3 Pitching Lessons from Shark Tank
School holidays are great. I get to spend more time with the kids and the after school activities wind down. As a result I was able to sit down and enjoy Shark Tank this week. It’s fascinating to see the different styles of pitch that the business owners deliver in the hope of securing an…
How to deliver an effective sales presentation
In this short video I outline how you can deliver an effective sales pitch. What is an effective sales pitch? Firstly, for a sales pitch to be considered successful it has to be more than getting the client to give you their cash. In my opinion a successful pitch gets the client to buy your…
Be the Hero – How to tell your story
It is a well-worn cliché that is repeated at almost every networking event I attend but is constantly restated for a reason – it works! “People do business with people they like, know, and trust!” Despite the constant reminders it is often forgotten. People slip into “selling mode” before building a connection with the person…
5 Tips to Engage your Clients in your Pitch
It is a constant battle to get and retain the attention of your potential clients. They don’t know you, what you do, and how well you do it! Audiences are time poor and under pressure to meet a deadline. In other words they don’t have time to sit through another boring presentation that will have…
Its not business… It is Personal!
Someone like Gordon Gecko might say “Its not personal… Its business!”. But, for most of us business is personal. Before anybody will do any business with your organisation they need to like, know, and trust the person representing the business.
For a sales presentation scenario this means that the client needs to feel that the person delivering the pitch warrants trust. For the person delivering the presentation this means that the opening part of the presentation needs to be dedicated to getting the attention of the audience AND establishing a rapport with the key members of the audience.
Why making a connection matters
Before you can influence, you must connect with your audience. This has been proven in University studies. At Stanford University students were asked to pair off and discuss a class problem and come to an agreement. 55 percent of the pairings were able to come to an agreement. A second class was asked to do…
Is your elevator pitch missing the mark?
Forgive me while I vent a little. My frustration stems from disappointment. Last night I had a wonderful evening at a NSW Business Chamber networking event where I met plenty of great small business owners striving hard to make their businesses a success. At the event there is a “sixty second soapbox” segment where a…
