Brian Giese's Blog

10 Tips for a Successful Presentation

Fear of public speaking ranks high on nearly every study of common anxieties -- higher even than the fear of death!

As someone who has delivered hundreds of presentations before groups of all kinds, and trained many people to do the same, I have some insights on this. What people really fear is not so much public speaking itself as the possibility of being unprepared for a speech.

If you prepare well, you will eliminate most of the fear. Here are the ten “MUSTS” for a successful presentation. Cover all ten, and you will be well prepared for the big event.

1. You MUST use humor to establish rapport with the audience very early on in the speech -- and preferably self-deprecating humor. (Abraham Lincoln was once accused of being two-faced. Lincoln replied, “If I had two faces, do you think this is the one I’d be wearing?” )

2. You MUST know your audience and match your content to their world.

3. You MUST know your material thoroughly. In other words, you must practice delivering the major points, in the order you want to cover them, preferably in front of people such as family or friends. (Doing this ahead of time will also help you identify what should be eliminated from the speech.) Consider making an audio or video of your speech and reviewing it closely before you deliver it to a “live” group.

4. You MUST know your own strengths and weaknesses as a speaker. Make sure you are emphasizing your strengths during the speech.

5. You MUST wear appropriate attire for the occasion.

6. You MUST project comfort and confidence to the audience. Erect posture and the ability to take deep breaths is a part of this. Do not confuse “confidence” with “arrogance”—being able to admit that you do not know something, or that you made an error about something, will usually win you attention and interest.

7. You MUST use appropriate body language – hand gestures, walking, spreading your arms – to retain visual interest from the audience.

8. You MUST speak comprehensibly. If this is a problem according to other people who listen to you practice delivering your speech, make a conscious choice to slow down and enunciate. Find ways to remind yourself of this during the speech.

9. You MUST speak loudly enough to be heard by everyone. (If you don’t have a microphone, pitch your voice so that the person in the back of the room will hear what you’re saying.)

10. You MUST speak with enthusiasm and conviction. If the audience does not believe that you believe what you’re saying, they will tune out.

For more information about this topic email me at brian@itselling.com.

Data-Based Marketing Defined

Data-based marketing is the technique of gathering all the information available about your customer, leads, and prospects into a central database and using that information to drive all your marketing efforts. The information is stored in a marketing database and can be used at both the strategic and tactical levels to drive targeted marketing efforts.

A company that utilizes database marketing continually gathers, refines, and analyzes data about their customers, their buying history, prospects, past marketing efforts, demographics, and so forth. They analyze the data to turn it into information that supports all their marketing and sales programs. More enlightened marketing companies also use customer and prospect interests and preferences, generally gathered on their web site, to tailor marketing efforts right down to the individual level. Data-based marketing has long been in the domain of the Fortune 500 - companies that spend millions of dollars on their marketing efforts. It is now in the domain of smaller organizations with smaller budgets!

Tips for B2B direct mail campaigns

High technology prospects are different. They don't respond like consumers and they don't respond like other businesses. What works with them is often the opposite of what works with consumers. Here's a primer on how to sell high-tech products to businesses using direct mail.

High-tech buying decisions are often made by a committee, not an individual. To win the sale, your direct-mail program should address the needs of everyone around the table, whether the president, purchasing agent, technical specialist or end user. So find out who wields the greatest influence in buying decisions (often it's the end users), and target these influential prospects in your mailings, along with the people who sign the purchase orders.

Consumer direct-mail gimmicks sell sweepstakes, but not servers. Don't ask a senior verification engineer to "AFFIX FREE BUYING GUIDE SEAL HERE." Don't expect a network operations analyst to "PLACE TAB A INTO TAB B." The same goes for fake handwriting and fake underlining. They're genuine mistakes.

High-tech business readers are sophisticated. They want a letter, a brochure and a business reply card. That's it. The more inserts, lift letters, coupons, free-gift slips and other stuff you put in the envelope, the more likely the busy executive is to fling your package in the circular file.

Here's one caveat. Fancy folds, die cuts and 3D objects work well when you tie them into your offer. This is especially true of trade-show mailers, where a unique and relevant gimmick often draws more prospects to your booth than a traditional mailer does.

Mapping the Sales Battlefield

Information Technology (I.T.) continues to be the fastest growing sales industry in the world. If you’re one of the millions of people worldwide involved in selling I.T. solutions, you need to give yourself an edge.

Lead Generation for Partners

Understanding your partners and generating qualified opportunities is really tough. Channel partners always request support from manufacturers to provide them with more leads. From lead generation to assisted selling, and anywhere in between, they expect you to help them create, distribute, and manage sales opportunities for them. Not an easy set of tasks. One answer is leveraging available Marketing Development Funds and developing closed-loop lead generation programs to provide your channel partners with increased opportunities to sell your solutions - a 'win—win' situation for both parties.Because lead management is critical in the sales cycle but challenging to execute with precision, look to create a closed-loop program. These programs can effectively process and track leads from the beginning to the end of the sales process and it can make the difference between winning the sale and losing opportunities.

Sales Management

How do you create strong sales management?

Look for an integrated approach, created specifically for sales and marketing managers, that helps them develop and manage all of the customer management disciplines critical to profitable revenue growth. Look for a system that provides managers with the blueprint to plan and execute short-term and long-term financial objectives for sales management.

Partner Development

	Do you understand your partners and pinpoint opportunities? How do you most effectively develop and implement programs that will drive sales through your channel?
	Try profiling and creating tiers for your current channel base to focus on highest value targets. This leverages your proprietary channel resources to identify opportunities to recruit and engage additional partners.
	Knowing who your channel partner targets are is only half the battle. You'll need to develop highly customized programs, value propositions and messaging, to drive sales of your products and services through these channel partners.

Direct Marketing Campaigns

	Campaign Management illuminates trends and generates a blueprint for growing sales and market share. This blueprint can be used to plan, manage, and execute sales and marketing initiatives — and is designed to deliver the returns you require.
	A sstematic approach to identifying and targeting customers ensures you reach the right audience with the most appropriate value proposition. Utilizing the most advanced research tools and technology, you can identify consumer motivation, goals, wants, needs, and buying behaviors, resulting in recommendations that drive revenue. With accurate, timely market intelligence, you can make the right decisions to meet your strategic objectives.
	From end-user segmentation to sales audits, Campaign Management gives you insight into your markets and help you pinpoint opportunities that are actionable. Ultimately, this leads to a balanced program and a strong, enabled sales force.