The ability to communicate well is an important skill for any Product or Business Development Manager. This means, among other things, that you should be able to present about your solution fluently and to different stakeholders, who will require a different level of information.

A persuasive presentation not only requires thorough preparation of content, but also good style. It takes considerable skill to come across coherently for any particular audience and to stay in control of the situation. For this purpose, the following 7 tips may offer some guidance to help you on the way to delivering a memorable presentation.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do this is to let passion for your solution shine through.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

 

2. Focus on your Stakeholders Needs

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what your stakeholders need and what they want to know, not what you can tell them.

Don’t show your homework, just because it makes you feel good.

 

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

You should be able to communicate that key message very succinctly.

Always have in mind what are the core three points I want to get across?

 

4. Start Strongly you have 3 minutes to impress

The first three minutes, as when you first meet someone, is so important to a presentation. So smile, make eye contact and make sure the first 3 minutes of the presentation holds the stakeholders attention. Make them laugh!!

Think of a story that is relevant at the start of the presentation which will hold the audience.

 

5. Don’t use the presentation as a script

Don’t bore the audience by ‘Death by Powerpoint’. By all means use the presentation as a reminder, but do this in as fewer words as possible and use images if you can.

Remember you want your stakeholders to listen to you, not be deciphering what the slides are saying.

 

6. Tell stories

The best presenters are raconteurs , who can tell a story about the subject and keep an audiences attention. We all relate to stories, we also remember things better through stories.

Make your story funny and about you.

 

7. Relax and enjoy

Many people find it hard to relax and enjoy a presentation, but your body language and the speed you speak will have a major effect on the stakeholders perception if you know your subject and also if you can get a message across. Breath, and slow your delivery of the presentation down.

Remember you know more about your solution than your stakeholders

“When are you going to stop for breath?”

One of the most embarrassing but defining moments of my work life.

I was rubbish at selling – despite being at least 4 years into my career as a salesperson. I was at a meeting with two ladies showing them our product (just as I’d been taught in training), telling them all the benefits (just as my manager had said) and generally following the script.

When they asked me at the end when I was going to stop for breath I realised I was doing it all wrong.

I didn’t know what they wanted or what was important to them. I hadn’t listened to that at all.

They didn’t go on to buy. But I learnt the art of shutting the hell up.

I found 3 ways to keep your pipeline moving and choc-full of leads:

Step 1 – Get your 5-a-day. And when I say 5-a-day, I mean identify by name 5 target prospects or partners for your business and reach out to them, either via Linkedin, Twitter or directly by phone or email. It never hurts to expand your network.

Step 2 – Focus on keeping everyone warm. If you leave it too long and try and contact everyone at once it makes it harder to tackle and can seem overwhelming. Always be sorting and filtering by ‘last activity/contact’ and keep in touch with those who haven’t heard from you in a while.

Which brings me on to . . .

Step 3 – Use your CRM correctly, it’ll help you keep your pipeline flowing. Keeping a log of everyone you contact and everything you do is critical to successful selling.

These 3 tips will make you better. What are your techniques for running a healthy pipeline?

How many hours have you put into building your sales pipeline? 

Loads. 

Once you add up all the calls you’ve made, events you’ve attended, email campaigns, social selling, face-to-face meetings and everything else it totals up to a big investment.

So letting that pipeline go cold is heartbreaking, and it’s even harder to get it moving once it’s frozen.

This post will show you how to defrost your frozen pipeline with a simple 30-word email. 

There are three easy steps and it will take less than a minute to contact each cold prospect.

Time to get cracking!

Step 1:  Identify something of value that you can send to your prospects.

The first step involves identifying something of value to your prospects, and preferably something you already have.

You’re looking to provide something specifically useful to them.  The idea here is to open up dialogue but also to create a reciprocal relationship where you have helped them so they will want to help you.

The thing of value can be anything really (and obviously if it’s something from your own business/website the so much the better!)  Good ideas include:

• A free ebook on a subject you know they are interested in
• A cheat sheet to help save them time
• A How To guide on something they might not know about

If you or your company genuinely doesn’t have any valuable free resources to send out, then a link to a blog they might find useful can be equally as helpful.   It’s all about the value it will give the recipient more than the format itself.

Step 2: Create the email

Create a short, 30-word email using the exact format below (of course, top and tail it in the way you would usually with Hi, Best regards, etc. – you want to keep in personable!)

Enter the resource title in the first paragraph, it shows you’ve taken the time to understand what might be interesting to them.  (N.B. don’t forget to also include the attachment or link to the resource – it’s easy to accidentally forget!)

Choose a date you’d like to set up a call and add it to the second paragraph.  Suggest just one option as a binary choice of yes/no is more likely to produce a response. For example . . .

Subject: Thought you might find this interesting

Dear [XXXXXXXX],

I thought you might find this resource useful on the subject of [XXXXXXXXX], an area I know is of interest to you.

Are you free to catch up by phone on [XXXX]?

Step 3: Send the email

That’s it, that’s all you need to do.  Now press send, move on to your next cold prospect, and do it again!

Your product is better than that other company’s product. Fact.

You know that to be true because, when you measure your product against whatever metric you’ve made up, your product comes out better.

But if customers aren’t moving to you in droves, your opinion that your product is ‘better’ is simply wrong.

You’re using the wrong metric.

You have to take the time to understand what it is your customers actually want – that’s how you create a product that’s better.

Your thing might be great in your eyes but it’s customer opinion that ultimately matters.

If, like me, you believe your greatest marketing and sales tool is through advocacy and referral (i.e. having others talk about your product and getting them selling the virtues of how your solution will benefit likeminded customers with the same need) then you will believe this approach will drive the strongest growth and, if you get it right, a strong bond between you and your customer base going forward.

I have never over the years found a greater marketing and sales machine than ‘bought into customers’, where the client through developing a great relationship with you then progresses to buying into the brand and solutions you deliver. They become your unofficial ambassadors.

The first and the greatest voice of these customers you want onboard, are the customers that everyone is looking towards to guide the market, these are your innovators. If you are entering into an existing market with a new product, and you have a prior relationship with any of this influential group then gather them together to give them a close up look at your product.  Get them excited and engaged so they will talk about and promote your product.

If it is a new market, you are going to have to do some work on segmentation of the market and start building personas as to what an innovator looks like in this new market. Then start to build relationships with these innovators either on a 1-2-1 basis or via group consultation.

In a new market, once the innovators have bought into your culture and vision, you need to show how working with you will help change the market.  When they are excited with the vision, now get them engaged with the product you are going to launch, you can do this in a number of ways but some ideas are:   Offer them an incentive to take a look at your new product before anyone else; get them on the pilot providing feedback; offer them a years free subscription.

Ultimately whatever tool you are using to bring the innovators onboard, if you can get the innovators to understand and start talking to the market about the value of the product you are launching, you will move from the innovator to early adopter phase of the maturity model much quicker than through direct mailing or other marketing techniques.

Remember, innovators generally are happy to take a risk on a new solution if they feel it gives them a competitive advantage.

Is there something on your CV scaring potential employers away?  I asked my clients what puts them off when they’re hiring – their top 3 reasons are below.

 

You sound like a zombie

Is your CV full of corporate clichés such as “good team player with the ability to work well alone” or “tenacious new business hunter”?  These statements could well be true but sound incredibly generic and come up time and time again, making your CV blend in with the rest of the drone.  Try to find ways to describe your skills and achievements using your own voice as opposed to the standard spiel.

 

It’s covered in cobwebs

Lots of people, on deciding they’d like to apply for a new job, simply get out their old CV from god-knows-how many years ago and add an extra bit at the top to describe their current role.  That’s it.  What you should be doing is looking at your CV as a whole and re-shaping it to truly reflect the person you are now.  A lot will have changed since you last wrote your CV and it can end up reading like a CV written by two different people.  Dust the cobwebs off the document as a whole, because employers will certainly be looking at it as a whole.

 

It’s all Tricks and no Treats

Everyone wants to be able to ‘talk up’ their achievements on their CV in order to impress and this is absolutely fine.  However, when you do so you need to make sure you have a decent story to substantiate it or you risk looking daft.  Saying that you were “Central to the delivery of £45m revenue in pumpkin sales in October for a large supermarket chain” is fine, and is something your potential employer is likely to ask you about.  If they then find out that this was when you had a holiday job shelf-stacking in 2002 they’re probably going to be less than impressed and start to question all the genuinely great stuff on your CV too!

 

 

 

 

 

We justify our emotional decisions to buy with logical reasons.  So why do so many sales people try to sell complex, high-value solutions to C-suite executives almost exclusively on logic and rational arguments?

Telling your customer that you think your product is great is nowhere near enough.  Extolling the virtues, facts, figures, features and functionality of your solution is simply too much to comprehend, too overwhelming.

To win you need to position your solution as customer-centric.  It has to feel ‘real’ for your customer; they need to know that you understand what’s important to them – you must tap into the unconscious need.

That’s how you beat your competition.

Your greatest marketing and sales tool is customer advocacy. Having others talk about your product is important. And getting them selling the virtues of how your solution will benefit like-minded customers with the same need as themselves is everything!

 

This approach will drive the strongest growth. If you get it right, you’ll also create a strong bond between you and your customer base going forward. I have never found a greater marketing and sales machine than ‘bought into’ customers: where you have a great relationship and they love the brand and solutions you deliver.

 

The first and the greatest voice of those customers you want on board are the customers that everyone is looking towards to guide the market. These are your innovators.

 

If you are entering into an existing market with a new product, gather those innovators together that you know already.

 

If it is a new market, you are going to have to do some work on segmentation. Start building personas as to what an innovator looks like in this new market, and then start to build relationships. You could offer them an incentive to take a look at your new product before anyone else, get them on the pilot providing feedback, or offer them a years free subscription.

 

Ultimately if you can get the innovators to understand and start talking about the value of the product you are launching into a market, you will move from the innovator to early adopter phase of the maturity model very quickly. Remember, innovators are generally happy to take a risk on a new solution if they feel it gives them a competitive advantage.

 

Selling is easy, you’re just doing it wrong.

Well, perhaps that’s not entirely the case, but there are definitely a few painful truths you need to get your head around when it comes to selling. If you’re ignoring these, you’re doing it wrong.

Painful truth #1: When your customer tells you their reason for not buying, it’s not a good idea to believe it.

It’s up to you to find out the REAL reason and address it — don’t expect people to lay themselves bare

Painful truth #2: Nothing is “too expensive”.

It’s more likely your potential customer doesn’t see your thing as having the value you think it does. You need to work on your value proposition.

Painful truth #3: “I’ll think about it” means ‘No’. As does “Send me a proposal”.

You need to get to the reasons behind the decision process to be able to influence that sale. Walking away with a promise of either of the above puts it out of your hands completely.

There are tons and tons more, these are the just the ones I’ve discussed this week with colleagues and clients.

Would be interested in your views too selling peeps 🙂