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Sales Presentations – Three Questions to Answer

Everyone sells something. You sell your buddy on a new fishing spot. You sell your neighbors on a new restaurant to go to for dinner. Your kids sell you on raising their allowance.

Everyone sells something. We present our case. We persuade. To persuade by definition is the ability to convince by appealing to reason or understanding.

If you are going to make a sales presentation you need to know that presenting the case for your product isn’t enough. You need to be sharp, articulate, time oriented, entertaining and persuasive to get the job done.

Terri Sjodin, author of Sales Speak wrote that too many sales presentations are going the way of information overload and not enough about persuasion. I agree. Anyone can deliver information. Really. Anyone can read a brochure and figure out what it is that’s being sold. The key is to be able to answer three questions:

o Why you?
o Why your company, product, services?
o Why now?

The last question, “Why now?” is the call to action. It’s the answer to the sense of urgency you’ve created. Many sales people drop the ball here. They never close. They never make a call to action. They just sort of pack up and go after the information giving. Don’t make that mistake.

Persuasion isn’t about being pushy. It’s about being excited about the idea you’re bringing to the table and leading others to join your excitement. It’s about being able to make a call for action and having decision makers act on that call.

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Keeping Your Voice Strong While Presenting

Sometimes when you’re presenting, introducing yourself or answering questions in front of a group, your voice trails off at the end of the sentence. Your audience can’t understand the last part of your sentence and you may sound nervous and unprepared. Here are four tips for keeping your voice strong throughout your presentation:

1. Breathe
When you take short, shallow breaths, there is not enough oxygen to fuel your voice through the end of the sentence. You literally run out of air by the end of the sentence. To prevent this from happening, take full, deep breaths which will energize your voice.

2. Pause More
You won’t have enough air to race through several long sentences delivered end-to-end. Pausing during or between sentences will give you a chance to catch your breath and your audience a change to digest what you’ve just said. It also helps you emphasize important words or phrases. Pausing will feel awkward at first, but with practice, you will get more comfortable.

3. Use a Microphone
If there is a microphone available, use it. The microphone will make it easier for you to project your voice. As I stated in another article, “How to Use a Microphone Like a Pro,” you should practice the mechanics of using a microphone so you can do it successfully.

4. Be Confident
Sometimes your voice may trail off because you are not confident about what you are saying or how you are saying it. Work on overcoming any fear you have of presenting in general and then focus specifically on your anxiety about presenting this topic to this audience at this time. If you still don’t feel confident, act as if you do – and it will help you feel more confident.

Keeping your voice strong throughout your entire presentation will help you deliver your message to your audience with energy and confidence.

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Thought of the Day – Family Conflict (Part I): How the Past Affects The Present

Passover was a dreaded holiday for me as a teenager growing up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was a time when my uncle, who thought of himself as a “lay Rabbi,” rose at the head of the table and straightened himself out as if he was the Chief Rabbi in the grandest synagogue in Europe. He ceremoniously opened the Haggadah, the text recited at the Seder on the first two nights of the Jewish Passover.

As he began reciting in Hebrew the narrative of the Jewish exodus from Egypt, my aunt looked adoringly at him. At the other end of the table, my mother rolled her eyes, my father grumbled curses under his breath, and I pretended the conflict and anger I saw didn’t exist. In this week’s three-part series, I’ll share some of my thoughts on the nature of family conflicts occurring at holiday gatherings.

Family Conflict and Reduced Inhibition and Expectations

Family gatherings during holidays are supposed to be happy events where we shove personal issues to the side, forgive past wrongs, and the “good” of the family is most important. The expectation is what happened in the past is irrelevant now, and the joy of the moment; Passover, Easter, or other holidays will sooth over unskillful behaviors as warm milk does to an upset stomach. Neither anecdotes are always successful.

Our Present is Based on Our Past

We don’t live in a vacuum where our lives were immaculately conceived. You don’t need to believe in Freudian psychology to understand what a person does in the present carries with them their past.

I’m sure my uncle’s love of the family during the Passover Seder was genuine. For a brief time, he was able to reinterpret or ignore how his past behaviors hurt the family. Unfortunately, those on the receiving end couldn’t forget. Regardless of how genuine his love, my parents couldn’t go beyond his past.

Upcoming Holidays

We would like to think the joy of a holiday or it’s greater meaning will overshadow “petty” disagreements. In the 1960′s many sociologists wrote about the role of rising expectations in social turmoil. They believed inequities and injustices weren’t as important in creating conflicts as was the belief things could be changed.

It may be prudent as you approach the new holiday season to adjust your expectations of what’s possible during your family gathering. You may not have a “want to-be” Rabbi in your family, but don’t expect your cousin’s irksome behaviors that irritated you forever to vanish because you wish they will.

In the next part of this three-part series, I’ll talk about why family truths are always relative. In the final part, I’ll suggest some attitudinal adjustments that worked in my counseling and coaching of families dealing with crises.

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