Use readable fonts. Don’t give your audience an eyestrain headache by using tiny fonts. Use large fonts in simple faces (like Arial). For added readability avoid boldface, italics, and ALL CAPS.
Don’t get too fancy. You want your audience to remember your message, not how many special effects you used. Remember that if your slides are attention-grabbing (as slides, not because of content), they distract from your message.
Adjust your presentation to the audience. As with every business communication, use the vernacular rather than jargon and acronyms if the people in the room are not experts.
Rehearse your presentation. Practice makes—well, if not perfect, at least a lot better than no practice. Rehearsing also helps you check your timing, so you don’t go on too long.
6. FOLLOW THESE RULES WHEN PRESENTING.
When giving your presentation:
DO have a separate handout. If there is data that you want the audience to have, put it into a separate document for distribution after your presentation. Don’t use your slide deck as a data repository.
DO stand up rather than remaining seated. The body language of standing while others sit keeps the focus on you and your ideas. If you’re sitting with everyone else, it’s a conversation, not a presentation, which is entirely different.
DO check your equipment in advance. If you must use PowerPoint, or plan on showing videos or something, check to make sure the equipment really works. Then check it again. Then one more time.
DO have somebody else introduce you. Write a short (one-hundred-word) bio and a short statement (fifty words) of what you’ll be talking about. Have the person who invited you to the meeting read it aloud, or have it included in the invite.
DO set a time limit. Since you’re asking people to be a captive audience, it’s only fair for you to let them know how long they are going to be captive. (This also encourages you to be brief.)
DON’T tell a “warm-up” joke. Unless you’re naturally humorous, telling a joke communicates that you are nervous and unsure of yourself. Leave comedy to the professionals.
DO take the room’s “temperature.” If the group is small, have each person state what he or she would like to learn from your presentation. If the group is large, ask a question that demands a show of hands.
DO speak to the audience. Great public speakers keep their focus on the audience, not on their notes. Focusing on the audience encourages the audience to focus on you and your message.
DON’T meander and skip. Letting yourself digress or flip around from slide to slide simply makes you look unprepared. If you must improvise, do so within the structure of the presentation.
DON’T direct your remarks solely to the senior attendee. While he or she may be the final decision-maker, it’s likely that you will have to convince the others in the room to do business with you and your company as well.
DO make eye contact with multiple people. As you make a point, look at one person in the audience, then continue. When you make your next point, look at a different person, and so on.
SHORTCUT
MEMORABLE PRESENTATIONS
TO lessen stage fright, speak to individuals not the entire audience.
PLAN out an emotional journey for the audience.
FLAG the places where the audience will feel emotions.
BUILD a story that creates the emotions in that order.
ARRANGE everything into a simple structure.
MAKE slides relevant, short, simple, and readable.
CUSTOMIZE your presentation and rehearse it.
SECRET 33
How to Work a Room
Even if you’re naturally gregarious, it’s easy to be daunted by a roomful of people you don’t know, especially if those people are executives, leaders, and decision-makers you’d like to cultivate as contacts or customers.
The following process helps you circulate around a room and quickly build as many useful connections as possible:
1. BE CURIOUS ABOUT PEOPLE YOU MEET.
Whether you introduce yourself or get an introduction from somebody else, your priority is to feel and express genuine interest in the person you’ve just met. Ask them about themselves, why they’re attending, or what they’re learning.
This will almost always lead to a discussion of the other person’s job or career, as well as who the other person knows. This is important information because it gives you the first indication of whether the person you’ve met is potentially a valuable contact.
If not, enjoy the conversation, but don’t get “captured.” Find an excuse to break away or talk to somebody else. The idea is to circulate so you meet more people.
2. POSITION YOURSELF IN A SINGLE SENTENCE.
If you decide to remain in the conversation, the next subject that normally comes up will be what you do for a living. This is your opportunity to position what you’re offering and to begin assessing whether the other person is a potential employer.
Rather than give your job title or history, provide a description of the benefits your customers, investors, or employers get as the result of buying from, investing in, or hiring you. Ideally these benefits should include an intriguing fact.
WRONG:
“I sell state-of-the-art training software.”
“We renegotiate IT contracts that save money.”
“I’m looking for a job in computer-game programming.”
RIGHT:
“Retail firms used the software I programmed to train employees, which increased their sales by about ten percent.”
“I helped a company lower its IT procurement costs by negotiating directly with major IT vendors.”
“I’ve got an idea for a computer game that combines social networking with cooperative puzzle solving.”
Don’t go into vast detail about yourself, the jobs you’ve held, or the job you want. Offer a single intriguing sentence that fits into the context of a normal conversation. You have about five to ten seconds to impress. Use them wisely.
3. OBSERVE AND LISTEN.
By positioning yourself casually yet precisely, you’ve given the other person the opportunity to express interest in what you just said.
If the other person stares at you blankly or changes the subject, you know that this is not a great connection for you to make, at least not now. This is a very good thing to know, because then you won’t waste time trying to develop it further.
If the other person is interested, he or she will move the conversation to the next level by saying something like, “Wow! How do you do that?” or “Funny you should say that, we’ve been having problems with [something related to what you just said].”
Between these extremes is what might be called a “sliding scale” of interest. Your challenge is to figure out if the other person’s interest level is high enough for you to continue the conversation.
To do this, don’t just listen to what the other person says, but also observe the other person’s facial expression and body language. If you sense that there’s real interest (as opposed to polite interest), move to the next step.
If not, let the matter drop. Trade a few words of chitchat (e.g., “Great conference, eh?”) and then extract yourself from the conversation (e.g., “Excuse me, there’s somebody over there I’ve been meaning to catch up with.”).
4. DIFFERENTIATE YOURSELF.
If, based on your one-sentence positioning, the person you’ve met has shown some interest in you and what you do, you now demonstrate why you’re a uniquely valuable resource.
Casually reveal one or two facts about yourself that show how you’re different from the competition (other people) in a way that might be interesting or essential to that person’s company.
As with your initial statement, what you want is a single sentence that expresses your uniqueness using easily understood words and phrases. Examples:
“At MIT I created a study that revealed how retail sales clerks can use past purchases to help customers take adva
ntage of what’s available in the store.”
“I’ve worked with so many IT vendors in the past that I know how to negotiate with them to get the best price.”
“I’ve used existing multiplayer game environments to test how well people can work together to solve complex problems.”
5. OBSERVE AND LISTEN (AGAIN).
This is the same as Step 3. If the other person continues to show interest, move to the next step. If the other person seems disinterested or only politely interested, let the matter drop. Trade a few words of chitchat and then extract yourself from the conversation.
6. OPEN A CONVERSATION.
If there are still signs of interest, ask an open-ended question that assesses the depth and quality of the other person’s interest. Examples:
“Just out of curiosity, how does your current point-of-sale system help your people sell more?”
“I’m curious about something. How does your firm currently negotiate with your IT vendors?”
“You seem intrigued by my idea. What kind of games is your company looking to publish in the near future?”
No need to get fancy: just be certain the question is open-ended rather than something that can be answered with a single word. The idea is to get a conversation started, so you can ask for an appointment to pursue the matter further, outside the context of the crowd.
7. ASK FOR A REAL MEETING.
Based on the other person’s response to your query, you’ll know whether it makes sense to pursue the relationship. If there is a match between what you’re offering and what the other person needs, set up a meeting to discuss the matter further:
“What are your thoughts about having a meeting to discuss this further?”
“It sounds like we should talk more about this. How does your calendar look?”
“What’s the best way to get on your calendar?”
If the other person agrees, trade your contact information (if this has not happened already) and make a note of the commitment so you can follow up later.
Note that the entire process takes just a few minutes and has two “exit points” to ensure you’re not barking up the wrong tree. The brevity of the approach makes it easy for you to “work a room” and uncover as many potential contacts as possible.
SHORTCUT
WORKING A ROOM
BE curious about people and what they do.
DESCRIBE yourself in terms of the value you provide.
IF the other person seems uninterested, move on.
EXPLAIN how you’re different from the competition.
IF the other person seems uninterested, move on.
OPEN a conversation to assess mutual needs.
IF interest continues, ask for a real meeting.
SECRET 34
How to Negotiate an Agreement
Negotiation consists of a back-and-forth conversation in which multiple potential decisions are proposed and discussed and a final decision agreed upon. Many negotiations are informal, but they follow the same principles as the formal negotiations described below.
Negotiations take place everywhere in business; your ability to negotiate will in many cases determine whether you’ll be able to get what you want from bosses, coworkers, and customers.
1. DEFINE THE PARAMETERS.
Before you negotiate, think through what’s really being negotiated.
Every business negotiation involves two elements: what’s off the table and what’s on the table. In addition, everything that’s on the table has a maximum (the best you can expect) and a minimum (the least you’ll accept).
Any part of a potential deal about which you have no flexibility whatsoever is, by definition, off the table. For example, if you’re negotiating a new job but not willing to relocate, relocation is off the table.
For everything that’s on the table (i.e., negotiable), figure out what the best you can expect and the least you will accept are. For example, if you’re negotiating a salary, your sweetheart deal might be $150,000 a year and your bare minimum $75,000.
2. RANK THE IMPORTANCE OF WHAT IS NEGOTIABLE.
Do not negotiate until you’ve ranked the items identified in Step 1 in order of importance to you and possible importance to the other person. Use a scale of 1 (very important) to 3 (unimportant).
For example, if you’re negotiating to hire someone, you might not really care what job title the job candidate ends up with, but it may be of great importance to the new hire. Or vice versa.
You’ll be adjusting your imagined ranking for the other person as you learn more throughout the negotiation. It’s possible that you’ll adjust your own ranking too, if the other person brings up some compelling arguments.
3. CREATE ARGUMENTS THAT SUPPORT YOUR POSITION.
Find a reason your maximums and minimums make business sense to the other person. Usually these two points will have very different arguments behind them.
For example, suppose you expect to be paid more than other people with your education level and experience. To defend your higher salary, you might point out that you’ve got specialized knowledge that increases your value to the company.
On the other hand, suppose you’re offered a job title that has less prestige than you expected. Your argument in this case might be “I may find it hard to do my job with a title that implies I have insufficient authority.”
4. HAVE A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE.
You’re at a negotiating disadvantage if you must close a deal and the other person only wants to close a deal.
For example, suppose you’re trying to negotiate a final contract, and if it doesn’t go through today you’ll lose your job and default on your loans. Meanwhile your counterpart has no particular reason to complete the negotiations quickly. Under these circumstances you’ll probably make any concession your counterpart asks for!
That’s why, if at all possible, you’ve got to have a plan B. For example, if you’re in the process of negotiating the specifics for a job that you’ve been offered, you should keep looking for another and even have other interviews lined up.
Keep your plan B (and your importance ranking, for that matter) from the other person. Though you might end up blurting out your plan B as a last-ditch effort, the plan is mostly to keep you from feeling desperate, and then acting from that place of desperation.
5. LET THE OTHER PERSON MAKE THE FIRST MOVE.
It’s almost always to your advantage to let the other person start the negotiation process. For example, I have more than once been offered compensation for my writing that was several times what I would have asked for had I gone first.
If you get trapped into going first, present something around your maximum (for some element that’s important to you), along with your argument for why it’s reasonable. Be sure to leave some wiggle room for further negotiation.
WRONG:
“I charge a thousand dollars a day.”
RIGHT:
“Most of my clients pay me around a thousand dollars a day for this type of work, but the actual figure depends on other elements of the agreement, such as the extent of the work involved.”
6. TURN POSITIONS INTO PROBLEMS.
When you use expressions such as “my position is” or “my firm’s position is,” you’re taking ownership of a position. This makes the position part of your identity, which makes it difficult to change or abandon it.
Rather than owning a position, externalize it into a problem that both of you are working to solve. For example: “If we crafted the arrangement like so, [idea], it would work for me. How would that work for you?”
The aim is to turn the negotiation into a problem-solving session in which you help each other figure out how to go forward… rather than butt heads.
7. ADAPT THE DEAL TO WHAT’S IMPORTANT.
In Step 2 you ranked what’s important to you and to the other person. During the negotiation process, your goal is to remain flexible in order to stay true to the things that matter to you.<
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For example, suppose you’re selling a complex software system and know that your installation team is idle right now. It’s important for you to get the team working (and generating money) as soon as possible.
During the discussion you discover that it’s important to the customer that he or she get the project started quickly. It should therefore be advantageous to both of you to cut the deal quickly and get everything rolling immediately.
Even when you enter negotiations with the best of intentions, it’s fair to assume that at some level your counterpart wants to see you “lose” at least something. However, a part of you probably feels the same way about him or her.
So don’t take it personally if your counterpart assumes negotiating positions that don’t make much sense to you. Instead, let your counterpart know that every concession is meaningful and that holding out will not result in big rewards.
8. KNOW WHEN THE NEGOTIATION IS OVER.
If the negotiation is going well and you’ve got most of what you want, don’t keep negotiating. If you’re 90 percent there, you’re done. Negotiating past this point generates diminishing returns.
SHORTCUT
NEGOTIATING DEALS
Business Without the Bullsh*t Page 14