Month: May 2008

Categories
Communication Skills

10 Things To Do Before Your Speech That Will Take The Nervousness Out Of You

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Inspired by Andrew Dlugan’s recent post “Stop Rehearsing! 3 Critical Things to Do Before Your Speech“, I will like to add to his list 7 more things you can do before your speech to take the nervousness out of you.
First, let’s do a quick recap of his three excellent pointers.
1. Study the venue logistics
2. Meet your audience (extra tip: build before rapport)
3. Watch, listen and participate in the event agenda
The rationale for #1 and #2 is straightforward – to reduce uncertainty, which is usually the main cause of a speaker’s nervousness. #3 is an extremely powerful strategy that is used by all professional speakers. And I strongly recommend you to do the same if you want to create impact in your presentation. Check out how Darren La Croix, 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking does it!
OK here’s my other 7.
4. Practice aloud your 30 seconds introduction
The first 30 seconds of any presentation is the most crucial because the audience is the most skeptical, and you the speaker is the most nervous. By making sure you have memorized your introduction, you will be less likely to fumble at the start. It helps to practice aloud too so that you know how you sound like. I will usually incorporate hand gestures too. By getting your entire body involved, your mind will be conditioned to think that you are doing the actual speech. And when you are on stage, you will feel like you have done in umpteen times. This has great effect in boosting your confidence.
5. Listening to music of your choice
Music is therapeutic and has a soothing effect on even the most nervous speaker. Here’s something you can try: create a personal playlist of music that works for you. It could be music that calms your nerves or music that perks you up. For some people, it is jazz. For some, it is loud heavy metal. Well to each its own. For me, instrumental music (especially piano recitals) works best (a.k.a Kevin Kern or SENS). What I usually do is to start listening to the music as I travel down to the speaking venue. And once I am there, I will usually start setting up and if possible, I will even play the playlist using their sound system. If they don’t allow them, you still have your ipod.
6. Do something that gets you in the mood
OK I know.. this sounds vague. Let me give you an example. I always get nervous before a contest. And sometimes it can get really bad. But what calms me down is watching some of my idols do their thing on stage. That includes comedians like Dane Cook and Russell Peters. Their cool demeanor never fails to make me feel relaxed. And I like how they make their audience laugh at cue. And after watching 3 – 5 mins of their gig, I will feel all motivated to also do the same. I suspect the laughing also helps a lot. So yes, watch something light-hearted.
There was once when I delivered a speech on human connection and in order to help me get into the mood, I watched a youtube video titled free hugs, which was what inspired me to deliver the speech in the first place.
So as you can tell, the form doesn’t matter, as long as you do something to get you into the mood.
7. Clear out the trash
This is a phrase I borrowed from this underground cult movie “The Peaceful Warrior”. Trash in this case is the clutter and voices in your head. Usually the black dogs. Here are some familiar ones:

You will never be good enough.
You don’t deserve to win.
They are going to walk out on me… just like the last time.
Aww.. you are trying to do your thing again. Don’t you remember how you failed the last time?
Why did I even agree to do this presentation… I am going to screw it up.
You are going to get too nervous and muck it all up!
I don’t have anything worthwhile to say, I am wasting their valuable time.
I am going to forget something important and look like a fool.

Most speakers empower these conversations by listening to them and believing in them. That’s why they look distracted and nervous on stage. The trick is to throw out these trash BEFORE your speech. Let me share with you one very effective way of doing so.
WRITE DOWN EVERY VOICE / CONVERSATION YOU HAVE IN YOUR HEAD.
Yes, it is that simple. All you need to do is just offload. Empty out all the voices in your head so that you can focus on delivering the presentation. What I like to do is to hand write it on a piece of A4 paper. Once I am done, I will crush the paper and dump it into the trashcan. The whole act itself is extremely liberating and really helps to keep you focused.
8. Do voice exercises
When you are nervous, your muscles tense up, including your throat. And if you don’t warm up, you will sound like a strangled frog on stage. Not a beautiful sight.
Voice exercises do not have to be complicated. Singing the scale works. Doing funny faces in private works too. Let me share with you a tried and tested procedure from a book titled “Preparing for Peak Performance”.
i. Massage your face. Loosen the jaw.
ii. Align your body, head, shoulders and spine; get grounded and breathe deeply
iii. Use sounds like “zzzzzzz”, “sssssss”, “haw” and “hoo”. Breathe deeply without lifting your shoulders
iv. Try some tongue twisters
v. Speak some key sentences from your presentation
If you have a microphone, I suggest you do a mike test too. So you know how you sound with a microphone. And of course to get used to holding and speaking from a mic.
9. Anchor yourself in a positive experience
Recall a positive experience where you did an excellent job on stage. Note your environment – what do you see, smell and hear? Be as specific as you can. The important thing is to re-experience the emotions – the excitement, relief, joy, happiness, pride etc. You can even pick a non-speaking experience like clinching a $100K business deal or a successful day out with your family. Any experience/memory that helps you re-experience the positive emotions.
As you are waiting to be called, close your eyes and relive your experience. Soak up all the emotions and then slowly open your eyes. Tell yourself that YOU CAN DO IT AGAIN. And then go do your thing!
10. Breathe deeply
If you recalled my first encounter with public speaking, you will remember how my best friend advised me to take 50 deep breaths to calm my nerves. And by the time I hit 20, I was hyperventilating. (grins)
Breathing deeply does help though… coz it helps your muscles relax. However you don’t have to do it 50 times. Sometimes doing it once is sufficient. The whole point is to help your body relax.
(Bonus) Ask yourself this question…
“Why am I delivering this speech in the first place?”
Remind yourself the value of your speech – how will your audience benefit from listening to you. Why is it so important for them to hear your message. In short, focus on your audience. That will also take the heat off you and allow you to put up a good show, because it is for a “higher purpose”.
Now go break a leg!

EricFengPhoto.jpgEric Feng is the go-to guy if you want to learn how to impress your investors and customers through public speaking. For more tips and tactics that you can use immediately in your next presentation, visit The Public Speaking Blog.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Ten Commandments of Sales

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YoungEntrepreneur: Ten Commandments of Sales:

1) Never take no for an answer
2) Give value first
3) Treat all customers like family
4) Always tell the trth
5) Prospect everyday
6) Keep a positive attitude
7) Return every phone call & email
8) Underpromise & Overdeliver
9) Never make an excuse for your price
10) Keep the faith

What do you think of the list? What would make your top ten list of commandments for sales?

The Ten Commandments of Sales [YoungEntrepreneur]

Categories
How-To Guides

How To Achieve Business Excellence

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This article is contributed by John Spence, a strategy consultant and executive trainer that has been traveling 200+ days-a-year for more than 14 years working for some of the top companies on the globe.
Its a manifesto on: Achieving Business Excellence – the six key things every business must focus on to attain and sustain business success.
1) Vivid Vision:
A clear and well-thought-out vision of what you are trying to create that is exceptionally
well communicated to everyone involved.
2) Best People:
Superior talents who are also masters of collaboration.
3) A Performance-Oriented Culture:
One that demands flawless operational execution, encourages constant improvement and
innovation, and completely refuses to tolerate mediocrity or lack of accountability.
4) Robust Communication:
Open, honest, frank and courageous, both internally and externally.
5) A Sense Of Urgency:
The strong desire to get the important things done while never wasting time
on the trivial.
6) Extreme Customer Focus:
Owning the voice of the customer and delivering what customers consider truly valuable.
Download Free full PDF version here:
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John Spence is a strategy consultant and executive trainer that has been traveling 200+ days-a-year for more than 14 years working for some of the top companies on the globe. He has his own website at http://johnspence.com/index.html and has compiled six key things for every business to focus on this manifesto “Change This!”

Categories
How-To Guides

How to Set Up An Efficient Article Tracking System

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One of the most successful online marketing strategies you can do these days is to submit your articles to various article submission websites. This is a great way to promote your services, your expertise, and, most importantly, grow your subscriber list!

It has been well documented that one-way links to your website increase search engine rankings more than reciprocal linking, and article submission is an excellent way to achieve one-way linking.

However, the downside is that it takes time to manually submit your articles, and if you have several articles, you could spend hours submitting them to the various websites. There is software available that will automatically submit your articles for you, but you do need to check this out carefully. And if you do decide to manually submit your articles you need to have a system in place that makes maximum use of your time, but also keeps a detailed record of which articles you’ve submitted where, and when.
If you have articles already written, you’re off to a great start. All you need to do now is to set up an article submission system. But if you don’t have any articles written, then you might find the task of writing quite daunting, and you’re not sure where to start.
I have always found a good article comes from working with my clients on a day-to-day basis. They might have a question that requires a detailed reply. Use this reply to form the basis of an article. For example I had one client ask me, ‘how do I get an mp3 audio file to you, and how do you turn it into a word document?’ I sent them back my reply and, hey presto, I’d got the basis for an article.
Brainstorm some ideas. Some great article titles, and which will also get you thinking, are:

[Number – odd numbers work best] Top Tips For [fill in the blank]
How To [fill in the blank].

Try and come up with three or four articles – you will probably find that you can think of a lot more!

So now you have your articles, you need a system for submitting those articles. Below are my tips for an organized and efficient article submission system (I use it so I know it works!):

1. Convert all your articles to plain text as this will make the submission process easier! Most article submission sites require plain text articles; some will allow html. You will need to refer to each site for their guidelines.
2. Create a spreadsheet to track your article marketing strategy.
3. Use this spreadsheet to track the article submission sites, log in info, and other relevant information.
4. Go to each of the article submission sites and submit each article to the article directory by copying and pasting from your plain text document.

Plan to spend about 20 minutes each week on your article marketing strategy – schedule this time in your calendar to keep yourself on track – and you’ll soon find your articles appearing all over the Internet!

Categories
Franchise How-To Guides

Franchisees – How to Develop An Effective Sales Plan

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When you are starting a franchise business for the first time, you need to be aware in advance of the type of products and services you will be selling to consumers within a particular target market industry. While in saying this, it might seem obvious to you, but understanding what your business is providing and to what customers you will be targeting is essential to the long term success of your business.
In order to ensure your business is successful from day one, consider writing up an effective sales plan, where you can state clearly who your customers are, what potential customers you need to target, how to pitch your sale and close the deal.
View the following points on how you can create an effective sales plan…
1. Study Your Consumer Base
The first step you should take in writing up an effective sales plan is to conduct some useful consumer market research. Understanding who your customers are and what their needs are will be essential to your selling pitch of products and services.
For example, if you are setting up a café franchise in your local community, you will want to target business professionals for lunch time specials, couples and families for evening meals and brunches, and finally take-away customers who will want on-the-go sandwiches and beverages. In understanding your market requirements and needs will make it easier for you to sell your services within a “niche market”.
Secondly, if you have existing clients who already know about your business brand and services, you should not rely solely on their consumer presence, but rather widen your existing consumer base to include new customers and find innovative ways to retain and build consumer loyalty to your brand and business.
In this way, you will effectively manage more business sales than if you didn’t carry out some vital consumer market research…
2. Set Realistic Goals
After deciding who your customer base is and why and how you will target them, the next step is define realistic goals on how you will achieve consistent sales growth for the forthcoming months of business.
This is not an easy task, but one that must be ascertained prior to the launch of the new franchise business. In order to be successful in the long term, you must set realistic weekly and monthly sales goals and it is up to you or a sales employee to determine these goals and how to reach them.
Most importantly with this step is not to be too ambitious with your sales targets, you need to allow yourself some flexibility if some months are much slower than others and to determine if a great month will balance out a bad one!
In order to assess your predictive sales targets you can enlist the help and advice of the franchisor, which will have completed the very same process with established franchisees. Never be afraid to ask for help when it comes to successful sales of your business…
3. Target the Right People
Now you know exactly what groups of consumers you would like to target and the realistic goals you have in achieving your sales quota for the month/year, the next step is to follow through with the sales pitch and deliver some results!
Once again, achieving sales targets can mean a number of different things and can be achieved via a number of different formats depending on the franchise business and industry you are working in. For example, if you are selling luxury holidays online, you will be targeting consumers via email, internet and phone. If you are in the fast food industry you can achieve sales targets via marketing and promotional offers to get consumers to come to your fast food restaurant. Whatever method of sales you choose to implement you must target your consumer base effectively with no “hard sell” unless really needed!
4. Practice Your Sales Pitch
If you are targeting consumers directly either by phone of face-to-face you must perfect your sales pitch on how you can promote and actively sell your products or services. You must know the main benefits of your product and service and use these points as your main argument when posing the sales pitch.
Before you meet face-to-face with a potential client be sure you know as much as you can about the individual and how your product or service could enhance their life personally or their business. This will ensure you know exactly how to win over the customer and how the service or product of your business will have a positive impact on them when they decide to buy.
5. Closing the Deal
This is the most important part of the sales plan and you must attract attention for your product or service via marketing and advertisings as much as you can. Creating brand awareness amongst the consumer market you are targeting will ensure on some conscious level of the consumer’s knowledge of whom and what you are in business.
Be careful of objections to your sale and identify some other “benefits” you could use to attract the customer in a different sales pitch. Remember customers will want to know why you are providing this service or product so be upbeat, positive and passionate about your business.
After you close a deal, remember to maintain after-sales customer care so that you retain your customer and build an effective and loyal relationship. This will help your business to grow and be consistently successful.

AineMeadePhoto.jpgAine Meade is a Website Editor for Franchise Direct, a leading Internet franchise advertising portal. Aine creates high quality franchise information for its international websites in the U.S., and Europe. Aine has a BA (First) in English and History; MA in Literature & Publishing; Diploma in Media Journalism and a Diploma in Marketing.