Duration: 15 minutes
Learn ten easy steps to present new ideas successfully to teams, managers, clients, media or investors.
1. Be committed yourself
• Have a goal and want to achieve it
• Personal commitment shows!
• Be committed to your organisation
2. Less is more
• Be succinct - one sentence description
• Be ready to sell the idea over the phone
3. Know benefits
• Who is your audience - know what they need, why your idea is important
• Match benefits to the audience - use open-ended questions
4. Build coalitions of support
• Identify who will be interested
• Political dimensions - powerful people
• Be prepared to modify idea
5. Use multiple senses
• Use range of techniques, eg. laptop demos, tangible
• experiences - test drives, show a sample, tell stories, "close your eyes... imagine"
6. Use logical sequence of questions
• Open-ended questions - gain helpful cues
• Closed questions - obtain facts
• Leading questions - paint scenarios
• Questions ensure involvement
7. Show passion and conviction
• Body language, tone of voice
• Express your personal commitment
8. Anticipate objections
• Expect objections
• Be prepared with answers - testimonials, examples
• Don't avoid or cover up
9. Read body language
• Nods, smiles - agreement
• Confused, concerned, negative body language - deal with audience attitude, ask questions
10. Close the sale
• Use positive assumption
• Move ahead with questions - "When could we start?"
• "Who do we need to work with to make this happen?"
• "Which budget?"
11. Over-selling
• Ignoring body language - going on and on
• Boring, pushy
• Golden rule - less is more
