying to achieve as a result of this speech and what do you want the audience to do at the end of it?
• Establish the relevance of your content to the audience early on in the presentation. What is in it for them? Why should they listen? And don’t forget to tell them early on in your presentation?
• Design your presentation as a story which has a logical flow and emotional content to support it.
• Keep your visual aids clean and simple. Ban the bullet point and have only one idea per slide. Replace those words with an attention getting or emotive photograph. Read presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds if you need some inspiration.

Delivery:

• Avoid reading a script or auto cue. This will reduce eye contact and therefore connection with your audience. It will also make you sound dull, stilted and boring. Spoken English is different from written English. If you must have a script, record your speech first as you would like to say it and then have the recording transcribed.
• Don’t be afraid to show your emotion, Yes it is a business environment but human beings are hard wired to be driven by emotions. If you don’t evoke an emotional response in your audience they will not be motivated to follow your recommendations.
• Use your full vocal range to engage and enthral the audience – Everything from a roar to a sotto Voce whisper is at your disposal. Don’t be afraid of exaggeration in order to stretch your comfort zone and show your passion , enthusiasm or disappointment. Oh yes and don’t forget the power of a well placed silence too.
• Use your body language to reinforce your messages and project confide3nce and the appropriate degree of gravitas. An open upright posture, large open gestures, plenty of facial expression. Make sure that your body is sending out the same messages as your words and voice otherwise your audience won’t believe you.
• Be willing to experiment and accept that as a result you will make a few mistakes along the way. Perfection isn’t connection and your audience will empathise with you if you show that you too are human.
• Be present and in the moment during your presentation. If you are remembering the past or worrying about the future then your mind is not in the here and now and the audience will notice it.

Good luck!

Gavin Meikle
The Internet Presentation Coach

Tonight, after the regular Toastmasters meeting, a few of us met in the pub for a pre-Christmas drink and an expected turn in the conversation led me to my topic of this post.  It’s all about how you can use your presenting space as a metaphor  for some of the concepts you are conveying verbally.

Imagine for a moment that in your speech you are going to be talking about three time frames.  Let’s say that you are going to start talking about the past, when you will explain a little about the history of the project you are presenting on and how it got started. Then you will talk about the present day status of the project and what sort of results it is already delivering  before finally talking about the future and the exciting new developments of this project just around the corner.

One way you could use your presenting space is to use three different areas of the ’stage’ to talk about each of the three areas.   Let’s say you you decided to stand at the left hand side when speaking about the past, the centre when talking present, and the right hand side when talking about the future.   If you set up these spaces as triggers or anchors in your introduction, whenever you walk to that area of the floor, your audience will immediately and probably without being aware why, shift their focus and know the context of your words before you even start to speak.

There are lots more ways in which you can use this principle to great effect but I’ll keep those for another post.  In the meantime here are a couple of ideas to help you understand this concept.   Firstly, whenever you are looking at a professional speaker or presenter, look out for them using this technique and see how well it can work.   Secondly, why not try it out yourself.

Have fun and keep on raising your game, your audiences will thank you for it and it’ll pay dividends for you in all sorts of ways.

Gavin

Whether you are speaking one to one woth a prospective customer or one to many in the form of a group sales presentation you need to learn how to change their state…

By state I mean the the combination of thinking, emotion and physiology that characterises how we are at any given moment of time.  States are often given labels like fearful, sceptical, curious, excited etc.  Every good presenter and influencer, consciously or unconsciously takes their audience on a journey from a starting state to a desired state. 

So for instance if you know that you audience are initially sceptical about your idea, proposal or product, they won’t buy if they remain sceptical throughout the pitch.   You need to get them to a more resourceful state if they are going to say “Yes!”

If you feel that you need to get them from suspicious to enthusiastic before they will buy, that it quite a big change.   The likelyhood is that you may need to lead them through a number of intermediate statges in order to get to enthusiastic.

For example

1. Suspicious (starting state)
2. Curious
3. Interested
4. Open
5. Enthusiastic (desired state)

So far so good but how do you lead them on this journey?  Well there are a number of ways you can change an audiences state.  I’m sure you can think of lots yourself if you set your mind to it but here are a few to get you going.

• Model the state yourself  (if you want them to be curious at a certain point then you need to look and sound curious too)
• Get them to remember a time or a situation when they would naturally have been feeling the state you want them to feel now.  (I’m sure you can remember as a child seeing something interesting for the first time and wondering what it was and how it worked) Have I made you curious?
• Tell a story or give an example where the protagonist in the story demonstrates the state you want your audience to feel now.

Many of my clients say that the hardest part of their job is getting in front of their prospective clients. In this article I’d like to share three tips with you that have worked for me and my clients.

The number one complain I get is about the so called gatekeepers. The Secretaries and PA’s who seemed to be oblivious to the salesman’s charms and who refuse to pass on messages, reply to emails or to “put you through”.

Tip number One:
Change your mental paradigm of these people. Don’t think of them as gatekeepers who’s job is to slam the door in your face. Imagine them as gate openers who’s job is to give you access to your clients when you have something of value for their boss. Just changing this perception of them can make a big difference.

Tip Number Two:
You need a VBR! VBR is the abbreviation coned by a good friend of mine David Festeinstein and it stands for a Valid Business Reason. Your VBR is the key that can unlock access to your prospective client. Lets look at what the phrase actually means.

Your reason for wanting to see them must be valid and business related. Where most salespeople go wrong is that the see the reason as their reason, i.e. to sell the client something. What you need to do is come up with a client reason i.e why the client would want to see you.

Few if any clients ever want to see a salesperson to be sold to. They are however looking for solutions to the business problems they or their team are facing. So ask yourself, “If I was the client? Why would they want to see me?” What problems are they facing now that I could help them with?

If you keep your eyes and ears open and do your homework first, you can probably find a reason. If for instance there has been an article in the press recently saying that your prospect is about to start hiring new staff, and you sell training or HR services they may have a real need for help getting the new staff members up to speed as quickly as possible.

When you have a clear valid business reason, then you can sell that to the PA or secretary.
“I understand that the company is about to start a major expansion plan will be training up a whole new batch of staff.” I’d like to arrange a 10 minute telephone meeting with Mr Smith to discuss how we can help him save money by getting those new staff up to speed as quickly as possible.”

Tip Three:
If you really can’t get past the “gatekeeper” you can always try bypassing him or her altogether.
Many executives I know, get into the office early (before their PA!) and often stay late (after their PA has gone home). Calling outside “normal” hours can often be a successful tactic.

One salesperson I worked with was always complaining that he could never get hold of one of his key clients. As he described the problem he said “I phone him every Tuesday afternoon and he is never in!” When I asked him to think about what he had just said, they penny dropped. When he phoned at a different time, he had no trouble getting hold of the client but it turned out that the client was always in a meeting on a Tuesday afternoon – Doh!

Good luck with these techniques and don’t forget to post your own comments and alternative suggestions too.