Business Development and Sales Professionals
You’ve got sales goals, numbers to meet or beat, competition to overcome….
Robust!
Best of Breed!
Lessons Learned!
Proven processes!
And countless other typical buzz words will NOT win you the business
Neither will … slide after slide of features and benefits
Nor … boiler-plate bullets, soulless processes and sterile approaches
Not even … perfect color palettes, graphics and templates
Begin the “getting to know you” stage with these questions
What works in print does not work in person
With ever-faster technology your audiences have been trained to process many images and sounds faster than ever. Successful speeches and presentations are not written documents delivered by mouth.
Knock-out speeches and presentations that lead to winning commercial and government contracts attract and engage your audience’s visual and auditory processing centers. These change over time as the environment changes. What worked as recently as three years ago doesn’t work today.
Just think “iPad” and “smartphone” and you’ll get the picture.
Know Your Real Competition
Your real competition is not other companies. It is…
Hundreds of stimuli competing for your audience’s attention—especially myriad incoming messages (text, video, audible) that tempt people because they are fast, exciting, surprising. Your speech or presentation is competing with every other message your audience is receiving.
Your self-interest which is competing with the interests of the audience. They only care about you when you have told them—passionately, authentically and startlingly–that you care about them.
Presentation rules—outdated and based on mistaken premises—that prevent you from connecting with your audiences and moving them to action. If you catalog the rules you’ve been taught or absorbed from observing others, you’ll find that they are all about you and your information.
Explore the resources here. You’ll get a taste of what makes a difference to audiences today:
Two self-tests: Edgy/Informative and Content/Delivery
5 Steps to Transformative Speeches and Presentations graphic and slide share
Evaluate Your Speaking Skills, Plan to Develop One at a Time repeatable self-assessment
Write a Speech Now model for every speech and presentation
If you’re not ahead of the crowd, you’re already falling behind. I work with business development and sales professionals through coaching or mentoring. Every plan is customized to your specific needs. If you’ve delivered one too many boring presentations that failed to generate business, call me to discuss your needs. 703-790-1424
