Business Presentations – Professional Timing Secrets

The clock doesn’t lie!

If you are giving business presentations, no doubt you’re working within a timeframe. Your clients and prospects are busy people. They want to get the most value out of time spent in your presentation.

Professional public speakers often record their talks — and practice delivering to fit within specific time slots. One hour? Got it. Twenty minutes? No problem. Ten? It’s a snap.

What is it that professionals know — that you can use too?

These 4 secrets can help you time your performance for perfect success.

Secret 1: Time Your Opening

Most likely, you will use the same opening, even for presentations that vary in length. When you practice your initial start and focus on your key points, you can develop a highly persuasive introduction.

In addition, your opening sets the tone for your entire presentation. When you start strong, you’re going to grab audience attention. Then, you are in a good position to hold attention for the duration.

Secret 2: Rehearse For Every Timeslot

Even if you are very familiar with your topic and presentation, rehearse and practice for each timeslot. Your stories will vary. Audience interaction will expand and contract based on time available.

During face-to-face delivery, you are likely to speak more slowly than in rehearsals. This is due to adding impromptu comments, adding stories, and interacting with your audience.

Alternatively, if you are extremely nervous about presenting, you may talk faster — and race through your talk without taking a breath. To avoid this downhill slide, practice so you are comfortable with the best pacing for every amount of time.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking; “I could do this in my sleep.” If you could, you just might sleep through the alarm signaling the end of your allotted time.

Secret 3: Practice Questions and Answers

Answering questions is one of the most critical areas to stay within your timeframe is answering questions. Practice giving brief and concise answers with your presentation coach or with peers.

Focus on the questions you anticipate most from each specific audience. Practice giving shorter and longer answers – while still remaining personable. This provides several options for being able to manage your time – and create interaction with your audience.

If you are giving an extremely short summary, it is acceptable to say, “I’m so sorry I don’t have time for questions right here. But I will be available to answer your questions one-on-one.”

Alternatively, you can provide your contact information and say, “I’m sorry our time is so short. I’m happy to answer you questions personally. Just contact me directly.”

These comments encourage participants to ask their questions — at a later time. In addition, comments such as these also show your willingness to share your expertise and make the best use of the limited time you have to present your information.

Secret 4: Work With an Expert Coach.

Whether you are new to presenting or highly experienced, a professional coach can give you objective feedback. He or she can instantly spot small changes, which can dramatically improve your performance.

One of the most fascinating areas of feedback will be on how to be effective in any time slot. In working with your coach, be sure to ask for timing feedback. This can help you increase confidence and be ready to happily adapt an hour presentation into a 10-minute summary.

Develop your presentation skills so you can communicate effectively to any audience. Timing is one of the trickiest areas and is critical for success in business presentations. 

How to Invite Your Warm Market to a Business Presentation One on One!

I cant remember the one person who has joined a MLM or network marketing company and has not been told to work their warm market. Now that is absolutely fine but a lot of enrollers fail to train the newly sponsored the right way.

The most important thing for a person working their warm market is to learn how to invite properly. When introducing your opportunity to new prospects you should be giving them no information on products, services or your actual opportunity. I am not saying you want to lie to anyone, but you do not want them to prejudge your business before they have seen its entirety.

Imagine you receive a phone call from a friend and he says, you will not believe this I have found a business opportunity and its going to make us rich. I would say that most people would be thinking yeah okay, while they roll their eyes back into their head. The first time I was approached with an opportunity it was by a friend. He wanted me to come by his house and meet a guy who makes $40,000 dollars a month, the first thing to go through my head was, this sounds like a scam. Now that is the last thing you want going through anybody’s mind who you are about to introduce to you your business. Eventually I did go see the presentation but he called me four times over the next week to ask me to come. Come to find out it was not a scam. Now even though I did go see the presentation, who has time to call the same people over and over, let alone who wants to keep bothering there friends and family.

So lets get into the invite. When calling a prospect two very important things you want to happen when talking to them is excitement and urgency. Excitement is going to draw them in and make them really wonder what it is that you want to show them. Urgency is going to create the affect that there is a demand for it and if they don’t want to see it somebody else does and will.

Now what to say… You do not want to jump right into what you really called them for to talk about. Now before saying anything make sure you tell them you are on your way out the door and that you only have a few minutes to talk. This way they will know you don’t have time to talk all day and it will allow your conversation to be short and sweet. Allow some chit chat but keep it to a minimum. Try to keep the conversation in the 2-3 minute range. Once the chit chat is out of the way, explain to them how you just started a new project or business adventure. Which ever you prefer. Tell them when you saw the project you thought of them. The next thing you should say should sound like: Do you think you could meet me for a coffee? More then likely they are going to say yes. Now make sure you confirm a time and place and tell them you are going to put it into your appointment book. By doing this they will know your time is valuable and you are on a schedule. I know you are wondering what about objections. That is easy don’t worry. Explain to them by you telling them about it, it would do it any justice and you want them to see it the same way you did. More then likely they will understand. Don’t forget to use urgency and excitement. If they keep on asking say, look I would not waste your time if this was not something worth your while and mine.

The Difference Between Sports and Sales Negotiation – Winning

What does it mean to “win” a sales negotiation? This sure looks like a simple question doesn’t it? I think that in our minds, we all know what we think winning looks like – after all, we see it in sports all the time. However, things are just a bit different when it comes to sales negotiations…

In sports, winning sometimes is achieved by a blowout – the football game that ends up 60 – 0, the no-hitter in baseball, etc. What’s interesting is that although these are clear victories for one team, the viewers get bored quickly and turn off the game – why bother if you already know who’s going to win. A lot of Superbowl games have been like this.

It turns out that sales good negotiations are a lot more like sports games that are too close to call right up until the last moment.

Dr. Chester Karrass goes about defining a sales negotiation winner as being someone who “.. understands what his or her objectives are and takes the time to achieve what is possible through the bargaining process.”

The interesting thing here is that “getting the lowest / highest price” is nowhere to be found in this definition – I think that that speaks volumes. During a sports competition, nobody spends any time worrying about what they can do to make a better deal for the other side. However, during a sales negotiation, this can be critical because you’re going to be dealing with the other side in the future and this negotiation is just the start.

Finally, one of the keys to being a successful sales negotiator is to make sure that the other side ends up being satisfied with the final deal that you reach. Unlike sports, it’s not over once the deal has been inked. The other side still needs to deliver on their promises and you want them to be happy to do so – not unhappy and looking for ways to cut corners in order to make back some of what they feel that they’ve lost!