I recently had the opportunity to make a presentation to an important group. The subject was something that I know very well. Almost too well. I had to change it up to match the audience I was meeting with. Where to start?
Luckily, I know Debbie Fay, a longtime colleague who wrote the book on making great presentations. Literally. Check it out.
Working together, we transformed a PowerPoint that I had created as an email follow-up in my initial “connection" phase with potential prospects into a "stand before the audience and get 'em taking notes" presentation. Easier said than done, but we did it.
Get a free copy of Debbie's book and Nail It. for yourself and your team... Read on.
We reordered the content flow. Removed almost all the words from the slides and added lots of pictures. We practiced the new presentation many times.
After speaking to the attendees, I walked away saying to myself, "I nailed it!” What a great feeling!
Better yet, as a result, I’ve been since invited to meet with the leadership team of a very exciting high-growth company whose COO was in attendance. To paraphrase, his comment was basically, "You simplified a very complex subject and helped me understand where your solution fits into our business. Let’s arrange to meet with the three of us on management team about your Inbound Marketing Assessment."
Make Your First Impression Count At Every Step
The experience leads us back to my initial conversation with Debbie about the link between Inbound Marketing and the making great presentations. We define our likely buyer personas, we research keywords, we blog, we post to social media, we write great premium content. Now what? We often have to go out and meet people. Isn’t the reason we do all of these tactics to get you in front of the decision maker.
Make that, a room FULL of decision-makers.
A roomfull? You bet. The number of people involved in B2B decision making is up in recent years, as companies have become more risk averse. According to insidesales.com, in the US, 5.4 people are involved in the average B2B buying decision and only 7% of business-to-business sales involve a single decision-maker. In the EU, more than half of B2B deals involve between two and five-decision makers, and about 30 percent have six to 10 decision-makers influencing the process, according to a Carat Enterprise and Google survey from 2013. As a result of the increasing number of decision makers involved in the buying process, Sirius Decisions further states the average sales cycle for b2b marketers has increased 22% over the past 5 years.
The Lesson
You have to build more relationships by making a great first impression. The fact is, people are so busy these days that every meeting is like a first impression to them.
For you to make the best first impression every time, it's critical that all involved in the decision you want them to make have access to high quality content that tells your story across a variety of channels. You must consistantly make your case in terms they understand. They need to think and feel you are speaking directly to their needs, whether on your blog or in their office.
Though the content and the channels change as leads progress through the funnel, your messaging must be consistent -- and personal -- from beginning to end of the customer's journey. We have to use the means at our disposal, such as content, offers and calls-to-action (CTAs) to engage and convert audience members to the next stage.
That is what Austin Lawrence does.
Debbie is an expert at helping you take persuading an audience to the next level when you're in the room filled with your potential customers, whether it's one, five, or fifty.... Or 1,000! She will help you Nail It.
Nail It. From Top To Bottom
Out of appreciation for her excellent work on our presentation, I'm pleased to recommend Debbie to help you with yours. She would be glad to provide you a free copy of her book when you meet with her. Just fill out the form and we’ll pass your name along to her with this offer.
CLICK HERE: Meet Debbie and get Nail It. Now.
If you want to make a good first impression online before all those presentations give us a call, or click below for a free inbound marketing assessment. We can help you document the potential value of Inbound Marketing for your business with a free Inbound Marketing assessment. Just click here to get started. There’s no obligation, and you’re guaranteed to learn a few things of great value as we dig into your sales and marketing together.
Sound like a plan? Let’s get started!