ELEVENTH POST

Today's post has little to do with Structured Cabling sales strategies.  Like most of you, I am critical of any presenters because I think I am better than most (ok I'm an egomaniac with an inferiority complex) and usually decide in my head within a minute of someone's talk that I could dust them in a debate or deliver a better presentation.  There is just one thing that is keeping me from doing that and it is drive.

Obviously the person presenting earned the right or figured out how to get in front of the group relegating me to the position of armchair quarterback.  How did that person get to present?  Maybe they were invited or asked or sent a video to the people deciding on content for the seminar or meeting.  Maybe they are so good that it made perfect sense for the host to ask them to speak.  How do we get to be that person?

Here are some presentation tips that I find are outstanding ways to separate yourself from your competition, peers and even friends.

• Presenters often say the word "right?" over and over when explaining a concept or topic.  It is annoying and unnecessary.  An example,  "So, 10Gb is the latest copper cabling system technology right?"  Eliminate this from your talks.  I've noticed this trend in technology presentations especially in the last ten years.
• Maintain eye contact with the people you are speaking with....all of them. This is critical in a conference room setting.  Too often presenters focus on only one person.  This is a really bad thing if you are a male presenter and you only focus on the male in the room and ignore the women or vice versa.  This behavior says, I don't really regard you so I am not looking at you.
• Use humor tactfully.  You should know your audience and draw whatever limits around certain topics you fell are appropriate.  If you wouldn't say it in front of your mother, my advice is save it for another time.
• People buy on emotion.  Sure you need to deliver facts and RELEVANT information, but if people bought on facts alone, we could send an audio presentation to accompany a white paper with an ROI model and go tee it up.  What are you doing in your presentations to get the buying juices flowing?
• Are you so good at presenting that you don't need to join a public speaking group?  Oh yeah, you are that good.  And LeBron James probably doesn't need to practice jumpers with three guys in his face and Tiger Woods doesn't put too much time in on the practice tee.  Toastmasters International is an excellent place to learn how to deliver great speeches, properly introduce people, and most importantly master the English language.  Lose the ahh's and umm's!  You will be amazed at how often these filler words creep into your talks.  How do I know this, because Toastmasters assigns someone to count your filler words.  This person is called the Ah Grammarian.  Join your local chapter.  Its affordable and a great investment.
• Do you use power point and read the slide verbatim?  If you do, please hand me a pen to stab myself in the eye so I can be distracted from your presentations.  Big ideas and high level bullets, charts that are easy to read, video and flash content are much more meaningful  Spice it up!

One of the greatest compliments I had was from a good customer that I've known for over fifteen years.  It was a simple comment.  He said I was memorable.  

Stay RELEVANT!