Client LoginPerhaps you’ve met this person: Jumps to conclusions Doesn’t listen Talks over other people Puts everything in the context of “Oh, I’ve heard/seen/done this before.” “Tunes out” quickly – has difficulty paying attention Thinks they already know everything Doesn’t “get” concepts or ideas that seem simple to you If you’re trying to drive a change […]
Why your sales kickoff sucks…and how to stop it sucking next year
It’s that time of year…Sales kickoff (SKO) season. All over the country, in premier resort cities, companies are sinking mind-boggling quantities of time and expense to gather their sales forces – hoping to wind them up like clockwork toys, ready to explode on their new sales year. The problem? Most SKO’s suck, and many times […]
Product Pitch or Solution Sale: Are You Setting the Sales Force Up for Success or Failure?
If your company has a sales force, maybe you’ve said this to yourself: “Our salespeople aren’t solution selling, they tend to make everything a product pitch.” It always seems that salespeople get blamed for pitching products, which at first glance makes sense. After all, they’re the people in front of the customer. But should all […]
Killing Three Birds With One Stone
In our workshop, we teach that if you understand and align with how the human brain processes information, you can vastly improve the effectiveness of your communications and the engagement of your audience. Typically when I teach this, I offer 3 different ways to build audience engagement. But I read something recently that beautifully pulled together […]
The Three Types of Presentations: “Why?”, “What Now?”, and “How?”
When putting together their talks, many speakers miss a critical early step: understanding what type of presentation they need to give. What does that mean? Well, remember that your idea needs to solve a problem the audience has, or to meet an unmet need. That means you need to also understand what the audience needs […]
The Power of Contrast
Admit it. Just be honest. I won’t judge… But you have either sat at the edge of your seat in anticipation – OR (more likely) you have actually succumbed to the dark forces of the infomercial. It’s OK. We’ve all been there. Infomercials – which we all know and mock – are an incredibly powerful […]
How to Develop a Presentation – Six Essential Steps
I get asked this question a lot: “Once I have the idea for my talk, what do I do next? How do I actually put it together?” This is the process I use (and we teach): 1. Define the idea at a high level. Can I summarize it in 140ish characters? Concise = clear. Is it in my […]
Lessons from TED: How to Find the “Big Idea” For Your Next Keynote
THE PROBLEM A lot of presentation and speaking advice starts here: STEP ONE: Have a big idea. No arguments with that advice, of course. You need a big idea before you can figure out anything else about your talk. The problem is: how do you find yours? THE SOLUTION Here’s a framework I use with […]
How Easily is Your Audience Distracted?
We often hear that we live in an ‘age of distraction.’ And if you’re like me, it’s easy to think that it’s the OTHER person who has the problem…they’re the ones (often the younger ones) who can’t focus…right? But how easily are you distracted? And how easily do you think your AUDIENCE is distracted? While […]
Ending the Hostility between Sales and Marketing
It’s a sad fact of life that when we don’t understand another person, we tend to assign negative motives to them. Rather than see them as different, we see them as ‘difficult’, ‘obstructive’ or even ‘stupid’. History is rife with examples of division flowing from misunderstanding – and in today’s society we see it most […]
