One mistake is thinking that because you are a seasoned speaker, you can wing it.
I am not saying your presentation won’t be good, but how do you know if your timing is right if you aren’t prepared?
How do you know if your points are clear, well-developed, and obvious to your audience
Read More...Sales presentation skills expert Patricia Fripp has provided a sales sampler from her FrippVT.com web-based training. Enjoy!
“Back in 2018, we invited you to help us with an important sales presentation, which we won. You will be as excited to know, that it continues to reap dividends! Last year, we were awarded $1.6 million in business with them. We just received a $2.8 million order from them already this year and it is still January. Your advice and coaching are awesome. What an ROI!” Michael E. Stryczek, President & CEO, AB&R® (American Barcode and RFID)
Take advantage of my Special Report on The 11 Mistakes Sales Professionals Make in Their Presentations.
With well-chosen words, you can open your presentation and establish an immediate emotional bond. As a presentation skills coach, when I work with a group, I’ll invite individuals to come to the front and deliver their opening lines. On one occasion, up walked Stephen. He began to tell the facts of his experience of living with deafness since birth. After he spoke, the audience was sympathetic; however, he had not made a connection. He was also missing an opportunity.
I took him aside and suggested he try a different approach. Stephen spoke again saying, “Imagine how my parents felt as the doctor walked into the waiting room and said, ‘I am so sorry to tell you this, but your beautiful boy is deaf.’” He painted a vivid picture of this pivotal moment in his parents’ lives. Whether or not audience members were parents themselves, they were able to emotionally connect with the situation. You could feel a change in the room.
You have many theatrical choices in how you open your presentation.
Read More...Don’t waste your opening words. Prepare a winning opening and give it extra attention as you rehearse your presentation.
A relevant and compelling quote is one way to open a presentation and engage your audience. General Eisenhower said, “Leadership is the ability to decide what has to be done and then to get people to want to do it.” When I talk on leadership, I often begin with that quote. I’m also a believer in quoting others besides dead white men––although many of them have made wonderful, inspiring, and educational comments.
Consider quoting live individuals. When I’m talking about getting and keeping customers, I say, “As Bill Gates said, ‘When you lose a customer, you lose two ways. First, you don’t get their money. And second, your competitor does.’” I pantomime stabbing myself in the heart, which usually gets a laugh.
As the great philosopher, Raquel Welch said, “Style is being yourself, but on purpose.”
I add, “Every time you stand up to address an audience, you have to be yourself, but slightly larger than life. In other words, on purpose.”
A great source for quotes is the very audience you are addressing or people they are familiar with.
At a four-day Texas Instruments conference, I told the audience, “I’m here to tell you how to future-proof your careers.” Two days earlier, I had heard their chairman use the phrase “future-proof” when discussing their strategy and the results they expect for the company.
He said, “Our strategy is to future-proof the shareholders’ investment.” I borrowed his words to connect with the audience, as they were his associates, not investors. The phrase already had the company stamp of approval. What made that engagement a great success was the fact I quoted every single person who had spoken on the program before me over the prior three days.
Any important or recent quote related to the industry or organization you are addressing can get you immediate attention and establish a connection between you and your listeners. I often quote something from my client’s most recent corporate report.
Clients tell me, “We’re so glad you quoted our chairman. We always send the report to our associates, and we don’t think they ever read it.”
Unfortunately, speakers often go with predictable quotes from sports stars, writers, texts, and celebrities. Don’t bore your audience with familiar and tired quotes.
Get creative. Get ready to take notes. Make a list from your own sources as you ask yourself, “What quote, memorable saying, keen insight, or witticism can I take from…”
My father, mother, siblings, grandmother, grandfather?
My teacher or coach?
My first boss or manager who inspired me?
My successful or even brilliant clients?
Myself?!!
Here are some of my responses to this exercise that you may use if you like––just give me credit!
“Don’t concentrate on making a lot of money, but rather concentrate on becoming the type of person people want to do business with, and you most likely will make a lot of money.”
“Of course, it is the inner you that counts, but dress up and look good so you can attract people so they can find out how nice you are, how smart you are, and how valuable you can be to them.”
“Discipline is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.”
“Keep promoting––even when your appointment calendar is full. You need to resell to the clients you already have that this is still the place they want to come.”
“I will spend an hour editing an eight-word sentence into five.”
“All I ever wanted in business is an unfair advantage.”
“Don’t celebrate closing a sale, celebrate opening a relationship.”
“The answer is no if you don’t ask.”
When your quotes are new to your audience, your entire message will sound fresh and original.
For hundreds of Patricia Fripp and family Frippicisms that you can use in your speeches, articles, PowerPoint, and tweets––as long as full credit is given. www.fripp.com/about-patricia-fripp/frippicisms/
FrippVT is a state-of-the-art, web-based training platform that emulates live training and coaching. It is almost as if Presentation Expert and Executive Speech Coach Patricia Fripp is sitting in front of you. FrippVT is designed to be immediately engaging and makes it fun to learn. If you are a novice presenter or a seasoned professional, you will find the content both practical and relevant.
Sign up for your complimentary trial and discover how FrippVT can transform you and your team. Take advantage of your free trial. www.FrippVT.com
Executive Speech Coach and Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker Patricia Fripp works with individuals and companies who realize that powerful, persuasive presentation skills give them a competitive edge.
Enjoy this segment from FrippVT online learning platform.
Memorable messages are now more important than ever, especially in today’s virtual world. What techniques can lead you to the results that you want? Patricia Fripp is one of the world’s foremost speech coaches working with executives from the Fortune 100 and the top professional speakers on how to make more powerful presentations, and Patricia joins us now in the studio to talk about how to get amazing results from your next presentation. Welcome to Be Amazing Or Go Home.
Shep Hyken: I’ve got a number of questions, first of all, yes, you are the speech coach to the stars, both in the corporate world as well as the professional speaking world. Hall of Fame speakers, speakers that have won awards have come to you to get their coaching, … including myself, I’m a proud client. I hope I’ve done you good service. Let’s begin with this.
Dr. Qubein is the President of High Point University, a great speaker, corporate advisor, author, and past president of the National Speakers Association. He asked me, “Can anyone become a good speaker?” “Why do so many fear public speaking?” “What is important to know about putting together a speech?”
When you have 25 minutes you can listen to my answers.
Read More...I have been coaching people virtually for at least 10 years. Even before Zoom was invented, I had my own virtual studio.
Although I still speak professionally, my major business now is helping other people with their presentations, whether they are executives, salespersons, engineers for technology companies, or other successful speakers and experts.
Many of my large Silicon Valley clients engage me to prepare their technical experts to speak at their customer conferences. Last year and this, they are virtual. In future years, I predict they will have both online and in-person conferences.
If you do not understand the technology, nothing else works. Certainly, Zoom is a popular platform; learn how to use it. You must up your game. It’s perfectly fine to work from your office, but I advise my clients to straighten out all the books on their bookshelves. It might be a bit busy, however, you need to make it tidy,
Recently at a client’s conference, one of my roles and responsibilities was to introduce other speakers, all of whom I had recommended. A couple of them spoke multiple times to the same audience.
The toughest slot of the day is that of the concluding speaker before the cocktail party and buffet at the hotel’s trendy nightclub.
Imagine sitting in the audience in a large ballroom in a fabulous Las Vegas hotel. You have been locked at home for almost two years. Not far outside the ballroom door are shops, shows, eateries, bars, spas, slot machines, and games of chance. Even walking to your comfortable hotel room is an adventure for watching exotic-looking people you do not see in Iowa. It is 4 pm and you have been in the ballroom since 8 am.
My introduction of the concluding speaker had to keep them in their chairs long enough for the speaker to engage them. I began,
I introduced my long-time friend, Nacole Schapiro before her speech to the Golden Gate Breakfast Club. Although she is a professional keynote speaker who often presents on negotiation and change,
Her family lived in fear that they would be shot if it were discovered that every night they would go into their basement and read a book about America.
There is nothing more exciting for an executive speech coach than to help craft the words of a well-intentioned leader who has an exciting message to deliver and is committed to the collaborative process.
Delivered by Tabassum Zalotrawala, Chief Development Officer, Chipotle
Finding Opportunity in Adversity
Growing up in Muscat, Oman, my brother and I were always enthralled by my father’s stories of his journey from Mumbai to Oman.
Imagine how he felt at age 20, stepping onto a boat to make the arduous seven-day voyage to Oman. He arrived in a country that had no real roads or electricity and began the adventure of creating a new life.
Read More...
Receive free, on-going Fripp webinar invitations, sales and presentation skills information, and special discounts from Executive Speech Coach, Sales Presentation Trainer, and Professional Keynote Speaker, Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE. As an added bonus, sign up now and receive a free copy of Patricia Fripp’s How to Present and Teach in the Virtual World.
