Putting Sizzle in Your Sales Presentations

The other night my husband and I enjoyed a delicious meal at our favourite restaurant, the Terra Cotta Inn.  I ordered a steak and it was amazing. Here’s why: a yummy steak is a combination of good quality meat, careful preparation and beautiful presentation. It’s like that with our sales presentations.

I was recently providing coaching feedback on the pilot of a new high stakes product presentation that was being launched for a client. The observers in the room commented that the presentation felt dry and needed more ‘sizzle.’ Here’s what we did to accomplish that:

1. Reworked the content – made the key points tighter, slashed content that added little value and reordered it to create a more logical flow.
2.  Wove in Persuasion Elements to bring the content to life – added stories, analogies, examples and evidence throughout the fabric of the presentation to transform the content from dull and boring black and white to brilliant technicolor.
3.  Coached the presenter on his delivery – voice modulation, energy, inflection and pauses all put the icing on the cake. Because this was to be a webinar, we focused primarily on vocal attributes. Had it been a face-to-face presentation, we would have also focused on how eyes, hands and body would come into play.
4. Reviewed the quality of the slides – The slides that were developed for this presentation were clear and well designed and no changes were needed.  This is usually not the case and slide makeovers are often in order. Continue reading “Putting Sizzle in Your Sales Presentations”

Presentations that Do NOT Persuade

Last week I was delivering a presentations skills workshop and was observing “Nancy” (name changed) deliver her presentation. Her content and delivery overall were quite good except for one big problem: she sounded more like a recording than a real person. She was using a ‘presentation voice.’ Nancy was not being herself.

With a bit of coaching, she began using her ‘real voice’ and in doing so, revealed a much more authentic voice that was engaging, passionate and clear. Nancy went on to deliver one of the most persuasive presentations of the workshop.

Your voice is a killer persuasion tool. When delivering presentations, the tone of your voice and the vocal variety you use can have more impact than all other presentation skills combined. If people focused as much on their voice as on their power point slides, my bet is they would see a dramatic impact on their ability to move their audience to take action.

Continue reading “Presentations that Do NOT Persuade”

Presentations: What do Gestures have to do with Persuasion?

This is a guest post from my associate Judie Knoerle, owner of Red Cup Presentations and author of UPFRONT Persuasion Through Presentation.

As a presentation coach I find the most often asked question is, “What do I do with my hands?” Holding them behind your back signals you’re hiding something. Clutching them in front of your body,  protecting vital organs, signals you’re nervous. Gesturing as you would in normal conversations usually entails unconsciously emphasizing almost every word in a phrase. None of these actions is appropriate for presentations. After all, how can you be persuasive if NOTHING is accented or when EVERYTHING you say is important enough to emphasize with gesture?

So, what do you do with your hands during a presentation? Can your gestures help you be more persuasive? The answer is yes.

There are three things to remember regarding gestures:

1. Show a palm. You begin to establish trust with your palms facing the audience. Avoid making fists, pointing and clutching.
2. Stay open to your audience. Keep your hands away from the centre of your body.
3. Hold a gesture.

Continue reading “Presentations: What do Gestures have to do with Persuasion?”