This is the first time I have ever disagreed with anything that my mentor at Speechworks has to say. But disagree I must,but only when it comes to my particiular audience.
in his latest post, Joey Asher talks about the perils of talking with a CEO and how important it is to brief. And on that point we are in total agreement.
But here's where I have to take exception :
" Everyone wants short presentations.CEOs are the only ones who have the authority and the willingness to enforce the time limitations.
Next time you have to give a speech, try cutting the entire thing in half. I’ll bet no one will complain."
I spend much of my year making presentations to CPAs (Certified Public Accountants) and they will complain violently if you finish your presentation early.
They will also complain if you go long. But finishing early is a Cardinal Sin (that's bad, for you non-Catholics) if you are speaking at an event that provides CPE (Continuing Professional Education) to session attendees. Session timing is almost as important as the logical flow of the material and having handouts that perfectly match the slides on the screen.
It is one of the hardest parts of being a presenter for this audience. There are very rigid rules of delivery and timing that you must follow. I have seen great presenters who go out of order get lower scores than lousy presenters who follow their slides. It drives me crazy but it's true. It is part of knowing what matters to your audience.
But if you are presenting to a group of salespeople or business owners, Joey is exactly right. And if you are the last presenter before a meal or the bar opening, make it even shorter. But don't mess with those CPE hours. I bet Joey has the same problem when he presents to his lawyer friends who need CLE.
This week I was a speaker at Sage's customer conference in Denver, Colorado. The attendees at this event are business owners who use one of the many Sage accounting solutions to run their business.
Pictured above are Carolye Asfahl and Rhonda Strobel who are Sage customers who run a business that produces clever marketing products like the headgear above. Their company is called Elope, Inc which is an acronym for "Everybody's Laughing on Planet Earth". Who doesn't love that company name?
I noticed them in every session, including the 3000-attendee keynote presentation. What a wonderful way to get your company noticed. I realize that not everyone has access to wearable hats as their main product, but still. These guys were thinking. They were attendees at this event, not booth sponsors and yet they made an impression.
Their success (I'm talking about them here, aren't I?) proves that there are low cost ways to get yourself in front of prospects and customers if you just keep looking for opportunities.
Now, you'll have to excuse me while I go order some nerd glasses from their website.
I have just come across a great post on how to mess up a sales presentation. It has a killer title and catchy graphic as well. You can read the original post by Geoffrey James here.
Of course I have to add to his list. These come from my own observations of software sales meetings. Here is my list of ways to give a bad software sales presentation:
1. Start off the presentation by saying "I'm not good at selling" and spend the next 2.5 hours proving it.
2. Send a technical support person to deliver the product demo and have him spend 3 hours showing the CEO how to enter a sales order.
3. Don't worry about understanding your prospect's business just proceed to show him every single feature of your product whether he needs it or not.
4. Use sample data for your demo that has absolutely nothing to do with the prospect's business.
5. Ignore everyone at the table except the CEO when you make your presentation. Why waste time making all of those other staff people feel like they matter?
6. Show 4 or 5 alternative ways to perform every task so your prospect leaves the room dazed and confused about what you were showing.
7. Talk about product features and don't worry about how those features might help your prospect in his day job.
8. Tinker with your computer right before the demo so that your screen is completely black when you go before the prospect. (This one comes from the experiences of yours truly, who in fact set every color, background and font to black right before a product demo.)
9. Speak in a monotone and read from a script so the prospect doesn't get the idea that there is anything exciting about your product or company.
Got any to add to my list? Extra credit if you were the presenter and you learned how to get better as a result.
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