Make more presentations, Make more Money: 3 Reasons Public Speaking should be a sales tool in your toolbox!

Question:

What would be the better investment of your time/effort/energy?

Scenario 1:  Spend 6 to 8 hours preparing a bad #$% presentation about your company, services, products, and expertise and then share that presentation to a group of 100 people that would be potential clients for you 

OR....

Scenario 2: Spend the time calling, emailing, scheduling a meeting with 100 different potential clients to come by and have a conversation with all 100 of them?

I hope like heck you would go with scenario #1.  It is a much better use of your time and money to do the presentation route.  Here is why:

Establish you are a THOUGHT LEADER!
A GREAT presentation establishes your credibility and positions you as a thought leader in your industry to prospective clients and customers in a way that a sales call cannot do.  Your competition is out there doing the ol' make a phone call and schedule a meeting approach too.  Why do what your competition is doing? Do something different!  

For example, Christine Cunneen, CEO of Hire Image uses presentations to find new clients at industry conferences.  She attests: I plant the seeds that will help my business grow.  Although we have added numerous clients because of my speaking engagements, many do not happen right away.  We added a large university a year after they heard me speak at a conference."

A GREAT presentation creates an ENERGY & RESPONSE that a conversation or sales call simply cannot.  People are moved by a collective response in a way that a one-on-one conversation cannot.  The energy that is created by a great presentation can be transformational.  Think back to a GREAT and GAME CHANGING presentation you saw before and you will understand.  For example, when we look at historical turning points in our history, it is very a compelling speech we have to thank.  "I have a dream" is perhaps the best example of how a message can change a nation.  Now, I understand you probably won't need to create sweeping changes of this magnitude but if you could create some kind of ripple effect with your presentation, imagine the impact it could have on your business!  

CLIENTS SELF IDENTIFY!                                                              Let your new clients identify themselves for you!  When you give an amazing presentation people come to you!  Imagine that.  Your next client will actually come to you and say "tell me more." Of the three reasons to start using presentations this is perhaps the most powerful.  Out of an audience of 100, your goal should be to connect to and have a conversation with 10 of those people.  Lucky for you, those 10 people are going to hang out after your presentation to talk to you more about what you do, what you offer, what you sell.  They have done half the work already.  They present themselves as a "warm lead" without all the leg work.  That is pretty amazing if you ask me.  

If you are not sure where to begin for your next presentation, let's talk!  I build presentations from concept to completion with you.

Power Point is a Back Up Dancer.

What is the most you have ever paid for a concert ticket?  $100, $200, $1000 or perhaps even more?  Well chances are no matter what you paid, the cost of the tickets was not justified in your mind because the back up dancers were going to be so amazing. No!  We pay the money to see Tina Turner (or Britney Spears, or Lady Gaga, or Taylor Swift, or dare I say Barry Manilow) shake her tail feathers and sing her heart out.  And the back up dancers?  Well they are there to make TINA look good.

YOU are Tina Turner.

For far too long we have allowed Power Point to BE the presentation while the presenter simply stands to the side (often with back turned to the audience) reading the dull, lifeless and cluttered Power Point slides that were prepared as nothing more than giant notecards.

Look familiar?  SO BAD! SO PAINFUL! Blech

It is time to put Power Point in it's place--backing you up in the presentation.  It's job is to make you look good; to visually accentuate your message, not be the message itself.  I often get resistance from the "business as usual"professional who simply cannot think about doing a presentation with their good old safety net the Power Point.

Imagine for a moment that Martin Luther King is alive and well in 2011 and is preparing to deliver for the first time his (what will be history making) speech "I have a dream".  Do you imagine he would use a Power Point for the Presentation? I can just see it now--a slide with ten bullet points in 14 point font with a terrible stock image of kids holding hands.  NO!

MLK would not use a Power Point.  Neither would Lincoln to deliver the Gettysburg Address.  Or Maya Angelou to recite why the caged bird sings.  The greatest speakers know that the power to move an audience lies in their words, conviction, passion and ability to connect to the audience.  

So do you abandon Power Point all together?  Not always (but in some circumstances I say yes!  get rid of the Power Point and YOU be the presentation).  If you are going to use Power Point then use it wisely--quit making slides that are nothing more than giant notecards.  Challenge yourself to create a presentation that has ZERO bullet points in the entire presentation.  AND use this rule as your guide: Slides should VISUALLY reinforce the ideas you are communicating.  If your slides don't do that then start over.

To get some GREAT ideas on how to use Power Point more effectively, click on the presentation below and you will get a new appreciation for the POTENTIAL of a KICK AWESOME slide presentation.  Please share this presentation on facebook, leave a comment on slideshare and follow Bravo CC for future presentations.

Power Point is a Back Up Dancer click here

http://www.slideshare.net/BravoCC/power-point-is-a-back-up-dancer

The lesson is clear--when a Power Point doesn't know it's place you get a Kevin Federline type situation.  Too big for his britches, Kevin thought he was on par with his boss Britney Spears.  And shame on her--she allowed it.  Don't let your Power Point act like it's the star.  It isn't. YOU are the Star!

Here's to your next presentation!

Leaders/Public Speaking/Power Point: A Powerful Combination when used correctly

I was cruising the aisles of the business section at Barnes and Noble yesterday in search of new alluring book titles and came across a book on leadership and presentations that looked interesting. I opened it up to the table of contents and noticed a section on PowerPoint so I turned to the page indicated where I read "how many of you have ever left a presentation and said 'Wow he/she has a great PowerPoint!'? No one right?" The writer went on to suggest that great leaders don't need Power Point for a great presentation. That may be true in some cases. But to then make the assumption that no one has ever been moved by a great Power Point? Well, I respectfully disagree.

Slides in a presentation have the ability to create a visual experience that a stand alone speaker could never achieve no matter how amazing her language choices might be. That is just the truth of the matter. Millie and I recognize the place of our slides--to provide visual impact to our message--and we design them accordingly. On many occasions our workshop and presentation attendees have commented on how great our slides were and well, I humbly agree. We work HARD at it. Millie has spent an hour on one slide before trying to strike just the right tone with the slide and I can't count the endless hours we have spent looking for just the right image. Why?

Because seeing is powerful.

Because the research is conclusive: people are more likely to remember a message when all their senses are employed.

Because audiences want a multi sensory experience.

Because audiences have a shorter attention span and are more likely to zone out without something to look at.

Because Because Because

Slides are not bad.

The people who design them are usually bad at designing slides.

If you have never left a presentation and said "Her Power Point rocked" you would certainly know it when one did in fact, well, rock. It would make an impact. You would sit up and take notice.

Slides are not going to go away.

People are going to keep using Power Point.

And we are glad for it, because it allows us to work with our clients to help them design slides that, well Rock.

I have a few slides here to illustrate my point. Could you do a better job with words to tell the story that the image so nicely tells on it's own? Take the toy soldiers for example. It is just the perfect representation of the idea we wanted to communicate and for our audience the image is a throwback to their days as kids playing in the backyard with their little toy soldiers. Without it, we might have said "You know it's like when you had all those little toy soldiers you used to play with when you were little..." and it might have gotten a few smiles but the IMAGE is way more powerful isn't it?

I shall not throw the book under the bus I read because I did not read the whole thing and I suspect there is probably some great advice inside the book. But suggesting that great leaders who are great speakers don't use Power Point or Slides in their presentations is just flat out wrong.

Just ask Steve Jobs.....

Jamie Oliver and the Power of the Presentation

Everyday millions of dollars are spent on marketing and advertising and yet in so many organizations the power of the presentation is an afterthought. In the last two weeks I have a friend who has been given the task of organizing a group of presentations from people in his company for a convention. The audience for these presentations are their very own clients--an audience that is tenuous at all times. There is no such thing as a customer for life anymore. So one would think that A LOT of time, effort and expertise would be invested in the creation of quality presentations and presenters.

This has not been the case.

It has been the opposite.

High levels of anxiety, frustration and well anger have been felt on the part of the organizer because he has not been given the time or resources to adequately prepare this group. He texted me a few days back and told me I would kill myself if I saw their slides. That is probably a bit of an overstatement but I got his point.

So let it be said:

YOUR PRESENTATION IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
MARKETING TOOLS AVAILABLE TO YOU. STOP MESSING IT UP

If you want to see it done right, take 20 minutes of your day and watch Jamie Oliver's TED presentation on his food revolution. Here is what you will find: it is not highly polished or manipulative at all. It is engaging, funny, serious, human. Jamie is totally transparent. His audience shows their appreciation with applause and enthusiasm for his message. Jamie engages all our senses, uses technology to HELP the presentation, not become the presentation. All in all, it is not a perfect presentation and for me that is what actually makes it perfect.

There is much to be learned from Jamie. Take a look:

PowerPoint Sucks

Okay, so it's not the most eloquent phrasing, but I think the title of this blog pretty accurately describes the state of PowerPoint these days.

Here's a clip of comedian Don McMillan's take on the problems with PowerPoint:



One of the main problems with PowerPoint is that it is often the first line of defense for a speaker, rather than what it should be -- a demonstration of the culmination of a great deal of planning and forethought. Instead of creating a clear message with concise supporting points, we just start with the title slide and then for the subsequent "Title with Bullets" slides, we type the first thing we think of and all the pieces of information that go with that title. The end-product is a compilation of pretty much everything you know about the topic and often resembles a stream-of-consciousness brainstorm session much more than well-planned presentation.

And you've all been there -- sitting through the PowerPoint slides with way too much information but not enough useful substance. Throw in a few complicated charts and whizzing animations, and you've got a real dandy.

But, PowerPoint doesn't have to suck! In fact, it can be one of the most useful tools in your toolbox if you use it correctly. But, you have to put it in its place. Just as a dentist doesn't start with the drill, neither should presentations start with technology.

That's right -- presentations start with a little bubble in the brain that is rolled over and over and then translated onto paper. Or, for those of you who have forgotten how to use a pen, typed into a word processing document. The point is that you should know exactly what the content of your presentation will be before you even open PowerPoint. This allows you to use PowerPoint as a creative tool that complements your message.

I won't try to cover everything there is to know about building PowerPoint slides in one entry, so stay tuned for updates! I'll leave you with a couple of examples of really great presentations:

Present! - Edition #1 Rethinking Presentation Design

view presentation (tags: ppt powerpoint design presentation)

Brain Rules for Presenters

view presentation (tags: reynolds garr zen presentation)

I know I'm inspired to build more interesting and creative presentations. How 'bout you?

-- Millie Shaw