Here’s the link to Part One of Effective Presentations. This is a scene setter for the delights to come.

Part Two of Effective Presentations is all about making sure that what we say in our presentations is always appropriate to the needs & wants of our audience. There are four common sense tips to check out & all of them are easy to apply.

Part Three of Effective Presentations deals with managing the expectations of our audience. The goal here is not to simply satisfy. Rather we should be looking to exceed and delight people’s expectations of our presentations. There are ten simple recommendations, all based on recent qualitative research.

Whenever you present you put yourself in a position of leadership, ideally as a confident and positive leader.  It’s your job to guide your audience through your presentation in a gentle, assertive way so that people can follow your story and, hopefully, agree with it. In fact, the only difference between a presentation and a normal conversation is that you’re in control of the conversation throughout.  Hence the need for leadership and the importance of getting control immediately and finishing on a memorable high note. Starting & ending assertively is an essential presentation skill.

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Starting Your Presentation Assertively

It’s a truism but first impressions really do matter and no more so when applied to the presentation medium.  If you lose that essential control within the first minute then you’ll be on the back foot right immediately and the chances are you’ll never win it back.  Your presentation will never fulfil its potential.
Here’s a checklist of essential elements that should do the job for you.  I’m not proposing that you follow a script, (heaven’s no), but I am suggesting that if you do get the first minute or so of your presentation absolutely right then three good things happen.

1)  You establish leadership of the room
2) You set your audience at ease as they now know what they’re in for
3) Any nerves you may have will start to fade away as you get into the rhythm of your funky thang

Here are my suggestions on how to crack starting assertively.

Ending Your Presentation Assertively

Ending your presentation assertively is harder than starting.  Why?  Because when you start nothing much has happened.  However, when you finish you need to summarise all the action points that have arisen during the presentation and if you’ve done a good job then the chances are that there are quite a number that will need to be mentioned.
Here’s my guide to ending your presentation.

In summary

Start assertively to gain that controlling leadership and end on that passionate call to action.  First and last impressions are essential to a successful presentation and I’m confident that these suggestions will work for you.
If you want a second opinion then please feel free to contact me via Presentation Doctor.

That’s all I need to say about on starting & ending your presentation assertively but you if have any comments or additional ideas then please let me know.

This is the third and final part dealing with the essential sales skill of closing deals.  In the first part we looked at how we can build interest into desire by employing the AIDA system.  In part 2 we discussed how we manage objections and in this part I want to explore various ways of closing the deal firmly.

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Timing

Timing your close is critical. Here are some golden rules and always, always remember that the test close is absolutely essential.

Closing techniques

Here are some closing ideas. You have to be the judge of which is one is the most appropriate to deploy: they all have a role to play and, of course, they all have their pros & cons.

1. The Open close

You say something like, “based on the proposal you’ve seen how do you feel about going ahead?”
Pros: very gentle, consultative and can flush out hidden objections that you can then overcome
Cons: easy for the buyer to delay decision making which means positive momentum is lost

2. The Closed close

You say “do you want to proceed?” or “brilliant, in that case lets agree this now.”
Pros: super assertive and will generally elicit a “yes” or “no” answer.  If it’s a “yes” then deal done:  if it’s a “no” then identify the problem, sort it and close again….and so on.
Cons: can be seen as pushy so always check satisfaction by test closing first

 3. The Assumptive close

You say something like, “now that we’ve sorted out XYZ, lets look at how we can organise ABC for you.”
Pros: effective when dealing with indecisive people as you are taking the decision making pressure off them
Cons: possibility of a “whoa, hang on a minute pal” response so make sure that you’ve tested satisfaction very thoroughly first

4. The Either Or close

You say, “we can either do it this way or that way.  Which one would you prefer?”
Pros: a positive, confident approach that is likely to give you a clear indication of which option the buyer prefers
Cons: what if the buyer dislikes both options?  This should not happen if you’ve built interest and managed objections correctly, but it just might!

 5. ABC = Always Be Closing close

This acronym is beloved by sales people for millennia and implies that you should be constantly looking for an opportunity to seize on the close, no doubt with tigerish energy.  This can come across as aggressive or even desperate so be careful.

Here’s my spin on ABC.  If you’re trying to get people to make a huge decision then you’re asking a lot, maybe too much.  Big commitments are scary and scared buyers aren’t inclined to make risky “yes” decisions.

What you need to do is cut out the huge decision.  Instead, break the decision down it down into a number of small decisions, all of which are easy for the buyer to agree to.  Then get agreement by closing at each decision stage, (ABC), and don’t move onto the next stage until you have the current one firmed up.  This has a second, important benefit.  Because the buyer has said “yes” three or four times he’s in a positive state of mind and so is much more likely to agree to anything you care to offer him.
Pros: makes it easier to get bigger deals approved
Cons: none really when used appropriately

 6. The Bargain close

This is my personal favourite and it revolves around great use of AIDA and terrific objection handling.  Here’s how it works, stage by stage.

Lets assume that the buyer is extremely interested in what you have to offer: AIDA has to strut its funky stuff for the bargain close to work.

In the unlikely event of another objection being raised then don’t panic.  Simply find out what the problem is and repeat the sequence again and again and again until you get agreement.

Pros: very consultative, great for relationships as people appreciate the time & trouble you are taking on their behalf and, vitally, if you’re prepared to put the graft in you’ll get there in the end.
Cons: none really but this close can be executed in minutes but sometimes can stretch over months.

Summary

That’s it, a three stage process to closing deals, the most stunning & essential of all sales skills.  Please appreciate that putting theory into practice takes some practice so best to get started on it now.

If you’d like some advice on a deal that you’re currently trying to close then feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to help.

Thanks for reading.

This is the second of three parts dealing with the essential sales skill of closing deals. In the first part we looked at how we can build interest into desire by employing the AIDA system. Now we’re going to look at managing objections, curved balls, problems, FAQs, bear traps, mine fields etc. etc.

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Home truths: all buyers are objectionable!

AIDA is terrific in theory but in practice it usually doesn’t run as smoothly as any of us would like. This is because buyers raise objections and the more experienced they are the more frequent and deadly they are. They raise objections for a variety of reasons, for example because they:

Whatever the reason for the problem, it’s your job to sort them out because no one’s ever going to agree something that they a problem with, unless they are very, very, very drunk or silly or both.

Types of objections

Objections come in all shapes and sizes but for simplicity’s sake lets divide them into two categories. These are ‘fundamental’ and ‘false’ objections and it’s a good idea to spot these quickly and deal with them appropriately. (Look out for implied or hidden objections too when buyer’s say things like, “so you maintain x works better than y do you?” or “I’ll have to sleep on it/you’ve given me food for thought.” These need to be challenged and flushed out so you know what you’re dealing with).

False objections
False objections are usually raised to distract you. They are decoys and you shouldn’t let them hold you up for too long.  For example, your buyer says, “today’s Wednesday and I never buy anything on Wednesday.”  You could accept this at face value but it’s much better to say something empathetic like, “I know how you feel, Wednesday are just so middle of the week aren’t they….anyhow, as I was saying….” and just continue your pitch. Don’t fall into the trap of discussing the reasons why Wednesday’s are so tricky please!

Fundamental objections
Fundamental objections are much more difficult because they are rooted in truths/perceptions. You need to take them very seriously as they are the reason why sales pitches fail. Or, put it another way, if you can manage every objection you encounter and you can build desire every time you pitch then every one of your sales calls has to succeed.

Managing objections step-by-step

1. You should treat objections as good news: after all, buyers will only raise objections if they interested in what you’re talking about
2. Listen carefully and ask back: make sure you understand the nature of the objection and double check to make sure you’ve really got it. “So you’re worried by ABC’s reliability record, is that right?”.
3. Pause and flatter: this is an optional step and it depends on who you’re talking to. I find it usually pays to pause for a second or two before answering because it makes my response sound more considered and believable. Gentle flattery such as, “that’s a great question” is fine too but don’t overdo it unless you want get mega-cheesy.
4. Your answer: your reply to the objection has to be stated confidently, has be credible, provable if possible and, and this is the biggie, should contain a powerful benefit. That means that you can move the buyer from a negative to a positive state-of-mind so he says, “that’s a good point”.
5. Follow-up and mini-close: just because you’ve answered the objection doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve satisfied the buyer so check with a “does that sort the problem out for you?” or “are you completely happy now?”. Assuming you get a positive response then you can say, “great, so are we agreed on that?” and the chances are you’ll get a “yes”.

Actions you can take

If you’re a team member, sit down with your colleagues at regular intervals to discuss the most frequently encountered objections you all face. Then, collectively come up with the best possible response to each, ideally containing strong benefits. What you’ll find is that if the team responds to buyer objections in the same way those objections will disappear over a surprisingly short time. But don’t get complacent as the market has a nasty habit of devising new objections so you need to constantly refresh your answers. This is an important component of any sensible, unified sales policy.
If you’re a solo operator then just take time to think your FAQs through and keep on top of them as they evolve.

Summary

Being on top of objections gives you enormous confidence, particularly when combined with AIDA.
You can see how objection handling and closing are inextricably linked. Whenever you manage an objection properly you’re in a strong position to get some level of agreement.
We’ll deal with that final stage in Stunning Sales Skills Part 3.

Part 1 is going to explore the AIDA acronym, part 2 is about how to manage objections effectively and part 3 covers how to ask for the business so that you’re likely to get it.
Stunning Sales Skills 1

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We’ll start of by looking at AIDA. There are loads of sales acronyms around and the best known one is probably DIPADA. But I like AIDA best because it’s shorter, easier to remember, easier to execute, it’s a marketing fundamental and, most important of all, it really, really works. Master AIDA and you’ve mastered a fundamental sales skill.

No, it’s not that opera by Verdi. Instead, it’s the simplest and most powerful way I know to get yourself into a position where you can sensibly close your sales pitch.

Lets look at each element of AIDA in turn.

Attention

You need to grab the full attention of your client before you expect to get anywhere.
I remember once being asked to pitch a client whilst she was in the middle of her packed lunch. I figured that whatever I said I would always be competing with a prawn & salad sandwich and I didn’t fancy my chances. I politely declined, waited till she was done, (crisps followed), and only then did I get going.
Make sure that your statement is genuinely attention grabbing. Usually that means something that you know the client is deeply interested in and that does not necessarily have to be connected to the business in hand. If your client likes football then an informed comment about football it is.

Interest

Now that you have the client’s full attention you can start to build interest. You do this by matching the needs and wants of your client with the benefits of whatever it is you are selling. (Remember that in our pampered world, wants are more powerful than needs. I need water to survive but I want a gin and tonic badly….now).
By doing some research and asking appropriate questions, it’s usually pretty easy to identify your client’s needs & wants. It follows that if you can prove that what you have to offer satisfies/matches these needs & wants then it’s bound to be beneficial. Benefits generate interest.

Desire

Once you’ve got your client nicely warmed up it’s time to stoke up some serious desire. Just pile on more and more benefits and look out for buying signals. Some people are naturally cagey so they’re hard to read but if you look carefully you’ll spot them as it’s pretty much impossible to disguise genuine desire. Me, I’m a shocker. If I desire something I usually end up telling the sales person why it’s so great. This is ridiculous behaviour of course but it’s what most people do when they are excited and desirous of something.

Action

Assuming you are getting signals of desire, you can now think about the best way of asking for the business and getting the deal closed. I’m going to be dealing with this in some detail in the third part of the Stunning Sales Skill blog but what I will say now is:

AIDA in Action

Next time you see an attractive ad on TV or in a magazine or on a billboard, then stop and break it down step by step. The chances are that it has got your attention and you’ve found it interesting. Does it tweak the stirrings of desire and is there a call-to-action that you can follow up on? If so, then you’ve just been AIDAered!  That’s what the best ads and the best sales pitches can do.

For fun why not check out this YouTube link to see the legendary “Coffee’s for Closers” sequence from Glengarry Glen Ross for the American version of AIDA.  Be warned though. This is strong stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

A little while ago I was briefed to identify the components of an effective presentation guide.  My client was a world leading communications outfit who prided himself on the quality of the presentations delivered to his clients.  However, he wasn’t quite sure if he was managing expectations properly. My brief was to was to interview a selection of his senior clients and ask them what they expected to get out of the presentations they attended.  From this we could identify the makeup of the effective presentation, the holy grail for all presenters.

As you would expect, we got a wide range of responses which we boiled down to ten key findings.  Here they are.  As always, they are pretty much common sense and easy to put into practice.  We found that most presenters covered off seven to eight points but no one did all ten.  All you have to do is make sure that you follow this 10 step super effective presentation guide, do all 10 and you’ll be way ahead of the game.

I’m going to describe each point from the perspective of the clients plus the actions you need to take to meet them.

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1. “Make me feel special”

“I want to feel that this presentation has been created exclusively for me which means that it’s completely relevant, timely and addresses the issues & challenges that I am currently facing”

You must edit your presentation down to only the stuff that you believe will excite and motivate your audience and be ruthless about this.  Ask yourself, “is this information going to be genuinely valuable or is it a case of so what”?  Make sure that you splatter your presentation with the right names, logos, dates and so on to create the impression of immediacy and personalisation and avoid killer phrases like, “we’re roadshowing this presentation to everyone at the moment.”

2.  “Tell me about benefits, not just facts”

“As a senior business person I am drowning in information.  I get it from meetings, from emails, from my clients and from my suppliers.  The last thing I need is to waste time attending a presentation where yet more information is going to be thrown at me.”

I’m a great fan of the Three Facts Rule that tells us that an intelligent, alert audience is unlikely to remember more that three hard facts in a typical 20 minute presentation.  So, if you have loads of hard core information to transmit then don’t bother to try to present it.  Just stick it all down in a document, email it to interested parties and it just might get noticed.  To attempt to present it will only confuse and bore = very bad news.

The presentation medium is best for creating broad brush strokes to tickle the emotions so the trick is to use information in a supportive role to PROVE the benefits of whatever it is you are presenting.  Of course the more benefits you present the more interesting your presentation becomes.  Benefit driven communication is very powerful and I’d go so far as to say that if what you have to say contains no benefit then you shouldn’t say it.

3.  “Be positive”

“Life’s hard enough without me having to sit through a tale of doom & gloom.  I want this presentation to provide solutions, not just spell out problems, and, dare I say it, I want to enjoy myself too.”

Recognise that the presentation medium is essentially an upbeat medium so always try to make your presentation as positive as possible.  Whilst you don’t want to get into areas of standup comedy, (and by the way, don’t attempt humour unless you’re a naturally funny person), make sure that what you have to say is interesting and entertaining.  To bore your audience is extremely rude.

4. “Show me ideas with all elements justified”

“Whilst this presentation contains several good ideas, ideas are cheap.  I need to be convinced that these ideas are practical.”

The solution here is simple.  Just provide robust proof that the ideas you are talking about are deliverable.  In my experience the easiest and most powerful way of doing this is through relevant case studies.  Say something like, “let me give you an example of how this will work in practice by showing you a similar problem and how it was resolved by XYZ Co.”

5. “Tackle any cost & value issues”

“All this is fine & dandy but presumably this is going to cost me something so I need to know how much dosh is involved.”

Don’t be coy about talking about money.  The trick is not just to talk price because that can come across as a large, scary amount.  Instead present any financial costs in terms of value and benefit to your audience.   Contrast “this will cost £100,000″ to “an investment of £100,000 will create savings of £35,000 per annum and improve our response times from 72 hours to just 18.”

6.  “Don’t expect me to do too much work on your behalf”

“I’m a very busy person so if you expect me to action the recommendations contained in your presentation then you need to make it as easy for me as possible.”

KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid, (because it’s just plain dumb to make your presentation complicated) or Keep It Short & Sweet.  You going to be far more successful if you present just one or two ideas and show that putting them into practice will be both beneficial and relatively easy to do.  A well put together leave-behind document can help here.  It’s a shocking cliche but within the presentation medium less is definitely more.

7. “Be consistent”

“I thought we were here to talk about ABC so why are we talking about DEF?  I’m confused now.”

Be very clear on what your objectives are and create a linear agenda to support them.  Then all you have to do is to make sure that everyone understands your objectives completely and then stick to your agenda.  It’s that simple.  Please resist the opportunity to go off-piste because you’re likely to end up waffling and losing your audience’s attention.  Once lost it’s very hard to win back.

8. “Check timings and manage the meeting for me”

“I am giving up 30 minutes of my valuable time to attend this presentation so I don’t want to waste it and I certainly don’t want it to overrun”.

You, the presenter, are in a position of gentle leadership.  It’s your job to lead the discussion down the route you want to take so you need to be mindful of time scales and the protocol of the meeting.  I suggest that you let people know:

9. “Proof read”

“We captains pride ourselves on our attention to detail and our ability to spot & challenge anything that looks flakey.”

Proof read doesn’t just mean check for typing, althow people do gets very iritated by speling & grammer errs. (If you don’t get these fundamentals right how can you expect people to take your presentation seriously?)
It also means that you need to be able to prove everything you’re presenting.  Make sure you provide source references to support any hard information.  Try to anticipate the most likely questions to arise so you can answer them authoritatively and if you are stumped for an answer then don’t panic or bluff.  Instead, gently flatter the questioner, promise to get back with the correct answer and then do so.

10. “Ask my for my reactions & then follow up”

“OK, I’ve enjoyed the presentation, some of the ideas seem to have potential value so what now?  Too often nothing much seems to happen so I’m left feeling frustrated and less inclined to see this presenter again.”

I’ve left this to the end because the research we did showed that this was the most common and the most serious problem of the ten.
It’s important to understand that a presentation is no more the hors d’oeuvre before the main course.  The main course is the action that occurs as a consequence of the follow-up activity that occurs after the presentation.  Without ‘next steps’ and a coherent action plan, all you’ve done is to deliver some business cabaret, fun maybe but a total waste of everyone’s time.
Without knowing where you stand it’s hard to know what you have to do next so you must ask your audience for their feedback.  Ask properly and you’ll get it, you’ll know where you stand and you’ll be in a position to get some positive action going.  Don’t ask and you’ll go away thinking that you’ve achieved your objectives when in all probability all you’ve done is delivered a presentation.  No big deal then.

Conclusion: now get it done

These are the findings and, I repeat, all you have to do is to deliver on all ten and you won’t be merely managing the expectations of your audience.  You will have exceeded and delighted them and that has to be a seriously super-effective way of presenting.

This is a simple guide to negotiation preparation will assist negotiators develop a well organised pre-negotiation strategy, an essential element of confident and effective negotiation techniques.

Too often negotiators like to busk their way through their negotiations, trusting in their experience and savvy. The trouble is that if the other side has spent a little while preparing their negotiating strategy then they are always going to outperform the busking fraternity but the thing is….the buskers wont know! They’ll think that they’re doing well and so will continue to wing it. It’s an expensive mistake.  So here’s a nifty way of making your negotiation preparation thorough, effective and surprisingly easy to do.

Here’s my nine point negotiation preparation checklist. As always, I’ve tried to make it all common sense and easy to do. Here goes.

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1. Negotiation history & precedents

What prior negotiations have we had with this organisation/individual and what lessons can we learn from them? Remember that every negotiation you conduct sets precedents for the next one so be careful to exploit those precedents that suit you and be ready to refute those that don’t. A statement such as “we’ve always done it this way and there’s no need to change now” supports history whilst “because we’re entering a new year we need to develop a new way of doing business” gives you the opportunity to settle on more agreeable precedents.

The problem: a serious drop in sales revenue

This is a case study in how a combination of sales skills training and a shift in management attitudes can lead to a 40%+ revenue growth.

A few years ago I was asked to work with the sales team of a high profile business that was suffering from a serious drop in revenue.  The company was driven by a group of extremely clever and creative men and women who were shockingly patronising towards their sales staff.  I heard phrases like ‘the men in grey suits’, ‘that grubby commercial mob’, and ‘the necessary evil’.  Surprising really when you consider that every Tuscan holiday and drop of Beaujolais Nouveau was funded by the efforts of the maligned sales team, (the company was completely dependent on ad revenue), but I’ve encountered this attitude quite a few times in creative lead businesses.

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Anyhow, the managing director was convinced that the root of the problem lay with the rawness of the sales team.  He suggested that I work with them for a few days to get a feel for their problems, have a chat with him and then follow up with some intensive sales training to bring them up to the mark.

Findings: an isolated, unsupported sales team

This is what I unearthed.

1) The sales team was young and so fairly inexperienced but the boys and girls were a competent enough group, albeit with a way too rapid staff turnover.  I felt that there was nothing that a couple of days sales skills training could not sort out, particularly as they did have a strong proposition to sell.

2) They were managed by a keen young woman who tried her hardest to lead by example and to keep her team motivated and busy.  She had been promoted into management simply because she had the best sales figures but had had absolutely no sales management training.  She was struggling.

3) The entire sales team felt that the company tolerated them at best, tried to ignore them whenever possible and always criticised them if they dared to intrude into their creative preserve. Most of all, they were fed up with being constantly lambasted for their failure to hit revenue targets.  This was one dispirited group, grafting away in isolation, uncared for, unrecognised and most definitely unloved.

My follow up chat with the MD did not go quite as we had originally imagined.  I told him that the revenue problem didn’t lie with the sales team, rather it lay with the culture of the company.  In the few days I had spent with the company I had found that:

Solution: a culture change in attitudes to sales staff

My proposal was ridiculously simple and straight forward and I’m delighted to say that the MD bought it and it worked.  My suggestion was this: don’t just train give the sales team support with sales skills training, train the whole company, and I mean everyone.  No  exceptions.

Here’s what we did.

We structured the courses so that they were fast moving, totally relevant to each group, very involving, solution based and great fun.  Common threads ran through each course.

Delegate response was terrific.  Everyone got stuck in and no one tried the ‘I don’t need training in this’ angle. I found the programme to be incredibly enjoyable and instructive; I learnt so much about how companies can let politics and silo-mentalities develop and how people are actually far more receptive to change than I’d imagined.  Perceptions were peeled away as people discovered that they could be friendly, polite and helpful with people outside of their immediate spheres and that these people were rather nice and useful to know.

The effect of this culture change was dramatic. Now the company had 200 people representing it, not just 20 beleaguered sales people.  Morale was high, people smiled and passed the time of day with each other, so improving internal communications.  The sales team, fed by a flood of fresh leads provided by their new buddies, were a zillion times more motivated and better lead than before and responded really, really well.  Sales staff turnover evaporated, call rates rocketed and so did revenue.  In the year following this sales programme revenue grew by 40%. Yes, that’s right, 40%.  I was and still am immensely proud to be part of this turn-around.

Conclusion: make your whole company sales savvy

Don’t let a culture develop that’s going to isolate your commercial people.  Instead, make everyone in your organisation sales savvy, yes give your sales team support with sales skills training but don’t forget to train the rest of your organisation to support your sales team and watch your revenue grow.
It’s just common sense.

Managing presentation nerves is an essential presentation skill.  You wouldn’t  be human if you didn’t get presentation nerves so here’s a guide to help you control and channel your nervous energy to beneficial effect.

I’m no admirer of his political beliefs but I have to accept that Enoch Powell was one of the greatest public speakers of the 20th century. Whenever he was scheduled to speak MPs packed the House of Commons and apparently the chamber buzzed with excitement hours before he took the floor. Yet Enoch was wracked with nerves, unable to sleep the night before and often threw up just before he started. Later on in his political career he lost those nerves which made him sound slack and complacent, in his view. His solution was to drink loads of water so that by the time he was due to speak he was bursting for a pee and that, he felt, kept him edgy.

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Managing presentation nerves

Whenever I run a presentation skills course I ask everyone what their key objectives are and guess what; conquering nerves wins by a mile every time.

So, the question is, how do we get on top of those nerves so that we present our messages in a fluent and confident manner? Here’s my checklist, hopefully all common sense and easy to implement.

1. Keep things in proportion.

Unless you’re about to address the G20 leaders with a solution to Eurozone crisis, the chances are that you’ll be presenting a useful message to between five and twenty people. What you have to say may be jolly fine but it’s unlikely to change lives so have a healthy sense of perspective, keep things in proportion and your presentation will grounded and all the better for that.

2. Be yourself.

There’s a style of presentation training, usually run by actors, that utilises professional dramatic techniques to improve delivery. I’m no great fan of this approach although it can be great fun. Why? Because we’re not aspiring thespians, the audience aren’t fools and they’ll pick up on phony behavior straight away. The trick is to be natural so that people see you as you really are. Be comfortable being yourself and don’t try to be something you’re not. By the way, is it just me or did Sir Larry Olivier have more ham in him than Parma and Bayonne combined?

3. Know your subject.

A friend of mine is a tenor and he used to get terrible stage fright. His voice coach told him, ‘the reason you are so nervous is because you are guilty, guilty of not practising enough’. So, make sure that you’re completely on top of you subject and practice just enough so that you know the flow of your presentation. But here’s the dichotomy. Practice, but don’t over practice because if you do then you’ll lose the natural approach and come across as either robotic or too slick for comfort. That reminds me. I saw Tony Blair speak in a church hall when he was an unknown MP and he was magnificent; passionate, charismatic, completely natural, very convincing and not one tiny bit slick. Then the spin doctors got to him and knocked out everything that made him special. His nickname morphed to Phony Tony. Such a shame.

4. Experiment with some physical tricks.

I know a number of speakers who swear by yoga as a way of relaxing the mind and body before a major presentation. This is great if you’re speaking at a conference and have the opportunity to go back stage for a while. The trouble is that usually doesn’t happen and you’re going to look pretty odd Saluting the Sun, striking a nifty Warrior pose or treating the boardroom to a Downward Dog. There are some discrete breathing exercises you can do that people won’t usually spot; try slow and deep breathes and keep that going for five minutes or so and you’ll be feeling pretty chilled. My favourite trick is 100% undetectable and works before and even during your presentation. All you have to do is keep your feet flat on the ground and push down as hard as you can as for as long as you can. I’ve no idea why it works but it really does. Try it now.

OK, now you’re keeping your presentation in proportion, you’re comfortable being yourself, you’re confident about your subject and you’re pushing down like crazy, yet you’re still nervous. Here’s the final tip.

5. Make sure that you’ve got your opening minute nailed.

If that first minute or so goes well then you’ll find that you’re in the rhythm of your presentation and everything should rock from then on. I’m not advocating a script that you learn by rote but I am suggesting that you know exactly what you need to say to set yourself, (and your audience), at ease. Try this:

If you’re still a bit nervous then don’t worry. Nerves are natural and they will give you added energy, frisson and credibility. So I think that having some nerves is actually a good thing and if you find that you are getting too relaxed then why not try drinking a gallon or two of water beforehand? (Just kidding).

Here’s a case study about media negotiation skills and how and why collaboration builds relationships and gets great results.  Anyone who is involved in buying or selling media should read on: 

Quite recently I ran a media negotiation skills course for Media Circle. Media Circle is the media industry’s de-facto training organisation, its goal being to raise professional standards across the board. I’m really proud to have been one of trainers on the Circle’s roster for fifteen years now, delivering open courses in presentation and negotiation skills.

Media negotiation skills: Listen to the Podcast or read on

Buyers and sellers on the same negotiation course?

This particular negotiation skills course was special because the delegates were a 50:50 split of major media owners, The Sellers, and leading media agencies, The Buyers. Normally I run separate courses for buyers and sellers so we can cover all the tricks and wheezes required to get the upper hand with ‘the other side’. This time we decided to experiment and see what would happen when we combined both sides in one course.

I think this was an incredibly useful and insightful day. All credit must go to the delegates for their energy, enthusiasm and talent. All I had to do was facilitate the sessions and the boys and girls did all the real work, the results of which were exciting and positive.

Positional Negotiation (or haggling)

During the course we looked at two styles of negotiation, haggling otherwise known as positional negotiating, and collaborating, a.k.a. interest based negotiating.

The problem with haggling is that it’s common for a negotiation to turn aggressive as it can easily deteriorate into a battle of wills. That’s hardly surprising as the nature of a haggle is to defend one’s own position and attack the other side’s claims. In the media industry there are far too many examples of relationships being soured, telephones being slammed and bad deals arising as a result of this confrontational approach. It can be stressful too because no one appreciates being bullied.

Assertive & Collaborative

The delegates quickly concluded that the key to a happy and successful negotiating life lay in adopting an assertive style. We defined assertive as being confident, positive, forceful, (but never aggressive), fair minded as well as saying less and listening more intently. Whilst haggling was fine for day-to-day routine negotiations, anything that required a special outcome or a creative solution needed a collaborative spin. Here’s what was discussed and agreed.

1. Don’t try and dominate the negotiation

Peoples’ natural competitive instincts can easily dominate the negotiation. Getting one over the other guy can become more important than getting an efficient result. So, curb those instincts and concentrate on achieving your goals. Pyrrhic victories serve no one.

2. Shared common interest

The primary objectives of the buyer and the seller are pretty much identical. Sure, the buyer wants to pay a low price and the seller wants the highest price but this is just a negotiable difference, in other words this is an issue that can be easily resolved by a well conducted negotiation. In all other regards the delegates felt that they shared common interest including:

3. Relationships are the key to great negotiations

If both parties are motivated to work with each to get the best possible result for the client then the chances of successful, creative results are enhanced. Delegates said they would only be prepared to collaborate with people they trusted and respected & damn right too. Of course the more strong relationships you have the more opportunities you have to work with people to solve negotiation problems in a relaxed, cooperative manner.

4. Negotiate face-to-face

Delegates thought that it would be hard to collaborate over the phone and pretty much impossible via email. Sitting down with your opposite number to tackle problems would generate interesting and ambitious results as both parties shared ideas and pool their resources. The trouble is that meeting people is out of fashion; people claim they are too busy to spare the time. Phooey, a well run meeting saves time as it’s total communication and that has to be the most effective use of time imaginable.

5. Agree on independent criteria

Collaborative negotiations need to be measured against pre-agreed criteria, otherwise things can spin out of control as the negotiations get overwhelmed by an orgy of cooperative goodwill. Benchmarking keeps the negotiation grounded and accountable.

Work together

The cynic might argue that there’s nothing particularly new or surprising about these conclusions. This misses the point. The delegates worked together to come up with a deck of common sense conclusions that ignore old school media ways of doing business. Their ideas are practical too, the sorts of techniques that they can implement straight away and will result in great outcomes for all parties as well as building those essential relationships.

This was a happy day too and everyone exchanged email addresses so that they can stay in touch. And the punch line? Falling out with people who share the same interests as you is just plain dumb. Work together to find smart negotiable solutions and life gets easier and results get better.

A little more about Media Circle

It’s brilliantly run by the awesome duo of Caroline Simpson and Rosemary Michael, supported by a super team of senior media folk who provide expert guidance in their non-exec capacity. The Media Circle rocks and you can check out the range of media-related courses on offer at www.mediacircle.org.