Presenting doesn’t have to be intimidating–even in boardrooms filled with decision makers asking hard questions.  Here are several techniques that will help make your appearance before any audience more comfortable and productive.

Audience Centered

For starters, you don’t matter–only your audience matters (sorry about that).  There are two things you must find out before you plan your presentation: 

• Exactly what content they want covered
• How they like it presented (including what they hate)

Regarding content, think about what they want (or need) to know and to what level of specificity-and what they want left out.  Most of the time a quick check with several influencers will tell you if you are on-track.

Next, consider the style they prefer.  They may detest PowerPoint and view it as a prop for poor presenters.  There is a Fortune 50 company that still prefers overhead projectors versus PowerPoint.  True.  Check with your internal coach and you’ll get valuable scoop on what flies and what dies.

Less is More

Another thing to remember is that your audience probably has the attention span of a gnat.  The best way to manage their attention is to get to the bottom line quickly and know when to stop talking.  If you do this you will earn their respect and admiration.  Limit your presentation to one or two key points.  Sure you have a lot more to say, but guess what–they won’t remember 99% of it.  Better to pick two things you want them to remember and make them ask for details on everything else.

Still not bought in on this one?  Think about the State of the Union address.  The president made three points.  They were:  (1) defend the homeland, (2) end the war, and (3) fix the economy.  Thanks for tuning in.  We recall these points because there were only three and they were clearly presented.  Reagan (The Great Communicator) was the master of simplicity.  It works.

Short is also critical when it comes to PowerPoint.  Less is more.  Think of the “Billboard Rule.”  Treat your slide like a billboard.  Don’t put more on it than you can read driving by it at 40 miles per hour.

Organized but Flexible

Rigidity and control don’t work when presenting to most audiences.  You have to go with their flow.  Don’t fight them when they interrupt and ask that you skip to the middle or end of your presentation.  Don’t tell them you will address that point in a minute.  Be flexible, tune in and respond to their needs.  With simple organization and structure, you can do that.

Try this:  Take your two main points and create a bottom-line statement for each point.  Always state your bottom line up front.  Then develop support for each statement by gathering your two best facts or stats.  Finally, illustrate your point with an anecdote, analogy, case study or client story.

The beauty of simple organization is two-fold:  it is easy to understand and remember for both the audience and the speaker.  If your audience is the kind that peppers you with questions, this simple organization-two points, each with two supporting facts and one illustration-will not desert you.

And if you master your two points you will feel far more comfortable and confident than if you try to cover the whole waterfront.

A great example comes from Senator Tom Daschle’s now famous description of a Republican tax cut proposal.  He said, “If you make over $300,000 a year, you get to buy a new Lexus.  If you make $50,000 a year, you get to buy a new muffler on your used car.”  In two sentences, he illustrated in a straightforward, visual way his opinion of the effect of the tax cut.  He took a huge number, without meaning to the average person, and brought it down to terms anyone could grasp.

Anticipate Questions

Prepare for questions as if you are on trial.  Why?  Because you are, that’s why.  Remember this:  people are more interested in the answer to their question than anything else you have to say.  Learn to view questions as helpful clues.  They tell you:

• What is of interest to the audience
• What you are not being clear about
• What the audience might know and not know

You might organize questions into three categories:  good, neutral and poor.  Good questions lead you to your two main points.  Neutral questions neither help nor hurt and should be answered quickly.  Poor questions lead to dead ends and may raise controversy.  Answer them honestly and succinctly. 

The best preparation for audience questions is to brainstorm as many as possible before your presentation.  That’s what the politician does before a press briefing.  As Cervantes wrote, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”

You ARE wonderful, bright and talented–but you don’t matter-not when it comes to making a great presentation.  What matters is your audience.  Know them.  Focus on their needs.  Respect their time.  Be organized but flexible.  Anticipate their questions.  In the end, you will matter much more to them if you do.  (And that’s what matters most, isn’t it?)

Army Secretary Louis Calderna suggests that the Pentagon’s PowerPoint presentations are alienating lawmakers.  He says, “People are not listening to us because they are spending so much time trying to understand these incredibly complex slides.”  Navy Secretary Richard Danzig announced that he was no longer willing to sit through PowerPoint slide shows, saying they were necessary only if the audience was “functionally illiterate.”

It is true.  Misuse of this wonderful, exciting technology can turn speakers into mere readers of captions for slides with the result being that all personal communication is lost.  Bloated PowerPoint presentations have become a dance to the death-a veritable cure for insomnia.  

Need more convincing?  A recent survey of captains at Fort Benning, GA cited “the ubiquity of the PowerPoint Army,” as a prime reason why the Army is losing too many bright young officers.  “The idea behind most of these briefings,” it said, “is for us to sit through 100 slides with our eyes glazed over.”  The term, “PowerPoint Ranger” has even become a derogatory term, describing a desk-bound bureaucrat more adept at making slides than tossing grenades.

When asked recently how he put together a presentation, a doctor in physics answered, “It’s very simple.  Usually I put together about 30-40 PowerPoint slides, and then decide what to say in between.”  The same comments were echoed recently by a large group of Lockheed engineers and astronauts who were all very proud of their four-color viewgraphs.  Upon inspection, each slide required a laser pointer and a three-page user manual.

Let’s clear up a few things:  Technology is terrific as long as it supports and enhances the speaker’s connection with the audience.  Many large firms have communication and media departments replete with wizards who are adept at developing visual media.  But ask yourself this question when considering use of technology, “If your audience can run your presentation without you, then why are YOU there?”

What good speakers bring to a presentation is story-telling ability.  In the end, your message depends on creating pictures in the heads of your audience, not on a screen.  You must find a way to use your unique stories and experiences to stimulate your audience’s most powerful sensory organs-their imaginations.

As you begin the planning process for the next presentation you are about to give, start by answering the audience’s basic question, “Why should I care about you and your subject?  The goal is to turn numbing data into exciting pictures of what will change your listener’s life or business.  That’s what you are there for.  That’s your sole reason for existence at that point in time.

More than any showy visual, people will remember what they “see in their mind’s eye” while they are listening to you.  When we think of memorable Hollywood films, what we usually remember most are the moving, dramatic, and funny stories that the movies tell.  The screenwriter Robert McKee says, “Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clear, more meaningful experience.  They are the currency of human contact.”

All actors recognize the value of great stories and the importance of making them come alive.  And, don’t tell us you’re not an actor when you’re up there giving a status report or project update.  Or, when you’re telling your audience why they should do business with you and your company.  Or, when you’re recommending that a decision maker grant your request for more funding for your project.

Never forget this:  An audience of one or a thousand will always prefer a trivial story brilliantly told to a brilliant one told poorly.

A significant portion of my business is coaching presenters and teaching presentation skills.  Often, when we work with clients, they hand us a large, fistful of PowerPoint slides or reams of statistics, and say, “Here’s what I want to talk about.”

I ask, “Where is the excitement?”  “What can we illustrate with stories?”  Then we try to set about turning esoteric data into stimulating descriptions of what it all means.  Don’t depend on PowerPoint slides and viewgraphs alone to tell the story.

So, is the message not to use these great tools?  Of course not.  But first decide what you want to say.  What are my points of wisdom?  Next, decide how you can best illustrate these points.  Last, use support materials to make your case.

Your goal is to connect with your audience emotionally as well as intellectually.  Look at the people you are talking to, not at your notes.

Keep the type on your slides to a minimum.  Your audience is there to listen to your stories, not read your slides.  If you feel this isn’t the case, I suggest that next time you just send everyone a soft copy and bag the presentation.

Don’t fall into the trap of using technology as a substitute for communica-ting directly with the members of your audience.  Audiences want to connect with you, not your glossy graphics.  Use technology as a valuable support tool but never lose the personal touch.  Technology should serve you and your message-not the other way around.  Use PowerPoint as it was designed-to enhance your message, not to eclipse it.

Get technology under control, use it intelligently, and you’ll win the battle and the war.  And we have the Army and Navy’s word on that.

Now try this on for size…less than 50% of today’s business-to-business salespersons have ever sold during an economic downturn.  Hey, it’s easy to hit quota when Janus is up 48%, but what’s the plan when times really get tough?  One of the great penalties of the longest business expansion in U.S. history (the Nifty ‘90s) is that an entire generation of sales professionals have worked all of their professional lives knowing nothing about selling in hard times and how to deal with them.  Even if you do remember downturns in the ‘70s or ‘80s, selling in a recession is likely but a distant memory.

So what’s the plan?  What are the selling strategies and tactics for a reeling economy?  Maybe it is best to start with what not to do.  Here are a few misconceptions and time-tested action items that don’t work in tough times:

• Pumping-up the volume of client calls
• Selling “harder” and pushing buyers
• Lowering prices
• Cranking out more proposals
• Doing more demos
• Giving more presentations
• Prospecting and making more cold calls    

There is nothing wrong with ramping-up any of these selling activities.  Keeping the pipe

filled with prospects, hustling and working hard has always produced bottom line results.  And, if you sell low-value products on a one-time basis–just go with the above action items.  But, history tells us that these activities prove to be less productive for more complex, consultative selling environments.  Why?  There are lots of reasons, but the key one is that buying cycles in economic downturns take up to 40% longer.  Pushing your clients and prospects produces anger and resentment. Besides, it makes you look needy and desperate.  So, don’t count on amping-up selling activities or price-cutting as a means for generating new business in tough times.  It just doesn’t fly.    

There is a smart alternative, however, and it focuses on less being more.  The tough times in the late ‘80s provide lessons worthy of review today.  Research shows that unsuccessful salesperson focused on MORE…calls, deals, prospecting, etc.  They chased every opportunity–however small.  They were busy, they were fired-up and they were ineffective.  The average value of each of their sales actually fell.  They relentlessly burned themselves and their clients out–toast for two.

The survivors, however, concentrated primarily on their best opportunities.  They spent their time developing call strategies and account development tactics rather than rushing from call-to-call.  They were patient and put their energies into their best prospects.  They sought to build partnerships and focused on client business issues.

Another differentiator between the survivors and those who failed in the ‘80s has to do with verbal selling skills.  The losers became talking brochures and bag divers.  It was amateur hour-they sprayed and prayed.  In essence, they pitched features to poorly qualified prospects and came up short.  This is bad business even in good times, but a recipe for disaster in hard times.

The opposite was true for the winners.  The calls they made were longer and more insightful.  They drilled-down and asked the tough follow-up questions.  They sought out buyer “pain”.  Their conversations focused on strategies, consequences and implications.  They held firm on price and sold value.

A key strategy for survival is not to cut price.  There is a widespread fallacy that in tough times buyers buy on price.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Want to know what motivates buyers in tough times?  It is security and safety.  That’s why selling cycles are 40% longer.  Doah!  Clients are leaner and meaner–bad to the bone.  More decisions are being made by committees and groups, and it is the lower risk options that groups generally favor.  Remember the saying, “No one ever got fired for buying IBM”?  Big Blue’s mantra resonates with today’s more conservative purchase committees.  Your message is, “Since budgets are tighter there is less margin for error.  My (service/product) provides the greatest value for your investment.  This makes justifying this decision to your senior management just good business.”

So here is bottom-line advice for smart selling in tough times:

• Focus on the best selling opportunities-put your energy here
• Qualify each prospect and don’t chase down everything that moves
• Don’t cave on price (customers actually paid 12% more in the last recession for equivalent products than they did in more robust economic times)
• Sell reliability, peace-of-mind, security and safety as key client benefits
• Plan each call, strategize and anticipate concerns that might be raised

Cervantes said, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”  Stay up, be confident and think of this downturn as another opportunity for professional growth.  Be the difference that makes the difference when prospects see all sales professionals as being the same.

As we begin a new year, both buyer and seller find themselves in a new world where vast swaths of territory are marked “unknown and uncharted.”  Take commodities for instance.  One metals client remarked, “On the Fourth of July, we were in heaven.  By Thanksgiving, we were in hell.”  

Demand for basic materials weakened as the financial crisis spread and the world’s economy tipped into recession.  Oil went from $145.29 a barrel to $33.87.  Copper from $4.00 a pound to $1.26.  It might be even harder for the buyer and seller in 2009.  The prospect of fewer players and tighter credit makes for tougher conversations-on both sides of the table.

Commodity buyers and end users may have increasing interest in hedging against price swings.  But, it’s very tricky when demand is declining and supply is contracting.  It might lead to a floor on pricing-a bottoming out.  But nothing is certain, even when prices get slashed, it doesn’t always mean that demand picks up proportionately. 

Selling commodities in a volatile market is daunting.  We’ve never met such beleaguered buyers-those who are wondering if their job is OK or if their company is the next to go belly-up.  It’s not easy managing a PA’s attention when they’ve got three or four networking sites going…just in case.

What then, is the line for nine?  Consider using the following approaches with the price-focused, tight-fisted buyers you’ll be facing on sales calls:

Lead With Lower Prices-Arrgh!  It’s at the top of every buyer’s list anyway, so you might as well deal with it.  Here’s the strategy and the word tracks:

More is less-”If you can increase your quantity on this purchase by xx%, we can lower the price by $xx.  You save money with a volume purchase and we save money with a volume sale (i.e. lower warehousing costs, storage, etc.)  That’s a ‘win-win’ for both of us.”

Buy ahead-”By projecting your purchases ahead by 30-60 days, you can increase your purchase power and reduce costs.  This insures price protection, lowers today’s price by increasing the volume, and reduces any concerns for product availability.”

Consolidate Suppliers-We’re not advocating single-sourcing-that’s often not realistic or practical in any buying climate.  But, reducing the head count makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons-especially in cost containment.

Streamline administrative costs-”It is very costly to maintain multiple suppliers in tough times.  It leads to confusion, wasted time and extensive paperwork.  Do you REALLY need three bids for each requisition?  You’ll save time, money and reduce frustration if you consolidate your purchases and suppliers.”

Reduce the number of POs you cut-”The average cost of cutting a purchase order today is about $150.  Another benefit of consolidation is reducing your acquisition and administrative costs.  So, if you cut your POs by 40 next month, you’d save $6,000.  Those are hard dollars, not soft dollars, by the way.”

Stress Product Availability-Product availability will trump lower price on occasion.  After all, what good is a lower price if the buyer can’t get it when he needs it?  It’s moot.  Here’s the conversation:  

Have a bird in the hand–”We have it in inventory and the price is $xx.  That’s a very good price.  In the kind of a market we’re in today, suppliers are cutting inventories to reduce costs.  You’ll waste time shopping around for a lower price, just to find out our competitors don’t have it in stock.  Let’s place the order NOW!”

Reserve it-”If you can’t give us the order now, we’ll place it on hold.  Some of these items may be hard to source based on our market data.  I’ll check with you by the end of the day-that way we can be sure you’ll get it when you need it.  OK?”

Suggest a Substitute-If the product is not currently available, you don’t have to walk away from the sale if you have a viable substitute (assuming the product isn’t “specified”).  This benefits both you and the buyer in several ways.  Try this:

Can you live with an alternative?–”We don’t have that exact product in inventory, but depending on your needs, we have an alternative that will provide the same functions and benefits at a very competitive (maybe lower?) price.”

Similar product-lower cost-”If you’re open to saving money, we have a similar product that compares in most every way to the one you’re looking for except that the price is lower.  Might you be interested?”  

Trade Off With Services-Maybe you can’t increase quantities and the buyer won’t bite on consolidation.  Product availability isn’t an issue either.  Protect your profit margins by trading other services (where your margins are greater.)  Say:

Can save you money in another way-”We can’t cut the price any more, but we can save you money by giving you a discount on… (software, packaging, shipping, cutting, training, etc.)  You’re going to save money you would have to spend anyway in another area.”

Will stock and hold for you-”We can’t lower the price on this item, but we can temporarily warehouse it for you and ship it to you when you need it.  A consignment program such as this  saves you money in storage and inventory management.”

Reduce to the Absurd-You can’t use this approach with every buyer, but it’s used every day on TV–the life insurance policy is just ”50-cents-a-day”.  That workout “What-cha-ma-call-it” is only “twelve monthly payments of $17.33!

It’s not worth you time-”Our price is only .32 cents a foot when you break it down–that’s peanuts.  You’ll spend more than that checking around for a lower price.  You have better things to do.”

Save it for the big buys-”The price is fair for what you’re ordering.  Over the life of the product, it’s about a dollar a day.  On a small buy like this, it doesn’t make sense to waste any more time on it.  Your time is too valuable.”

Split the Difference-If trade offs and other strategies don’t apply, maybe you have to give a little to get a sale-especially if you have a lot of the product sitting on the shelf.  Maybe there’s some “wiggle room” in your quote?  Try the following for leverage:

If you order now, here is what we can do-”It looks like price is the only thing standing in the way of your giving us the OK on this, right?  In this case, we’ll split the difference with you (50/50) to expedite this purchase.  Fair enough?”

One-time only on this proposal-”We can’t do this on every quote, but we are in a position today to save you some money.  If you place the order now, we’ll split the difference with you (50/50).  How does that sound?”

Offer a Hedge Against Price Swings-In the complex, commodities market we’re in today, safety and security are strong motivators for both buyer and seller.  Long-term agreements benefit everyone-especially if you have a forecasting model that’s fairly reliable and predictable-given the volatility in current commodities markets.

More stable purchasing with fewer spikes-”Everyone is looking to for improved methods to even out violent swings in availability and pricing.  A contract (or LTA) helps us get better volume purchases that we can pass on to you in return for a commitment on your part for the long run.”

Safety, security and peace-of-mind-”A long-term agreement provides both parties with stability.  As business partners, that’s a good deal any way you cut it-especially with the volatility in today’s market place.”

So there you have it, Super-Commodities-Salesperson!  Our best swing at the 100 mph fastballs you’ll be facing throughout this buying season.  Stay loose, don’t dig in too deep and duck when times demand.

There was some division over The List.  Was it flattering or an insult to be on it?  Could you get your name taken off?  Added?  For most, The List provided endless hours of smirk and speculation.  Prejudice is bad form, but to actually create a list?  Copy it?  Distribute it?  Sick.

It’s easy to write off Power Mom as insecure.  Maybe disgusting.  But before you do, ask yourself one simple question:  Do you have your own List?  Maybe it’s not written down, but do you have one?  Let’s be honest.

I was on a flight to Chicago some years ago.  I was seated next to an old, overweight, unattractive Latino Lady.  She was conservatively attired in a black skirt and white blouse.  I didn’t speak to her for 3 ½ hours until we were on approach.  I assumed she wouldn’t have much to say to add value.  Basically, I assumed that she “wasn’t worthy” of my time.

Turns out Latino Lady had put three kids through Northwestern–two doctors and a lawyer.  Her husband was killed in Vietnam.  She owned and operated a catering company with customers that included Michael Jordan and Mike Ditka.  Other than that, she hadn’t done much with her life.

I barely had time to learn this and we deplaned.  I’m still kicking myself to this day.  I missed a golden opportunity to meet a fantastic person and learn something from her–but I didn’t.  Because, you see, she wasn’t on My List.  I realized, just like Power Mom, I had too had my own list–my own prejudice–my own set of insecurities.  Each and every person on this planet is worth knowing.  Has value and worth.  We don’t need lists.  Just open minds without prejudice.  After all, those who have much do not have more, and those who have little do not have less.   Time to destroy our Lists.