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We usually go out for a meeting or clients visit us here in the studios. In all these we prepare what we call a marketing kit and bag. Here are my tips on how to prepare for a sales presentation:

Believe and study:

Study all the products that you have, understand each benefit and its importance. Believe in yourself that you can do this and you can answer all questions. Believe in your product.

Prepare something new and engaging:

Tired of talking from start to finish and at the end of the meeting they just ask you again what you offer? Try making something new that will engage your prospective client to listen and understand what and who you are. Make a corporate video if you would like them to know about your company, make product videos to show them different products and show them the benefits, make a marketing video to tell them what you can provide and how good your services are. You have a lot of choices it you are open to new things specially the power of video.

Triple Check:

I used to check all the things the day before the meeting but I check again before leaving the office. Why? Because it helps! What if after you check somebody just borrowed something from the things you have prepared, what if something just fell off. Triple check your things and make sure its all in the bag.

Who and Where:

Make some research about the company that you are going to meet. Their goals, achievements and history. Call and ask for location map or a route map. Make sure you have the right one.

Be sure:

Before leaving for a meeting, (based on my experiences) call the person whom you are going to meet and confirm the meeting. Inform him that you are now leaving office and will be there by such time of the day. Once you arrive inform the secretary that you are there for a meeting if you are early inform the secretary that you are a little early and willing to wait. Make sure you bring everything you need before leaving office or else you may just find yourself out on a limb.

Research repeatedly has shown that image, not content, is king in presentations. Clip art and bad animation are guaranteed to project the wrong image whether you are presenting your findings to a supervisor or pitching that new account.
Large corporation employees or small company owners can unleash the power of good presentations to kick-start their careers and boost their acquisition of new business, or ignore the basics of presentation and spiral down into oblivion.

Let’s learn a few key elements of good presentation by watching three different presenters from three companies.

The first presenter, Phil Aslide, uses his slides to display every word he intends to say to his audience. In fact, the slides often have many more words than he intends to say. Sometimes it is hard for him to even read the words on the screen, but he knows what they mean, so that’s OK. Right?

Do you know Phil or someone like him?

And maybe you know someone like the second presenter, Annie Mate. Every item on the slide is animated whether it is discussed or not. Each bullet and piece of clipart flies, swirls or spins onto the screen accompanied by screeching tire sounds from the laptop speakers. Annie feels that this displays her commanding knowledge of PowerPoint’s many rich features. Sounds reasonable… if you’re Annie.

The third presenter, Tim Topnotch, has a different approach than Phil or Annie. Before he creates any slides, he assesses the needs of his audience. Then he organizes his content into a succinct outline of his speaking points. From there, he creates slides that support those points. His slides use a clean, simple design that is easily understood by the audience. He animates only the items that need animation to make a point.

All things being equal, which person would you choose? Who made the best impression? Which person will you remember as knowledgeable and buttoned up? We’ve all seen these presenter types. After all, presenting to an audience can be unnerving. It helps us personally to put more words on the slide as a guide.

Unfortunately, many of us have a dash of Phil and a sprinkle of Annie in our presentations. If you’re a small business, your presentation is, in many cases, your only image-generating medium beyond your web site. You don’t do glitzy ad campaigns to promote your company, so a bad presentation ruins your attempts at creating a positive image.

Phil and Annie should have followed these 4 rules of thumb when they developed their presentations:

1. Understand your audience – Learn as much as you can about your audience before presenting to them. What is their general function within the company? What goals do they need to fulfill by hiring you or your company? What is it about your product or service that will appeal to them?
2. Outline your thoughts – Pulling together a swirl of information into a concise presentation is not an easy job. It is important that you outline key areas you need to discuss, and if at all possible, arrange that outline around the key needs of your audience.
3. Use a consistent visual template – Your image is paramount to making the sale. A well-done visual template can give you the professional look you need. PowerPoint offers many canned templates, but your competitor may be using the same template… talk about audience confusion!
4. Slides support your speech; the speech doesn’t support your slides – Slides are meant to be visual aids that help the audience more clearly understand your point. By all means, do not put every word of your speech on your slides. This distracts your audience and generally creates unreadable slides. Slides should create a meaningful picture of your key points. When possible, use simple charts, succinct bullet points or pointed images to support your talking points.

So, unleash the power of good presentation skills and reach your career or business goals.

Often you will hear that you should not assume, and what it makes of “you” and “me.” However, all of us form assumptions, and in actuality they are an important part of negotiations. When entering a negotiation, we should review our own assumptions and anticipate the assumptions of the other party.

There is nothing wrong with making assumptions. The problem is when one thinks and acts as if the assumption is the absolute fact. If you know you are making an assumption, you can prepare for the unexpected and will be less likely to assert your position dogmatically. If your assumption is proved wrong, it will be less likely that you will be hurt by such an assumption when you realize from the beginning that the assumption may be proved false. Unfortunately, many of our beliefs are based on unconscious, hidden assumptions. These are not as easy to bring out in the open and we often fail to recognize their existence.

When I say, “I saw a begger walking out of the ladies’ room,” what is your first thought? Are you shocked? Why might you be shocked? Did you immediately think the begger was a man? I did not say the begger was a man, but many people have a hidden assumption upon hearing that term that it refers to a male. Hidden assumptions can lead us away from the facts and can be very difficult to recognize and correct.

During negotiations, you must remember that what you assume is only a guess or a probability. If you fail to understand the immediate situation because of a hidden assumption, you may be stuck with the assumption as a fact throughout the negotiation. This can lead to disaster. I was reading “The Complete Negotiator” by Gerard I. Nierenberg as research for this column, and he shared an example where assuming could have proved disastrous. During a conference regarding an important and complicated lease, one attorney handed the opposition the lease and stated, “Here is the standard Real Estate Board Form Lease. You undoubtedly know it by heart, practicing as long as you have.” In actuality, these “standard” forms contain a mass of conditions in fine print and it would be extremely difficult for anyone to remember the significance of each and every item in the forms. However, the remark forced the one attorney to assume a role, and instead of analyzing the lease as it applied to the present situation, he dispensed with reading the standard printed form. He assumed that examining it would show his ignorance. He acted out the role of having to know every word of the “standard” lease. The hidden assumption had been used strategically to his disadvantage.

Nierenberg lists three categories of hidden assumptions that are useful in negotiating: first, those regarding the extensional world, the physical world which exists outside the mind of a human being; second, those concerning the intensional world, the world which exists within the mind of each of us; third, the other person’s intensional world. The first category contains the largest and broadest area of hidden assumptions such as those that concern the environment, time and space in which we live. We verify, the best we can, the “facts” of the world around us. Many of the views we hold regarding the outside world are based on assumptions, and we subject them to continued verification. We just need to be careful about believing in absolutes that require no further verification when our absolute may in fact still be an assumption.

Our intensional world is a picture of the outside world, and we must realize that ideas to not have the same meaning for other people that they may have for us. It can be very beneficial to anticipate the other’s assumptions correctly during negotiations. However, it can also put us at a disadvantage to make assumptions about other people’s motivations and actions. We need to realize that our view of the world, along with our value judgments and moral concepts are personal and valid for us alone. If we fail to recognize this, and do not listen to our opposition, we may deprive ourselves of valuable information.

Assumptions are a natural part of life and the negotiation process. There are times when they can be useful in negotiation situations, and other times when they may be detrimental to your success. Hidden assumptions also play a part in various phases of negotiations. When entering a negotiation, we must remember to review our own assumptions and attempt to anticipate the assumptions of the other party. By doing this, and recognizing the role assumptions have in the process, the successful negotiator will better be able to utilize both agreed upon facts and assumptions to negotiate solutions.