Over the last few weeks, I have been getting a ton of questions about what it takes to give a good business presentation.
It seems a lot of people feel pretty confident in getting people to take a look at their opportunity but they either don’t feel confident in giving a good presentation or they don’t like the one their company provides. Today we’ll take a look at both of these problems, and I’ll give you a couple of good solutions.
First off, if you are doing your own presentations, you are far ahead of most of your competitors!
So many folks try to avoid doing their own presentations and never develop this critical skill. Yes, it is OK use presentations done by others, but that is not always the best way to share your business. For example, what if your hanging out with your best friend and she asks to see your business opportunity, what then? Are you going to make her go to a website? Too impersonal. You don’t have to be amazing at this, but you should have the basic skill.
The good news is that it is way easier than you think and you can do this!
Here is the big secret to all good presentations; it’s all about the STORIES! Dani always says “Facts tell, stories sell”, and this is true. Everything else is just filler that leads to a story. Yes, your product info, your comp plan details and your company history is just FILLER!
Wait, what?! …Hear me out…
“Facts tell, stories sell” works for two reasons. First, you can’t argue with stories like you can with information. When you share a story, your prospect can’t argue with it (even in their head) because it is someone’s actual experience, not just a bunch of data. Second, stories are personal, and your prospect can relate to a story much better than a list of ingredients or commission percentages.
Stories focus on the BENEFIT, not the FEATURE.
Product ingredients and commission percentages are features, the results those things generate are benefits. Ultimately, that is what your prospect wants! Stories share benefits better than anything else.
So, if you have a bunch of stories ready to go, you can give a good presentation at a moment’s notice. Here’s my outline that I have used to do literally thousands of presentations.
- Welcome – Your name, why you’re excited, brief “I” story 30-60 seconds, create “me too’s”
- Company intro – Impressive facts about your company- How old, big, how many countries, etc
- Product overview – Hit on a few key products and the philosophy (not the ingredients)
- Product Testimonials – 5-10 stories, 5-10 seconds each
- Opportunity overview – Hit on the key points and the philosophy, don’t go into too much detail
- Training Overview – People want to know that they will be taught how to be successful- 30 Day Bootcamp, SN, FSTS
- Money Testimonials – 5-10 stories, 10-20 seconds each, include large and small stories
- Close – Use your story and Dani’s 1-2-3 close
This outline can be used for any length presentation from 5 minutes to an hour. So what is the perfect length presentation? Who knows, but I think anywhere from 5-30 minutes is most effective, especially for the initial look. Your goal with any presentation is to give them enough information and social proof that they can make a good decision for themselves.
Now let’s talk about a static presentation that you might send a prospect to and allow a video or recorded conference call to do the presentation for you. These presentations could also be live conference calls, webinars, CD’s or DVD’s, online videos, etc.
These all work great, but these two tricks make them much more effective. First, don’t rush people through the interview stage and hope this presentation has some hypnotic effect on them, it won’t. But if you spend some time and find their needs and goals and then explain how this presentation will give them the information they want, your prospect will be much more attentive and receptive. The second thing you can do to make your presentations more effective is to edify it like crazy! If you know what your prospect is looking for and you build respect and credibility to that part of the presentation, you will get much better results.
For example, if you know that your prospect is motivated by a cause, and your video has a segment about how your company builds clean water wells for communities, promote that to your prospect. This technique can be used for anything that motivates your prospect.
The presentation is only as good as you make it out to be, so edify it until you sense some excitement in your prospect.
The skills and techniques I’ve mentioned here are easy to learn and will improve your results dramatically. Dani talks about these techniques throughout a lot of her material but there is one CD set that is focused on this topic. I highly recommend that you add Presentation Success System to your library and start listening to it on a regular basis.
Listen to Dani close a prospect HERE!
Like anything, your first presentation will be a little uncomfortable but you will get through it and you will have a new skill in your arsenal.
Brian
Resources:
Presentation Success System – There is some free audio here for you, too.
Smarter Networker PRO – Over 200+ hours of Dani Johnson training, all organized by topic!
First Steps to Success (only if you are truly serious)
Free Content
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