« Older Entries

Guidelines to Making a Successful Presentation

A lot of people have no fear of standing up in public and making a presentation.
They have all the self confidence that it takes, and they have been doing it for so long that they tend to pour scorn on those who quake at the knees at the very thought. However it may not necessarily mean that an experienced presenter has nothing new to learn. And if your are one of these people who will have to face up to the challenges of making a presentation in the near future, here are a few tips on how to make a presentation that works.

1. How to prepare the content.

Before you enter into the line of fire, be it for the first time or the 500th, the presenter needs to do research. Not just on the material to be presented. Not just on how it should be presented. Not just on the audience that it will be presented to. But all of them together. A novice presenter should try to imagine himself as a member of the audience, and feel how the presentation should be made.

They should be well aware of which multimedia program they will be using as an aid, and how it operates. Making a few trial runs before an objective audience to iron out any potential glitches will only increase the presenter’s confidence in facing the real thing.

2. How to present the content

The thing that many “experienced “presenters will tend to forget in time, is to differentiate between a presentation and a speech. He or she may be the wittiest and most original speaker, but if they leave their audience laughing, but asking themselves, “what exactly were they trying to tell us”, and then nothing has been achieved. On the other hand, a scenario that is almost as dry as the Sahara Desert is when the presentation evolves from an often extremely lengthy prepared document. They can stand there for what seems like an eternity, but in reality is only 20 minutes, droning on in a dull monotone. In many cases these speakers will be speaking in a language that is not their native one. To add a little color to the proceedings, they might add in a few slides, which may well be upside down.

The ideal presentation is when the speaker combines an interesting but short lecture backed up by a PowerPoint presentation to emphasize their points. They will know or will have learned that audiences as a rule do not necessarily take notes at presentations. Therefore the professional presenter will have made sure that each member of the audience will have received the presentation in a printed or digital format. This will allow the content to be reviewed any time in the future.
This formula of presentation stands the best chance of meeting the approval of the audience, and being remembered positively.

3. How to wind up the presentation.

Assuming that the presenter has learned the first two steps inside out, and is now standing in front of an audience that will now be eating out of the presenter’s hand. This is the time that a successful presentation should be wound down. The best way to do that is to invite a few questions from the audience. This can continue for a few minutes, until everyone in the audience has had enough, and are ready to move on to the next speaker. The presenter can move unobtrusively behind the scenes, and give themselves a pat on the back.

All the hard work, thought and preparation that went into a preparation that works has been worthwhile!

Tags:

Virtual Investor Presentations – How To Meet Public Company CEO’s From The Convenience Of Your Desk

Investor meetings are the life-blood of public companies. They can motivate potential investors to invest in a company as well as provide existing investors with information about their investment. To reach new investors, CEOs traditionally engage in road shows traveling from city-to-city to meet with investors. However, today the time and financial costs of travel have skyrocketed for busy executives, as well as investors and analysts. Worse, with today air traffic problems executives find themselves stranded in airports wasting valuable time that could be used to build a business.

Virtual Investor Presentations (VIPs) solve this problem through live virtual investor meetings using the internet to present the PowerPoint and the audio for the speaker’s presentation and Q&A. This allows CEO’s of public companies and investors to attend a live meeting in the convenience of their offices.

VIPs are NOT webcasts of live conference presentations. They allow the audience to interact with the presenter and receive answers to their questions just as they would at the live conference itself.

VIPs don’t replace face-to-face meetings; rather, as part of a comprehensive Investor Relations Program, they complement such meetings. Just as companies use webinars to market their services and products to potential buyers, and then follow-up with one-on-one sales meetings with serious prospects, cost-effective Investor Relations Officers companies use VIPs to introduce their company to potential investors, and then travel for one-on-one meetings with investors anxious to make a commitment.

One of the best benefits of a VIP, is that it can reach a larger, potentially, national audience, since all investors and analysts can attend from the convenience of their offices. This allows the public company to put itself on these people’s radar screens, and then follow-up with them to show that they are delivering on the promise. And when they do, they can announce another VIP to let people know that the company is executing on its growth strategy – something every investor wants to hear!

Tags:

Retail Tips – Presenting and Demonstrating Your Products

The confidence and care you take in presenting and demonstrating products can set you apart not just from other retailers but also from the ever increasing competition from the internet. Here are some tips to help you stand out from the pack.

Get your customers involved
If it’s an item of clothing let the customer touch it and then encourage them to try it on. If its furniture, perhaps you’re showing them a sofa, invite them to sit on it. If you’re in a pharmacy and you’re reading information from the label on the back of the box pick up the second item and put it in their hand so that they have it as well. Wherever possible, encourage your customers to hold the item, try it on or use it in some way.

By letting them experience the product, it becomes more real to them. Also it is no longer your product, when it is in their hands or as they are trying it out it is potentially their product. They’ve moved a little closer to ownership of the item.

Handle with care
Have you ever been in a jewellery store and noticed how the staff present a precious diamond necklace or ring to the customer? Without even seeing the price you know it is expensive because of the reverence they show as they handle it.

They should also present a diamante necklace or ring in exactly the same way, yet very few sales people do this. It’s about being customer focussed rather than product focussed. You are handling this person’s potential possession so it should be treated as if it is precious.

Treat your merchandise with respect. Remember, you may be showing the product to its future owner.

I remember trying on a pair of squash shoes in a small sports store. It was busy and there seemed to be lots of pairs of sport shoes spread across the floor. After trying on a pair that didn’t seem quite right, the owner brought me another pair. He made room for me by sweeping aside the first pair and a couple of others with his foot as if they were rubbish to be put in the bin.

He probably thought he was just moving HIS ‘stock’ out of the customer’s way but to customers he is not only devaluing the product, he is treating THEIR potential product disrespectfully.

By the way, it is a good tactic to immediately remove from sight any product that the customer has rejected – though not ones they are just a bit doubtful about – so, the sports store owner was doing something right. It’s just how he did it that was wrong!

Demonstrating a product
We’ve already covered some key points appropriate to demonstrating a product in the previous sections on handling the product with care and getting your customer involved.

The more interactive you can make the shopping experience, the more inclined your customers will be to buy. And if you can provide them with evidence via this interaction they will have proved to themselves that the product can do what you say.

With many products, an ounce of demonstration is worth a ton of words especially if your customers can try out the product for themselves. Research has shown that when a customer is given the opportunity to use a product or see it in operation the chances of closing the sale increase by 17%.

There are a couple of additional rules to bear in mind.

1. Check any products first to make sure they work. This should be done in advance of your customers coming into the store. There is nothing more embarrassing than attempting to demonstrate a product that has a faulty part that doesn’t work.
2. Make sure you can demonstrate with confidence by rehearsing in advance. Take turns at demonstrating products with your colleagues.
3. Be completely familiar with any safety considerations associated with the product.

Case Study: Piano Virtuoso
When my daughter was 7 or 8 years old she expressed an interest in learning to play the piano. So we headed out on a shopping expedition to purchase a piano. Having no experience in anything musical, I relied on the knowledge of the salesperson in the retail store. What would be best for her as a beginner? Which makes and models held their value best in case she didn’t maintain her interest? And so on.

In one store we came across a knowledgeable salesperson who clearly enjoyed seeing a child being introduced to a musical instrument. He answered my questions, translated the features into benefits and took an interest in my daughter as well as me. He almost had us there… then he blew it!

He sat down at the piano to demonstrate and proceeded to stun us by playing the most amazing piece. Then he got up and asked my daughter to have a go. She wouldn’t go near the piano. He had totally intimidated her with his virtuoso performance.

We politely excused ourselves and a few days later bought the same piano from another retail store where my daughter didn’t feel intimidated.

The lesson from this is that whether you are demonstrating a new computer gizmo or an electrical guitar if you concentrate on showing off your skills rather than demonstrating ease of use, you may intimidate the customer. And if they are unwilling to try it they are unlikely to buy it.

These tips come from Jurek Leon’s new two volume, ‘Retail Selling: The Complete Do-It-Yourself Training Programme’. Check the Terrific Trading website for more tips and information on the DIY program.

Tags: