Jerry Seinfeld once observed that people were more afraid of public speaking than they were of death. To him this meant that “at a funeral, you are better off in the casket than giving the eulogy.”
But it is true – the number one fear in America is the fear of speaking in public. But learning how to do it well can help advance your career and win you more and more customers. Here are 10 tips on making your next presentation go smoother and calm some of those butterflies:
What preparation do you do before a big call or presentation with a customer? What do you say to yourself before that meeting?
Whether you know it or not, how you perceive things can have an effect on your overall behavior. Your perceptions (of co-workers, customers, situations, etc) for your attitudes. Those attitudes set into motion how you act or re-act to those people or situations. So if you perceive that your boss is a miserly old tightwad, that will mean you will act accordingly. However, if you perceive that your boss is being wise with company assets then your behavior will likely be different.
Tessa Stowe over at The Side Road had a good post on talking to yourself before a meeting. What can you say to yourself so that you come accross authentic, energetic, relaxed and committed instead of nervous, pushy and desparate? Check it out!
Is your Blackberry taking over your life? Are you constantly online checking emails and the like?
A blog post I recently found makes the observation that it isn’t your Blackberry’s fault – it could be you!
If you are at a birthday party for ten year old boys and they are screaming up and down a soccer field, you are probably bored and emails look a little more enticing. This is not about addicted or not addicted; this is an issue of knowing when email is essential and when it’s a distraction.
You have probably been out to dinner with friends and they checked their Blackberry. This means you are not their most important priority at that time, just for that moment. You of course hope that your presence would make you most important, but in fact, it did not. Does that mean your friend is addicted to her Blackberry? No. It means your friend is prioritizing and she’s letting you know that you rank high enough for in-person, but you don’t trump everyone.
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Blackberries are tools for the well-prioritized. If you feel like you’re being ruled by your Blackberry, you probably are. And the only way to free yourself from those shackles is to start prioritizing so that you know at any given moment what is the most important thing to do. Sometimes it will be the Blackberry, and sometimes it won’t. And the first step to doing this shift properly is recognizing that you can be on and off the Blackberry all day as a sign of empowerment.
So in other words, if you are having a hard time prioritizing without a tool, just throwing in fancy technology isn’t going to fix it – it might make it worse!
Click HERE to go read the full article.
Everyone has them, but not everyone loves them. If you work with a virtual team, conference calls happen on a regular basis. But for many teams they are not near as effective or useful as they should be.
Why is this? Many times it is because there are a lot of distractions coming through the line. Overtalking, background noise, dogs barking, phones ringing, keyboards typing, etc. If attendees observe some basic conference call etiquette then the real topics can get tackled instead of saying “can someone mute their background noise?” over and over again.
Basic tips:
What other tips do you have? Add a comment to share your words of wisdom!
It is getting to where now fewer and fewer reps are using desktop computers. Why is that? Well, if you only work from a desktop, then you can only work while at the office, and your work hours are much more restrictive.
Working with a laptop (or, notebook) allows you much more flexibility with how and when you sell. But many reps with laptops do more complaining about them than figuring out how to maximize their usefulness.
Here are a few tips I found over at SalesTeamTools to trim time of those mundane tasks and create more prime selling time!
Click the link above to read the full article!
Sales reps always get into trouble with customers when they start pushing a particular product or solution. When that happens, customers feel trapped and manipulated and the rep is likely to lose a great opportunity for a sale. Instead of pushing for your idea, try to clarify the needs and desires the customer already has, and offer a set of options so that the customer feels he has a choice. By offering options, you come across as a trusted advisor instead of a pushy salesman, and the customer feels safe and respected.
