Archive for category: Leadership and Sales Training Blog

A team presentation can be tricky. So many personalities, mindsets, trains of thought and opinions…it can get messy quickly. But as their leader, it’s up to you to direct the presentation so that it flows as well as if one person were delivering it. That says easy but does hard. To help, here is a list of what I’ve found to be invaluable fundamentals to follow when preparing a group presentation.

Rehearse

Oh man, does this one get put off to the last minute! Ever practice your team presentation on the way to the meeting or in your client’s parking lot? You must insist that your whole team rehearse the presentation at least twice. This will help you fine-tune the flow, make sure everyone is involved and give them confidence that they know the material well.

Assign Roles

A good rule of thumb…if someone is in the room but doesn’t have a speaking role in the presentation, they don’t need to be there (unless their role is to take notes!). When organizing your presentation, determine who will deliver each part of the presentation. Assign to their strengths so that they present information they can speak to easily and can answer questions on the fly if needed. Speaking of questions…

Review Possible Questions

Your audience will ask questions, most of which you can anticipate. In your dry runs, have your team consider what questions might get asked and when. You can then determine who will answer certain questions, again playing to the strength of each team member.

Make Each Other Look Good

“I disagree with my teammate.” No you don’t. Ok…maybe you do but not in front a client you don’t! Before the meeting begins, remind your team that you all look bad if anyone of them cannibalizes the others thoughts. Commit to making each other look good.

Establish an Agenda

I’ve written about the importance of a meeting agenda previously. A group presentation can get way off track quickly unless you have a timed agenda. During rehearsal, pay attention to who takes more time than allotted. Work with them to pare down their thoughts so that they don’t usurp the time, forcing others to rush.

Avoid Too Many Participants

While you want to include your whole team, having too many people in the room can a) be hard to control and b) overwhelm your audience. Find out in advance how many client representatives will be there. It’s alright to have more than them…just not too many more. As we stated above, everyone should have a critical role, so that will help you limit participants.

Who is Leading?

While you are the team leader, it doesn’t mean you have to lead the presentation. The meeting leader is responsible for introducing the agenda, keeping everyone on track and being mindful of the timing. If you assign that role to someone else, then you must step back and take on only the role you’ve rehearsed.

Say Only What’s Needed

Too many times, I see people having a need to speak that overshadows whether what they say is important to furthering the conversation. You don’t need to be a “color commentator” like during a football telecast. If what you are about to say doesn’t add more information to what your team just said, keep it to yourself. And that lesson goes for your whole team, too.

Perform a Post-mortem

Reserve time after the presentation to break down what went right, what went wrong and what the next steps will be. If you don’t pre-arrange that time, the freshness of your team’s reactions will be diluted and you will get a much different perspective a day or so later. Do it as soon as you can!

Utilized these fundamentals and you’ll put your team in a winning position for their next presentation. Let me know how it goes!  – sg

People get funny about closing negotiations, deals, interviews, meetings, etc. Nerves take over, body language changes and confidence erodes. Why is this?  I’ll tell you…it’s because closing is inorganic for most people. It feels forced. And that should never be the case.

When it feels uncomfortable for you to close it’s likely because you have not banked enough comprehension of your client’s situation. And yet, you are about to make a recommendation and convince them that your advice is sound. If you are nervous about that, then guess what…it probably isn’t sound!

Gain the Momentum to Close

Closing represents the next step in the momentum you’ve built with your audience. Throughout the course of your interaction, if you’ve been listening well and asking the right, researched probing questions (which you’ve prepared in advance!), then momentum is on your side. But if you collapse the whole process into a mostly one-sided conversation in which you are doing most of the talking, there is no momentum. It’s like you are driving the car and your passenger (your audience) has no idea where you are going. So when you get there, they are confused instead of assured that they are in the right place.

Sell Into the Future…Their Future

You got the meeting because they have some modicum of interest in what you are presenting, right? So, knowing that, you have to find out what that interest is. And ALL of the time their interest is about the future. They have a problem and they need it solved so that their future doesn’t have that problem in it.  For example….

A client recently was having issues with one of her managers who, we discovered, the team felt was quite dour and needed to lighten up to relate to his directs and clients. He always needed to be an expert on everything, which was off-putting. That was the problem. What I had to see was how fixing this problem could create a much different future for my client. If her world didn’t include having to deal with the blowback from this manager’s behavior, what would that free her up to accomplish. Once we both were aligned with that future, we could move forward together solving the issue. This future-seeing isn’t the stuff of crystal balls…it takes listening, understanding and affirmation.

Closing is Helpful to Your Clients

At the point of close, here is what you are doing…you are offering a solution to what your client has communicated to be a problem. In other words, you are helping! So, don’t be nervous about that. You’ve gathered their testimony, you’ve affirmed their position, you’ve asked insightful questions that elicited more detail than they were likely going to share. In short, you’ve partnered with them during your time together. And now it’s time to move the ball forward by asking for a logical next step and that your client will understand is the next phase in alleviating an issue for them.

You can do THAT with great confidence and courage so, let me know how it goes next time.  -sg

This holiday season, millions of people will take to the skies to visit family and friends. It will all go smoothly, right? One look at the massive construction at New York’s LaGuardia airport or the recent pilot scheduling snafu at American Airlines belies the reality…the air travel industry’s image has morphed from the lap of luxury to languishing in mediocrity.

But what can YOU learn from their mistakes? A lot. Here are some key lessons to consider (perhaps while you arrive two hours early for a flight that is then delayed indefinitely!):

Your Only as Good as Your Last Encounter

Many people have a negative image of air travel because…the last time they traveled they had a negative experience. How did things go when you last talked with your client? If the answer is “Not as good as I would have liked,” then find an opportunity to engage with them again. This time, bring your “A” game so that is the last thing they remember. The longer you let that one bad moment linger out there, the more time they have to make it a bigger deal than it probably was. Reset the table!

Competition is Always Waiting to Pounce

Complacency has killed a lot of customer service today. People just don’t seem to care like they used to. Airlines, which used to come up with many creative ways to attract customers, compete solely on price and convenience. That’s not going to get YOU very far. Remember, your competition is right outside, waiting for you to forget about them so they can slip in and steal your business. Have you worked hard to establish client loyalty? If you haven’t, you might have to go the back of line as your client moves on.

It’s Not the Product as Much as the People

I believe that clients buy people first, products second. However, airlines seem to fall all over themselves promoting seats that recline or that have more leg room. Is the expectation of comfort really something to promote? You should know what your clients expect and deliver it to them. Then, you need to find ways to stand out. Do your research and make smart, fact-based recommendations. Ask solid, probing questions that open up the dialogue. Create a follow-up plan…and follow it! Find ways to contact your client with meaningful, of-the-moment intel that shows you care. Whatever you do, don’t assume that your product/solution is good enough. It won’t be for long!

Be Inventive…Always

Most of us are too young to remember the golden age of air travel. But it wasn’t so long ago that we can’t imagine what it might have been like to travel when flying was new, exciting and something one anticipated with great hope. That’s how you want your client’s thinking about you. If you’ve ever been let go by a client you’ve had for years and replaced with a competitor, you know the sting that comes along with that rejection. What did they do to win the business? More than you because you become a commodity, instead of something of value.

What was the last GOOD customer service experience you had? Why did it standout?  Reply below.  -SG

If you’ve followed my blog over the years, you know how much I stress doing your homework. It’s critical. When dealing with smaller companies, this task is mostly manageable. However, with larger companies, you may find that the challenge isn’t getting enough information…it’s getting enough of the RIGHT information.

To help, I’ve narrowed the focus of pre-meeting reconnaissance to these 10 things you really need to know before you enter the room. Get up to speed on these and you’ll be well prepared!

What You Need to Know About Your Clients

• History. What is the history between your company and theirs? Who were the key players before you got there? What is the temperature of the relationship? Is there anything from the past that could haunt you in the future?
• Marketing goals. Probing questions can get you the information you need prior to the meeting.
• Business trends. What’s been happening with your client’s business the past 6 months? Year? 3-5 years? What are the industry trends and how are they affecting your client?
  Market share. How big a player is your client? Where do they have an advantage or are the market leader?
• Competition. Who is gunning for YOUR client and how? Are they chipping away at your client’s market share?
• Distribution network. Do you know what industry your client targets? How do they get their products or services to market? How broad a network do they have?
• Target Audience. Who is the ideal “decision maker” who buys their products or services? Where and how do they find them?
• Key Contacts. Find out who the key people are at your client’s business. Find them on LinkedIn to know their background. Who ultimately is the decision maker regarding your recommendations?
• Latest News. Dig around on the Internet and other sources. What’s happened to your client lately? What’s been the biggest news? How does the media cover the company and its leaders? What’s been posted on the company’s social media channels (and what has been the reaction)?

Using this list, you will pare down the vast amount of information that’s out there about your client to the information you can use as their trusted adviser.

Which on the list do you feel most unfamiliar with? Let me know with a reply below. -SG