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“With presentation skills, the work is in the preparation, the fun is in the presentation.” Colleen Kettenhofen

To improve presentation skills, allow plenty of time, if at all possible, to find out exactly who will be in your audience. Consider obtaining some of their names, phone numbers and email addresses so you can do a “survey” or interview to find out more about their needs, challenges and expectations before the day you present. Are they colleagues or clients you’ve personally invited? What will be the attitude of your participants? In other words, do they want to be there or is attendance mandatory? Are you going to be presenting any “bad news” or information they may not want to hear?

In my seminars, people often tell me that two of their biggest presentation skills challenges are “how to handle a hostile audience,” and “how to present bad news.” If you start by knowing who will be in attendance, what their expectations are, as well as their objections, you can then begin to prepare your presentation. Other than rehearsing, nothing will improve presentation skills more than knowing details about your audience.

Incidentally, studies show that by rehearsing and truly being prepared, you can reduce nervousness by 75%. If you take the word “rehearse,” and delete the “se,” what word do you have? “Rehear.” When you rehearse, you are actually rehearing yourself. In addition, 95% of the success of your presentation is determined before you present. So knowing something about your audience, and then rehearsing the information, will greatly improve presentation skills.

Your main source of information will be the individual who invited you to speak. When you ask questions, it also gives the impression that you’re conscientious and meticulous in planning and preparation. Also, find out if there are any issues sensitive to the group or topics to be avoided. What about any cultural differences or language barriers?

Before I give a keynote speech or lead a breakout session at a conference, I inquire about getting a list of all attendees, their phone numbers and email addresses. I like to “interview” at least 3 people who will be attending. Often times they’ll come up with other pertinent issues that the contact person may not have known about or simply forgot to mention.

If your presentation is to a client, or potential new client, keep apprised of their company news, goals and objectives. What is an average work day like for the participants in your audience? What are their greatest challenges? And if applicable, how does your product or service help solve their problem?

Presentation skills = defining your purpose. Ask yourself, “What is my purpose in being here?” And, “Why are they here?” Everyone is always tuned in to “Radio Station WIIFM,” which stands for, “What’s in it for me?!” So, how does what you’re talking about address their problem, the “what’s in it for me?”

In addition to interviewing individuals ahead of your presentation, do “meets and greets” if time permits. Get to know people one-on-one right before your talk. It will calm your nerves and you’ll no longer see them as total strangers. Also, it shows you’re taking an interest in them. Often by talking one-on-one beforehand, you discover a wealth of new information you may want to bring up in your presentation.

In improving your presentation skills by knowing your audience ahead of time, here are some questions to ask yourself:

o What is the attitude of the audience? Do they want to be there? o What are their approximate ages? o What is the percentage of males to females? o What are their levels of education? o What is their technical expertise? o What about their geographic locations in terms of home base? o What about their cultural make up?

Remember, 95% of your presentation skills success is determined before your presentation. What do you know about your audience? How can you incorporate that information into the tailoring of your presentation? The work is in the preparation, the fun is in the performance.

Copyright 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

One of the things that makes selling gratifying is that it’s fairly easy to keep score of our wins and losses.

At the same time, what makes it unusually difficult is the fact that when we fail, we don’t get high-quality, corrective feedback that tells us what to do, differently in our sales negotiations.

This means we’re likely to repeat our errors, and that’s not only frustrating, it’s costly.

If you are a band of one, working by or for yourself, you can’t possibly give yourself honest and truthful feedback, for the simple reason that we can’t DO and CRITICIZE at the same time.

If you’re in an organization, getting quality feedback is not much easier.

You’d think a sales manager or a peer could provide it, but how often do they actually monitor your negotiations? Moreover, they have their own goals and perceptions that distort your strengths and weaknesses.

To get honest feedback on your sales negotiations, to discern where, exactly, you came up, short, is essential if you want to improve. Where is that information to be found?

The good news is that it exists. The bad news is that the person that rejected you is the only one that has it. If you want to know why you didn’t earn a sale, to discover exactly what the prospect did after relations with you ended, you have to ASK.

Why would I urge you onto a mission of fact-finding from non-buyers?

If you believe the misanthropic adage, “Buyers Are Liars,” you can never expect to hear the truth from them, especially from those that didn’t purchase from you at all; that either recoiled and did nothing, or that went to one of your competitors for what you offer.

Surely, they have to feel defensive, figuring you’re going to pester them about something that is a done deal. Plus, if they dropped off the radar, which is typically how our failures register, they don’t explicitly say NO very much anymore; can we really expect them to suddenly emerge from the shadows and shed light on our shortcomings?

And you might not want to solicit feedback, especially from them, now that they seem to have ZERO POTENTIAL. I grant you, getting mired in the past, even if it is recent, can keep you from facing today’s challenges and today’s prospects, those with continuing capacity to buy.

But if you start from the premise that: (1) You’re likely to repeat your errors without quality feedback; (2) Non-buyers are the ideal sources for corrective information; and (3) Those that didn’t buy are not crazy; that they are typical of prospects at large, then you must agree learning from them can very valuable.

Plus, there’s satisfaction in ending the mystery of your misses.

I’ve done this with great success. In one case, sending a note, asking for feedback, because in addition to being a fill-in-the-blank, “I’m also a marketer who needs to keep learning and improving.”

In one case, what I thought was a dead horse sprang to life, awarding me with a blue-ribbon, nationwide consulting contract.

Recently, a more modest inquiry revealed exactly WHO he bought from and WHEN; HOW MUCH he paid for the service, and the RESULTS obtained.

I learned what pricing will be competitive, and how a specific competitor operates, someone I’ll encounter again and again.

This leaves me with a choice, as an entrepreneur. Do I want to earn this type of business in the future, or would I prefer to pass?

I have to admit I didn’t value the prospect very highly. I perceived him as an amateur at buying the service in question, without a clear idea of his budget.

And without pertinent background, I believed he would buy based on price, not appreciating the quality I represented; and he did exactly that.

At the same time, his feedback told me I need to offer various “grades” of service in this area, if I am going to compete.

Based on the fact that this fellow answered quickly, and responded specifically to all of my emailed questions, suggests he was telling the truth.

There is no question I know, now, exactly what to do to “win” deals of this type.

Now, isn’t that worth the 15 minutes it took me to compose that note?

Negotiating isn’t always about haggling over prices and terms. Sometimes it involves getting quality feedback that may not revive a missed deal, but will position you to springboard to greater success in your sales negotiations in the future.