Presentation Mastery: What we see by watching others - SpeakerSue

Archive for July, 2008

Presentation Mastery: What we see by watching others July 30th, 2008

This week I had the opportunity to observe three sales trainers; training professionals rather than experts in the field in which they were training (think English teacher teaching a math class).

I’ve observed hundreds of speakers and trainers and here is what set these woman apart: They started with heart. They wanted their students to succeed and it was apparent from the moment their attendees arrived. Their care, compassion, authenticity and preparation made everything good.

I was once told that what I lacked in professionalism (which at the time was everything!), I made up for in enthusiasm. These women showed me up. What they lacked in professionalism (which was very little), they made up for in heart.

So it got me thinking: how can we authentically amp up the love? When the people we teach and talk to know we care about their success, their success – and ours – is practically guaranteed.

Presentation Mastery: 2 solutions to keep them with you July 29th, 2008

“Please leave your Blackberries and iPhones on and just do me a favor and put them in meeting mode. If you want to check them, please do. If you want to respond to an email, please go ahead. You don’t have to hide it in this class. I know that there are things going on in your life that you need to take care of so that you can focus here. So go ahead. If you want, you can tell them that you’re in a training class and will get back to them at lunch. That’s quick and responsive. Oh, and if you want to email me about anything, I’ll see it at the break.”

It’s my new mantra.

Tip #1: Help adults feel like adults and not like they have to act like sneaky little kids to check what is most important to them. Yes, yes, of course, I’d prefer that they’d be so engrossed with my material and so intrinsically motivated that they’d shut out all distractions and be 100% present, and that does happen. A lot. On some days. On other days, it doesn’t happen much at all, and for good reason. The adults in the room have more important things happening in their lives like customers, colleagues, family and friends who need things. It’s not insulting; it is. My decision is to make it as easy for them to take care of business and then get back to the business at hand as possible.

Tip #2. Be more interesting than their waiting message. I love watching them start to type and then set the mobile device down to take notes, answer a question, or work with a partner, and then pick it back up to finish their email. That’s perfect. They’re totally engaged, learning the way they want to, and comfortable. I could do a little happy dance!

Comments?

Email Success: The difference between checking and processing July 19th, 2008

Do you check your email or do you process it? From now on, cancel out the checking part (oh, just let me check my email). Change your thinking and change your world.

3 actions to take when your customer doesn’t need you anymore July 16th, 2008

In the blink of an eye, it’s changed from a seller’s market to a buyer’s. What to do when you may have never known what this is like? What to do when you’ve been selling longer than the earth has been around and you don’t remember what to do?

1. Stop worrying and start doing. Thinking about the situation could get the most positive person down. Every time you hear yourself talking about the current economic reality, stop yourself. It’s been like this before and it will be like this again. Some people will flourish. Make it you! Start doing something… write an article, call a prospect, call a customer, start a blog.

2. Love your customer. More. With any luck, your customer knows how much you value her. Now, pay even more attention to her needs. Listen to what really matters. Think of creative ways to add value with or without charging more.

3. Differentiate yourself. If you sound like everyone else, if you do the same things, advertise the same things, look the same and act the same, then it doesn’t matter if your prospects choose you or your competition. What do you do differently? Tell them!

During my run, before I spoke in Norfolk, VA, Sunday, I saw a sign that listed: The Outback, Hooters, and The Bar & Grill. The Bar & Grill’s logo included this: No frills, No theme – Just Good Food. They’ve made it easy; if you want to pretend you’re in Australia or that one of those beautiful Hooter girls would actually look at you in real life, you can live your fantasy. And if what you want is just good food, you have another.

Help your buyers figure out who you are and who you can help them to be.

Why winning an argument is counter-productive to success and what you can do July 16th, 2008

It was clear that the participant was in distress. When asked to pick the one most important value, she just couldn’t. Fortunately, the experienced instructor knew better than to try to argue with her – yes, you can, no I can’t, yes you can. Instead, she worked hard to win over her the participant by making her feel safe enough to consider the possibility that yes, she could.

Whether it’s a training class, two colleagues not seeing eye-to-eye (as if that ever happens!), or a parent with a teenager, when we try to push our will on another, we tend to lose big time. Winning an argument might feel so good in the moment but it’s rarely the best answer. Far better than a focus on WAA (winning an argument) is WOO – winning others over.

Here are 2 ways to step back and WOO:

-Step back. Help the other person feel (authentically) safe and smart. Find something you can agree with and begin the conversation with that safety:

To the participant: Lakesha, you’re right, it is difficult to choose just one value. And, here is how some people make the choice… is that helpful to you?

vs: Lakesha, everyone else can do this, why can’t you?

To your colleague: John, I respect what you’re saying about wanting to keep your ear buds in so that you’re not distracted by all the office noise. Because we sit next to each other, I hear your music too and that becomes my distraction. I’m wondering if there’s anything we can do to make sure that you can stay focused and not be distracted by everything happening around you, and that I can have the quiet I need to stay focused too.

vs: John, your music is driving me crazy. Would you turn that damn thing off?

-Step back and use “contrast”. Tell the person what you don’t want them to worry about happening – and then what they should know will happen.

To your teenager: Farley, I don’t want you to think that I’m going to give up on you. I’m not. I want you to know that I’m sick at heart about what you did, and I’m going to continue to love you through it all. I’m not going to expect you to never see your friends again. I am going to expect that we’ll talk about this when we’re both calmed down to figure out a way for us to live together as a family…

vs: Farley, you and I are going to work this out even though what you did stinks and I’m mad as hell.

Stepping back enables the other person to hear you. Instead of focusing on answering you back (and not in a good way!) or pushing back, the other person is more likely to open up to the possibility you’re offering.

If you want to see this in action, watch this amazing clip of Fred Rogers as he disarms the very hostile Senator John Pastore. See how the late Mr. Rogers steps back to move forward.

What would The Ritz-Carlton do? July 12th, 2008

Having a Ritz-Carlton experience usually means that someone has gone above and beyond. And though I’ve had that (like the time at The Ritz-Carlton, Las Vegas when the woman in the gift shop offered to lend me her own earrings because I had forgotten mine, and they sold only fancy ones that you might wear to a special dinner or a gala, but not to work; she literally started to take out her small pearls so I’d have earrings for my presentation!), this moment was different.

When the room service gentlemen left my tray, after delivering my dinner exactly as I had requested (hallelujah! hallelujah!), a special dish by the way that was not on the room service menu, he said, “and when you’re finished, if you don’t mind calling us, we’d like to come back to pick up the tray.” And then he added, “because we don’t want to bother you and we know the tray can get in your way.”

In case you don’t spend as many nights in hotels as I do, please know that this is not what hotel room service typically says. The usual goes like this: Please call us or leave your tray outside the door when you’re done.

It’s a huge difference. The typical response sounds procedural: We need to pick up your tray. The Ritz-Carlton manner sounds respectful and customer-centric: To help you be more comfortable, we’d like to pick up your tray. It’s not a procedure; it’s a pleasure.

From now on, when I’m interacting with my customers, I’m going to ask myself, What would The Ritz-Carlton do?

Against all rules: Email Etiquette and Productivity Teleseminar July 8th, 2008

Blasphemous. I’m aware. And still, I can’t help myself. I have to recommend this.

Tomorrow at 11am, PDT, which of course is 2pm, is Email Etiquette & Productivity: Write Like Your Reputation Depends On It! The teleseminar is loaded with tips to make you shine.

As a SpeakerSueSays blog reader, you can even enjoy a courtesy discount. Ask at Sue@SpeakerSue.com and you shall receive.

Join us. Register now. You won’t be disappointed.

Presentation Mastery and the 4th of July July 3rd, 2008

Stories transport people. They not only keep listeners with us – at least when we tell our stories well – they also diminish the other person’s desire to disagree with our point. After all, it’s hard for them to say, your story is wrong.

Even if your story doesn’t ring true for them, as long as it’s a true story for you, their challenge is less. Certainly they can say, I had different results or it didn’t work that way for me, but they can’t say, it doesn’t work that way, because it did, for you.

What does this have to do with the 4th of July and presentation mastery? Our stories connect us with our audiences, and here is my newly discovered (and told to me by my 82 year old mother) 4th of July story:

My great grandfather, an immigrant, died a poor man. With nothing to leave to my grandmother or her sister and brothers, he gathered them and said, “I have nothing, but I leave you rich. I leave you the flag of the United States. With that everything can be yours.”

Happy Birthday America!

Archive for July, 2008

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