My favorite sales book by a million miles is Solution Selling by Michael Bosworth. To try and summarize it would be to do a disservice to the author and the sales method, so I’ll not do that. A fundamental tenet of the book, however, is this: You don’t pull out your product and start demonstrating. [...]
Read moreThanks to all who participated in my Facebook Photostrip-tease contest, and congratulations to the five lucky winners of my book, 50 Minutes to Better Software Demos: Leo Mercado, Matt Kenslea, Ryan DeGrote, Steve Freund and Steven Elliot! Now that the contest is over, I had to come up with a new strategy for arranging the [...]
Read moreBy now you’ve probably noticed that the Facebook Business Page layout has been overhauled to more closely resemble the design of Facebook Profiles (which was also upgraded a few months back). Page administrators can manually upgrade to the new layout now, or wait for the March 1 automatic upgrade. You can learn all about the Facebook Page upgrade here. [...]
Read moreHad the pleasure of helping lead a Brainshark for Publishers workshop this month. The pleasure came from working with a group of people who were very willing to pass on their own best practices and lessons learned. Here are some of the Brainshark tips we came up with: Accept the fact that you cannot teach [...]
Read moreIf you’re a marketing or product development person in the college publishing industry, it’s likely your holiday cheer is counter-balanced by the stress associated with sales meeting planning. Here are 5 tips to help you run a meeting session that shines next month: Lose the corporate slide template. Your company logo and the meeting “theme” [...]
Read moreMany great sales presenters struggle with giving software demos. Understandable. It’s a lot harder to peck away at the keyboard and zip around the screen while a crowd of buyers is watching and listening to your narration. Like any skill, conducting a smooth, live demo takes lots and lots of practice. But I’m not suggesting you [...]
Read moreAt the risk of restating a concept that has been beaten to death: For a presentation to work correctly, it has to tell a story. Given that a significant number of sales presentations are still ineffective, it’s likely that most presenters think this concept is trivial—or that most people believe that “telling a story” trivializes [...]
Read moreI have a tip when it comes to collaborating on PowerPoint slides. Don’t. No, that’s not entirely true. Getting constructive feedback from peers and making adjustments before you take your show on the road is a good thing. But there’s a difference between collaborating on a slide deck, and collaborating on a presentation. This, of [...]
Read moreOne of the best ways to align with your audience during a presentation is to mingle with them beforehand. Make it a goal to introduce yourself to at least three attendees as they get settled. You’ll get a better sense of personality types (lighthearted? good-natured? painfully serious?), and you’ll be able to identify particular hot [...]
Read moreFollow-up items pile up quickly for those of us who demonstrate on a regular basis. This is a good thing. Following up keeps the client in arm’s reach, and it gives us the opportunity to show up our competitors. And looking better than the competition is cool. Here are 6 suggestions to keep in mind [...]
Read moreMatt's mission is simple: Helping people make presentations that win business.
Matt is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), the leading organization for professional speakers.
Order Matt's book, 50 Minutes to Better Software Demos, at Amazon and other online booksellers.
