Remarkable Presentations

This book is dedicated to my daughters Annie, Kate and Caroline, who are the light of my life, to my bonus children
Keeton and Mary Mac, who continue to help me grow, and to my loving, caring, supportive and wonderful wife Sharon. It is so remarkable to know that no matter what, you are loved. I also want to thank Trish Ward of Trish Ward Design for her creative contributions and her positive reinforcement along the way. Finally, Id like to thank Ty Boyd for being my great friend and mentor, and showing me what it means to be a remarkable communicator.
Remarkable Presentations
How To Develop And Deliver What Your Competitors Dont
by John Lowe
(c)2013 by Be Compelling Now, LLC. International Copyrights Convention.
All rights reserved under the
No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or part, scanned, photocopied, recorded distributed in any form, or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, without express written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews. For more information, email john@becompellingnow.com.
The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the internet or via any other means without the written permission of the author is punishable by law. Please support authors rights and do not participate in piracy or copyrighted materials. This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976. You may give or sell this book in its entirety, but not copies of its content.
Please note that much of this book is based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. You should use this information as you see t, understanding your particular situation may not be exactly suited to the examples illustrated herein, and you should adjust your use of the information and recommendations accordingly. The author is not responsible for any situational outcomes which do not meet your expectations.
Any trademarks, service marks, product names or features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used for reference purposes only. There is no implied endorsement if used herein.
Printed in The United States of America First Printing: 2013 Library of Congress Control Number: 2013901918 ISBN: 978-0-9889389-1-5 For additional information, email to john@becompellingnow.com
Table of Contents Foreword Introduction Chapter One Dening Remarkability Chapter Two I Dont Give Presentations Yes You Do! Chapter Three Why Wouldnt You Want To Be Remarkable? Chapter Four Planning To Be Remarkable Why Would They Listen? Chapter Five Preparing To Be Remarkable Its Not About The Slides Chapter Six Practicing To Be Remarkable Performances Require Rehearsal 84 58 50 44 30 8 12 20
Chapter Seven Types of Presentations A Chance To Speak Is A Chance To Grow Chapter Eight The Sales Presentation Without Slides You Be The Message Chapter Nine A Word About Fear Conversations Are Not Scary Summation References
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Foreword
In my vast and varied career as a broadcaster, trainer, coach, and business executive, I have found there to be one underlying skill that transcends all industries, all markets, and all ways of making a living. That is being able to powerfully communicate your ideas, your products, your services, your plans, your goals and your dreams. This leadership skill has served the most successful business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, managers, sales people and individual contributors. When all else fails, if you can communicate in an inspiring and impressive manner, you can succeed.
In the sales world, people invariably buy from people. Products and service oerings are obviously important, but if the playing eld is equal, its the relationship that wins the day. Often it comes down to the presentation, an opportunity to tell your story that can make the dierence between winning and losing. Again, in my experience, most sales people fail to deliver as engaging, as compelling a presentation as they could. The bar is set pretty low, and the expectations of the prospects and customers are equally low. For those who rise above the norm and deliver value messages that make a dierence, the rewards are high. That is what this book can teach you. How to rise above your competitors and deliver your story in a way that gets your decision-makers to actand act in your favor!
When Apple Computer was in its infancy, young co-founder Steve Jobs and his team recognized something very special in my soon-to-become great friend, John Lowe. John was invited to become a member of that passionate, dedicated and driven group of contrarians who gave the term computer a bright and creative new icon. John was on the sales team that marketed many of the original Apple products. That exciting and prosperous relationship lasted for more than a decade. Along the way, John and his fellow Apple salespeople became students in our Excellence in Speaking Institutes (ESI). Johns friendship since has been a huge part of our companys story. He was our rst ESI licensee, and was headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. He has represented ESI to many classes.
Since leaving Apple, John Lowe has consulted with markets in commerce, education, technology, banking, and more. He is an excellent teacher and coach. His results-producing work reminds me of another favorite author and speaking coach, Jerry Weissman.
I asked John to let me introduce him and this volume to you. Over the years, our organization, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems (TBELS) has engaged John to help us to polish our products, presentations, and attendees. His perspective and insight set him apart from other coaches we have known. His skill is to teach business professionals to
take ordinary (dull?) o the shelf sales presentations and make them come alive and be COMPELLING now!
The reality of todays selling world is that salespeople have fewer times to meet with our prospects and customers. Technology gives us so many excuses for not meeting them face-to-face. Consequently, we have fewer times to experience the sales process. This makes each actual presentation much more critical to a successful relationship. We cannot aord to simply make the same weary presentation we made yesterday, nor can we expect the boilerplate variety of interactions to create our success.
So, what to do? This publication creates a picture of the huge advantages you can achieve as YOU become more compelling, more exciting and more interesting. Your presentations come alive. You will have an enraptured audience who will want to partner with you.
Warren Buett has said that to double your eectiveness in any calling, become a master communicator. John Lowes Remarkable Presentations is your secret weapon!!
Ty Boyd
Introduction Becoming Remarkable

Four cities were named nalists for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Tokyo, Madrid, Chicago and Rio De Janeiro all were deemed worthy of winning this bid, which, by the way, was worth an estimated $10 Billion to the winning city. No pressure there (ha ha). They all presented their proposals, complete with infrastructure planning, stadiums, transportation, housing, competition, security, media coverage, etc. After these exhaustive technical presentations, each city had the opportunity to make a nal 30 minute presentation to the decision committee. A nal plea to the jury, if you will. Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago all played it safe. They simply repeated their most prominent strengths of their proposals, reinforced why their city was the best choice, and restated their strong desire to host the games. Why take a chance on the big deal? Weve done our best, now let it ride. T h i s g u y, C a r l o s Nuzman, and his team went in a dierent direction. Rather than fall in line with their competitors, and restate their competitive positioning, the Brazil Olympic Committee decided to be remarkable. After all, they wanted to host one of the
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worlds truly remarkable events, the Summer Olympics. Why not make a nal presentation that matched the uniqueness of the event? What they did was to display a single image, the map of the world. As Mr. Nuzman identied each city where the Olympics have been held in the past, a dot appeared on the map over that city. When he nished, the map was cluttered with dots, with a glaring omission. There were no dots in South America! Mr. Nuzman then challenged the decision makers that to live up to the Olympic mission of bringing sport to the world, they would have to allow South America to host the games. You can guess who won. Rio will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. When asked what made the dierence, why did Rio win, the members of the decision committee unanimously mentioned one thing...the map! Mr. Nuzman and his team decided to be remarkable, to step away from the norm, to dierentiate themselves from their competitors, and to create an emotional argument that could not be ignored. They were rewarded with a $10 Billion deal. Heres an important question for you. When was the last time someone told you that your solution or idea, plan, project, goal, dream was remarkable? When was the last time you presented to someone or to a group, and afterwards they said that your presentation was remarkable? Not good. Not really good. Not wonderful. Remarkable!
Probably not on any kind of regular basis, if ever (is so, you most likely would not be reading this book). Heres the thing about remarkability. It only exists relative to being unremarkable. And when speaking of personal and/or business communications, there are any number of unremarkable examples; presentations speeches lectures white papers videos audio clips brochures articles books blog posts sales pitches interviews panel discussions webinars web sites The fact is, unremarkable is the norm. So actually being remarkable is not that much of a stretch in this business. The other way-cool thing is that audiences, of one or one thousand, are eager for remarkability and embrace it when they get it. They are waiting for you!
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Lets face it. All of us are bombarded with information today. Some of it is welcomed, most is not. When it comes to product marketing, we are at out overwhelmed. TV and radio are saturated with commercials. Your local newspaper (if you still read one) has page after page of ads. Your mailboxes (both material and electronic) still ll with junk mail. Magazines have multiple pages of ads before you even get to the table of contents page to nd out what may be of interest. Now they even place ads in the movie theater prior to the previews. You see billboards on highways, banners and signs in shopping centers, on the sides of buses. Even entire cars covered with promotions for the business which the driver operates. So, we try to escape to our computer, tablet, or smart phone. Nope, sorry, they have you there as well. Pop-up ads appear on internet pages. You go to Facebook to nd the latest news from your friends and ads sprinkle the side spaces. You retreat to LinkedIn to see whats up in your professional network and you are solicited to join groups and attend seminars. You search for something you want, and the rst few options on your search engine are paid promotions. That is just information we are NOT seeking. Now consider when you are actually looking for something. You search to nd a resource for something you need or want, and dozens, if not hundreds of possible sources reveal themselves. It does not matter how unique or far-fetched your search may be, choices abound. Most of them you have never heard of, have no idea of their merit, and often are really representing something totally dierent from what you need to nd. It is no wonder we are going crazy from information-overload.
Good does not stand out anymore. Neither does really good, or interesting or wonderful. So, if you are trying to sell something, how do you push through all of this to get peoples attention? How do you rise above the noise, carve out a space, get traction? Here is one way. Utilize sheer marketing power to make people hear you. By throwing money and manpower at a market, you can create brand awareness and market share. This of course requires a couple of things that many companies do not have. One, you need a sizable marketing budget to create ads, visibility and brand awareness. Two, you need people either inside or out in the eld spreading the word and following up on the extensive marketing spend you have invested. For most businesses other than fairly large corporations, this is dicult, if not impossible. For those of you who cant choose that option, heres another way. 1. You need to identify what about your company, product and/or service is remarkable. What stands out above the noise in the marketplace? What is unique? What is memorable? What is your special sauce? Once you have identied it, you have to gure out what part of your target market will want that remarkability. 2. You have to be able to communicate your remarkability. You have to be better than anyone else at telling your remarkable story. You have to be the best communicator, the best presenter you can be. This, more than any other capability, can provide an avenue for your remarkable business to succeed.
This book will not tell you how to acquire the marketing resources which would allow you to simply overwhelm the market with your solutions. If you can do that, you have a leg up on most people. This book will help you identify what may be remarkable about your business. In some (perhaps many) cases, there simply is nothing truly remarkable about what you oer. This does not mean you have a bad business, or will not be successful. There are many me-too oerings out there that do well. It just means you have to be more creative to succeed. What this book does tell you is how to take full advantage of being able to tell your story, whatever it is, better than your competition. If you have something remarkable, developing and delivering a great story about it will propel you above your competitors, because most of them do not do a good job of telling their story. If you do not have anything truly remarkable about your business, being a great communicator can overcome that, and allow you and your solution to rise above the noise, and create a competitive advantage that is not born of product research and development, marketing power or superior numbers of sales people. Becoming a great presenter takes time and eort. The return on investment is far greater than any other personal development process you could invest in for you and your people. If you have a remarkable solution, congratulations. Now you have to tell the world. If you do not, now you have to tell your story more powerfully, more impactfully, more compellingly. In either event, becoming a remarkable communicator will pave the way for your success.
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By the way, there is no such thing as Death by PowerPoint. There is, however, certainly Death by Boredom, and that is truly what plagues the presentation world. Boring, uninteresting, dull, uninspiring presentations are not the fault of presentation software. There is nothing inherently wrong with PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, SlideRocket, etc. In fact, they are all great productivity and communication tools...when used correctly. The power (or lack thereof ) in a presentation comes directly from the presenter. I have seen bad content delivered in a powerful way, and great content delivered horribly. It is easy to blame the software, but as my grandfather used to say, "A good craftsman never blames his tools." These products can be used to enhance our message, but all too often they are used to BE the message. We use them as a crutch so we don't have to prepare. We can simply refer to what is listed on the slides. People never walk away impressed by your visuals. They should walk away impressed with you! If your presentations are killing your audience, don't take it out on PowerPoint. Take a look in the mirror.
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Chapter One Dening Remarkability

Being remarkable is often misunderstood. Take for example the announcers on TV that do major sports events like football, basketball and baseball games. How often do you hear them use the word great? As in that was a great catch or that was a great shot or that was a great play. In the vast majority of cases, what they were describing were not great at all. They were good, they were routine, they were fun, they were valuable. They were not, however, great. Great should have a distinction about it. It should be record-setting, game changing, memorable, out of the ordinary. Remarkability is the same. When I ask people to tell me what is remarkable about their business, I often get answers such as these. Our customer service. Our ease of use. Our dedication to customer satisfaction. Our product design. Our feature set.
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Our availability. Our nancial strength. Our company history. Our exibility. Our pricing. Our quality. Our focus on leading edge solutions. Our reputation. These are all important things to have as positive attributes about your business. They all help contribute to success. They all can and should be used to help persuade prospects. However, none of them are remarkable. Why? Because they may not pass the remarkability test. The remarkability test consists of three questions. For something to be truly remarkable, it has to pass all three. The questions are; 1. Is it unique? For something to be unique, it has to be one of a kind. Something that people see and go wow. Something that makes people not only want to have it, but need to have it. 2. Do your prospects care about it? It may be unique and remarkable to you, but not to your target market. 3. Can your competitors make the same claim? They may not be accurate, but if they can say the same thing, it takes away from your remarkability.
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Considering the remarkability test, most of the things we listed which people think are remarkable about their business really are not. You may have a unique history which your competitors cant match, but your marketplace really doesnt care. You may have a feature that your customers love, but your competitors claim others, and are coming out with the same as yours in their next release. You may have faster delivery, but your competitors are not far behind you, and their prices are lower. As you can see, it is really hard to nd something truly remarkable about most businesses. Again, that does not mean they are not really good businesses, with solutions that work and people who are great to do business with. What it means is, their message can sound a lot like their competitors, and it is tougher to stand out when your prospects are looking for solutions.
Developing Remarkability
Perhaps you have unlimited product development funds. If so, congratulations. If you are reading this book, then I suspect not. You then have to nd other ways to be remarkable. Perhaps it is price or distribution, or some unique set of features that makes your product or service really stand out. These avenues to remarkability require serious resources or adjustments to the bottom line protability. Regardless of whether you have a remarkable solution or not, you can be remarkable in a way in which you can be unique, your prospects will care about it, and your
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competitors cant match. By becoming a remarkable p re s e n t e r, a t r u l y o u t s t a n d i n g a n d m e m o ra b l e communicator of your value proposition, you can create an advantage that can place you on the fast track to success. If your story is basically the same as the other providers in your space, you have to be better at telling that story. You have to be compelling. Its your trump card, the one thing up your sleeve which can carry the day when all the other things are even. And the best part, it costs next to nothing and makes a personal connection to your prospects and customers, something product and process enhancements do not. Being a remarkable communicator is light years more valuable than having a remarkable product. We all have been exposed to great communicators during our life. Some have presented a business message, some a motivational speech, some were great story tellers, others perhaps politicians, or celebrities or teachers, preachers or community leaders. Lets look at some examples of remarkable presenters. Feel free to add yours to this list. Use them as examples of how you can develop your presentations style to your benet. As always, take what works for you and incorporate it into your own personality.
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Billy Mays- If you are any kind of a consistent TV watcher, you recognize the late, great Billy Mays. Billy was the ultimate TV pitch man. He was a throwback to the old snake oil salesmen of the past, who would overwhelm their audience with enthusiasm and energy. Although his style would rub many the wrong way, Billy made millions of dollars for his companies which he represented, and he had legions of fans across the country. He was so convincing in his sincerity about the products he was promoting that you just had to believe they were the real deal. And to his credit, the products he promoted did what he said they would. Bill Clinton- As with any truly important person on the world stage, there will be those who support them and those who oppose them. As a former President of the United States, Mr. Clinton has his share of both. However, few would deny the power of his ability to communicate and to sell an idea. During the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Pres. Clinton delivered what many believe to be the best, most persuasive speech in convention history,
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and, say some, won the election for Pres. Obama. His ability to connect with his audience, to communicate his convictions with emotion and heart, and to provide phrases and ideas which will be remembered long after he leaves the stage are all attributes that make a remarkable presenter. Benjamin Zander- Ben Zander is a concert pianist and conductor. His passion, however, is bringing symphony music to the masses. He makes hundreds of speeches each year convincing people that there is magic in music. His passion, and his use of the stage and a piano makes believers out of those who are fortunate to hear him lecture. His energy and enthusiasm, combined with his extraordinary talent, brings joy and entertainment in equal measure with his information. He has written a book called The Art of Possibility, a perfect title to represent his life.
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Ken Burns- If you ever have had the opportunity to watch a Ken Burns interview, you would have witnessed someone who is simply in awe of the world, and has made a career out of expressing that in lm. Burns work includes some of the most successful and critically acclaimed documentaries in history, including The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz. When he presents on what he does, there is a childlike excitement and wonder that he communicates about what he sees and hears, and how he transforms that into lm. He is not a ashy talker, nor particularly energetic. What he is however, is a powerful communicator about commitment to excellence and to story telling. Listening to him present is like listening to a great novel being read by the author.
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Christiane Amanpour- As one of the most recognized international reporters in history, Ms. Amanpour is amazing at sharing her experiences and stories from her vast encounters with important people and events that have shaped our recent history. Her strength as a presenter is in her convictions, her passion for the truth, and her interpretations of events on our society and humankind. When you listen to her talk, you are on the edge of your seat with fascination and eagerness to learn about the things, places and people she has experienced. Steve Jobs- The late Chairman and cofounder of Apple, Jobs was considered one of the greatest business presenters ever. He was obviously a brilliant marketer and product designer, and he had, as he would often say, insanely great products to talk about. However, his power as a presenter came from elegant simplicity. His visuals were high quality but basic, often one image and very few words. He
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would engage his audience by building a story which reached its climax with the introduction of a new product or innovation. His choice of words and phrases were wellchoreographed to deliver the most compelling impact on his viewers. Everything about his presentations was extensively rehearsed, down to his movements and timing. His presentations were always a performance. These are all famous people, so what do these have to do with your world as a representative of your business? Answer...they are great examples of the use of various skills and attributes that make people want to listen to them. For every famous person who is a great, remarkable presenter, I could list hundreds, just as famous and just as knowledgeable, who are virtually unlistenable. You in your world have a relative amount of information and expertise to share. However, if you communicate that with a lack of e n e r g y, e n t h u s i a s m , c o n v i c t i o n , e n g a g e m e n t , trustworthiness and creativity, you will be simply more of the noise. You do not have to be famous to be a powerful presenter. You simply have to understand how to do it, and then plan, prepare and practice for it.
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Chapter Two I Dont Give Presentations. Yes You Do!

When I talk to people about learning to give great presentations, many say Dude, I dont give presentations. I do my pitch one on one. Or, I dont talk to big audiences. My people do that, or thats not part of my job description. So, heres my rst major point of this book. A presentation includes any personal communication intended to inform or motivate the listener to act. This means you and I and most people do presentations every day. Presentations could include any of the following;
A sales demo A lesson given in school A sermon A lecture to your children A newscast A request for donation A waiter recommending a meal A best man speech A shared story An award acceptance A referee performing the coin ip A monthly team update
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A press conference A political appeal A dinner toast A keynote speech A eulogy An appeal for funding A witness testimony A product update A webinar A panel discussion A debate An internal team meeting
I expanded the denition because throughout my life, I have witnessed many great presentations, given with energy, passion, conviction and meaning. I have been selling stu for over 25 years. Because of my experience, many of these presentations have been sales or business-related. Since about 1995, most were delivered using PowerPoint, which, as we all are aware, has contributed to its share of good and horrendous messages. Death by PowerPoint has become an industry phrase. However, I have also seen riveting messages from teachers, friends, family, politicians, scientists, professional speakers, coaches, etc. These talks were always inspiring, impressive, or both. Some included slide shows, most did not. Some were planned, some impromptu. A few were actually one on one. Most had an audience of some sort.
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Some required a fee to attend, many were free. Regardless of the circumstance or the venue, all had a message, and all were either inspiring, informative, engaging, motivating, compelling, impressive, or often some or all of the above. Let me give you some examples of what I consider great presentations, which probably would not generally be recognized as presentations by most people. When I worked for Apple Computer, back in the mid-1980s, I sold to the higher education market. We would often host what we called MacFests, to promote the Macintosh, which had just been introduced. Given that we were creating these events on a college campus, we tried to create a college atmosphere, complete with music, t-shirts, balloons, free pizza, Frisbees, anything that we thought college students would be attracted to. When they came, we simply allowed them to try the Macintosh for themselves, without much interference from us. That was our presentation. It worked! Our major competitor at the time, IBM, would have their own events, complete with their blue-suit, white-shirt, red-tie-wearing sales team, setting up their professional display booth, and conducting product demos of their productivity software. Anyone trying their computers had to have a demo by an IBM person. They had to hear the sales pitch. We killed them because our presentation resonated with the kids, and theirs did not. Reaching even further back in time, during my freshman year in college, I took a course in Contemporary US History. My professor had a particularly unique way of creating interest in his lectures. While discussing a topic, and
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sharing the typical dates, places, people of historical signicance, he would often pause after providing a scene, and say Now Id like to take you behind the Kimono, and tell you what really happened. He would then regale us in a tale of the unwritten pages of history, as he interpreted them. Whether he was accurate or not was unimportant. What he did was engage us in that moment in time, and inspired us to learn more, to question the ocial story, to seek our own information. His manner of presentation was riveting, to say the least. During the 1990s I would often listen to Paul Harvey on the radio. Mr. Harvey was a reporter of current events, often sharing stories of great human interest. Much like my history professor, Mr. Harvey had a knack for creating intrigue with his nowfamous tag line, And now, the rest of the story, at which time he would unveil the unusual details which made his report of the day so fascinating. The power of his presentation was created by his friendly, casual speaking style, and the wonder created by his muchanticipated tag line. My rst real sales training was conducted by David Sandler, who started the Sandler Selling Method, now taught around the world by hundreds of Sandler Sales Consultants. Instead of delivering a slightly dierent take on the mechanics of sales, Mr. Sandler captivated his students with a unique blend of humor, sarcasm, abrasiveness and great probing questioning. He would have a role-playing
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session in his training, during which members of the class would try to get him to reveal his pricing, or to give up product information before he was ready. Sandler was never beaten. He used the strength of his personality, combined with the bold dierentiation from an entrenched process, to create a presentation which changed the minds of the sales people in attendance. I have a dear friend whose dad is a retired military ocer. Whenever I had the good fortune to visit their home, I was consistently impressed by the manner in which this ocer would present to his children. Regardless of the gravity or lack-thereof, he would always display a calm, collected manner, delivering his lessons and advice with an even, comforting tone. There was no yelling, no caustic demands. He would just talk to his kids, making sure they understood his point and his reasons. I could easily see why he was such a revered military leader, and such a great father. On the ip side, I bet for every entertaining, inspiring, informative, engaging talk I have witnessed, I have been unfortunate enough to have suered through 100 times that many boring, uninspiring examples. Some given by competitors (fortunately for me), some by my peers, some at industry events, seminars, training sessions, and of course, the countless number of internal, meaningless, waste-oftime, sleep-inducing company meetings that we all are subjected to. What is the point, you ask? I named my book Remarkable Presentations because that is exactly what you want to deliver whenever you have the opportunity to communicate with others. Your message may be delivered to one, or one
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thousand. It may be 2 minutes long or two hours. It may have an accompanying slide show, or a note drawn on a napkin. It may evoke cheers or tears. Whatever it is, however long it may be, and whomever it is focused on, it is your message. You are the presenter. And each and every time, regardless of the situation, you have the opportunity to inspire or impress, or both! For the purposes of this book, we will focus on what is commonly referred to as the business presentation. However, the strategies and skills apply to any opportunity you have to communicate your value proposition, ideas, goals, lessons, plans or dreams.
The Current State of Presentations

It is well-documented that most business presentations are not very good. The speaker is not energized, the material is boring, the slides confusing. Most presentations look, sound, smell, taste the same. They all deliver information, but there is nothing special, nothing di erent, no magic...nothing remarkable. They start with the basic, safe, boring format, something like this. Thanks for letting us be here. This is our agenda. Lets introduce everyone. This is our company history. This is our mission statement. This is our commitment to customer satisfaction.
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Here is a recap of your issues. Here is how we will solve them. We will have time for Q and A. Blah Blah Blah.Information is conveyed through bullet points. Everything is sequenced. All you ever wanted to know is included on slides. Easy to recite. Easy to deliver. They look, sound, taste, smell, and feel like all the others you see. They blend together, all solutions seeming the same. They are every meeting attendees worst nightmare. This is what I call the sea of black umbrellas. Heres another thing to consider. It is after all, the information age. That means information is cheap and easy. Before you have the chance to be in front of your prospects or target audience, chances are very high they have already checked you out on the web, and are well aware of what you have to oer. And...they have also checked out your major competitors. Even though some web sites are better than others, the fact is, most solutions look and sound the same. You and your competitors have great features, provide wonderful benets, are cost-eective, strive for customer satisfaction, give outstanding support, are dedicated to being leading-edge, eat apple pie and call your mothers every week. So, when you do get in front of your audience, if you come out of the gate sounding like everyone else, you
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will be perceived to be like everyone else. dierentiation, no competitive advantage.
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The resulting babble leaves attendees reaching for their NoDoze. Here we go again. Where have I heard this before? Do I really have to sit through this? This is caused by a common aiction called I am afraid to be dierent. The fact that people want to be liked and to be accepted is multiplied in the business world? This is doubled in the business world, where a business deal or a promotion may depend on your acceptance by your audience. Why take a chance at this most important time? The reason is, your competitors will not. They are scared. They play not to lose, instead of playing to win. People today who listen to a good many presentations, or attend a fair number of business meetings are crying out for change, for dierent, for entertainment. Sure, they want the information needed to make decisions and to solve problems, but they crave an experience, to have that information communicated in an interesting, engaging, compelling manner, which leaves them not only informed, butwait for itinspired and impressed. Jerey Gitomer, one of the leading sales consultants in the world, says Stand out or dont bother! Seth Godin, one of most followed marketing gurus, wrote a book called Purple Cow, entirely on the premise that you need to be dierent, remarkable even, to gain traction in todays crowded and loud marketplace.
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Think back through the recent meetings or presentations you have attended. Ill bet the ones you remember most were when the presenter was engaging, providing some entertainment with the data. Most people do not remember much of the information which is communicated in a meeting or presentation. That is not a condition of the value of the information, but a statement of how our brains work. According to brain expert John Medina, in his excellent book Brain Rules, people only remember on average 10% of what is said to them 3 days later. All of us come into events with our heads full of messages. We have competing thoughts about our work, our family, our priorities, our health, our problems, our opportunities, our most recent experiences and the ones yet to come. Your audience is the same. Those preexisting messages are competition for yours. And it requires a compelling, engaging eort to break through that clutter and rise above the noise. What you need is a yellow umbrella in the sea of black. What you need is to express your remarkability.
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The same thing is true for nonbusiness situations. Whether it is church, community or family, those who you want to listen to your message have the same competing noise in their heads, and in fact, it may be worse outside of work. Emotions are a great driver of attention, and often thoughts and concerns about things outside of work carry a greater emotional weight than those at work. So your obstacles to selling your message are larger. Developing a really interesting, compelling presentation is easy. I will show you how as we go through this book. However, being a powerful, engaging, compelling communicator is not easy stu. Even if you were born with the gift of gab as they used to say about born salespeople, you still need to hone your craft to rise to the top of the game. Most of us were not born talkers. As is well-known, making a speech in public is one of the average persons greatest fears, often surpassing death on the list. We all have a desire to be liked, to be accepted, and public speaking places us smack-dab in the center of the possibility that we will be unacceptable, even embarrassing in our eort. By being in the front of the room, we are on display, with everything from our clothes to our looks to our body type to our grooming under evaluation. And all that takes place before we open our mouths! Even with that kind of naked visibility, the fact remains that every opportunity to speak presents an opportunity to promote your personal and professional brand, to inspire and impress. Consequently, it seems to me that everyone should want to upgrade their skills to be able to take advantage of those opportunities, whether the result is a closed sale, a job promotion, a partner acquired, a lesson taught, a dream described or a team motivated. However, I
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nd that the majority of people either, (a) have not been exposed to training opportunities, or (b) do not try to take advantage of chances to promote themselves. In many cases, that is because they feel they are not capable of becoming better. They feel they do not have the personality, the voice, the condence, the message. This is a shame, because it does not take very much to rise above the norm in presenting. So, whats the good news in all of this? In fact, it is great news. The great news is, because of the current state of sameness in personal communications, it does not take much to rise above, to set yourself apart, to be inspiring and impressive. It is kind of like sitting outside on a hot, sweltering, still summer afternoon, when suddenly a breeze comes up. Its not much of a breeze, but you notice it right away. Why? Because its dierent. Because it changed the dull state of your being. Because it provided relief. Thats what you have to learn to do in presenting. Create a small pleasant breeze for your audience that makes them sit up and take notice. It does not have to be earth-shattering. You dont need a hurricane. It does not require standing on your head while juggling dishes. It does not call for a standup comic routine. You simply have to be a bit more engaging, more connected, slightly entertaining, maybe just dierent.
Fear Drives Sameness

It is so easy, why dont more people do it then? Great questionand one with a very simple answer. Fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of not being liked. Fear of being challenged. Fear of being wrong. Fear of losing. Fear of not tting in. Most people are like sheep, following a line of other sheep
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right o the cli rather than step out from the crowd and question the norm. Fear is a gigantic motivator. AND a gigantic limiter. Imagine if all the great inventors and entrepreneurs of the world listened to their fears instead of risking being wrong or rejected or ridiculed. Imagine if Christopher Columbus agreed with all the experts who said the world was at and he would sail o the edge. Imagine if George Washington accepted the belief that the British could not be defeated. Imagine if Abraham Lincoln agreed with the majority that slavery was right and the Negro was not considered a human being. Imagine if Thomas Edison simply agreed that candles would suce as light. Imagine if the Wright Brothers agreed that people were not meant to y. Imagine if John Kennedy did not argue that it was impossible to send a person to the moon. Imagine if Steve Jobs simply gave in to the prevailing wisdom that a college drop out with no money and sandals could never change the face of technology. There are thousands more examples like those. When you compare these great innovators of history with your fear of being a bit dierent in your next presentation, it seems somewhat embarrassing doesnt it. All of them took great risk at stepping way out beyond the current accepted norm, challenging the conventional wisdom, making statements
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which at the time seemed incredible. And their bravado placed them in front of the world, with no room to hide if they failed. Compare that to the boardroom where you will make your next presentation. Are your companys products, services, ideas the same as everyone elses? If so, nd something else to do. If not, then stop acting the same and sounding the same, and start developing and delivering a compelling, remarkable story. People are yearning to be impressed, to be inspired, to be motivated. You have that opportunity each and every time you have the chance to speak, to present, to represent your products, your ideas, your plans. Those that rise above are those that take advantage of those opportunities. Is that you?
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Chapter Three Why Wouldnt You Want to be Remarkable?

Thats a great question, and when I ask it to my workshop attendees, they always answer of course I would. I imagine so would you. Why dont you then? I have always believed that we all have the opportunity every day to either learn or teach, often both. Yet we miss most of those because we are so wrapped up in our own little world, where everything needs to be under control. We are focused on what others think of us, what just happened or what is about to happen. What the outcome of something will be, and how we will be aected by that. We are afraid to fail. Its all human nature, and those of us who break free of that, those who embrace the chance to be dierent, to challenge the norm, to express our inner creative selfwe will be rewarded. Simply because so many will not do it. This is one of my favorite quotes from the late Steve Jobs, who embraced and made a fortune from being dierent. "Here's to the crazy ones. The mists. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things dierently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who
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are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."
This is the rst secret of becoming a remarkable presenter, dear reader. It is not about you. It is about the person or people who are listening to you. Understand thatfocus on thatand you win. What do they want to hear? What do they need to hear? What is their motivation to listen? How can you help them? What do you know that they can benet from? Maybe most importantlyif you were them, what would make you sit up and take notice? Answer those questions, and you are well on your way to becoming a remarkable communicator.
Because of the bombardment of information today, people no longer are satised with being informed. They want to be inspired. They want to be convinced that there is a unique and compelling reason to do business with you, to listen to your pitch, to fund your idea, to approve your project. People are also hungry for leaders, for people who can rise above, create a vision and have the guts to go after it, support it, want it! I say again, why wouldnt you want to be remarkable? Being a powerful communicator is one of the most often sited reasons why leaders reach the positions they do. Obviously, the vast majority of people are followers. Stay safe. Keep your head below the ring line. Just do your job, dont talk unless spoken to, kiss ass and take home that biweekly paycheck. Thats probably not you, because if it were, there would be no reason for you to pick up this book. You dont do presentations, and no one is asking for your opinion. You
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certainly arent a sales leader. However, if you did decide, for some reason eating at you inside, to read this, then you have a desire to excel, a passion for something, and probably a goal to be recognized as a leader. Well champ, it starts right here. The line forms to the right, and everyone in it needs to become the best communicator they can be. You too. Before we get to work on making you a power house, heres one more point. Just look around you, at people who you respect, who make their mark, who have a voice. Dont you admire them? Dont they seem to always get ahead? Dont the breaks just go their way? They are asked for their opinions, and people of power listen to them. They become people of power and inuence. That could be you. It is there for the taking, and I will show you how. Your part in this is to want it bad enough to work at it. So...lets get after it. As we move into the part of this book which will help guide you along to becoming a great presenter, you need to understand something right up front. This is not a Presentations Skills 101 book. I am not going to talk about how to use your voice, how to hold your hands, what gestures are best, how to make eye contact, etc, etc. Those are all important things, and there are reams of books and hundreds of training organizations who will teach you those things. I am assuming you are competent in the basics of being a decent speaker. I am also assuming you may not be as competent regarding how to get people to listen to you and to do whatever it is you want them to do. That is what this is about. Connecting. Inspiring. Motivating. Impressing. Selling. Being remarkable!
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Anyone can get in front of people and spout features and benets, company history, etc. Anyone can follow slides, recite bullet point facts and summarize at the end. Few can rise from their chair and know how to instantly gain credibility, engage with the listeners, and get people to want to know what they have to say. Few can communicate a value proposition by telling a compelling story, connecting the current state and the future, ideal state. Fewer still can strategically use images and minimal text to get their point across. It is precisely because so few can do these things that those who can create a distinct competitive advantage for themselves and their organizations. All things being equal, the compelling communicator wins every time. With just some things being equal, that compelling presenter will win most of the time. With little on their side, a compelling communicator will still win their share. Why? Because people who can get their point across in an interesting, informative AND engaging way are impressive, and people want to do business with impressive people. Lets test that theory. You are at a conference, and decided to attend a session about a problem you are dealing with. There are two speakers there, both with great credentials, both apparently very knowledgeable on the subject. You are excited. The rst speaker is i nt ro d u c e d , a n d h e begins by telling you all about...himself. His history, his education, his work experience, his awards. He then
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tells you all about how he came to be an expert on this subject. Next he outlines his talk with all his important points broken down. All of this, of course, is on PowerPoint slides, bulleted to the max. When he nally gets around to talking about the problem and its solution, it is clear that he is indeed an expert, but it is also painfully clear that he is as interested in himself as he is in you. He sits, very pleased with himself. The next speaker rises, walks to the front of the podium, and begins by telling an amazing fact about your industry that nobody else seemed to know. She then relates that fact to the problem at hand, connecting back to something the session facilitator mentioned during the introductions. Next, she tells a very interesting story about a colleague who was dealing with this very problem, and the process with which he went about attacking it. The story is not only interesting, but told in a way which leaves you hanging on every word. Finally, she presents her solution, linking it to the story she told, and providing you with several great resources which you can use to follow up. All this without slides. At the very end, she brings up a single slide, which shows an image, instantly recognized by you and everyone else, and uses it to emphasize her main point. She sits, pleased that she has provided you with some useful information. Now, which presenter would you want to go up to at the end and ask questions of ? Which would you want to get contact info from? Which might you want to invite to come to your organization and help you solve your problem? Yep, thats the one I thought you would pick.
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You want to be that presenter. You want to be the one everyone wants to talk with afterwards. You want to be the one who has lots of quality prospects to follow up with. You want to be the one they ask to present over and over again.
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Chapter Four Planning To Be Remarkable Why Would They Listen?

I told you that developing a remarkable presentation is not dicult. We will now explore tips and strategies which will tell you why and how. This is where you learn how to create messages that sell your solution, your idea, your project. These ideas work regardless of your audience, your venue, your message, you goals. They may be tweaked slightly depending on the circumstances, but, like learning a sport, understanding and committing to the fundamentals, the foundational principles of success, will allow you to succeed in any situation. The rst thing to consider before you start to think about what you will say is why would they listen? Your audience may have come voluntarily or at your request. They may have been told to come by leadership. They may have nothing else to do. In any case, they do not have to listen. So, your job is to very quickly give them a reason to want to listen. You may have the greatest information known to man, but if you do not connect, do not provide the Why, chances are they wont hear, because they wont care. So many people rush to focus on what it is they want to say, and they forget to consider why would people want to listen. People generally are only interested in information if it will (a) solve a problem they have or (b) help them take advantage of an opportunity. They come to your meeting, your seminar, your speech, your presentation full of
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thoughts buzzing around their cranium. Your topic may or may not be top-of-mind at that moment. Probably not. Even if it is, they can and will quickly recede into another train of thought if you do not immediately capture not only their attention, but their imagination as well. In order to do that successfully, you will need to do some planning, some research. You will need to better understand where they are coming from, who they are, and what they want/need.
Analyze the Situation

The rst step is to nd all you can about the environment, the situation that they are involved in. Your opportunity to present may be work, community, spiritually, family or motivationally oriented. In any of these conditions, there are ways to nd out a bit more about what situation our audience nds themselves in. For the purposes of this book, I will focus on your business opportunities. Here are some areas which you should look into to see what you can learn. Many of these are based on commonsense. All the more reason to list them, as commonsense is not always applied in adequate doses.
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Industry- What industry are they involved with? What is the current state of that industry? What are the pressure points, the hot-buttons of that industry? What are the opportunities which are present in that industry? Organization- What or which organizations do they work for? Again, state of, hot-buttons, opportunities within that organization(s). Also current leadership, changes, mergers, layos, accomplishments, news stories. Anything that could be used to understand and relate to them better. Community- Same questions can be asked of where they live. What is going on in that general area that is of importance to them? Have there been any recent impactful events, newspaper stories, comings and goings? If your presentation is work related, chances are you would be talking to some number of people from the same industry/organization/community, which makes your job (a) easier and (b) more impactful. Once you understand the environment and conditions under which they work, you can design a much more powerful message which will resonate with them.
Analyze the Audience

Now that you have some sort of grasp on where these people are coming from, you should now focus on who they are. One of the very cool things about presenting to people is...they are people, just like you. Their titles, looks, backgrounds may be dierent, but at their core, they share the same primary desires as you; to be liked, to be understood, to be supported, to be cared about. Again, a commonsense observation, but one which I nd so many
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presenters overlook. If you want to create the very best, most impactful message you can, simply put your own audience hat on and think about, if your fanny was in the seat, what would make you want to listen? What are some things you should consider? Title- What do these people do in their organization? What roles do they play? Are they leaders are followers, decisionmakers or inuencers? How are their roles connected to any of the information you discovered in your situation analysis? Experience- How long have they been in the organization or the industry? How long in their current roles? Background- What education level are they? Where have they worked before? What do they know about your organization, your product or service? What competing solutions are they familiar with? Do they have any preferences? Is there anything in their background which would suggest that you tailor your message in a particular way? The ROI- What is the impact of adopting your call to action? How does your suggested action benet them (or possibly not benet them)? What happens if they do nothing? What is the emotional connection for them? Friends vs foes- Who in the group can be counted on to support your message? Who can be counted on not to? Of them, which is more important/inuential? Inside champion- Who is your inside person? That person who understands what you are oering, and agrees that it is the best solution? That person who will provide inside information for you about the players and the environment?
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Analyze the Venue

I nd that the great majority of business presenters pay no attention to understanding where they will present, and how they might use that to their advantage. In rare cases it may be a small room that you cannot manipulate. In most cases, there are probably some things you can do to maximize your presence and create conditions which will help your message. People react to their surroundings. Use that in your planning. Some things to consider; Location- Where is the building located? What are trac and parking considerations? Do you need security clearance? Do your attendees? Are there any unusual conditions that exist (construction, noise, parade routes etc)? Room- Are you presenting in a conference room? A ballroom? A meeting room? An oce? A restaurant? An auditorium? A bathroom? What is the layout? Can you arrange the chairs? Are there windows? How do you adjust the lighting, the sound? Will you have a lectern, a microphone? How do people enter and leave? Can you adjust the temperature? Is the room identied? Will it be locked? Audio/visual- What equipment do you need, and is it there already? Do you know how to operate it? Do they have ip charts and markers or a whiteboard? Contacts- Who can you contact in the event of problems with the facility? The A/V? Security? Promotion- How has the event been promoted? Do all attendees know directions, parking instructions, room
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location, time? Does everyone know everyone else that is attending? Date/time- Duh you say. Of course you would know that. However, do you double-check prior to the event for changes? Do you still have the same time slot and duration? Have others on the program changed their time slots? Seating- How is the room laid out? Can you adjust it to your liking? Can you easily move around the room while you are presenting? Will everyone have clean sight-lines? Can they all hear you? How will you stand so you can get your message across in the most persuasive manner while at the same time not standing in front of anyone or the screen? Now you see why analyzing the venue is important, why getting there early is critical. I once had an important presentation to do to a group of CEOs. I arranged to come by the room the evening before to check it out. I found the automated screen, one of those that comes down from the ceiling, did not work. My meeting was the next morning at 8:30. 10 CEOs would be there to listen to me. Had I not come by, I would have been showing my slides on a blue wall. I found the maintenance guy and we got the screen to come down by force. Check things out ahead of time. Blue walls do not show slides very well.
Analyze Your Goals

The nal thing to consider is your goal. If you talk with people about giving presentations, most will tell you their goal depends on the meeting. Generally speaking, they would be correct. My point is this; your goal is simply to get
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to the next step in the relationship. Whatever that is, thats your goal. That may be a sale. It might be a next meeting. It may be a negotiation. Maybe a site visit. Perhaps a meeting with a reference account. A visit from a senior executive. A factory tour. Dinner with the CEO. Who knows? You should! And your message, your preparation, your performance should all be focused on achieving that goal, the next step in the relationship. Why is this so important? Because, the choreography of your message will take dierent directions depending on the next step to be achieved. If you are trying to close a deal, you will be focused on whatever the key issues are to make that sale happen. If the goal is to get them to visit a customer site, then that changes what you talk about. Price will not be so important, maybe not even mentioned. Your attention would be on that customer, and what they will gain by that visit. If you want to get them in front of your CEO, then the benet of that meeting will be critical to sell. Its just like dating. You cant go too fast. You have to manage the events to get to the next step in the relationship. Same thing here.
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Chapter Five Preparing To Be Remarkable Its Not About The Slides

If you are like most people, when you have a presentation to develop, the rst thing you do is what? Open PowerPoint or Keynote and start entering text on to slides. That is why I am in business. That is exactly what gets you to bulleted slides, boring information, and lost deals. Thats the easy way for you, and leads to an unsatisfying experience for your audience. Close the laptop and back away. Grab a yellow legal pad, a pencil (if you can still nd one), a drink, and start thinking. Based on all the information we just obtained by our analysis of everything involved, what does your audience need to hear, and how can you present it in a way which will suggest that they should listen? You are going to make an outline, or a list, or bullets (yes its OK on a legal pad), whatever works for your brain. You will begin to create your story, your experience, which you will share with these people, all based on exactly what they need to hear to act in the manner you will suggest. You will do so with your attendee hat on. You will envision yourself sitting in the seats, bringing your baggage, your busy schedule, your problems. You are no longer you. You are them. You are in their heads, and their hearts. You feel their pain.
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The Opening
Remember, your goal is to be remarkable. This is where it starts. Yo u r r s t consideration is, what is the best way to open this presentation in order to get them to want to listen? How can you start in a way which tells their brain now this is worth listening to? If you were in their seats, what would get your attention right o the bat? There are several ways to start a presentation which will achieve your goal. However, before we get to those, lets get something clear, and that is how NOT to start your presentation. The following is the norm, the way 90+% of presentations begin. Stop me if youve heard this before. Good morning, and welcome to our presentation of XYZ Widgets. We truly appreciate you taking time from your busy day to join us. We promise it will be worth your while. Before we get started, lets go around the room and introduce everyone. Ill start by introducing my team. Joining me today are .........For those of you I have not met, I am.........Now, if you wouldnt mind introducing yourselves and tell us what you do here at ABC Co.
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I would like to share with you the agenda for the day. We will do introductions, which we just did (ha ha). Next is some background on our company. Then our Exec VP, Mr. Smith, would like to say a few words. We want to share with you our mission statement, and how it translates into superior customer service. We will then review your stated problems, and show you how we intend to solve them. Then we will wrap with Q and A. Sound good? NO, it does not sound good! It is dull. It is boring. It sounds like every other presentation we have heard. Most of all, we dont care about all that. All we care about is how can you x our problem. Thats what they are thinking, while they are nodding their heads politely. Lets go back through that awful opening, and see where you went wrong. Thanks and welcome- While a nice and polite gesture, save the thanks for the end. They are taking time from their busy schedule, and they want you to get on with it. Besides, they know you dont mean it. Introductions- Please, they know who you are because they invited you to present. They certainly know who they are, and go around the room is so third grade. If you dont know who they are, then you did not do your homework, and dont ask them to bail you out. Company history- They do not care yet, and you have not earned the right to tell them any of this. They only care about your history to the extent it will help them solve their problem. If it is important, you can work it into the discussion later at a place that would be benecial to your message.
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Mission statementMission statements are for INTERNAL use only. No one outside of your organization gives a damn about your mission statement, and probably most of your employees dont either. Hang it on your own wall and let it help guide you through your decisions, but never bring it to a presentation. Sr VP statement- This is simply an ego booster for your VP, so nd a way to ask her to save it for the end (at which point you will conveniently run out of time). If the VP has something critical to o er, present it within the presentation at a benecial time. Announcing that your VP wants to speak just tightens the stomach of your audience, because they expect it to be executive-speak blah blah, which it most often is. Their problems/your solutions- Bingo, thats what they are here for, taking their valuable time, giving you the oor, seeking answers. This is all they care about, and you have taken the rst 15 minutes to talk about yourself and your company. Shame on you when you dont get the deal. Starting this way says you hope you get the results you want on either the strength of your information or the strength of your relationships, or both. There are two problems with this theory. One, they are both based on hope, and as the title of a famous sales training book so beautifully says, Hope Is Not A Strategy. The second problem is, everyone else is thinking the same thing. Your competitors think their information, their product features, their service oerings will carry the day. They also believe their reps and managers have great relationships. They have the same level of hope as do you.
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So, to recap the situation, we have several vendors, all of whom believe their solution is the best, and all are ready to explain why. And we have an audience, made up of some number of prospect decision-makers and inuencers, all of whom are ready for and expecting several boring, stale, salesperson-sounding presentations, which they will have to suer through to come to some decision, which most likely will not be crystal clear. Sounds like a hoot, doesnt it? I cant wait!! So, how do we break out of this, and establish a competitive advantage for ourselves and our company? Lets look at several ways which you can begin your talk and get your audiences attention immediately. 1. Tell a story- Stories have great eect in presentations, and are most often either left out entirely or vastly underutilized. Why? Because many people think business is serious, and theres no place for stories. That of course, is crap. People love a good story, and they love it even more if it illustrates (a) an example of how to solve their problems, or (b) is about something they did not know or were unaware of. We will cover storytelling in a later chapter. However, it serves a great purpose as an opening. Beginning with Let me tell you a story gets people to listen right away. 2. State an interesting or even startling fact- Your audience is expecting the same old same old. So are their brains. Just by opening in a dierent manner, it alerts their brain to the fact that this is dierent from what they expected, and they pay attention. Stating a fact that is (a) relevant, (b) interesting and (c) hopefully unknown to them grabs their brain. If it is an amazing or hard to
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believe fact, all the better. The key is to state it, then relate it immediately to the problem at hand. 3. Provide an analogy- Presenting their problem in a dierent way, using an analogy as reference point, is powerful. It sets the stage, and gives your audience a dierent approach to consider. It gets them to think. 4. Present a vision- I want to take you 5 years into the future suggests they have to use their imagination. People love to imagine, to dream. If you can create a visionary approach to their problem, which suggests a bridge from their current state to their future state, they will follow you. The key is to make it relevant and believable. Follow your vision with a supporting story of another customer who achieved it makes it even more compelling. 5. Open with other media- Show a video or play an audio clip. Right out of the gate. No introduction. Make it short enough but interesting enough, then tie it to the agenda of the meeting, and you are o and running. 6. R e l a t e t o a n i n t e r e s t i n g f a c t , e v e n t o r accomplishment about the company or people you are talking to- People love to hear about themselves, and they like to know you have done your homework by researching them. Then use that to suggest they can do even more great things by implementing the solution you are about to share with them. 7. Tell a funny story or joke- But caution, the humor must be appropriate and you must be good at telling it. Selfdeprecating humor is best, or something funny about someone on your team. There is nothing like starting a meeting with a laugh...and there is nothing like starting a meeting with a joke that falls at. This is high risk-high reward, so tread lightly, and condently.
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Whats the point in all of this? Easy. Be dierent. Be unusual. Be unique. This is not Saturday Night Live, or The Holiday Inn, or American Idol. H owe ve r, p e o p l e like to be entertained, and they crave being impressed. They are expecting you to be average, the black umbrella. By being above-average, dierent, the yellow umbrella, you get exactly what you are after, that being their attention and their desire to listen. If you achieve that, you are way ahead of your competition.
Transition- Current State to Future State

This is your objective. Take your audience from whatever is their current state to a new world where their lives are better and their problems are solved. This is not as easy as it sounds. It is not as simple as we understand your problem and heres how we will solve it. They come in with built-in skepticism, biases, allegiances, relationships, conicting priorities and pressure to do the right thing. All this makes it imperative that you be as compelling as possible, and that you stand out from your competitors. Information alone might make that happen, but why take that chance.
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Hopefully in your opening you have created a desire to listen to you, and an anticipation that what you have to say may actually be valuable. Now you need to reestablish where they are, and more importantly, make them feel their pain in a denable and acute way. They need to understand that whatever it is they have as an issue should and can be solved. The do nothing conclusion is often the choice, especially if all solutions seem the same. This happens when all competitors have viable solutions and pricing, and all presenters have communicated their value proposition in similar methods. But of course, you would not be in that category, because you are going to be dierent. The best way to do this is to create a scenario that they would identify with. Of course, you would talk about the business environment and the issues, but a critical piece is to include anyone in the organization who would/could be aected by this problem, as well as any other departments. Many times, people are focused on how things aect their own job functions. When you bring to t h e i r att e nt i o n other areas which could be impacted by the problem, and how they would benet by a solution, it helps to build the importance of a solution, and decreasing the likelihood of a donothing approach.
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For example, if you are proposing you solve a problem in product development, you can build a case for how that problem also directly aects sales, marketing, nance, stang and research and development. This is a great opportunity to step away from the slide deck and draw out a graphic which links all these departments to the problem. When people see the big picture created in front of them, it has a huge impact on them. (We will cover sketching in a future chapter.) All of a sudden, this problem takes on an increased urgency and decision makers are reminded of the critical nature of their decision. You now have their attention. Another great way is to reference another, similar organization, which had a problem much like (hopefully exactly like) your prospects. You can recreate their circumstances, how the problem manifested itself, what parts of the organization were aected, and how they dealt with it. This is great opportunity to use storytelling in your presentation (also as mentioned in the opening). We will cover storytelling in detail in a bit, but you should try to work it in wherever possible. It is that valuable. Peer examples are powerful weapons in your arsenal. People like to know that someone else has tried your proposed solution and that it worked for them. An optional way to introduce this future state concept is to suggest a vision. You tell your audience Let me create a vision for you of what your company/department/group would look like if you implemented our proposed solution. Decision makers love to work with people who can communicate a vision. Anyone can explain how something works, or what the benets are to using a product or service. Not everyone (in fact, very few) can use their creativity,
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linked with real world facts, data and examples, to create a vision of a future state that the prospects can not only identify with, but really visualize and feel the benets. That is the key to the vision approach. To be so detailed and descriptive that you take your audience to that future state in their minds, AND hearts. If you can master that skill, you will elevate yourself way beyond your competitors. An example from my own experience was presenting to a group of distance learning leaders from the state of West Virginia. My company had an opportunity to propose the use of our software throughout the WV system of higher education. Instead of focusing on product feature/benet statements and demos, I focused on the vision of how the education system would work, and what the learning outcomes could be for their students. Afterwards, the Chancellor of the state system, whom I did not know was there, came up to me and congratulated me on having this vision, and asked me to help him persuade the campuses to join in. Obviously, we got the deal, and it was that vision presentation that started the ball rolling. Your attendees subconsciously know that they have problems to be solved, but often need reminding of (a) how critical is it to do something about it, and (b) what their life
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would look like if they implemented your proposed solution. Painting a picture in their minds of the possible and benecial future state is a key to moving forward with their focused interest and enthusiasm.
The Power of Story

Remarkability is best demonstrated by compelling storytelling. There is something about hearing a good story that gets p e o p l e s attention. I believe we are hard-wired from our earliest days as a species to respond to stories. After all, in the way-early days, thats all we had. Everything was passed down by story. Cave dwellers painted stories on cave walls. The Bible is a collection of stories. Men on horseback carried stories throughout Europe. Stories came over by ship in the development of our country. Kids learned lifes lessons on the front porch listening to their grandparents tell stories about the frontier days. The traveling salesmen of the early industrial period made their living by recanting tales about miraculous benets of the products in their bag. Stories came through the radio in the 40s and 50s, with the whole family gathered around. Now we get our stories through social media, TV, movies and the net. And of course, we
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have always loved a good joke, which is a kind of story in itself. So, it is no stretch to understand why this is such an important part of the compelling value message. My own amazement is not that it works, but that so few people use it. In our workshops, when we talk about developing and delivering powerful stories, I often hear participants say but I cant tell a story. In almost every case, this is not so. When I ask them to tell us about their favorite person in the world, maybe their mother, father, sister, brother, child, teacher, whatever, they never have a problem sharing stories about that person, and how they had an impact on their lives. Once I point out that they just told a very nice story, they realize they have the ability. It is simply a matter of understanding how to create them, and how to tell them in a way that maximizes the power and inuence the story will have. The story format does not change, regardless of the story, or the reason for telling it. In a business setting, there may not be as much emphasis on character development of colorful dialog, but there still exists the need for basic story elements, which will help transport the listener to the place, time and situation, and will guide them toward the solution or result they are after. Perhaps most important is to make an eort to get an emotional reaction to your story. Emotions are much more powerful than logic. When I say emotional reaction, I dont mean you want them to cry, but you do want them to feel what it was like to be in the story, what it felt like to face this problem, and what it felt like to solve it. Keeping a job,
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getting a raise, getting recognition or an advancement, achieving a goal, those are all emotional events. Whoever said emotion has no place in business was totally ignorant of how the human brain and heart are connected. I encourage my clients to develop what I call the story bank. This is a group of stories about customers in various situations, from various types of organizations, that have been helped by my clients solutions. These could be small, medium and big companies, di erent parts of the organizations, dierent roles. It is great to have multiple stories to pull from your memory based on the situation. The more similar your story is to your prospects problems, the more they can relate to the benets of the solution. If you are new to your company or industry and dont have stories of your own, its OK to borrow some from your colleagues until you can build your own bank. It is important though that you not claim those as your own. You can simply say, let me tell you about this customer who..., vs. let me tell you about a customer of mine. Remember, part of your overall goal is to establish trust, which means always being truthful. Before you begin to establish your story bank, you need to consider some basic things about your customer base. The rst is to think about what are the primary problems your customer base faces that you can, and have solved. You may from time to time solve random or indirectly related problems, but the majority of your prospects will be interested in solving 1 or 2 primary, important, and similar problems. You should focus on how you have dealt with those. Second, what are the most often used solutions that you provide, and how did they help? Was the primary benet money savings, time savings, revenue increases,
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infrastructure consolidation, process eciencies? How did your solution create a Return on Investment (ROI) for your customers? Third, what happened to any prospects that either used another vendors solution or did nothing about their problem? Your story bank should always include examples of what happened when other solutions, or no solution was adopted. You never want to mention your competitors by name, but talking about approaching the problem in a dierent way, with negative outcomes, can be very powerful. The fear of pain is often more motivating than the pleasure of reward. Here are the basic elements of story, and how they are used in a business setting. The Main Character- You need to introduce the primary person (or organization) the story is about. This character will be the main focus of this business story, and will ultimately be the hero. He or she would be the one dealing with a problem of great signicance, and will be the one to reap the benets of your solution. Obviously, you should try to use someone your audience and key decision makers can identify and relate to. It is not enough to simply say Bob was the Director of Manufacturing at XYZ. The more you can create a detailed picture of the main character, the easier it is for your prospects to identify with them. For example, you could say, Bob was the Director of Manufacturing at XYZ. Now Bob had been there for 20+ years, and had worked hard to achieve this position. He was widely respected for his decision making, and he attacked problems with the same attention he had given his career. Now they can feel that they know Bob better. Remember, feelings are more powerful than logic. Get them to feel something about the story from the beginning.
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You could also introduce any supporting cast, such as inuencers or users who contributed to the situation. Most of the time, your key prospects will have others they consult with, so it is important to acknowledge that those people have a role, and that there were similar people involved in your story. The Plot- Describe the situation in which the story takes place. What is going on? What is the state of the organization, department, team? Give details about the problem, and how it aects the situation. Include past and future impact. What, if anything have they done about it? What is the level of importance? Of course, your level of detail and amount of information will change based on your situation, how much time you have, how much of this you may have already covered, the amount of pain the group may feel by discussing this again. Something important to consider is what roles those in attendance may have had in creating, or not solving this problem. You need to be aware of this, because the person who is to blame may be in the room. But this is a key element to include. Its not enough to say There was this customer, and he had this problem, and we solved it for him by doing this. That is not impactful. That is not emotional. That will not lead to a decision. However, that is what we see more often than not. That is the story.
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The Adventure- This is where you talk about what journey the main character (and his advisors) embarked upon to try to deal with this problem. You should emphasize the trials and tribulations that they experienced, the resulting costs, and the frustration in not nding a solution. Pain is the key here, both real and imagined. Your prospects have to feel what your characters were going through, AND, they need to perceive what their own situation may cause them in terms of similar pain. In this part, you can subtly introduce commentary on your competitors, if their solutions have failed to help. Of course you dont mention them by name, but talk about the faulty solution in a way which becomes clear that you are describing your competitors process. You can also suggest the results of inactivity, because a choice to do nothing is often the choice made when no solution becomes clear. The whole point of the Adventure piece is to set the stage for the solution. The solution will not be as impactful if the problem and the eorts to date have not been played up well. The more pain and frustration the prospects feel, the more they will be anxious and open to your solution.
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The Solution- Your hero (the main character) is about to reach the future state where the primary problem he/she has encountered will be solved. A discussion (and perhaps demo) of the solution should always include a brief but comprehensive accounting of how the solution solves the problem, the associated eort required, the cost and the return on investment. The description of how the solution works should be aimed specically at the primary issue that the prospects want to solve. Often, sales reps, eager to show o the cool stu they are selling, will bombard the prospects with lots of additional information which they hope will be impressive. More often than not, they instead tend to complicate the matter, and reduce the signicance of the primary solution. Keep the story simple, and stick to the primary problem and solution. It is important to not overlook the eort required to implement the solution. If it is not much, than all the better. If it does require resources, time, whatever, then its better to touch on it at this point, and combine it with the return on investment discussion. In fact, relating the eort to the accomplishment within the story is the best and most eective way to introduce this issue. You can again relate to it in the demo. If left until later, and discussed outside of this story, the required eort will seem more than it is. The Moral- This is the close, where the story ends with the main character successful, the problem solved, the organizational benets, and all are happy moving forward. Here is where you reinforce the decision, reiterate the benets of choosing your solution, and remind them that it
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will all be worthwhile. This is also your opportunity to conrm that they understand all that was laid out, and they see how your solution can work. It is important to note here, not only the organizational benets, but any potential personal career benets to the main character. Again, playing to the emotional side of the decision. This part of your story is a perfect place for you to introduce either video or audio testimonials that reinforce your story. If you have a great customer story you use often, ask that customer if you can interview him/her on video about their experience. From that interview, edit it down to a 2 minute piece you can use in presentations, webinars, on your web site, etc. You might also build a library of audio interviews using something like BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com). You could then take pieces of those interviews and use them in presentations, as well as referring prospects to the interviews as they research your solution. Remember that change is a huge source of anxiety, and that in order to accept change, people need to be reminded of the consequences of doing nothing, and shown that there is a better way that requires minimal diculties and results in maximum benet. Your moral will lay all of this out for them, if done properly.
The Demo
At some point, you will need to demonstrate that your solution does what you say it will. Its been my experience that this is often an area where (a) people are uneasy about
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showing their stu and (b) they make it much more complicated than it needs to be, which opens the door to problems. In almost every situation, there will be one overriding problem that your prospect needs to solve. There may be others, either associated with the main issue or separate but less important. I am sure that you have uncovered these problems and have them r a n k e d according to your prospects needs. Heres my main message about demos. Solve the primary problem rst, completely, and then move forward. Sounds simple and practical enough, but it is amazing to me how many times sales people will screw this up. We tend to want to show everything that we think is cool about our solution, and consequently, we muddy the water around the primary issue. Many times, if a prospect is impressed by you and your company and is eager to hear about and see your solution, once they hear your story and see that it indeed solves their primary problem at a satisfactory cost, no more needs to be said. If there are additional problems that the prospect has indicated they want to see solved, then do the same for each, in order of importance. Once you have done this...STOP. Do
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not show the latest neat feature. Do not show something that your last customer found to be exciting. Do not show the add-on solutions that your company wants you to push. Simply conrm that they agree that your solution works, that there are no lingering questions, and move on to the call to action stage. I have seen many demos which take a sale to a no-sale because they confused the prospect with things they did not care about. Listen to the old philosophy from the legal world...never answer an unasked question. That is great advice! Heres something else to remember. Keep your focus on the audience. Often when we are showing o what we are selling, our focus drifts to the product and away from the audience. We lose our connection, our engagement with them. Stay with them, and keep the interaction level high. One trick to accomplishing this is to walk around the room while showing your solution. With remote technology it is easy to control your demo while moving around the room. Speaking from dierent places and moving close to members of the group keeps them involved and alert. It also allows you to personally interact with people who may have questions or concerns, and it creates an aura of you being part of the group vs. the presenter at the front of the room. Finally, integrate the demo into the ow of the meeting. Dont position it as, drum roll please, The Demo. It should appear as a natural part of the conversation. Move into it by saying something like, Here, let us show you. Move back and forth between discussion, demo, story, discussion, demo, etc. That way it is a part of your comfortable, conversational meeting vs. the next step in the sales process. Remember, the majority of surveyed buyers want a conversation, not a presentation.
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Your demo is not about ash, its about substance. Its not about how many problems you solve, but about the primary problems the prospect has that you solve. Its not about coolness, its about simplicity. And its not about you. Its about them. Keep it basic, show the features that solve the major issue, maybe show something important you know your competitors do not have. Then wrap it up. Dont be a presenter, be an advisor.
The Call to Action

Most people would call this the close. I have always hated that term. People buy stu mainly because it (a) solves a problem, or (b) allows them to take advantage of an opportunity. Much more the former than the latter. They have a certain amount of money to spend on the solution (usually more than they say they do), and they have a timeframe in mind in which they would like to see the problem solved. Heres some thoughts to consider before we get to the call to action. people buy from people, and they prefer to buy from people they like and trust, not salespeople if the prospect has asked you to present to them, they want to buy something prospects can smell a sales process a mile away like Coach Lou Holtz has said, people want to know that you believe in them, can you be trusted, and you are committed to excellence
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selling is simple, just solve problems rst and foremost presenting is simple, just have a conversation its about them, not you and your commission, your quota, your pressure from management, or your Presidents Club ranking Once you understand and live by those thoughts above, the call to action becomes a result of the conversation you have had. What this means is, your suggestion of a next step is based on what the prospect needs to have happen. Its not about your fancy closing statement, or one of any number of sales training-based closes. Thats all so contrived. The call to action (CTA) can take many forms. Lets take a look at some examples. The prospect indicates he wants to talk to a couple of your customers. Your CTA is I want you to speak with X, Y and Z customers. Lets schedule a conference call next Tuesday at 1 PM, from your oce. Ill join you. The prospect has already said the decision committee will meet in 2 days to go over the proposal. Your CTA, I understand you all will meet again in 2 days to decide on a solution. I will leave a copy of our proposal, along with some important notes, and my cell number if you all have any questions. I will call you at 9 AM on the 3rd day to learn of your decision. I look forward to it.
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Your prospect says there are 3 others who need to see this but couldnt be here today. Your response, Thats great. I suggest we do that as soon as possible, so everything is fresh in everyones mind. Lets get our schedules out and agree on a time for tomorrow. Your CTA can be as simple as You have conrmed that we have answered all your questions, that our solution solves the problem and meets your budget, and that it is easily implemented. What do we do now? Or, You have indicated that this is a problem you need to solve immediately, and that you believe our solution will make that happen. My advice is we schedule implementation ASAP, in order to save you further time and money costs. This is my favorite. Now that youve seen that our solution solves your problem and is within the time and cost budget you indicated, let me tell you one more quick story. You then tell them about a satised customer that made a quick decision and how that paid o for them. At the end, you say Id love to use your story the next time I present this solution. Asking for the order is ne, but the point is, dont be a sales guy at the end of your meeting. You have worked hard to create a trusting, comfortable, conversational attitude. Why blow it with your favorite sales closing line? When people consider becoming your customer, they dont want to feel they have to guard their wallet every time they see you.
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Follow Up
It is fairly amazing to me that so many people fail to follow up from a presentation. I am sure its because they dont want to hear bad news. Maybe it is that they think they did a poor job and dont want that to be conrmed. Maybe they are just too lazy. In any event, follow up is very important, even if your prospects told you they would get back to you. Especially if they told you that. If you had takeaway action items from the meeting, get them done ahead of your proposed response time, and circulate your response to all attendees, not just the person to whom you were to respond. Otherwise, there are just three things about follow up that I believe are critical. And they should be done religiously. The rst is a phone call to the decision-maker, thanking him/her for their time, and for getting everyone together for the meeting. You hope it was not only informative, but inspiring, and you look forward to their decision. If you can actually speak to them, great. Chances are, this is a message which is left on voicemail. Thats ne too. Do not follow that with a second call. Do not send email. Again, dont be a sales guy. The second priority is a follow up call with your inside champion. Find out all you can about reactions, comments, issues and decisions made by attendees, especially of course the decision-maker. This will be important for your next steps.
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The third thing is a handwritten thank you note to every attendee, thanking them for their t i m e , a n d h o p i n g i t wa s a benecial meeting for them. This should be written on a personal thank you card which you have purchased. This should not include your business card. It should not have company logo, or info included. Dont send them more product information or the latest white paper or press release. It should not be typed, and most importantly, it should not be emailed. And it should be done and placed in the mail that same day, if at all possible. People love to get handwritten notes. Your family loves it. Your spouse/signicant other loves it. Your parents love it. Your friends love it. Prospects and customers love it as well. I once wrote one to an important CIO I met at a show once. He wasnt even my customer at that point. Some many months later, he became a part of my territory and when I called on him, he had my note on his desk. He said it was the only handwritten note he ever received from a vendor, and that he looked forward to doing business with me. Not a bad result for 5 minutes of my time and a postage stamp. Dont consider it, just do it. Your competitors wont, which is reason enough. If you have a follow up presentation to make, perhaps to others who could not make the rst one, dont shortcut the second. It is benecial to do the story again, reinforce the sense of urgency, and focus on the problem. Even if some attendees have heard it before, give it your best shot. You
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owe that to the new people, and it will remind the returnees how important your solution is. No matter the circumstances, always come with your A game. You never know who will be in the audience that could have a positive aect your business and your career.
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Chapter Six Practicing To Be Remarkable Performances Require Rehearsal

Michael Jordan was one of my favorite athletes. I loved the way he could elevate his game to whatever level was needed to be successful. I loved his attacking mentality. I loved his competitiveness, his drive and will to win. Much has been written about his focus on practice and preparation. MJ always tried to make practice sessions harder than game conditions, so the actual games would seem easier. One of my favorite quotes from his book My Story, is No one can turn it on without practicing. Everyone knows MJ practiced intensely, but one thing many people do not know is this. After a few years in the league, Michael was already clearly an unstoppable scoring force. However, he was not considered an elite defender. That bothered him, because he wanted to be the best to ever play, and he could not get there without becoming a lockdown defender. It would have been easy for him to wing it because no one could stop him from scoring. But
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he made a commitment to be the best all around player, so he practiced his defense harder than he did his oense. After only two more years, he was the defensive MVP of the league. OK, great work ethic story and all that, but what does superstar Michael Jordans practicing defense have to do with becoming a great presenter? Ill tell you what. When you make the eort to practice your presenting and you get to the point of comfort and condence, it is easy to quit practicing and just go with it. You will do OK, but you wont be the best you can be. World-renowned speakers like my great friend Ty Boyd continue to practice their craft long after they have made it. Ty has spoken around the world, to crowds of tens of thousands. He has won every major speaking award there is. He is considered a hall of famer in the business. At 80 years young, Ty still practices a speech before giving it. Why? Because he never knows exactly what is in store on that occasion, and, he never knows who will be in the audience. Neither do you, and you are no Ty Boyd (not yet anyway).
Practice Methods
There are several ways to practice your presentation. Once you have developed the talk to the point that you are satised with it, its time for you to give it a run through out loud. No media, no slides, just talk it through. You will get a sense of ow and balance, and you will get a great feel for how the words work. One important thing at this point. Time it. Use a clock, watch, on-screen timer. Whatever, but get a sense for the length of time it takes you to talk through it. I cant tell you how many times in practice I have gone
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over my allotted time even before I included visuals or demos. Talk about panic! You have been given 30 minutes and you are at 50 without a demo. Now what? Go back, think about your message in terms of their problem, and begin editing. I guarantee you will nd places where you talk too much about yourself or your company, where you include facts that are not important, where you overemphasize a point or two. Cut them out. Keep it simple. You now have it down to a manageable timeframe. Now have someone you trust read it aloud with you in the room. This will accomplish several things. First, they will invariably pick up something you missed, and second, you can hear it aloud and you will pick up something you missed. Third, they can evaluate the sense of ow. Does the sequencing make sense? Is the message easy to follow? What is more important, is it compelling, inspiring, engaging? Is it remarkable? Forget about content, does it move them? If they had the problem you are addressing, would they want to solve it with your help? Focus on the part of the message that has nothing to do with content. Focus on the feeling. Next, do the same thing, this time with slides or whatever visuals you plan to use. Do this again out loud, as if your audience were sitting there. Pick a place without windows or other potential distractions. No phones, no interruptions. Just you. Keep your timer active. Step through the demo. If you are not actually doing the demo, then fake it (more about that later), but focus on how you will interact with the person running the demo, and what questions may arise from the group. Evaluate it as honestly as you can. Make corrections as needed.
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Then do it again, this time, if possible, video tape it. There is no teacher like video. You can see all the aws, as well as what works. You can pick up on bad habits or annoying tendencies. One thing I learned from this practice is I had to open my eyes more, that I had a habit of squinting, which does not convey trust. If video is not possible, try to rehearse in front of a mirror. At least you can see how you look, and how much trust, experience and power you deliver. Remember, 90+% of the impact of your presentation is from things other than the content. Focus on how compelling you are. At this point you probably have run through the presentation about 5 times, and should be comfortable with the material and how you plan to engage the group. It is now time to go live. You should do it again, this time in front of people. Maybe it is your family. Better still, your coworkers, people on your team who understand what you are trying to accomplish. This will not be easy or comfortable. We most especially do not want to fail in front of people we know. The way to approach this is these people are close to you, they support you, and they want you to succeed. Allow them to help. Everyone needs help from time to time. Ask them to be honest. Set up the situation, who the players will be, what the main issue is, where you
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stand in the process and with your competitors. Tell them what your goal is, and what is more important, what the goals are of your prospects. Ask them if they feel you reached them, engaged them, motivated them to act? Were they emotionally involved? Did they perceive this as a sales talk, or did they believe you were acting as an advisor? Hopefully this will go well, and you will now be condent in your approach, and expect great results. If you are working as a team on this, perhaps with a product specialist, you need to do a run through with them as well. This is very important, and something often overlooked as unnecessary. Consequently, I have seen many times when this blows up and causes a promising presentation to go down the tubes. Your partner needs to understand their role, the goals of the meeting, and how best to play his/her part. It is vital that they stay on point, and not go o on tangents showing things that they think are cool. They in particular, must adhere to the statement, Never answer an unasked question. Just show what solves the problem, and whatever else may be required to obtain the objective, and nothing else unless asked. One other thing, it is not always necessary to answer a yes-no question by showing something. For example, an attendee asks, Does your widget work with our existing XYZ widget?. The only answer required is yes or no. If its no, explain why. If they ask to see a demonstration of that, then show it. Otherwise, answer and move on.
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Q&A
Taking questions is usually a part of presenting, whether it be in business or any other type of presentation or talk. Taking questions often creates tension and anxiety. What if I dont know the answer? What if someone asks a tough personal question? What if I am put on the spot? What if they bring up something that is damaging to our eort? All valid concerns. However, look at Q & A as simply an extension of the conversation. To prepare for Q & A, make a list of the 5 toughest questions you could get, and have answers for those. You should be able to handle any others on the y. Here are some easy ways to make Q & A more comfortable. 1. Smile- It is almost impossible to be angry or respond in a terse way when smiling. I dont mean a big, fake smile. Just a casual grin when listening to the question. It also will help ease any tension that may exist in the room. If people see you smiling, then they will relax a bit. 2. Dont say Thats a great question- That is what everybody says. And, because everybody says it, it sounds fake. Be inventive when accepting the question. Try I get that question a lot, or Interesting question, or Glad you asked that. Be original. 3. Repeat the question- If in a room of any size, make sure everyone hears it. In a smaller room where everyone can hear clearly, this is of course unnecessary. 4. Why did you pick that one?- If you want clarity, to fully understand the question or if you think there is
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more to it, ask this question. It always gets to the root of the issue. 5. Answer to the questioner- Start by looking at the person who asked, then make eye contact with others as you answer. Then, as you move toward the completion, come back to the questioner and get clarication that they feel their question was answered. Keep everyone involved. 6. Move- Dont take questions in one place. Move around the podium, or the room if possible. This breaks down the articial barrier that exists between presenter and audience. When you move, especially moving into the group, you become one of them. It makes it harder for them to come at you, or try to get you. 7. Dont make it up- Answer all questions honestly. If you dont know, say so. If the honest answer will create problems, address them head on, rather than later when you may not be eye to eye. Trust overcomes many issues. 8. Take notes- It shows you think the questions are important, and it allows you to reference them and who asked them later on. This may be particularly helpful when you write your thank-you notes.
Media and Slide Preparation

You will notice that, at this point in the book, we have not discussed slides. That is because the purpose of this book is to make you the best presenter you can be. Your slides, if necessary, should only be supportive of your message, and not the message itself. That is the problem with slides (well, there are a number of problems with slides), they become a crutch so presenters do not have to know their material.
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They can simply refer to the slide on the screen. As we all have witnessed, this makes for a crummy presentation. You are not going there anymore. At this point, you are well aware that it is the presenter who makes the moment work. However, well developed supporting material can help. Lets nd out how.
Slide Development
My rule of thumb on slides is anyone in your audience should be able to get it within 5 seconds of seeing your slide. There are several keys to developing great slides which accentuate your points and provide additional reasons for your audience to remember what you are trying to say. It does not require a graphics department or expertise in any slideware applications. This stu is not brain surgery or rocket science. It simply requires some common sense, and the belief in the remarkable nature of simplicity. When developing your slides, rst focus on simplifying the background. Stay away from gradations (where the color gradually changes across or down the slide) and patterns. Just pick a solid, basic background. It can be dark or light, whichever you personally like. But not bright colors. Stay basic. Also, no common footers like your company logo, the date, the title. The people who you are in front of know the date, they know who you are and the name of your company. Putting this stu on every slide just takes away from your message. When you go to a function, do you say to everyone you talk to Hi, I am John from XYZ Company, and today is June 1st.? Of course not. Resist the temptation to do what everyone else does.
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Your use of text should be limited to a single point on any one slide, minimal words, perhaps even just one. As I said, you want anyone in your audience to be able to get it within 5 seconds of seeing your slide. Then they can turn their attention back to you and what you are trying to tell them. If they are reading your slides, they are not listening to you. Humans cant do both at the same time. The type size needs to be big enough to see anywhere in the room, usually that means 40+ point size. The choice of fonts is up to you, but two things about this. (1) Stay consistent. Dont change fonts on every slide. (2) Make sure its easy to read. I love some of the handwritten styles, but many are not legible from too far away. Dont be cute trying to win style points. Again, just get your point across and get their attention back on you. Charts and graphs can be useful, but only if they are easy to follow and adhere to the 5 second rule. People love to get fancy with their graphs and charts. They somehow think it is impressive to their audience. They could not be more wrong. People listening to a talk hate it when a complicated image appears. Listen to me. They HATE it. On top of that, they are not going to remember it. So, whats the point? You can usually get your data point across with either a very basic graph or none at all. Put your detailed data graph in the leave-behind (well get to that in a minute).
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Images
This gets us to the important part...images. By images I mean pictures. Use them. They accentuate what you want to say, Its been proven that words combined with an image will greatly multiply the memory potential. Use high quality pictures, and consider using only one on a slide. Heres the main point. Make the picture ll the entire slide, and write your text over the image. Dont put the picture down in the corner or on one half of the slide. Cover it. If you are creative and put some thought into it, and use a picture which accentuates your point, you will have a winning slide strategy. One more thing about pictures. Use images which you have permission to use. Meaning either you took the photos yourself or you bought the rights to use them. Just because they are out there on the web somewhere does not mean you have the right to use them. People appreciate trust and honesty. Not to mention it is illegal. Sorry, there is one more thing. Please do not use clip art animation. Cute little images of clowns or harried executives or cute bears does not make a good impression. Be professional. Here are some great sources for images. iStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com) Shutter Stock (www.shutterstock.com) Image After (www.imageafter.com) Stock.xchng (www.sxc.hu) Every Stock Photo (www.everystockphoto.com) Google Images (www.google.com/images)
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Audio and Video

Including audio and video clips in your presentation is a great idea. You want to break up the potential monotony of you talking and clicking through slides, so inserting these media options is encouraged. Some suggestions. Keep them short. Preferably 1 minute or less. Unless they are incredibly entertaining, peoples minds will begin to wander if they are too long. Make sure they are on-point. I have seen people insert a catchy clip that has little to do with the message, because they thought they were cool. Stay on point. You can be cool by doing just that. Using customer testimonials is a great use of these media forms. Inserting a customer clip reinforcing the point you just made is powerful. Make sure they are high quality. Poor images or sound can really derail your presentation, and your audiences perception of you. Like with pictures, get approval to use the clips. You dont want to get an angry call from a customer who heard their video was used in your sales presentation without their permission. And you dont want to get sued. Two media sites which I recommend you explore for your use are YouTube (www.youtube.com) and BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com). You can create your own channel on each, and build video and audio sequences which promote your business and messaging. You can then grab pieces of content from these sites to use in your presentations.
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Screen Shots
Screen shots, especially in the technology world, can be useful. However, screen shots are invariably busy and cluttered with multiple images, so use them sparingly and wisely...and quickly. If you want to show what your software user interface looks like, ne. Or what reports are available. OK. But highlight one single point of reference on the screen shot and then move on. Do not attempt to explain everything they see on the screen. You may as well pull the plug on the projector, because you just killed your presentation. In my long history of technology presentations, both given and witnessed, I suggest that screen shots are not necessary if you are doing a live demo. If you are not, then use them to demonstrate the look and feel of your product, and use them in a progression to demonstrate the ow of the application. Otherwise, save them for the leave-behind piece. Just do not overuse them, and get o the image as quickly as you can.
Examples
Here are some before and after slides which we have developed for clients. See which you would prefer to be exposed to.
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The issue here is user frustration with having to use multiple applications to accomplish their goal.
As a Result, the Workflow Has Historically Been
Create Protect (Maybe) Manage Distribute
4
Challenges include:
No centralized repository authors store files on their computers Free form jazz field personnel customizing slides Save as PDFs to secure them sometimes But Acrobat cant prevent secondary distribution Email was (and often remains) the means of file distribution Inability to update distributed files No analytics, tracking of usage
2012 StoryCloud Corporation. All Right Reserved. Confidential. Subject to NDA.
Requires Multiple Enterprise Software Solutions
2012 StoryCloud Corporation. All Right Reserved. Confidential. Subject to NDA.
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This scenario was a proposal for the implementation phase of a large consulting project.
Phase 3: Implementation"
Untapped Potential
Culture Past formed behaviors Communication Organizational flexibility Past practices History-based standard Skills of employees Front-line management effectiveness
Focus and Strategy
Operating at Capacity
Goals and Objectives
Short Term Financial benefit
Utilizing existing resources to achieve greater results
Current Performance Level

Capital/equipment Systems Infrastructure Human capital Management resource Technology Current initiatives Technical talent
Long Term New performance level Improved work processes Stronger front-line management Accountability at employee level Effective problem-solving skills Focus on people New performance culture Continuous improvement mindset
Dramatic results through better execution
13 !
Phase 3 "

Putting the solution in place How we got to 650+ success stories

10 !
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These slides came from a marketing deck for a technology company, trying to suggest that their product would provide a solution for cyber terrorism.
Cyber&Threats&,&the&#1&IT&/&Business,&& Govt&&&Consumer&Technology&Problem&
! Cyber&Crime,&Cyber&Warfare&&&Cyber&Terrorism&&major&and&growing&concerns& ! Iden9ty&The<&=&fastest&growing&crime&in&US&&~1&in&20&Americans&aected&in&
2011&according&to&US&FBI,&largest&source&of&US&FTC&complaints&(Source:&US&Federal&
Govt)&
! Current&leading&An9=Malware&Technologies&have&drama9cally&lost&ecacy&
! 20%&average&failure&rate&on&known&malware& ! 53=74%&average&failure&rate&on&new&Zero=Day&malware&(Source:&Gartner,&Inc.,&July&2011)&
& ABC&Company&has&developed&patented&lockdown&so<ware&&&semiconductor& technology&that&secures&computers&and&electronic&devices&with&absolute&certainty& &Elimina9ng&100%&of&A_acking&Malware&from&All&Threat&Vectors&

1& Friday,(February(8,(13(
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This came from an academic presentation about how technology is having an impact on student advising.
Abstract
The advisee electronic portfolio (e-Folio) serves as a key artifact (evidence) in the cycle of authentic assessment of college student learning outcomes (persistence), mid-points (retention), and capstone experience (graduation). Advisee e-Folios can be used for student development and success as well as for accreditation and funding purposes. The level to which students are engaged in their own learning and personal success can be documented, reviewed, and reflected upon by using multiple methods of assessment. Just as advisors (faculty and professional staff) build e-Folios for professional development, the student is mentored by the assigned advisor in creating and building his/her e-Folio. The e-Folio can serve as a post-graduation learning outcome whereby the graduate can continue to build an e-Folio that reflects him/her as a whole person.
aw/tg9/9/11
Abstract
The Academic eFolio
The advisee electronic portfolio (e-Folio) serves as a key artifact (evidence) in the cycle of authentic assessment of college student learning outcomes (persistence), mid-points (retention), and capstone experience (graduation). Advisee e-Folios can be used for student development and success as well as advising3 for accreditation and funding purposes. The level to which students are engaged in their own learning and personal success can be documented, reviewed, and reflected upon by using multiple methods of assessment. Just as advisors (faculty and professional staff) build e-Folios for professional development, the student is mentored by the assigned advisor in creating and building his/her e-Folio. The e-Folio can serve as a post-graduation learning outcome whereby the graduate can continue to build an e-Folio that reflects him/her as a whole person.
aw/tg9/9/11
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Live Drawing/Sketching
You have no doubt heard of stories about how ideas were born on the back of napkins. There have been many books written about this, one of the best being The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam. Drawing out your ideas or solutions live on a whiteboard or ip chart has tremendous advantages for your messaging. First of all, many people are visually oriented, and they will get your idea faster if you sketch it out for them. Even when people are not particularly visual in nature, they tend to follow closely when someone begins to draw something live. Why? Two reasons. First, the brain picks up on the fact that something dierent is occurring, and it automatically tunes in. Second, the audience does not know where you are headed with your drawing, so they follow along to see. I hear you already. I cant draw. I have never been able to draw. I am not an artist. Etc, etc. You dont need to be. You can learn to draw simple gures and shapes which create the message you want to convey. If you have this ability, all the better. Use it as often as possible. If you dont, pick up the book Visual Meetings by David Sibbet. Its a great source of guidance on how to create simple but powerful images to assist in your story.
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I remember an opportunity I had with a software company where they were trying to sell an expensive and complex upgrade to the basic product. Their customers seemed to be having trouble grasping the overall benet of the upgrade compared to the cost. When we analyzed the presentation, it became clear they were too focused on the great new features, and were taking the target audiences away from the big picture. We changed the presentation to include a very basic diagram sketched out live, which made clear the big picture benet, and stayed away from the minutia of features. Consequently, sales rapidly increased because we made the ROI simple to understand. The idea of using drawings in a sales pitch has become very popular. Some suggest that this strategy supersedes the need for a slide presentation, and in some situations, it very well may. However, I maintain that it is best used in conjunction with a presentation, to accentuate the main points, or to simplify a complex idea. Either way, learning to sketch your ideas will pay huge dividends, and further separate you from your competition.
The Leave-Behind
We mentioned earlier the leave-behind. You should acknowledge by now that people you present to will not remember much about what you say. I realize you have important information to communicate, and there are things about your solution which they need to know about. This is where your leave-behind comes into play.
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Create a very nice, professional, classy piece to leave behind. This piece will contain all the information you want your prospects or audience to have. This is where they refer back to nd out details about what you did say. They will want to do this because they were so impressed with your delivery and your presence. They thought you were remarkable. Think of this as your proposal. Or, if you actually did a proposal, use this to emphasize the main points of that document. Include those charts and graphs you were dying to put into the presentation. Explain things in greater detail. Include images to accentuate the text. In fact, it is advised that you use the same images you use in your slides, because their brains will remember those and attach them to the information you want them to now consider. DO NOT simply reproduce your slides in a handout. If you have followed these ideas which you have read here, your slides will not contain much information, and will appear out of context without your sterlingly delivered discussion. Dont make it an outline either. Give it teeth. Make it something they will want to look at. Make the leave-behind dierent, more detailed, and a reference document they can use to reinforce their splendid decision to engage you and your company as strategic partners. Once you have covered all the bases, and are completely comfortable with the presentation, its content and your delivery, as well as the part played by any other participants, then put it aside. You are ready, you are comfortable. Dont over-prepare. That just creates more anxiety. Move on to something else, and accept that you and your team are ready.
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Managing Your Presentations

As you develop more content and presentations, you will need to think about how to manage and share them in a secure and trackable fashion. Most organizations use a combination of authoring and content management software to accomplish this. The problem is you have to access multiple applications, and it can be expensive and time consuming to navigate and maintain these apps. Recently I have discovered a new and exciting product called StoryCloud at (www.storycloudsoftware.com). This application allows you to easily store, manage, update, share and track any content and presentations. It also lets you very easily drop media les of any kind into your presentations, and create customized ows which may be used for dierent audiences and dierent desired outcomes. I believe this represents content management for the masses. However you manage them, your presentations should be securely stored and distributed, so your content integrity is maintained. The last thing you want to do is create a masterpiece, and then have someone you shared it with edit it and deliver it themselves, without your permission. Competitors can use this information against you. Without proper security and permission-based sharing, your material is open to anyone once you send it out.
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Chapter Seven Types of Presentations A Chance To Speak Is A Chance To Grow

We all have opportunities to make presentations. In the beginning of this book, I talked about how most people consider a presentation to be in front of several people, with slides, in a business setting. I believe we all make presentations almost every day. They may be in your work, but also in your family, your community, your spiritual center, etc. Anytime you have the chance to communicate your value proposition, your ideas, your plans, dreams, desires, you are making a presentation of sorts, and you can work on your remarkability. Since we have focuses on the business presentation in this book, I want to discuss some of the varied ways in which you might present, and some comments and suggestions about each. Afterwards, I will also talk about ways in which you can practice your speaking skills to improve your presentation power and eectiveness.
Sales Presentations
This is the primary type of message that we are focusing on. However, these presentations are not always in front of the room with slides. They could be across a small table one-on-
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one with a decision-maker. They could be around a conference table with a committee. They could be occurring anywhere in the sale cycle. We discuss this in greater detail in Chapter Eight. The important thing is the same ideas apply regardless of the setting and audience. Focusing on the listener vs you. Everything applies regardless if you are behind a microphone or sitting in an oce chair. Dont get caught up in the result. Have a conversation about the problem, and how you might solve it. That is what buyers want, not complex slide shows and information about you and your company. Just solve the problem and explain it in a compelling manner. You will get your share of deals, and you will dierentiate yourself from the majority of your competitors in the process.
Internal Meetings
Lets face it, most internal meetings are boring and nonproductive. The reason is, most people running those meetings do not take any time to plan their presentation, and take no time considering what is in it for the attendees. If you are in charge of facilitating a meeting, take it seriously. This is a great chance for you to shine, to create that perception of you as a remarkable communicator...a leader! Go through the same preparation process you would if you were to be in front of a room of 100 people. When you run the meeting, you are leading the meeting. Act like it. If you are attending the meeting and may have an opportunity to participate and contribute, prepare for that.
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I know you have been in meetings where someone is called on for their input, and they have nothing worthwhile to say. Someone else gets called on, and they seem to really be prepared and add value to the situation. Which person do you come away more impressed with? That could be you. Consider how you might contribute, and prepare some thoughts, as well as how you would deliver those thoughts and ideas. Be able to reference the situation, how your idea will aect the outcome, what is involved in implementing it. Never present a problem without presenting potential solutions. Nothing is more valuable to an organization than a creative problem solver. Nothing propels you up the corporate ladder faster than being able to powerfully and articulately communicate your ideas.
Webinars
Many companies today are using online software to make presentations to groups. It is cost eective, allows you to be in front of many more people than in a live, onsite setting, and can provide for immediate feedback in terms of online polling and surveying. Virtual meetings also carry with them an inherent problem,...you are not in front of your audience, and cannot see what they are doing and how they react.
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C o n s e q u e n t l y, your virtual presentation has to be even more compelling at the start, so you wont lose them to their cell phones and email messages. Whatever you do, do not start by introducing yourself and your team, or providing information about your company, etc. This is an instant mood-killer. If you want to know who is attending (you should already!), then ask them to introduce themselves. If the group is 5 or more, skip this. It takes too long. Try starting with a really impactful statement or fact about their business or industry, something hopefully that they were unaware of. This makes them believe that their time will be well spent with you. Perhaps follow that with either a very short but compelling video or audio, or a story, either about your interaction with them, or about a similar customer that you want to reference. Move things along at a rapid pace. If you are using slides, make sure they have minimal text, and you dont stay on any one slide more than a minute or two. The same rules apply as a live presentation. Its about the delivery more than the content, and its about them, not you. You just need to be more animated, more energetic, more engaging, when you cant make eye contact.
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If you do a demo online, make it quick, to the point, and you must emphasize the places where they should pay attention. Reference what you are doing to real life situations. Dont simply hand the webinar over to your product person, but stay involved, make comments, ensure your audience gets the main points. A change of voice helps keep their brains engaged. Take questions as you go, vs. saving them to the end. It helps keep them involved. Just manage the answers so you dont get o track with time. Have a grabbing call to action at the end which leads to the desired next step. Keep webinars to 30 minutes. I know thats not much time, but thats about the limit of peoplea attention when they are not looking at you. This makes you stay honest about cutting out the nonsense anyway, which is what you should be doing. Remarkable webinars are engaging, informative and fast.
Trade Shows
Trade shows represent the absolute best venue for presenting to an interested audience. Think about when you go to a trade show or convention. Do you look through the program and nd sessions to attend that do not interest you? Do you look for sessions and speaker who are not talking about what you need to learn? Of course not! So, the rst rule for a vendor attending a trade show is get a speaking slot! It is way more important than setting up that tired, same ol, same ol booth you bring. Get a speaking slot, and make it about something that is important to a majority of the vendors attending. It does not (in fact, should not) feature your product or service. It should provide information about an industry issue or problem that you
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can solve, but the session comes from the perspective of the attendees, not you. If possible, have either a guest speaker who is an expert or peer of the attendees, or a panel discussion made up of their peers. If the subject is right, and it is titled and described properly in the program, you will get a room full of prospects who want what you are selling. What a concept. Now comes the important part. What are you going to say and how to say it? Lets assume you have a guest speaker. This person has to be agreeable to being trained to present as you want them to. If they are too full of themselves and refuse to be coached, then nd someone else. This is too important. Go back to all that we have shared in this book to prepare the presentation. Its not about the speaker or your product, its about the attendees. They dont care about who you are or who your speaker is. They only care about will the information help them solve a problem. Create a grabber opening, not an introduction of the speaker and all his/her accomplishments of their career. Have the speaker tell a great story, one that everyone in the room can relate to. Have him/her talk about how your product solved their problem, the same problem most of the people in the room have. Make sure they are clear about the benets of
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taking action vs. doing nothing. Keep the session to the allotted time. Do not, under any circumstances, run over. Leave sucient time for a few questions. Have the speaker roam out into the audience during his talk, and again during Q & A. They should not be standing up front. Bring a lapel microphone in case the show does not have one, so they can walk around. If you have a panel, all of this applies, even the walking around. Make your session unique in that your speaker(s) are not robots in the front of the room, looking and sounding like everyone elses. Give them life, and focus them on the audience. Believe me, that will be quite a refreshing change for most of your attendees. What is your goal? Heres a hint. Its not to sell something. It is to get them interested enough that they will agree to either (a) come by your hospitality suite for a drink or a meal and discuss their issues with you (you do have a hospitality suite, dont you??), or (b) to have someone contact them after the show. If it is (a) then you have an opportunity to sell. If its (b) then you have their permission to take the next step. Either way, you have qualied prospects vs. business cards in your shbowl from people who want to win a free prize. Now, what happens at the end? You stand at the exit door, and you have your speaker announce that you are handing out a brand new White Paper on the subject just discussed, and you will trade them one for their business card. Bam! You now have instant hot leads to follow up on, probably more than you will get in the 2-3 days standing around your booth. If they give you their card, they are interested. If not, they arent a lead, so good to know that ahead of time. If no one wants your White Paper, then you know you and your
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speaker(s) did a horrible job, so go back to the drawing board.
Business Club or Civic Group

Today there are so many Meetup groups, Entrepreneur groups, industry-specic groups, associations, etc, that, depending on your solution you are trying to promote, you could be speaking to a dierent group every month. And you should be. These are not selling opportunities as much as they are networking, branding and maybe most important, practice for your presenting capabilities. Take advantage of any of these that you can. In most cases you will not get paid. However, you will build your reputation. You will meet new and interesting people. You will become better at communicating your message. You will build your remarkability. As I have said several times throughout this book, you never know who will be in the room. Start with your local Chamber of Commerce, which of course you do belong to. They may have events at which you can speak, but they will also have contacts with other groups at which you could speak. When presenting to these groups, keep it simple and try to be more entertaining than informative. These people hear speakers all the time, and most are boring. If you are engaging, they will remember you. No matter how good you are, they will not remember much if anything about what you said. They will remember how you made them feel, so go for the emotional connection. Your goal is to get them to invite you to follow up with them afterwards. Much like the trade show experience, if they want you to follow up, you have a solid lead vs. someone just kicking tires. In the worst case, you will have spent an hour
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honing your craft, becoming a better, more powerful communicator. That is worth a handful of qualied leads.
Speaker Training and Toastmasters

If you feel you want to become the best you can be, go to a qualied speakers training program. There are hundreds around. You will learn about mechanics, how to use you personal tools (voice, body, gestures etc.). You will be videotaped and coached by your peers and by the facilitators. You can overcome you fear of speaking if that is an issue for you. Even if you think you are pretty good at this stu, a really good program can ne tune your skills and make you take that next step. My personal favorite program is the Excellence in Speaking Institute oered by Ty Boyd in Charlotte, NC (www.tyboyd.com). Ty and his faculty are absolutely the best in this business. I suggest you contact them and tell them I said to call. You may not get a discount for that, but I want them to know I am promoting them, because I love them and their work. Toastmasters is an international program that oers local chapters for people who just want to work on their speaking ability in a supportive environment. You will not get the depth and quality of training you get with a Ty Boyd, but it is a good place to practice your communications, and it is local.
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Speakers Bureaus
Many organizations, perhaps even your company or industry, have a Speakers Bureau. If possible, join it. Become a featured speaker on your topic. In most cases, you will need to have a demonstrated history of speaking, maybe with video evidence. However, if you are qualied, this is a great way to gain visibility, stature and status within your market and industry. You become a thought-leader. Someone who is sought out for your opinion. Dont be afraid of this. Dont be intimidated. Build your remarkability and deliver it with condence.
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Chapter Eight The Sales Presentation Without Slides You Be The Message
The late Steve Jobs had a rule about internal meetings at Apple. No slide presentations were allowed. The reason? He wanted to hear people express their ideas, their knowledge and their plans without the aid of slides, so he could nd out what was in their heads. As he put it, Anyone can read information o of slides. There are several times when sales presentations can and should be delivered without slides as an aid. In fact, you should make it your goal to deliver any sales presentation as much as possible without slides. That alone will set you apart from your competitors. When you learn to do it well, you will put them in your rear view mirror.
The Personal Commercial

This used to be called the Elevator Pitch. I never understood that name because describing what it is that you or your company do to an executive or prospect never takes place in an elevator. First of all, no one talks while riding in an elevator. Second, what executive is going to turn to a sales guy in an elevator and say, So before we get to my oor, tell me what you do? Third, no one else will ask either.
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This more realistically should be called the Cocktail Pitch, because it is usually delivered over cocktails at a party, a social networking event, a conference reception or an industry meeting. It is typically asked as either a conversation starter or as a precursor to a next, more involved meeting. Obviously, you do not have the opportunity to whip out a laptop and show slides. You have to think on your feet, and deliver a quick and hopefully interesting response. Most people, when asked to give their personal commercial, simply say what it is that they do. I am an accountant. I am in commercial real estate. I sell insurance. I manage a sales team. I am a consultant. We sell educational software. We provide sales training. Or worse... We are the market leader in water purication. We give our customers the best lawn maintenance available in town. We sell more cars than any dealer in the tri-state area.
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Etc., etc. All perfectly valid and to the point. All perfectly predictable and perfectly boring. What is the normal response to such statements? Oh, thats nice. Or Great, that sounds interesting. And then they turn to see where the bar is. As they walk away, you say to yourself I wish I could have said something better than that. Well, you can. The personal commercial opportunity is a chance to engage in a conversation about what you do, not simply to say what you do. To take advantage of that opportunity, you need to be creative in how you respond. Your goal is to get the person you are speaking with to say Really, tell me more about that., or How do you do that?. As an example, when I am asked the question, So, what do you do for a living?, my response is I help companies develop and communicate their remarkability. This generally gets a response like What does remarkability mean? or Thats interesting, how do you do that?. So, how can we change some of the above examples? Heres some ideas; I am an accountant. Change to I make dollars and cents work for companies. I am in commercial real estate. Change to I give people a place to go to work each day. I sell insurance. Change to I am in the disaster relief business. I manage a sales team. oriented people. Change to I coach goal-
I am a consultant. Change to I help people implement what they already know.
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Now, heres the really important part, without which your unique opening statement would be worthless. When they respond as you hoped with How do you do that?, dont tell them what it is you do. Instead, you say Well, let me tell you a story., and you tell them about a customer you have helped. This engages the conversation, which can lead to the next step of Ill bet you could do that for my company. And you are o and running with a new, highly qualied prospect. This is the basis for the remarkable personal commercial. Ask 1000 people what they do, and 999 will tell you exactly what they do. Only 1 may respond in a way which peaks your interest and gets you to ask for more information. That 1 in 1000 should be you.
The Sales Conversation

Many sales people, perhaps most, do not regularly get up in front of a room and give a slide presentation. Instead, their sales presentation is given one to one, or one to a few, across an oce or meeting room table. This is generally a post-qualifying event, when a prospect has asked you to come back and tell him how you can help them solve their problem. This is a powerful opportunity for you to begin to establish yourself as a trusted advisor. Resist the impulse to bring your laptop or tablet to the meeting to show the prospect your solution. Instead, engage in a sales conversation, which is much more valuable and much more impressive.
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Many of the same rules that we have been sharing in this book apply here. You need to do your research. What do you know about the prospect you will be talking with? Their role, their process, who they report to, their background, their relationships, their history dealing with this problem? How much do you know about the situation, the impact of their problem on the organization, what they have tried before, what happens if they do nothing? How much time do you have, and what is their expectation of the meeting? What do they need to hear, and how can you deliver it in a way which gets them to listen...and to act? Some suggestions which I have found to be valuable in this setting include; Start by telling them something they do not already know. This is a great way to open a one to one conversation. You need a great story to tell, one which demonstrates how you helped a similar company with a similar problem. If possible, be ready to sketch your solution, or your process, on a white board or ip chart...or note pad. Use advisor phrases like If it were me, I would... or In the past, we have advised similar companies to..., or Given what I have heard, my advice is to....
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Make solid, consistent eye contact. Have a strong call to action which clearly outlines suggested next steps. Remember, decision makers want problem solvers, not sales reps. Work hard to not sound like a sales-guy. Make it a conversation, with your one and only goal being to help them solve problems. Forget your quota, your commission, your Presidents Club standing, and just be helpful.
The Full Sales Presentation Without Slides

Yes, it can be done, and should be whenever possible. Decision makers love it. It is impressive and it creates a better atmosphere for conversation. Along with the strategies outlined above for one to one sessions, here are some things which can help ensure that your slideless presentation is a success. Open by telling them you have no slides to show. This will get their attention right away...and set you apart from your competitors. Make sure theres a white board or ip chart for diagraming your solution. Have handouts for discussion purposes if it makes sense, BUT, only give them one at a time when you need to for going over product or solution details. Again, sketch it out if possible. Engage others in the group by relating back to something they said or did.
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Make lists on the white board and cross them o as you cover the issues. Have an ROI diagram or chart in your head that you can recreate on paper or white board. Tell great stories. Have a high-quality, detailed leave-behind to give out at the end. If you develop the ability to get in the front of the room and captivate a group of prospects without accompanying slides, delivering key information which can solve their problems, and engage in a conversation which involves them talking more than you, you will win many, many more deals than you lose. This is a skill most competitors cant match, and most dont try. Your prospects will want to do business with you, and they will value and look forward to future interactions with you. It is a money skill!
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Chapter Nine A Word About Fear Conversations Are Not Scary

As we all know by now, the fear of speaking in public is one of a human beings greatest anxieties. In fact, it is often listed above death. Of course, this is based on our desire to be liked, to be accepted. And, the great fear of failure. Well, heres what I have to say about fear. In my work with people concerning their speaking skills, it never ceases to amaze me that you take a person who admits to being terried at public speaking, and you ask them to stand up and talk about someone dear to their hearts. Their spouse, child, mother, father, uncle, whatever. Amazingly, o they go raving about this person, telling stories about how much they mean to them, how wonderful they are, etc. While they may not deliver a polished, professional speech about their favorite person, they nonetheless share their insights with the audience without much evidence of fear or nervousness. When shown their speech on video, they are always abbergasted. They cant believe they looked and sounded so in control.
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How did they do this you ask? Simple, and this is why I consider this fear stu to be crap. They lost their fear because they cared about their subject, it was a subject they knew well, and they were passionate about it. Our fear is that no one will care. But if you care, if you are passionate about your subject, you can convince them to care. How does this translate into business presentations. Even simpler. If you believe your product or service or project or business plan or idea is great, doable, benecial, and absolutely should be accepted, then you should not be afraid to share it. If you dont, why are you bothering? Regarding failure, if you present your message with passion, conviction and energy, you cannot fail. You may not get the answer or outcome you desired, but you did not fail to deliver your message. You succeeded! Failure would have been to lose your voice or completely blank out. Now I hear you salespeople out there saying But this is critical for me to get the business, to close the deal. Its my job! Maybe, but heres the thing. The harder you focus on the desired outcome, the less chance you obtain it. Why? Because by focusing on what happens at the end, you miss the NOW, and that is where everything happens. If you dont keep your attention on the moment, on the message being delivered right now, and the reaction of those in attendance right now, you will lose your ability to direct the presentation to your desired outcome. Ive seen it happen all too often. Sales guy wants the deal so bad he oozes pressure and tightness, he forces his message, he misses his feedback (because hes scared of it), and he looks, acts, sounds and smells like sales guy. He loses the deal.
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A presentation is simply a conversation. Most people have zero trouble with a one on one conversation. That too is a presentation. If you are speaking to more than one person, you are simply extending that conversation to more people. Look at it that way and your anxiety will diminish. Believe in your message, and present it with passion and conviction and your anxiety will disappear completely. Be a two-way communicator, meaning talk AND listen, and you will win many more than you lose. And your remarkability will rise! As I mentioned before, Lou Holtz, legendary football coach and a great motivational speaker, says people will only follow you once they know three things about you. 1. Can you be trusted? 2. Are you committed to excellence? 3. Do you care about them? You can begin to demonstrate all three through a compelling presentation, and create the beginning of a trusted advisor relationship. At the end of the day, this is not life or death stu. You will not die in front of everyone, and they will not kill you if you are less than perfect. Its just a conversation. Share your valuable message with everyone and anyone who will listen. You cannot lose. Now that I got that o my chest......
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Summation What Happens Now?

This depends on you. We have covered all the things that go into creating and presenting compelling, engaging, powerful presentations, that get decision-makers to act. I would guess that you already do presentations in some form or another, and you have your own style and process. I assume that, because you have taken the time to read this book, you feel that you can improve on your past performances. Hopefully the information here as helped. Otherwise, I spent a good deal of time writing this for nothing. Everything in here has been evidence that being a solid, even powerful presenter is not that dicult. It does not take extensive training. It does not require media specialists and graphic illustrators. You do not have to have a radio voice or overpowering personality. What you do need to have is the desire to be better, and the common sense to think about your audience instead of yourself. You need to be able to honestly put your audience hat on, and consider what would make you want to listen...and to act. It takes a dedication to simplicity vs. the ego approach of let me show them how cool my solution is. It takes passion for your subject. It takes some practice, and willingness to change. That is the hard part, changing, learning to do it dierently. If you need reinforcement, just go to a few presentations, at your work, at a conference, at a local university, and you will quickly see how bad most presentations are. And you can walk away feeling that you do not want to be like that.
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I encourage you to take the approach that it is your responsibility not to bore your audience, but to give them an enjoyable look at a solution to their problem. Thats all they are after, and they will thank you for it (and, they will give you their business too). Congratulations. You now know how to be a compelling, remarkable, professional communicator. Your remarkability factor has gone way up. Your career will forever be enhanced by that. You can beat your competitors, rise above your peers, be recognized in your industry, be considered a thought-leader. You can achieve your dreams. If you want to contact me, have me look at your material, give you a pep-talk, or help you and your team to be remarkable, send me an email at john@becompellingnow.com, or call me at 919-264-4591. Id love to hear from you and be able to see you in action. Ill be looking for you at the next industry seminar I attend. Go get em!
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References
Suggested Reading
Million Dollar Tool Box by Ty Boyd Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmen Gallo Purple Cow by Seth Godin Art of the Rainmaker by Bill Whitley The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins by Annette Simmons Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds Resonate by Nancy Duarte Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John Maxwell Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Oxford Press The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam Visual Meetings by David Sibbet
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John Lowe is a highly sought-after communications coach. He helps organizational leaders and teams to develop and deliver powerful, engaging, memorable presentations which create a competitive advantage and win business. He has over 25 years of award-winning experience as a sales professional, delivering powerful presentations which regularly won key deals for such companies as Apple, HP, KPMG and Blackboard. John serves on the faculty of Ty Boyds renowned Executive Speakers Institute in Charlotte, NC., and is a Certied Vistage Speaker. He is also a TEDx presentations coach, and has authored several eBooks and ePapers on the world of presentations, business messaging and storytelling. His writings can be found at http:// www.becompellingnow.com/resources-forcompelling-executive-business-presentations/ john-s-writings. John can be reached at john@becompellingnow.com, or 919.264.4591. The web site is www.becompellingnow.com.
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Remarkable Presentations

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This book is dedicated to my daughters Annie, Kate and Caroline, who are the light of my life, to my bonus children

(c)2013 by Be Compelling Now, LLC. International Copyrights Convention.

All rights reserved under the

Introduction Becoming Remarkable

Chapter One Dening Remarkability

Chapter Two I Dont Give Presentations. Yes You Do!

The Current State of Presentations

will be perceived to be like everyone else. dierentiation, no competitive advantage.

Fear Drives Sameness

Chapter Three Why Wouldnt You Want to be Remarkable?

Chapter Four Planning To Be Remarkable Why Would They Listen?

Analyze the Situation

Analyze the Audience

Analyze the Venue

Analyze Your Goals

Chapter Five Preparing To Be Remarkable Its Not About The Slides

Transition- Current State to Future State

The Power of Story

The Call to Action

Chapter Six Practicing To Be Remarkable Performances Require Rehearsal

Media and Slide Preparation

Audio and Video

Requires Multiple Enterprise Software Solutions

2012 StoryCloud Corporation. All Right Reserved. Confidential. Subject to NDA.

Focus and Strategy

Utilizing existing resources to achieve greater results

Current Performance Level

Dramatic results through better execution

Putting the solution in place How we got to 650+ success stories

& ABC&Company&has&developed&patented&lockdown&so<ware&&&semiconductor& technology&that&secures&computers&and&electronic&devices&with&absolute&certainty& &Elimina9ng&100%&of&A_acking&Malware&from&All&Threat&Vectors&

Cyber&Threats&& The&#&1& Worldwide& Technology&Issue&

The Academic eFolio

Managing Your Presentations

Chapter Seven Types of Presentations A Chance To Speak Is A Chance To Grow

speaker(s) did a horrible job, so go back to the drawing board.

Business Club or Civic Group

Speaker Training and Toastmasters

The Personal Commercial

I am a consultant. Change to I help people implement what they already know.

The Sales Conversation

The Full Sales Presentation Without Slides

Chapter Nine A Word About Fear Conversations Are Not Scary

Summation What Happens Now?

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