We live in a multimedia-driven society. One has only to look at the steady decline of newspaper readership next to the rise of CNN, Google and YouTube to know this for a fact. As a society, we get our information in sound bites and video feeds. Gone are the days when all it took was a firm leadership style to become a successful politician. Today’s candidates must possess the ability ...

Whether you're just starting out, or expanding your business, every sales professional has inherited clients from another rep at their company. On the surface, it seems great. Existing accounts are like found money. So why will over 50% of these people go somewhere else in the next year? 5 ways sales people can increase the odds of keeping and growing these customers are: Create a transition from the previous rep ...

Using visuals on conference calls or web-meetings may cause confusion with your audience. Frequently, presenters jump ahead, causing audience frustration and uncomfortable stoppages. Exercise patience and use delays and pauses to your advantage. Whether reviewing a document during a conference call, or using a PowerPoint presentation in a web- meeting, the challenge is to keep people on the same page. One great way to do that is to plan your ...

Have you ever watched a film that ended abruptly, and thought “Huh? That’s it? That’s the end? What happened? ” It can be kind of an unexpected slap on the face. Effective moviemaking? Perhaps. But in a presentation, you want to take advantage of your close so that your audience remembers what you just said. This means that you don’t just tack on a slide that says “thank you” and ...

Sales professionals love to use brochures and handouts to help position the benefits of their products. Fair enough - but what if your customers don't understand why those benefits are of value? It may seem obvious to us how those benefits will work for your customer, but you can make them clear and show you're listening at the same time. How can you improve some common vague benefit statements? Thousands ...

When we speak in front of an audience, the first minute is the most important in terms of making your presentation a success. That’s not much time, considering you may be speaking for 30 minutes or more. There’s much to accomplish in that first minute: you must capture their attention, establish credibility, introduce your topic and inspire them to listen. How do you do this, assuming that pulling a rabbit ...

A recent study in the journal Psychology of Sports and Exercise found that if you want to gain a measurable edge over your opponent, stand up straight and dress like a pro. Sound familiar? The study showed that when athletes were shown a video of prospective opponents, they were much less confident of victory if the subject displayed good posture, a genial demeanor, and dressed in a clean uniform. Conversely, ...

The world of sales is a lot more technology- dependent than ever before. Most of us now use some kind of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, such as Salesforce.com or something else that is supposed to make our world easier. So why doesn't it seem to work that way? The tools do what they're supposed to do - capture information and get it to us when we need it. The ...