Presentation Effectiveness

Think about those times when you went on your first date and you really wanted to make a good first impression. Did you start out by detailing your life history? Probably not.  Yet, when making a business presentation, many people start out with a slide detailing their organization history.  An article by Leadership IQ states that most presenters start out by talking about themselves, right from the first slide, and destroy their presentation.

Most people are selfish in that they want to hear or see in the presentation something that will benefit them and they care little about the speaker, or his organization’s background. If the speaker is putting forth something relevant and useful to the audience, it matters not how important the speaker thinks he/she is and and/or their organization.

So how should you start? First add to your understanding of their needs. Ask them what they want to accomplish with today’s conversation. Note the word conversation, you are not there to preach a sermon. It is best if you can get the audience involved. The next key word is listen; listen to their desires and note them down to make sure you address them. This note taking also exhibits a sincere desire to hear from the audience about what would make this a good experience for them; very important to make your talk effective.

Next, pay attention to the mechanics of your presentation. A good thing to remember is that any extemporaneous talk is well rehearsed. You are probably not intentionally making an extemporaneous talk but you need to be flexible to respond to the audience input at the beginning of your presentation. Know your subject so thoroughly that you can adjust the presentation to address the stated needs and wants of the audience. This may be more difficult if you are using slides. But, if you are just using a few slides to reinforce key points that you want the audience to remember, you can easily adopt your oral presentation to use the key points to fit the audiences stated needs.  Slides should never be just read, which is very boring. A good point to remember is that any talk worth listening to is worth learning by the presenter.

Address the audience; look them in their eyes. Of course, if you have your back to them reading your slides, this is difficult to do. Make sure at the start that everyone can hear you and annunciate clearly. Take your time and don’t race through your presentation. Pay attention to your body language, it sometimes tells as much as what you are saying. Have excitement in your voice and body language. You really want to get the audience with you; bobbing their heads up and down.

The conclusion of the presentation should leave your audience on a high note. This can be accomplished by addressing the benefits of whatever you are promoting in your talk. Again these benefits should tie back to the audience input in the beginning and your understanding of their needs. Use case studies, when you can, which are relevant to the audience.

Last, “ask for the order”. Get the audience to agree to take the action that you desire. Make it easy for them to say “yes”. Presentations without resultant action are generally of little value.

Find Your Niche

“Give the razor away and make your money off of the razor blades” sounds like a good business strategy, doesn’t it? Perhaps Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. thought so when they developed the Keurig© single-serve coffee makers which made a huge impact on the coffee distribution market. They recognized that a segment of the coffee drinkers wanted to be able to conveniently get a fresh cup of coffee when the mood struck them. They differentiated themselves by developing a single cup coffee maker that used a patented container with enough coffee grounds for that one cup. So simple!

Southwest Airlines also made a big impact on their market by being different.  They took complexity and cost out of flying by selling tickets at the gate obviating the need of paying travel agents. They also eliminated in-flight services like providing food, and minimizing any baggage handling services. Convenience and simplicity won out over frills.

IKEA differentiated itself in the home furnishing business by targeting on the young working family with children. Their stores are open for extended hours and customers can browse at their leisure through displays of products arranged as they might be at home. Customers note the items they wish to purchase, pay for them, and pick them up themselves in the warehouse portion of the store. They assemble them at home and save. Again, differentiation and simplicity are keys to the strategy.

So, what can you learn from this? First, know your self and your business. What Can You Do Well that will set you apart from the masses? At what are you the best, what is your competitive advantage, and is it sustainable? Do you have special talents or can they be procured or attained? You can’t be the best at everything so you need to focus on a market niche in which you can dominate, at least be number one or two in your niche. Time, money, and efforts should be coordinated and focused on this object.

Second, What Provides Emotional Satisfaction? Certainly you should look forward to going to your home and family at the end of the day, but your work should be so enjoyable that you are excited to get back to it in the morning. What provides you with pride in your performance? What provides fulfillment that you are doing something worthwhile? Does your present position in your business lead to your ultimate goal in your career?

Third, What Provides Financial Satisfaction? Money is not always a motivator, in fact, it can be a de-motivator, but it must be considered and planned for. In other words is it worth it? It is valuable, in my opinion, a must to develop a profit and loss statement for your business or yourself. It should detail all revenue and expenses by category for the next year by month. Then update it each month and add a month on the end so you always have a running twelve months looking forward at your actual vs. planned, and take action as needed. Ensure that not only your present financial needs are being satisfied, but also that you are on plan to meet your retirement financial needs.

Finding your niche in your business market or career that satisfies your emotional and financial needs is easier said than done. But, it is critical to your happiness. Finding the strategic position for your business or career is not obvious. It requires creativity and insight that comes about through thinking and effort.

Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

At a recent meeting of business leaders, the question was raised on how to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts. That is a question that is near and dear to most businesses as the opportunities to promote one’s business seems endless today.

First, determine that the right products/services are being marketed. One of the best resources to study is the book, Competing for the Future, subtitled Breakthrough Strategies for Seizing Control of your Industry and Creating the Markets of Tomorrow, by Hamel and Prahalad..

The authors make a good point to study the right groups of customers and prospects. They break these groups down into those who are customers today and those who are desired to be new customers. Both groups are then divided into those who express their needs and wants and those who don’t reveal their wants and needs (maybe they don’t even know themselves). So customers can be surveyed, and that is good, but what about those who would be desirable customers and those who don’t express what they want. Somehow a process is needed to extract those real needs and wants from all groups. A simple survey of key people in all those groups is one way to get effective feedback on supplying products/services that satisfy the needs of the marketplace. The survey needs to be simple; if it takes too long or too much work, people will not respond. If mailed or emailed, it should be no longer than one page, including space for answers. Open-ended, probing questions are most useful because they can reveal information beyond which is anticipated.

One also needs to understand the market for the product/service. “Shotgun Marketing” is employed when reaching out to the general public is needed. An example would be for a general merchandise store. “Rifle-shot Marketing” is used when the target market is a narrow segment of the public. An example would be for a septic service business that only needs to market to owners of septic tanks. It might be possible to obtain a list of residences that have a permit for a septic system and direct marketing can be employed to focus only on those who might have needs for the service.

Secondly, a follow-up survey can be made to determine if the best approach to reaching customers/prospects is being used. This is also a simple survey to determine what attracted customers to buy and what would attract new prospects to buy. It can be broken into two parts:

·      Traditional Marketing

o   Sales force

o   Image-storefront, location, packaging

o   Word-of-Mouth

o   Networking

o   Advertising-newspaper, radio, television, billboards, other

o   Leaflets

o   Press Releases

o   Direct mail

o   Other

·      Electronic Marketing

o   Web Site

o   Email “Blasts”

o   Targeted Email

o   FaceBook

o   Twitter

o   Other

The cost in terms of time and money obviously varies greatly with the different approaches, as well as effectiveness. Armed with the responses to the above survey, a simple return on investment can be made on each approach tried. It is wise to try different methods and monitor results. Be sure to consider the cost of time involved in the computations.

There is satisfaction in having data upon which to base decisions. Knowledge of which products/services of the business satisfy the real needs and wants of customers/prospects and knowledge of where to focus marketing efforts will provide guidance to maximize return on marketing efforts.

Three Key Business Elements

Most everyone wants to succeed and they are looking for the magic answer, or “silver bullet”, to improve their business or organization. They tend to want success and they want it now. That such a thing does not exist is very close to the truth. Organizational performance improvement requires dedication, perseverance, hard work, and knowledge. As Dr. Noriaki Kano of Japan says, he wishes it were easy, but it is a hot and sweaty job.

That having been said, there are three key elements to a successful business operation that are worth exploring: strategic planning, daily activity, and teamwork.

A good strategic plan will identify the organization vision (ideal end target), mission (purpose), organizational values, and action steps required to reach the vision in the desired time. The action steps are usually between three and twelve in number. The plan is communicated to all employees, investors, boards if any, and even to key customers and suppliers. Each employee then identifies what action they need to take to help the organization complete its actions steps to reach its objectives. In communicating this plan, it is important to remember communication has two parts, sending and receiving. It is important that every employee understand the various elements of the plan and the need to make it happen.

Daily activity, sometimes called daily management, is a system that enables everyone to know what he or she has to do to make the organization run smoothly. It includes what has to be measured and controlled to make this happen. Important to effective daily activities is the participation of all employees in the discovery and implementation of small, incremental, continuous improvements that they can make in their own work environment.

All employees need to understand:

·      The organization’s strategic plan

·      Who the customers are

·      The customers’ needs and expectations

·      Who the suppliers are

·      How to communicate accurately your needs and expectations to your suppliers

·      The benefits of the product/service that you provide to the ultimate user

·      How your job fits into the overall product/service that your organization provides

·      The work processes involved in doing your job

·      How you will be recognized for continuous improvement activities

·      Yourself, your strengths, limitations, and preferences

Good teamwork needs to be understood and practiced up, down, and across the entire organization.  Not only does this apply to all employees, but also to key suppliers, customers, the community, and ownership. This extended system must work together to achieve common organizational targets such as quality, cost, delivery, and productivity.

Mastering these three elements is not easy, nor quick. But the dividend of success of the organization and satisfaction of employees makes it all worthwhile, and maybe even necessary.