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| Volume 8, Issue 7 |
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In This Issue:
 Why some presentations … um-ah … stink
 Executive angst: How to use it to your advantage
Six steps to boost B2B customer loyalty
PowerPoint prowess: Using presentations as a solution
Smart presenting: Will you pass the three-minute challenge?
Five things not to do in front of an audience
 Motivation mockery and the power business ballad
 Five B2B email marketing tips
Five secrets to email list growth
 BlackBerry bold: No mere iClone
 Nine ways to reduce stress
 Six free BlackBerry downloads you don't want to miss
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Why some presentations … um-ah … stink
Andy Craig is a presentation coach and owner of Elevator Speech, Inc. His clients include Microsoft, CA (Computer Associates), Deloitte, Humana, Reebok, Ingram Micro, Petrobras
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It was 9:15 a.m. on a typical day of presentation coaching.
My video camera was fixed on a software company executive, and I was sipping Starbuck’s. Forty minutes and more than 300 “um-ah” stammers later, I thought: “Why do so many great executives give such crummy presentations?” Here’s why: presentations in
corporate America are created backwards. Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’re assigned a date for a presentation. To customers, partners, employees, analysts, industry peers, whomever. You follow one of three paths: One, you email your marketing
department for a suitable PowerPoint presentation you can use with this group. After reviewing the slides, you think about how you’re going to talk to each one. Two, you...
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Executive angst: How to use it to your advantage
Robert Rosen is CEO of Healthy Companies International, a keynote speaker, and author of "JUST ENOUGH ANXIETY: The Hidden Driver of Business Success.
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Generally speaking, hyperventilation, and running for cover under the desk, isn't a good thing. But anxiety in the workplace has its place, if you know the good kind versus the bad, and how to use it effectively.
The waves of change are crashing in on every organization in today's business environment. Unpredictable markets, sky-rocketing
energy costs, and an uncertain future are causing considerable anxiety at every level. The pressure is on you, as a training professional, to come up with ways to help transform today's problems into tomorrow’s successes. But what can you do? The
accelerating rate of change and the anxiety it produces are outpacing your ability to create timely strategies and solutions to meet the onslaught of challenges. However, if you look closely, you'll find the answer lies in the anxiety itself. When you
harness the energy of healthy anxiety you can help yourself and your organization successfully ride the waves of change. Unhealthy levels of anxiety—too much or too little—can result in obsessive thinking, jumping to conclusions, and magnifying or
minimizing events. But a healthy level of anxiety—just enough anxiety—will put you and your organization on the path to improved performance and greater capacity for change and growth. The waves of change are crashing in on every organization in today's
business environment. Unpredictable markets, sky-rocketing energy costs, and an uncertain future are causing considerable anxiety at every level. The pressure is on you, as a training professional, to come up with ways to help transform today's
problems into tomorrow’s successes. But what can you do? The accelerating rate of change and the anxiety it produces are outpacing your ability to create timely strategies and solutions to meet the onslaught of challenges. However, if you look
closely, you'll find the answer lies in the anxiety itself. When you harness the energy of healthy anxiety you can help yourself and your organization successfully ride the waves of change. Unhealthy levels of anxiety—too much or too little—can
result in obsessive thinking, jumping to conclusions, and magnifying or minimizing events. But a healthy level of anxiety—just enough anxiety—will put you and your
organization on the path to improved performance and greater capacity for change and growth...
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Six steps to boost B2B customer loyalty
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This method made a significant difference in driving customer loyalty among the B2B companies studied..." |
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Looking to foster genuine business-to-business customer loyalty?
You now have a clear blueprint at your disposal for doing so, thanks to a recent study by the Corporate Executive Board's Marketing Leadership Council and Marketing Leadership Roundtable. The study evaluated more than 70 B2B companies that conduct
formal loyalty measurement programs. Its chief finding: Because the cost of switching suppliers is usually higher and more complex in a B2B environment, it is attitudes rather than behavior that best identify loyal customers. [The study explored more than
100 marketing practices and capabilities commonly believed to contribute to B2B customer loyalty, from segmentation strategies through to designating a single point of contact. Using self-assessment feedback from participating companies along with
financial data and measured percentages of loyal customers, the following drivers were identified...]
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PowerPoint prowess: Using presentations as a solution
Randy Lipson is VP of Sales Performance Consulting at Competence Systems. Randy has over 30 years of selling and sales management and consulting experience. Randy's specialties include results-driven sales, training, coaching, and execution.
In sales, there is a lot of emphasis put on a salesperson's PowerPoint prowess.
Sales managers and those departments and individuals who are responsible for helping sales reps to be as successful as possible, often voice the need to "improve presentation skills" as a top priority. But this emphasis leads to a lot of pressure
put on salespeople to be expert presenters, and often gives a false impression that a knock ‘em dead presentation is a rep's key to success. But what many forget is that 80% of selling takes place before the presentation. Relying on a powerful presentation
to win the sale may result in failure more times than success. Yes, presentations are mandatory to differentiate yourself and communicate your solution, but you must be able to powerfully communicate to the mindset of the customer. Unfortunately, many
sales presentations today, appeal to the mindset of the salesperson and the features and benefits Marketing wants sales people to emphasize. [To avoid these issues, sales professionals need to build their own solution roadmap—a framework for selling
successfully. Sales reps follow a step by step roadmap, slowly and systematically building towards selling success. An essential part of the solution roadmap involves building a business case and presentation for solving specific problems or satisfying
needs that are compelling to the prospect. This should be the ONLY focus for any sales presentation. The Keys to Building and Presenting Winning Presentations...]
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Smart presenting: Will you pass the three-minute challenge?
John Windsor, an online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management, and president of Creating Thunder, a Boulder, Colo.-based communications training and consulting company. As author of the popular YouBlog, John offers a unique
mix of innovation, communications, sales and marketing ideas. An award-winning marketer, John has held vice president positions in marketing, sales, and
business development and has worked with companies like American Express, Reuters, Staples, and Knight-Ridder.
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Could you make your case in only three minutes? What would you say? What would you show? Could you even do it?
Many sales teams and managers would be inclined to automatically respond in the negative. I don't blame them: This is a tough challenge. But, as difficult as it may seem, sticking to a succinct game plan can totally transform how you present—and, more
importantly, how strongly your audience connects with you and your message. What does it take to have a real impact in that short a time? Talking really fast won’t do, nor will a quick rip through a lot of bullet-point slides. It could be that you only use
one slide—or none. But know this: you can, and should, be able to make your case in three minutes or less. At this point, you may be thinking, "Why bother? I have plenty of time with the client. What's the point of compressing this to only three minutes?"
Or, "Our annual sales summit is a full-day event. If my presentation is only three-minutes, what will I do with the rest of the time to engage my reps?" Here are four reasons why you should bother...
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Five things not to do in front of an audience
Kathy Reiffenstein is the founder and president of And…Now Presenting!, a Washington, D.C. area business communications consulting and training firm, where she draws on her background in sales, marketing and customer service to create confident,
persuasive speakers. She works with business executives, authors, non-profit leaders and the military to help them speak clearly, effectively and engagingly to their audiences. Visit www.andnowpresenting.us
for free presentation tips and resources. Stop by Kathy's blog for more tips and insights.
Audiences don't usually throw tomatoes or pound their shoes on the table in response to a bad presentation.
But they do respond in more subtle ways: they don't buy your product, they don't sign up for your cause and they won't refer you. So what audience "no-no's" should you avoid?...
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Motivation Mockery and the Power Business Ballad
As far back as 1915, businesses used corporate songs as team-building and motivational tools.
Today, the tradition continues, sometimes spontaneous and on the cheap, but sometimes in team-building events supported by musician-motivators who—for fees of up to $100,000—will coach workers to write and perform songs extolling everything from a
product launch to a company’s core principles. In the age of YouTube and MP3 trading, however, there’s always the possibility that what seemed like harmless fun at last month’s management retreat will become tomorrow’s Internet ignominy. More than a year
after the video was uploaded to YouTube, it is still drawing viewers. In the clip, an audience of Bank of America credit card division managers listen as a bank employee, clad in a crisp white shirt and tie, strums the familiar chords of U2’s "One" on an
acoustic guitar. Meanwhile, his partner, clad in similarly businesslike attire, grabs the mike stand and belts out a revised set of lyrics, which convert the original’s tortured lament into a celebration of the bank’s acquisition of former rival MBNA...
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Five B2B email marketing tips
Here we are, oh email marketers, caught in the middle.
On the one hand we are celebrated for being the go-to resource for generating short-term revenue results (anyone have that "hey, our numbers are down, send another email" conversation this week?). On the other hand, it's "funny" how the applause dies
down when the budget talk comes around and we continue to be handicapped by limited investment and strained resources. What's an email marketer to do? With that reality as our foundation, I'm leading a panel of great marketers at the upcoming...
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Five secrets to email list growth
Building a list of responsive subscribers via a Web site that has a bit of traffic and quality content is surprisingly easy.
But sometimes, when working with users, we're surprised to see low conversion rates. So, we take a look into just why that might be. Here are five factors to consider when growing your list...
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BlackBerry bold: No mere iClone
This is a great time for anyone who hates to be away from e-mail and the Internet for more than a few minutes at a stretch. Apple (AAPL), which last year redefined the mobile experience with the iPhone, seems poised to introduce an improved version.
And market leader Research In Motion (RIMM) has risen to the challenge with the BlackBerry Bold. When the phone launches this summer, it should be a potent weapon in RIM's fight to defend its dominance of the corporate smartphone market. Unlike recent
BlackBerry products such as the super-slim Pearl, the Bold is aimed at the heart of RIM's traditional enterprise market. I had only a brief chance to try it during a
meeting with RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, but what I saw was impressive. The Bold's most striking features are the screen and the keyboard. The screen displays...
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Nine ways to reduce stress
Despite all the long hours and working weekends you've been pulling, you had another rough quarter.
While what you really need is a nice, long break, if you’re an executive, chances are that your workload won't allow it. The rigorous schedule simply comes with the territory.But staring at your computer screen all day and night and eating only what
you have time for will take its toll sooner or later--you're likely to burn out. If the health consequences of a lack of activity and focus on your diet aren't a motivator, consider the impact that general exhaustion might already be having on all
your hard work. [Top Techniques Hummingbird health coaches, who counsel hundreds of executives (mostly based in North America), typically work with clients immediately
following their annual physical exams. Cold, hard numbers, such as high cholesterol and blood-pressure levels, can be hard for business types to ignore...]
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Six free BlackBerry downloads you don't want to miss
Get the most out of your RIM BlackBerry smartphone without ever opening your wallet. Check out the following six free downloads.
One of the best things about Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry smartphones is their ability to download and install external applications. Every download adds a new level of value and customization to the devices, and BlackBerry users who don't take advantage
of this functionality simply aren't getting the most out of their smartphones. But like most things in life, the best BlackBerry downloads don't come free--with the exception of the following six applications. They include...
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