What do presenting and DJ-ing have in common?
As I recently discovered... a lot.
If you love your content, want to give it generously to the audience, and you arrive prepared, presenting and DJ-ing are both a blast!
A Little Background
Two months before the Toastmasters Fall European Conference (D59), the Basel organizers bought into my pitch: let me be the DJ for the post-gala dinner dance party.
Yep, DJ Jacko would spin the tunes.
Over the years, I had taken over the turntables and stereo equipment at many a party. But in Basel, this wasn't just a party. This was 250 people wanting to let it all hang out after a day-and-a-half of workshops, competitions, a gala dinner and award ceremony.
Outcome?
In my own view, it went great. A few things to improve upon, but overall a big success.
You may chuckle and say, "Come on, Jacko. A little more self-awareness." But I have three reasons for believing it went well.
That doesn't sound very humble, I know. But back to Point 1. I had a tremendous buzz from beginning to end and, yeah I admit, from the feedback and comraderie afterwards.
And that's one of the great things about Toastmasters: the more you give, the more you get. I not only got compliments, I got great memories and a first DJ job in my CV. Yeah, look out DJ Bobo. DJ Jacko's on the rise!
So what are the similarities between a good presentation and a successful night of DJ-ing?
Content Is King
Yep. This has been my big focus as a Toastmaster specifically and as a presenter generally in recent years. Delivery is important, but it's my belief that great content is what puts you over the edge.
It's the same thing in DJ-ing. You could play it safe and just bang out cookie-cutter club music. You could boom-boom-boom the same beats and similar rhythms all night so that the masses just keep on keepin' on. Or you could inspire people with music, and content, that pulls at the heart and soul.
I went with music that has inspired me over the years and even over the recent weeks. And I didn't play it safe.
Sequence & Organization
A great presentation takes the audience on a journey. Why shouldn't a DJ's repertoire do the same thing?
I put a lot of preparation into selecting the music, and I put even more into sequencing it.
As soon as the award ceremony was over, I didn't want to force the dancing on everyone... at least not in the first two songs. The segue should be easy and unpretentious. So I started with a bit of loungy pieces with the type of rhythms that, I believe, built an expectation that something big was coming.
By Song 3, the train had left the station... and my fellow Toastmasters had left their chairs... for the dance floor. Fun, upbeat tunes to express one's self on the dance floor, a bit of Latin, a bit of funk, there was no turning back. We were partying.
But you can't hold that pace all night. So toward the middle, the journey had a sensuous, slow section so that humans could do what we long to do.
And then it was time to build toward the finale... a crescendo that had the place screaming past the moon, with no hope of earth's gravity holding them down.
Houston, we have a problem. We just passed Pluto!
Preparation
I alluded to this above, but I can't emphasize this enough. For a presentation, a pitch, or spinnin' music to inspire people to shake their booties and party like there's no tomorrow... preparation is critical.
If I would've shown up with a bunch of good songs and then started to assemble my playlist and sequence on the fly, it would've been a disaster. I had all of this prepared, including the cues -- the points at which you cut into and out of each song.
We had a few challenges just before "going live." But because I was prepared, I didn't have to worry about the actual presentation of the music at that point; I could focus wholly on solving the problem.
It's the same thing in a presentation or a sales pitch. Improvise at your own peril.
Pour Your Soul Into It
I'm sure you've noticed passion in a presentation or pitch. There are those who just go through the motions of getting the job done, and those who love their content so much that they want you, the audience, to love it, too.
Well, it's the same thing in DJ-ing. I love music. I love to dance, and I have so many dear friends and inspiring colleagues within Toastmasters District 59, that I gave this every ounce of my soul.
By the fifth song, I was enjoying it so much that I often went out and danced with everyone. I was inspired... and I couldn't hold back.
Don't Obsess Over a Mistake. They'll Forgive You!
I made a few errors. Early on, I wasn't happy with my fading/transitions between songs. No one seemed to notice, and I got better by that fifth song. And twice, while cueing up the next song in my headphones, I abruptly crashed away from the heart of the live song in progress into the middle of the cued up song.
What do you do in this situation? What else can you do? Push on.
Yep, when you're presenting and something doesn't go perfectly, don't belabor it. If it's minor, just push on. If it's major, acknowledge it with good humor and... yep, push on!
And so it was when I miscued. I looked up and saw an entire dance floor with startled looks and some even a bit disappointed because they were just finding their own groove with the previous song.
I just looked at everybody, laughed, shrugged my shoulders and yelled, "Oops!"
Within a few seconds, the next song had found its way into their souls and the journey continued, speed bump forgotten!
If your delivery is solid and your content is inspiring, your audience will forgive the small stuff and appreciate the big stuff.
It's a Virtuous Cycle
And that's just one more thing I love about Toastmasters. We're all there to bring out the best in each other. It's therefore inspiring to just keep giving.
So thank you Basel organizers again. Thank you District 59, Euro Toastmasters. And thank you fellow Toastmasters.
I poured my soul into it, and I felt your friendship and warm support every second of it.
And I have to admit, it was a blast watching everyone shake their booties, too!
Photo taken spontaneously by friend and Fellow Toastmaster Douglas MacKevett. Damn, I wish I would have thought to take a photo to show my view of all that booty shakin'.
Now available on amazon!
In a B2B pitch, you're not there to close a deal, you're there to open a relationship. The three objectives of a pitch, therefore, are to Snap, Crackle 'n Pop: stimulate interest, start a customer-focused conversation and build trust.
If you achieve these three objectives, your prospects will not see you as another vendor, but rather as a trusted advisor.
Sales Pitches That Snap, Crackle 'n Pop shows you how to achieve this in straight-forward and sometimes hard-hitting language.
Dr. Tobias Kiefer, Global Learning & Development Head at Booz & Co says, "Jack slaps you in the face with best practices and makes you laugh...
Continue reading "The Book: Sales Pitches That Snap, Crackle 'n Pop" »
"Smile and the whole world smiles..."
My father has said this ever since I can remember. "Smile, and the whole world smiles with you."
It's good advice when pitching and presenting. If prospects smile with you, it's a safe bet that they're more engaged with you.
I know many presenters through Toastmasters, TEDx and my work in sales improvement. The best presenters openly admit they're not perfect, that they're continually improving something.
Humble self-awareness is the first prerequisite to improvement, and I hear more and more presenters say they sometimes catch themselves with serious looks on their faces.
I'm the first one to admit this. One positive of my presentations, I've been told and I believe, is that I'm intense and I usually deliver with high-impact. The downside of that is that I sometimes appear too serious and unapproachable.
I'm working on it, though. Are you?
If you're not smiling, you're probably scowling.
It's that simple.
A smile goes further than being visually noticed. It transcends into the voice.
Studies show that, over the telephone, we respond more positively to someone who delivers the same material while smiling than while being serious. Perhaps this is where the cold-calling best practice of "Smile and Dial" comes from.
So while you're rehearsing a pitch, pay attention to your facial expressions. They will send both a visual and verbal signal to your prospect. While a disingenous, forced smile will only hurt your cause, an occasional, genuine smile will make you look, sound and feel more engaging.
That's a subtle but powerful advantage.
Smile, and the whole world smiles with you.
More prospects might buy from you, as well.
Photo by Hiking Artist: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/3515471358/ and http://hikingartist.com/
Annual Convention Meets (New) Brand Expectation
I'm just back from the Toastmasters 2011 International Convention in Vegas, my first. And I had a blast!
I've video-blogged about the Toastmasters re-branding, some of the workshops I attended, the International Speech Contest and everyone's darling and my good friend, Olivia Schofield.
Olivia, District 59/Continental European champ made us Euro-based Toastmasters proud by nailing two great speeches in the Regional Semi-Final and the Final, but "timing-out" in the Final. The way she handled it was graceful and... cool.
Special mention to fellow Euro Toastmaster Bob Mohl, who coached Olivia leading up to the conference and whom I failed to mention in the video, along with others in the movement who played a big role in making it a great conference.
Oh, yeah. I didn't mention this in the video, either. The convention ended with a bang. Much like we're accustomed to doing on Saturday nights at the District 59 Euro Conference, the International Conference ends with a Gala Dinner. It got funky.
Just check out this pic. Cool.
I'm going back next year.
Was it as good for you as it was for me?
Hours after this photo was published, it went viral.
I, personally, found this image very... stimulating.
I immediately wanted to learn more. What the hell was going on here?
Was this staged? Was this a real riot? In Vancouver? Over an ice hockey match? In peaceful Canada?
My interest had been stimulated, that's for sure. Yep, I wanted to know more.
And that's the purpose of this post: stimulating the buyer's interest.
Listen? Yeah, I get it!
Years ago, I learned that the very best salespeople are good at asking the right questions and then listening.
This took practice on my part and, truth be told, it still does. But it's been a game changer.
Today, just about every book on selling today covers listening. Many focus solely on that.
So, yeah, I get it.
Hello-o-o-? I get it!
And now salespeople are asking...
What If Buyers Aren't Engaged?
There's a lot of "noise" out there. Chatter. Clutter. Interference. Competition for buyers' minds.
I could throw a statistic at you on how many messages the average B2B buyer receives on a given weekday? But you already know the answer.
A gazillion.
So now you want to engage Joe Buyer in a meaningful dialog?
You want to build trust through your incisive questions and acute listening skills?
Good for you.
But first you have to catch their attention!
In my view, this is the biggest challenge in Brave New Sales today: Finding early-stage opportunities. Getting attention. Stimulating interest.
The key word here is "new." New sales. New buyers. New concepts. New markets.
Some say, stimulating interest is the job of marketing.
Some say, social media will have the buyers calling you.
Some say, build it and they will come.
I say, good luck!
Whether you're cold-calling, presenting, opening a meeting or sitting down to a get-to-know-you coffee, you must be prepared to stimulate interest right out of the starting gate.
Keep it short, crispy, crunchy, easy to digest.
And if the buyer leans forward and asks, "Yeah, but how would you do that?"
You're doing well. You've obviously stimulated interest.
Soon you'll have earned the right to ask those incisive questions and use those active listening skills.
Soon, it will be as good for you as it is for the buyer.
- How can you get more prospects moving through the sales cycle?
- What can you do to stimulate interest early on?
Lisbon Rocked!
The Toastmasters 2011 European Spring Conference in Lisbon exceeded all expectations.
Hats off to the Lisbon organizers. Bem feito, amigos! You folks knocked everybody's socks off.
Conference keynote speaker and 2001 Toastmasters International Speech Champion, Darren Lacroix, also knocked his share of socks off.
Show Me! And Make It Fast!
I won't hide the fact that I went into Lisbon with skepticism. "O.K., so you won a speech contest once ten years ago," I thought to myself. "How does that affect my life? What's in it for me?"
I was willing to give Darren the benefit of the doubt. We are fellow Toastmasters, after all. We share a certain bond.
But still... I can be a cynical jerk and quick to judgment. Darren would have to prove himself rรกpido.
And he did. Long before he even went on stage to deliver his keynote, in fact.
At the opening dinner on Friday evening, Darren approached me and introduced himself. He cited my successes in Toastmasters, and he also asked me about the panel discussion I was leading on Sunday.
Good start, Darren!
He did the same with other people throughout the evening. He didn't have to prove himself with chest-pounding before proving himself with his keynote the next afternoon.
And what a keynote it was. Powerful. Inspiring. Funny. Self-deprecating in just the right places. Engaging from start to finish.
One full hour filled with pearls of wisdom, yet structured so we could get it.
My Biggest Takeaway: Why Pausing Works
I've long been a fan of listening during sales calls. Of asking good questions. Of exploring client challenges and then listening some more.
As salespeople we still have to balance exploring and listening with presenting effectively... with talking.
And pausing in just the right places increases your effectiveness, as Darren points out.
It can be torturously difficult to pause. It can feel awkward... and threatening! What might the prospect be thinking?
But pausing pays big dividends.
Pausing allows the prospect (or audience) to catch up with us.
It encourages the audience to frame our concepts in their mind.
It encourages the prospect to sell him or herself on our concepts.
But Isn't That Dangerous?
The risk in pausing, one might think, is that the prospect has time to raise an objection that they would not have otherwise raised in your presence.
But skilled salespeople know that the the best time to handle an objection is when you're there... when you're present... when you have the opportunity to address it face-to-face.
And here again, an effective tool to use after handling an objection is... the pause.
Pausing is distinct from exploring and listening.
In pausing, the assumption is that you have spoken. You haven't asked a question. You haven't listened. You've spoken. Perhaps you've presented a great idea or an edgy concept.
Now... give your prospect time to digest it.
(Pause, two, three, four...)
What Did You Like About It?
When Darren finished his Lisbon keynote and exited stage left, I was fortunate to be sitting in a left aisle seat, toward the back. So I reached out my hand. "Man, what a cracker of a presentation. You blew us away!"
Darren smiled, looked me in the eyes, and asked, "What was it specifically that you liked about it?"
"Well, I like to relate things to sales, because that's my space. So much of what you said was relevant not just to presenting generally, but to selling specifically."
And therein lies my Take-Away Number 2 from Darren's keynote.
If somebody tells you they really liked your pitch, ask them, "What was it specifically that you liked?"
It engages people in the positives.
That's a powerful tool to have in your sales toolbox.
I'm just back from the States, where the politics have gotten stupidly ugly.
No, this is not a political post, and I'm not taking a position here, but I do like to relate everyday events to the art and science of selling. Today's politicians offer a smorgasbord of how not to do it.
Uncivil Town Halls
Last night, first-term Congressman Allen West was holding a "Town Hall" in his district, in Fort Lauderdale Florida. A handful of voters interrupted him early on and started shouting questions.
West went right on the defensive.
"You're not going to intimidate me!" West declared from the stage. To no surprise, his supporters burst into loud applause.
But a funny thing happened after the applause died down. The opposition only got louder.
The town meeting turned into a shouting match, and the guards were lightning quick to arrest the protestors. An immediate victory? Or a longer-term loss?
The incident has gained a lot of media attention. Now, West and his party are on the defensive for something that, a week ago, had strong momentum in their favor.
And West is not alone. Politicians on both sides of the American aisle are losing support by trying to win every battle, even with members of the vocal public.
A Classic Sales Mistake
West did what a lot of junior salespeople do when handling objections. He got defensive.
As animals with tens of thousands of years of conditioning, we're emotionally programmed to get defensive when anything threatens us. A lion jumps out of the brush, it's "fight or flight." Even if we flee in the modern-day sense, we insult the lion as we run.
But we have to overcome this when attempting to persuade the mental side of the human psyche, because your buyer -- or your voter -- is an emotional creature, too. The "I'm right, you're wrong" approach never works... not in personal relationships, public speaking, persuading or selling.
It's the antithesis of consensus-building. It's counter-productive to influencing, and influencing is essentially where you want to be in sales and... I once thought... politics.
Getting defensive only makes your counter-part more defensive. Unseasoned sales people make this mistake unwittingly, if not in the spoken word, then in body language and tone: "I know this product is great. Why aren't you getting it?"
A Better Way
Imagine if, instead of saying, "You're not going to intimidate me," Congressman West would have said, "I know some of you here have concerns. In fact, I did too when I first looked at this, so I think I understand where you're coming from. I have a perspective that should interest you, if you can give me a few minutes to point it out. Can you give me that?"
As salespeople, we need to use consensus-building approaches like this all the time. When a buyer shows some concern for some portion of your pitch, you must make it safe for the buyer. You must demonstrate that you know where the buyer's coming from, and that the concern is legitimate.
"If I were in your seat, Joe, I'd probably be asking the same question."
Then will you have an open mind facing you, ready to listen to your perspective.
I'm pretty sure that last night's Town Hall would have stayed civil if Congressman West would have used Tactical Selling 101: Handling Objections.
And I'd bet that West wouldn't be the subject of headlines suggesting that he and his party are "up against the ropes" from angry constituents, at least not to the degree that they are this morning.
So when you're face-to-face with customers, don't try to win the battles. You'll only lose influence.
Handling objections and persuasion is not about hammering your point home. It's about building consensus and influencing.
Photo by AllenWestFL http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenwestfl/
"I'm sorry for the long letter, my dear, but I did not have time to make it short."
- Winston Churchill
This quote is catchy... because it's paradoxical. It's counter-intuitive, yet so true.
And it applies to sales in a big-time way.
Firstly, we're often so eager to tell our prospect everything that we just spew information like a volcano spews lava... during a sales call, while putting together a presentation, or in handling a question.
Secondly, we can be lazy. As we build a pitch document, a PowerPoint presentation, a proposal, we just let it flow. Then we fall in love with our own material, and we can't imagine cutting anything out.
Editors, however, know that it takes discipline to be short, concise and snappy... that it actually takes time to keep things short, or to shorten them. And they know that the end product is always better for the reader, listener, viewer.
The best sales people know this, too, especially early in the sales cycle. Short and snappy is almost always better for the prospect than long and detailed.
So take the time to edit down, to select the real valuable and compelling information. Chances are, you'll then write/speak/present it in a more compelling way.
Photo, Wikipedia
It's just gone live!
The website has been launched for the Toastmasters Division J Spring Conference, 9th April, in Utrecht, outside of Amsterdam Netherlands.
Division J Governor John Rouse has asked me to be Guest Speaker at the conference, along side of Lance Miller (pictured right).
Lance was Toastmaster's 2005 World Champion in the International Speech Contest.
Lance will speak about "Losing His Way To the World Championship," and I'm fully expecting that to be a fire-cracker!
There will be a special session targeting business people and entrepreneurs on Friday night, 8th April. Lance's topic there will be "Leadership In An Adverse Environment."
I'll probably be spending some quality time with Lance, and I'm already preparing a few questions to run by him. If you have any, let me know, and I'll be happy to play messenger!
So Now, The Pressure's on Me!
As guest speaker, I know I'll have to deliver the goods, too!
For the Toastmasters session on Saturday, I'll deliver "Content is King. Context is Queen." That's a re-work and upgrade of what I was presenting to various conferences in 2007 and 2008, and which seemed to go down well at the Toastmasters European Fall Conference, in Vienna.
Back then, I focused mostly on what makes a message compelling. (Some will remember, "the timeless and universal condition of Human Nature," which was mostly about "theme.")
This year, I'll ratchet that up, to include the fundamentals of "plot" and "character development."
At the business session on Friday evening, I'll deliver "Sales Pitches That Snap, Crackle 'n Pop." That's the new title for my book... that gnarly, little work in progress!
The Fundamentals
By the way, business people often shudder when they hear the word "storytelling." If you replace it with the words, "case study," they feel more in their comfort zone.
Comfort zone, schmomfort zone! The best case studies are actually great stories. You can throw around a lot of business data and jargon, but if you want to entice your buyers, stakeholders, employees, anybody... try building a compelling story around your case study.
Make it snap, crackle 'n pop!
The fundamentals, man. The fundamentals!
Join Us!
I won't tip my cards too much on "Context Is Queen" for now. Come to the Netherlands in early April, if you want to see it first hand!
Here's the website! Toastmasters Division J, Spring Conference
- What questions would you like to ask a World Champion public speaker?
- Let me know! And I'll report back with a new post following the conference.
