How to create a magical performance?

I just returned from my 11 year old daughter’s dance recital and all I can say is WOW!!!

Not only was I extremely proud of her, because she was awesome, but I was impressed with the quality of the production.

The show featured 45 dances and lasted over 4 1/2 hours long. But the time flew, because each song was approximately 3-4 minutes long.

One of the keys to making this night a magical experience, was the preperation by the dancers.

They started preparing last September. Each week they would review what they learned so far and then learn the next few moves of the dance. Although they took the lessons seriously, they also had a lot of fun during practice. I know this because I never had to fight with my daughter to get her to go and practice.

This got me thinking that the same principles that made this night a success can be applied to your next presentation in order to make it a success as well.

Here are the principles:

1. Preparation is the key: According to David Peoples in his excellent book titled, Presentations Plus,

“95% of how well your presentation is going to go is determined before you deliver that presentation.”

Not only figuring out what you want your audience to learn (the content), but how you are going to convey that information (the delivery).

2. Develop it in stages: By breaking down your presentation project into manageable pieces and practicing the opening and then building on it each time, you will avoid feeling overwhelmed (and paralyzed) during the process.

3. Make it fun: When you enjoy something, it feels less like work and more like play. This will help keep you motivated to move forward.

Follow these principles and you will be on your way to developing a magical experience for your audience, just like the Just Dance School of Dance http://www.justdanceschoolofdance.ca/ did tonight.

Again congratulations to all who prepared and participated in this wonderful event.

 

 

What is the one tip you have learned that has made the greatest difference in the impact of your presentation?

Jennifer Kahnweiler, who is a “workplace guru” who speaks to leaders and aspiring leaders on how to strengthen their people skills. http://www.aboutyouinc.com/ posed this question on LinkedIn:

What is the one tip you have learned that has made the greatest difference in the impact of your presentation?

Great question!!!

Here is my response:

Hi Jennifer,

What was the one tip that made the greatest difference in the impact on my presentations was when I realized that it is not about me and what I was going to get out of the experience. Instead it was about what I was giving to the audience.

When I shifted my focus from what I am doing or saying to what the audience is receiving, everything changed.

I was less nervous and more effective.

Now, when I am developing new material, I customize  it with that audience in mind.

When I deliver my material I am more focused on the audience than myself. I look into their eyes and look for the “light bulbs” to come on.

Overall I view my presentations as a gift to the audience. A gift
that will hopefully, help make their business and life more successful.

I hope this helps.

Making a difference,

Richard Elmes CSP
The Sales Dating Guy
www.RichardElmes.com

Positioning yourself for success

One of the keys to starting successful new business relationships is positioning yourself correctly in the mind of your prospect when they first meet you.

 

“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” - Unknown

 

In other words how you enter their mind (either as a vendor who is trying to sell them something, or potential business partner who will help them by adding value to their business) will determine  how they treat you, whether they will invest the time to get to know you and how seriously they will take your suggestions.

“Your customer’s perception is your reality.” - Richard Elmes

So how do you do this?

I talk about a couple of ways in the following YouTube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOD2j_QdjLg

Check it out, (but turn up your volume first) and you will understand the concept and how it relates to sales dating.

 

Oh, and while you are there give it a good rating(5 stars would be nice:) Thanks

 

 

What are the 3 keys to great sales training?

I had a potential clients ask me today, what are the top 3 features I bring to the table as a trainer.

Here was my response:

The 3 key features of my work as a Sales Trainer include:

 

Content: The sales concepts that I teach are based on sound research (from extensive study) and personal experience (from my 21 years in business, in many different industries).

 

“Obviously your students have learned a great deal about selling in your class”  - Frank Mensink, Dean, School of Business, Conestoga College

 

Creativity: I deliver those sound concepts in creative and ways that aid in retention. We have a lot of fun, because I believe that when people have fun and laugh, they open the door to learning.

 

“Richard’s passion, creativity & practical, down-to-earth approaches allow him to effectively relate with his audiences.” -Mark Henderson, CEO, Barrie Hydro

 

Caring: I genuinely care about my audience’s success and whether they grasp and use the concepts that I teach. This is the fuel that drives me.  

 

“He demonstrated highly developed sales and communication skills and was very adept at transferring the skills to me. Richard makes it easy to work with him and is very approachable.”  -Lisa Ranson, Territory Sales Representative, Maxill Inc.

I believe if you are going to really connect with your audience all three of those components need to be present.

Missing any one of them will lead to less than optimal performance.

How to calm your pre-presentation jitters - Part 2

In my last post, I counted down the first 5 ways to train your butterflies to fly in formation. Here are the remaining 5 tips.

 

5. Turn nervousness into enthusiasm:

Athletes do this all the time. They turn that negative nervousness (which is really an adrenaline rush) into positive enthusiasm which drives them during first part of the game. And as presenters we can do the same, by thinking about it that way.

 

4. Realize that you are not alone:

Tell me honestly, when was the last time you went to hear a presentation and you said to yourself, gee, I hope they really suck. It is important to remember that your audience is pulling for your to be successful, so they can justify their own investment of time, money and energy.

 

3. Act as if:

I’m sure you have heard the old saying, “Fake it, until you make it.” Well here is a secret about speaking in public. If you fake being confident, your audience will not know. Their perception is that you are confident. Or in other words,

“If you are going after Moby Dick… take the tarter sauce.”

 

2. Visit the washroom:

I’m not kidding! The last thing you want while you are presenting is competing priorities or giving an effective message and having to go to pee. I do this everytime I deliver one of my keynote presentations, facilitate sales training or even attend a speech and I am glad I do.

 

1. Just do it!!!

The god of running shoes had this right. The presentation you give tomorrow will be that much better, because of the speech you delivered today. The more you present the more comfortable you will be on presenting. Or as Darren LaCroix http://www.humor411.com/ the 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking says, “The key to success in speaking is three things. Stagetime, Stagetime and Stagetime.”

Use these tips and I wish you success in your future presentations. If you need any help (or coaching), you can contact me at: http://www.richardelmes.com

 

How to calm your pre-presentation jitters

Imagine,  you start to get that sinking, no queezy (technical term) feeling in the pit of your stomach, your heart is racing and your mind is telling you to run away just as fast as you can.

 

No, you are not under attack and no one is shooting at you. Instead you are just getting ready to do a presentation. And yes those are butterflies, not helicopters inside your stomach.

This is a feeling that most people feel before giving a speech, or presentation, and the following ten tips will help you train those butterflies to fly in formation.

 

10. Take a deep breath:

When we get nervous our breathing can become shallow, which limits the oxygen that we take it. Oxygen that our brain needs to think clearly. Several deep breaths will help calm you down and allow you to get the oxygen you need.

 

9. Realize that they want you to succeed:

A good friend of mine Renata Radek once told me that every audience you speak in front of will have 2 types of people in it. The first type have never done public speaking before and they are dealthly afraid of it, so they respect you for being up there. And the second type have done public speaking before and they know how difficult it can be, so they also respect you for being up there. So either way you can’t lose.

 

8. Speak about what you know:

Knowing your subject matter well will help your confidence level.

 

7. Prepare thoroughly:

According to David Peoples, author of an excellent book titled: Presentations Plus, 95% of how well your presentation is going to go will be determined before you even start. This will also help you with tip #8, by allowing you to speak about what you know about.

 

6. Focus on the message, not the medium:

The time to focus on how you deliver your message is before you go on stage, not while you are on stage. In my journey into becoming a professional speaker, my nervousness was greatly reduced, when I took the focus off me and put the focus on my audience.

If you want to read Pre-presentation Tips 1-5 check out my next blog post.

 

 

Frustration, Lies and Success

I recently read a couple of friends Facebook messages one title said:

“I’m tired of being lied to…” 

and another that said,

“I don’t like being used by people”

Can you sense that both of these people are frustrated by the way they have been treated.

Can you sense that both of these people are not happy with the relationship with the person who treated them this way.

And can you sense that both of these people are not going to take it anymore. 

I certainly did. And this got me thinking that when someone lies to you, doesn’t do what they say they will, or just uses you for their own purpose and then tosses you aside that they are all acting in very selfish ways.

One of my big eureka’s this past year has been that selfishness is the root of all frustration. Selfishness is the root of all evil. (instead of money) And Selfishness is the root of all sin.

O.K. wait a minute, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking isn’t this blog suppose to be about how to be a more effective sales professional. And you would be right.

Unfortunately, there are a great number of people in the business world and world in general that still think that in order to get what they want and be successful in sales, you need to lie, cheat, use people and generally check your ethics at the door.

Being nice is for losers. Being nice is for chumps. And nice guys (and gals) finish last.

And if this were true, then I would be looking for another profession.

But fortunately it is not true.

The reality of professional selling is that checking your ethics at the door leads to a short career in sales.

Being truthful, coming through on promises and respecting helping others are all key elements to success in sales.

Remember, people will not buy from you is they don’t trust what you say. They won’t buy from you if they don’t believe that your products or services are going to do what you say they will. And they won’t buy from you if they think you are only acting in your own best interest instead of theirs.

So if you want to have a long successful career and make a lot of money then be honest and help a lot of people and they will in turn help you.

 

More than Just Phones

I was quoted in the following article that was published in Job Postings Magazine - May Issue

http://www.jobpostings.ca/articleDetail.cfm?id=357

 

More than just phones by Suelian White May 01,2008

Call centres are ideal training grounds for the kind of skills the Canadian economy requires. Learn how you can strengthen your resume by adding a part-time job answering customer calls.You may think you work well under pressure – but have you ever had to calm down an upset or angry customer on the phone? Effectively leading, and resolving, a business conversation is a valuable skill in your job hunting toolkit – and working at a call centre will sharpen your customer-service skills. In fact, many employers – across various sectors – are looking for call centre or customer service-related experience in prospective new hires.Customer Service Jobs in Demand Call centres will give you first-hand experience of working on the front lines of an organization, giving you a good overview of how it functions. “Being front line at the call centre, you will learn all the pros and cons of what the company offers and solutions or workarounds to many of the challenges,” says Michael Shouldice, Senior Recruitment Officer at Athabasca University. Call centre jobs will provide you with firsthand experience in negotiation to help improve your written and verbal communication skills – qualities that are useful in just about any career. “Call centre experience is great for any industry where effective communication aids in success,” says Richard Elmes, who specializes in sales coaching. “It also teaches students to be service-oriented - I don’t know of any industry that would not fall into that category.” Call centre employees often deal with disgruntled callers who want immediate solutions. You’ll learn how to master gauging the customer’s temperament and how to mold conversations appropriately. “Call centre staff would likely also have been trained on how to deal with difficult people and on negotiations,” says Shouldice. “Of course, if they are in a quota driven environment they will also have learned a lot about time management and prioritization.” ‘Soft Skills’ Shine up Your Resume Working at a call centre strengthens what are known as “soft skills”– personal qualities and interpersonal skills that complement technical and knowledge requirements, or “hard skills,” that employers are seeking. When job hunting, new grads are advised to highlight the soft skills, such as time management and resource allocation, problem solving, listening, presentation and analysis, they learned while working in a call centre.   Shouldice, who has worked for and coordinated centres in Toronto and Alberta, says new grads should learn how to master articulating their call-centre experience when job hunting. “It’s not about spinning what you did at the call centre into something you think another employer wants to hear, it’s about really telling them the stories about how you changed people’s days by getting resolution to their problems,” he says. Elmes says you should stress the benefits you learned while working in call centres, by highlighting the skills you picked up which are likely to be highly transferable throughout your career. This information should be highlighted in interviews as well as on your resume, says Elmes. “All the skills that they learn in their call centre role will help them to be effective team members and especially effective leaders,” he says. If you decide that working the phones at a call centre is not the job for you, you may not have far to look for another job; many call centres hire from within for supervisory positions. Shouldice points out that the key to taking advantage of the benefits of call centre employment is by looking at the big picture. “It’s not the number of calls that you took during your time there nor how fast you answered them,” he says. “It is about what you did while taking those calls and the steps you had to go through to reach a resolution.” If you choose to move into another career, however, rest assured that your days of helping to create happy customers at a call centre will serve you well in many fields of employment.

How do you get past the gatekeeper?

How do you get past the gatekeeper?

 This is a question that I get from many Sales Professionals who want to know how to get to see top level executives and are getting stopped by the Receptionist or Executive Assistant.

First thing you need to do is to make sure that you are polite and respect them and their role in their organization. The purpose of having a gatekeeper is to maximize the use of their boss’ time.

In my experience, the gatekeeper is usually very well informed about what is going on in the organization and may even control their boss’ schedule.

So, how do you get past the gatekeeper? You don’t.

Instead you need to sell to the gatekeeper on why it will be in their boss’ best interest to meet with you.

And by showing them the respect they deserve, you will greatly increase your opportunities.

 

What motivates Sales Reps?

Sales Managers spend countless hours trying to figure out what motivates their Sales Staff.

Recently I answered the following question on LindedIn:

What motivates sales professionals?

If you boil what motivates anyone to take action (not just sales professionals) you get one of two answers.

Avoiding Pain or Gaining Pleasure.

So the key for managers is to identify what is painful or pleasurable for each individual.

This will depend on a number of factors such as their personality style, age (or position in life), cultural background and personal goals.

This is a lot of figure out, but luckily there is a short cut.

The short cut is having a conversation with your employee and simply asking them a couple questions.

“What does success look like for you?” and “Describe for me what your perfect day would look like?”

Their answers to these questions will tell you a lot about what motivates them personally.

Armed with this knowledge, a leader can adjust how they work with their employee in order to achieve successful outcomes.