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At the annual LP meetings I’ve been working on, I have noticed that the senior guy wants to give his views on the macro economic picture.

 He wants to do this for good reasons:  To put the results his team will report into context, and to demonstrate his broad knowledge of economic cycles in order to put his investors at ease: “You are in the hands of a seasoned pro,” is the message.

But there are a number of problems with this kind of tour of the macro.

First, the audience comprises institutional investors.  They already know what’s going on in the markets.  They read the papers, watch the news, and subscribe to trade publications.  No matter the perspective of the senior guy.  To his investors, it ain’t gonna be news. 

Second, investors come to hear about their investments, not to hear a lecture about the economy.  Their job is to go to the meeting, make sure everything is working according to plan, and report back to headquarters that their money is being put to work wisely…or not.

Third, LP meetings tend to be long and the macro lecture makes them longer.  This frustrates investors and undermines the quality of their experience at the meeting.  Since the annual LP Meeting is one of the key “branding moments” for the manager, it would make sense to keep the meeting lively.

Fourth, because professional investors have multiple managers, they go to many meetings and hear the same macro view multiple times.  If your meeting is not the first they attend soon after the New Year, your senior guy is most likely telling them something they have already heard.

It could be that the decision to have the senior guy give a macro view is necessary because other senior guys are doing it, and if your own senior guy doesn’t put forth his view, it might occur to the investors that he doesn’t have one.

It could also be that nobody wants to tell the senior guy not to give his macro view.

My view is that the manager should do a little survey of investors before the meeting, and after as well.  The answers to the questions will guide the manager as he allocates his precious time with investors to the subjects of greatest importance to the audience.  And the key messages the manager wants to get across can be repeated in the presentations of the various funds and underlying assets in the portfolio.

Let the senior guy be the benevolent host, and let the hands-on managers speak to the audience about what they (the investors) came to hear.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

You can’t make excuses for yourself when you’re in front of an audience.  You have to do the best you can without divulging your aches and pains.

There’s a tradition in show business:  “The show must go on.”  Actors and performers have a code of honor: They are not going to deprive their fellow performers of a day’s pay.  (And they’re not going to let an understudy take their part!)  If they are healthy enough to stand on their hind legs, they will perform.

And when they do, they don’t draw attention to the fact that they are under the weather.  They give it their best shot and hope for the best.  Amazingly, adrenalin tends to help us transcend our misery.  In fact, performing in front of a crowd is a vacation from whatever ails you.  Probably because it allows you to focus on something outside of yourself.

We hear all kinds of excuses running through our heads—I didn’t have enough time to prepare; these are not my slides; I just flew in on the RedEye—you name it, we’ve got a million of ‘em.

Keep it to yourself.  When you speak it aloud, you distract the audience, look like a whiner, and undermine your ability to do your best.

Just as water will find a way out of a pipe if it sees a tiny crack, we will find a way out of giving it everything we’ve got if we give ourselves an excuse.

Ladies and Gentlemen!  Please welcome the No Excuses Presenter!

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Drug reps have two major sales problems.  The first is getting access to physicians.  The second is getting more than 30 seconds of their time.

We won’t dwell on why the industry has arrived at this state of affairs.  The question is how can they solve the problem.

Here it goes, in no particular order:

1. They should stop trying to sell their products. The product they should be researching and developing, visit after visit, is the relationship they have with the physician. 
2. If they try to sell their products without first developing a trusting relationship with the physician, they damage their reputations as advisors and lose access. This means they get NO time with the doc.
3. If they build a respectful and caring relationship with their prescribers, they get access and MORE time with them.
4. The relationship is the product that lays the golden eggs

The paradox of selling is:  the more you try to push your product, the less successful you become.

Or, the more you try to be helpful, cooperative and respectful, the more you sell. 

Go figure!   The more you sell, the less you sell.

Look for similarities between yourself and your prospects.  Why?  People are more likely to comply with requests made by those who appear to be similar to them.

What are some possible similarities?  School affiliations, geographical connections, sports, pet peeves (such as traffic jams), dogs.  Just avoid politics, religion, and discussions about your intimate affairs.

For instance, a story to illustrate the power of similarity.  My daughter refused to swim as a child.  We got her lessons, tried to teach her ourselves—nothing.  Then we took her to a birthday party where all the kids were swimming.  Presto—in she jumped.

How do you find similarities?  You engage in conversation—the great social lubricator.  Diplomacy is based on it.  Through conversation, you discover each other’s common humanity. 

However, if you do this with the intention of taking advantage of the information you gather, you are doing the right thing for the wrong reason.

“The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.”   – T. S. Eliot

What makes a man a manipulator is not his persuasive skill, but his intention in using his skill.

Go figure!  You can do the right thing for the wrong reason.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

A quick heads up for those of you interested in all things public speaking.

Angela DeFinis of DeFinis Communications has produced a blog carnival on the topic, “The Impact of Public Speaking on Top Sales Performance.”

When you visit the site, you will find about 10 postings.  Whether you are a professional speaker, a coach, or one of the many who seek to grow personally and professionally, you will find in the diverse opinions food for thought (and action.)

My own posting is curmudgeonly.  I argue that public speaking is not the strongest choice for top sales performance.  Instead, I suggest that conversation and dialogue is more likely to help you build trusting relationships and win sales.

However, I do say that public speaking can be effective if it replicates the characteristics of good dialogue, which is the consideration of many points of view.

I urge you to vist the Public Speaking Blog Carnival and soak up all you can.

  Presentation Pointer:  Speak so they will notice what they see  

At first glance, Niccolo Machiavelli and William Blake have little in common.  Yet they both made the distinction between seeing and noticing.

Machiavelli said, “All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration.”  And Blake wrote, “We are led to believe in lies/ When we see with, not through, the eyes.”

I think listeners see a performance, but they notice authenticity. 

Speak so they take notice of what they see.

I’m a big fan of great public speaking, and I know it to be an excellent marketing tactic. But I’m not sure it’s the best approach for top sales performance, unless it approximates another approach—that of the conversation.

Let me explain.

First, I’m defining a public speech as an extended monologue. That’s not good for sales, since it’s widely known that the number one mistake we make in sales is that we talk too much.

When you’re giving a speech, the audience usually has to sit on its hands and hold questions to the end. That’s not good for selling, since the second biggest mistake that we make as sales people is not asking enough questions.

And of course, while you’re giving your speech, you tend to be listening to the sound of your own voice. That’s not good for sales, because the third major mistake we make in sales is not listening to what our prospects are saying.

Finally, when giving a public speech in a sales situation, you’re probably talking about how cool your product, service or company is—all about its features, functions, and benefits. That’s not good for sales, because the fourth major error we make in sales is being too quick to push our product, service, or company as the solution of choice.

However, this does not mean that public speaking is bad for sales, especially if your speech is about the salient concerns of the prospect, attempts to define their actual problem, allows for ongoing interaction and debate, proposes your solution, considers the pros and cons of other solutions, and allows you to shine as facilitator, problem solver, and trusted advisor.

Only as it approximates substantive conversation can public speaking have significant impact on top sales performance.

Presentation Pointer: Use your eyes

Focus your eyes on one listener at a time, most importantly when you come to the end of a thought. This is both a display of confidence, and an invitation to the listener to signal a response—to nod, frown, or lean forward in agreement.

In this way, your talk becomes a dialogue, as they listen and signal their reactions with the language of their bodies.

Keep your eyes on your audience and respond to their signals. You will build the connection that makes speaking so powerful.

Here are the reasons, in no particular order, why America needs better public speaking.

1. 1. Kids coming out of school have spent their lives staring at computer screens and saying, “like,” “know what I mean?”, “er,” and “like he goes…and then like she goes…,” and, “like you know what I mean—other stuff.”
2. This won’t cut it.
3. Smart people are often more interested in showing how smart they are rather than trying to land their thought on the gray matter of the listener.
4. People do business with people they like and trust.  They judge us primarily on how we talk.  If you can’t talk good, it’s an uphill battle for ya.
5. Smart people think that their expertise is sufficient for success. They are wrong.  There are countless embittered geniuses who have been shoved into a career closet because they struggle to connect with others.
6. Schools don’t teach “rhetoric” anymore, yet it was a staple of a university education for centuries.  It taught you how to argue persuasively, and how to sniff out an illogical argument.  Democracies need citizens who can sniff out bad arguments.
7. Increased competition in almost all fields has led to the commoditization of products and services.  If you don’t want to be forced into competing exclusively on price, you have to somehow make your product or service distinct.  One way to do that is to present yourself and your ideas more effectively than the next guy.
8. People tend to know more and more about less and less.  Good communication skills can help you speak the language of the audience, and thereby gain acceptance for your products, ideas, or services. 
9. People do business with people they like. If you are not relaxed and authentic at high stakes moments, you are not at your best, and you lose a major opportunity to connect with your audience. 
10. Your ability to speak well has a disproportionate impact on your success because early in your career the only time your boss’s boss sees you in action is when you’re presenting.

There may be other reasons, but these are the ten that tumbled out of me this Monday morning.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Samantha Miller  has created a list of 100 Cutting Edge Blogs: What You Won’t Learn in B-School.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the blog you are reading is on the list.  We do not know Samantha, and were pleasantly surprised when she e-mailed us to tell us we were included.

Samantha has scoured the blogosphere to bring you 100 blogs that will fill in the gaps left by your formal business education.

The blogs on the list are animated by the spirit of the following bit of wisdom:  Training teaches the rules but experience teaches the exceptions.

Whether you traffic in the world of science, marketing, consulting or high tech product invention, you have probably learned that you crawl toward success through trial and error.

Getting a degree can’t hurt.  A degree gives you a map.  But having experience seep through your skin into your bones gives you a feel for the terrain.  And that is a very different capability. 

It is said that it takes ten years  to make a great lawyer; ten years to make a great surgeon; ten to make a great musician, etc., etc. I think Malcolm Gladwell recently underlined this old truth in Outliers, his book about great achievement.

Samantha’s blog is divided into categories, and I’m sure you will find it useful, with or without a map.