Some people give a speech to promote themselves or get people to hire them. Some give presentations that provide information about their company and hopefully get others to work with them, their company, or, at the very least support their company. Others also work with nonprofits and do presentations to get people to donate. The problem is there are three big mistakes that people make when presenting, and it happens over and over again. In this episode, Elizabeth Bachman discusses the three biggest mistakes that even smart and savvy presenters make that cost you sales, donations, or buy-in – and how to fix them!
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3 Presenting Mistakes That Cost You Sales Or Buy-In
…And What To Do About Them
I am the featured speaker because I want to talk about one of the things that I’m passionate about, which are the three big presenting mistakes that even smart and savvy presenters make when they’re trying to get results and how to fix them. Before we start, I’d like to invite you to go over to take a free assessment at www.SpeakForResultsQuiz.com. You could take a free assessment to find out where your strengths are and where you might need a little support. The three big presenting mistakes that cost you sales. This is in the context of giving a speech or giving a sales presentation. Some of us give a speech to promote ourselves, to get people to hire us. That’s what I do. Some of us give a presentation that gives people information about your company and hopefully gets them to work with you, work with the company or at the very least, support your company. I do a lot of work with nonprofits and there you’re doing a presentation that’s going to get people to donate hopefully.
The problem is there are three big mistakes that people make. It happens over and over again. They don’t get the results they want. First of all, let’s say a little something about sales. Any presentation where you want to get a monetary result is a sales speech. Sales often have a bad reputation. That whole used car, “Come on and buy my car.” That has given a bad reputation. I often like to think of this as an enrollment speech. If you’re giving a speech to enroll people into the idea that they should donate to your nonprofit, work with your company, consider you a thought leader or in the case of many, to hire us, to work with us, to invest in themselves by working with us, in all these cases, it’s a result that you’re looking for. It’s a sales speech, you might call it even an enrollment speech.
Not Being Relevant To The Audience
In order to get these results, you need three things. You need a strategy so that you’re talking to the right people. You need a script. You need the right kind of words. You need a compelling delivery style. These are the things where people make such great mistakes that I’m going to talk about. First of all, strategy, the first big mistake that I see people make is not being relevant to the audience. You might think you’re being relevant but if they’re not responding, if they’re checking out, if they’ve maybe pulled out their phone and they’re checking their messages, you’re not relevant to them.
When you want to make a difference, not just a point! Click To TweetQuite often, you’re not addressing their problems and pain. I know people talk about stress, the pain these days, and it may not be comfortable to do so. After all, there is a reason why they’ve come to listen to you. They’ve come to hear you because they’re hoping you have a solution to their problem. Address what it is that they want. You can always give them what they need later, but make sure you know why people have come. One of the great things is one of the great tips that I use all the time is if you’re giving a speech at an event, make sure you’re there at the beginning. Make sure you talk to people as they come in. Welcome them and say, “What brought you here? Why are you interested?”
That way you have an idea of what their pains are, what the problem is, and you can address that so that they say, “Yes, she’s talking to me. He’s got the idea. He knows where my problem is and he understands me.” Sometimes even though you’re addressing the right thing, you’re not speaking to the right people. Another piece of strategy is to make sure you know who needs what it is you have to offer. For instance, I’m happily married, I don’t need to go to a relationship coach who is going to teach me how to get a date with the right person. I get lots of invitations for these and I say, “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m happy where I am.” Make sure you know who you’re speaking to and whether they need what you’re looking for. The first problem is not being relevant and the answer is, know who you’re speaking to. Make sure you’re addressing their pain.
Too Much How, Not Enough Why
The second biggest problem is too much how, not enough why. By that, I mean telling people how to do what you want them to do without telling them why they should care. This is Sales 101. It’s selling the benefits, not the process, not the features. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. It’s easy to get into how you do what you want to do. We’ve all done it. Here’s how you can fix that. Remind yourself that it’s all about them. Remind yourself that you want to give them value. Tell them the sorts of things that they can get when they are working with you, buy your product or work with your company. Focus on the benefits and what they’re going to get, not how they’re going to get it.
Presenting Mistakes: Make sure you know who you’re speaking to and whether they need what you’re looking for.
After all, if you told them the whole how you know it but they don’t, you’ll confuse them. If you give them too much information and you ask them to buy your course or hire you, that’s like feeding them a full meal and then asking them to pay for dessert. You want to give them just enough so that they do get value. Whether they work with you or not, whether they buy your product or not, they should come away knowing that they’ve learned something. After all, it’s all about service without giving away the whole store.
One of the ways you can think about it is to remind yourself that you are giving hope. You’re talking about the problem, identifying the problem that they have and offering them a solution. You give them a taste of the solution, but not the whole thing. I often find with speaker clients if I can remind them that they are a figure of hope by saying “There is a solution, it’s possible and I’ll show you how to do it if you come and work with me,” you don’t have to explain the whole thing. You have to explain just enough. The third biggest mistake is being bland or pushy. Think about it.
Being Bland Or Pushy
Have you ever heard a boring and bland speaker or for that matter? Have you ever heard of a pushy speaker? Have you ever been that bland or pushy speaker? I’m afraid I’ve done them both. That’s why I teach this because I’ve made all the mistakes myself. Here’s what you can do, work with someone who can watch you. You can’t see yourself. It’s like when you’re inside the bottle, you can’t read the label. Get somebody to be a living mirror, to give you feedback and work on your delivery style. After all, only 7% of what people perceive about you comes from your words. The other 93% is who you are in the room, how you look, how you act, and your charisma.
A sales speech is any kind of presentation where you want to get a result. Click To TweetThe cool thing about that, that’s all learnable. It’s not like you’re born with charisma and you either have it or you’re not. Charisma and stage presence is a learned skill. Some people learn it early, some people learn it later, but it’s all learnable. My client, Mary had great words. She had a great strategy. She had a great script, but her delivery style was terrible. What happened was the gremlins in her head would start talking. She’d get up and she would start talking to people. She’d get more and more nervous, her eyes would drop, her voice would go into a monotone and you could hardly hear her.
What we did was we worked on her delivery style a lot more than her words. She wrote to me once after a presentation and she said, “It was amazing. I was nervous because I only had three minutes. I wasn’t allowed to make an offer, but I did what you told me. I followed your directions. My friend said they’d never seen me so grounded and so compelling on stage. The best part was that afterward, eight people came up to my exhibition table and bought my introductory program.” I made $8,000 in three minutes. This is possible. It’s all learned skills. It’s all learning the craft of communication so that you can say what’s in your heart.
You can say what matters to you, but in a way that will enable your call to action, in a way that will tell people if they’re the right people for you that they need to work with you. They need to work with your company. They need to hire you. After all, sales are like sex. Nothing happens until somebody gets excited. If you’re interested in learning more about this, you can contact me by taking the quiz, the SpeakForResultsQuiz.com, fill that out so you have an idea of where you’re great and where you might need some support. I will get a message. We can have a free conversation to talk about what is that you need and how you could possibly go farther. Thank you so much for tuning in to Speakers Who Get Results.