So, there’s this presentation, and it starts like this…

In an informal survey from coaching 1000+ sales presentations, care to guess what the most common first word was?   I? We? The? Thank you? (Sorry, that’s two, you’re disqualified!)  Would you be surprised to learn that is in fact  (drum roll please)  “So?”  This tiny two letter word is wildly

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Are You Losing Business to Your Invisible Competition?

Can you name your direct competition? Of course you can. In fact, you can probably tell me all about them. But what if I asked you to name your invisible competition?  What’s your invisible competition?  The scores of people who also want or need something from your prospect: vendors from

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Sneak Peek: Advanced Sales Presentation Tip: The Power of Intention

Sneak Peek:  Advanced Presentation Technique from my new e-Book:  “Take Your Sales Presentation to the Next Level” Get all 10 tips FREE here! A common concern I hear from sales manager’s centers around the ability of their sales team to passionately or enthusiastically present their solution: “I don’t know what it

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Presentations and Presence: 7 Practical Tips – Part Deux

Many people think presence is something you’re born with, but as a performer I learned that presence can be developed. If you’re alive and taking up space, you have some presence. The question is, how much? Enough to engage one person? Ten? Twenty? And for how long? Five minutes? Fifteen

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Presentations and Presence: 7 Practical Tips (Part 1 of 2)

A brilliant script delivered poorly by an actor is unlikely to break any box office records. Likewise, compelling value and benefit statements are critical components of your presentation, but you can’t rely on the content to do all the heavy lifting. Just like a great actor can make a mediocre

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Dump the Company Selfie… I Mean Overview

The company overview is today’s business selfie.  It’s that slide (or series of slides) that seems to be in most salespeople’s decks that shows any or all of the following: a picture of your building (ho hum), the timeline of your company’s growth (blah, blah, blah), and the awards your

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Get Real Results from Sales Role Play (psst..the secret is in the casting)

Actors love to work with director Clint Eastwood for good reason:  “He expects you to know what you’re doing. And he’s going to take two giant steps back and let you do it,” says Morgan Freeman.  But some Hollywood directors are notoriously difficult to work with.  Kate Winslet said that

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3 Awesome (and Underused) PPT Presentation Tips

While there is a wealth of information on how to put together a good PowerPoint deck for your sales presentation — right down to the number of words and size of font on each slide, little attention is given on how a presenter can interact with those PPT slides in order to ensure his

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Better Results from Sales Role-Play Part 1: Setting the Stage

I received a panicked call from a salesperson last week.  Carol’s annual sales meeting was fast approaching and she and her fellow sellers were asked to participate in a day of sales role-play with management.  While promoted as a “learning experience,” Carol knew better; this was a test.  Carol and

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Make Your Presentation Memorable with Props

According to Toastmasters, listeners only retain 10% of what they’ve heard one week later.  This percentage increases to 67% when visual aids are added to the equation. This is a strong message to sellers that if you want a prospect to remember your sales presentation, demo or conversation, adding a visual

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