Perfecting Your Pitch: You Can’t Be Blah.
The more alike any two businesses (or job candidates are) the more important every difference becomes in getting you hired. Why? Because the client is looking for them! Looking closely and deliberately, just the way you do when you look at identically dressed identical twins. You are looking for even the slightest thing to distinguish one from the other, and once you see it, it stands out like a beacon. That’s why you should prepare your proposals, RFP responses, cover letter, resume and ultimately your new business pitch or interview by anticipating what most other people do. And then do….
Tags: Communication, Marketing, Presentation Skills, Sales
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Less ordinary, more effective marketing in six minutes, 40 seconds.
After I was selected to make a 20/20 Lightening Round presentation at the National Speakers Association annual convention this month, it made me realize how much CAN be said in a short amount of time. If you focus, rehearse, re-focus, reject, revise and rehearse a whole lot more. Context? The Lightening Round is a 6-minute, 40 second presentation that consists of 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. Whether you are ready are not. You can decide if I was or wasn’t right here.
Tags: Communication, Humor, Marketing, Presentation Skills
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Timeout for a Personal Turning Point
It was a simple question, but I had two answers. There was the one I didn’t like, probably because it came straight from my gut and, ultimately, I knew it was the right answer. I also had the polite, Pollyanna answer, the one I concocted to say aloud when it was my turn to share with the group. Answer it truthfully, or tell the lie? I went with the lie. I lied to them, I lied to myself and I lied to Mark LeBlanc, who had posed the question at one of his Achiever’s Circle weekends in 2001. I was….
Tags: Communication, Personal
Posted in Communication, General, Random Thoughts, Observations | 4 Comments »
What’s the point?
We’ve all been there. You’ve suffered through a meeting or presentation where a rambling, all-over-the-place, disjointed, thinking-out-loud, more-likely-than-not rushed person tries to tell, sell or convince of you something. And ‘fess up, you’ve done it yourself to others when making presentations. As I mentioned last month, the universal problem when it comes to so-called presentation skills is that we just have too much stuff inside our heads. (Actually, it applies to most communication.) We think surely, if we just get enough stuff out of our heads and into the listener’s ears, something relevant will click or stick. They will see….
Tags: Communication, Marketing, Presentation Skills, Sales
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Maybe you don’t need presentation skills after all?
I recently had the opportunity to work with an architectural firm on what most people might call presentation skills. I love doing that kind of work, but I always hesitate when the opportunity first presents itself. Why? Because most people don’t need presentation skills training. They think they do. They think that if they just knew what to do with their slides, notes and moveable body parts their presentation problems would be solved. Not necessarily; not in my experience. You see, there are three parts to any message you want to communicate: 1. Content: what you’re going to say. 2…..
Tags: Communication, Presentation Skills, Sales
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Funny Website Names
CAUTION: This post is rated PG-13. I am a big fan of using initial caps when typing or printing a website url because it just makes it so much easier for the reader to “get it.” That’s why I always use www.MaverickMarketing.com for my consulting and workshop site or www.BlahBlahBlah.us for my speaking site. Wait till you see the sites my friend Scott “Q” Marcus, THINspirational Speaker and Recovering Perfectionist, told me about. Here are a few where punctuation–a capital letter here and there–makes all the difference in the world. Enjoy! (And smile, it’s Friday.) Experts Exchange is a knowledge….
Tags: Communication, Funny Friday, Humor, Marketing
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What’s Your Story?
The Search Engine That Could. Google has bragging rights, no doubt about it. They’re the biggest, some might even say The Best, and they have top-of-mind name recognition all over the planet. Yet, when it came time for a Superbowl commercial, they didn’t say any of that. Not directly anyway. Instead, they told a story. A love story. No actors, no voice over announcer describing how Google works or why you should try it, not much of a production budget, either. And they still had you at the first frame, intrigued and involved in the message, connecting the dots, theater….
Tags: Advertising, Creativity, Marketing
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Q&A for a Competitive Advantage
1. Who is your competition? That’s neither a rhetorical or “dumb” question. Your competition is both physical and mental. You could probably fill a page with a list of companies you consider to be competitors, and perhaps you should. However, the only competition you have to be concerned with is the competition that exists in the minds of your prospects. Who else are they considering buying this product or service from? Maybe your competition is invisible. Maybe you’re the only source being considered. You still have competition—complacency. Maybe they’re contemplating doing it themselves, or not doing anything. How would that….
Posted in Advertising, Communication, General, Marketing, Sales | 2 Comments »
Thank you. I mean it.
Your belief in me, my work and my relentless pursuit all things less ordinary is both delightful and downright humbling at the same time. So what better time than now to simply say “Thank You” for subscribing to my AnythingButBlah email blast/blog? Thank you. Actually, now that I’ve said it–and I do still, really truly mean it–maybe there IS a better time to say “thank you”? After all, it’s almost Thanksgiving, and that’s when just about everyone is going around thinking about what they’re thankful for–and you know how I am about doing what everybody else does. So, how could….
Posted in General, Random Thoughts, Observations | 3 Comments »
Don’t Blame the Marketing Medium
Before you say “I tried [direct mail] [phone calls] [networking] [whatever] and it doesn’t work,” look at your message, before you blame the medium. Odds are it wasn’t the strategy’s fault, but more likely that your message was boastful, blatant or boring. After all, no one wakes up in the morning hoping to get a sales pitch, and if your marketing message smacks of “hey, look at me and what I’ve got,” then it’s all about you, not about them, and we all know which of the two it is that people care more about. Instead, build some intrigue into….
Posted in Advertising, Communication, General, Marketing | 3 Comments »
