Business Development Tip 3 - Avoiding the cardinal sins of PowerPoint

We've all been there, we've all sat through one, and we've all wished we'd been somewhere else at the time!

However, by following some simple rules, whether you're presenting to a group of 20 people, or delivering a presentation on your lap-top to a potential client in a cafe, you can avoid the cardinal sins of PowerPoint and use it as an engaging tool to support you, rather than a lethal injection which sends your audience to sleep.

1) Present to your audience and not the screen. It sounds simple enough, but even the most seasoned presenters can get sucked into their own PowerPoint presentation, and before long, they're talking to the screen, rather than their audience.

• It makes the presentation more boring to watch. 

• The screen cannot make any purchasing decisions, so why are you talking to it?

If you're genuinely prepared for your presentation, other than quickly checking that you're on the right slide, you should not need to look at it again, until you move to the next one.

2) No essays please. The point of PowerPoint is that it's a visual aid which supports your presentation rather than dictates it. It should be colourful, contain images and add something which is visually pleasing and which remains secondary to your personal presentation skills. In terms of the text, if there are more than 4-5 bullet points on the slide, there's too much and it's boring to look at.

3) Easy on the formatting. If your text spins onto the screen like a moving whirlpool, before coming to rest for the audience to read, or your company logo soars across the screen like a comet, it looks a bit naff!

Whilst colour, relevant imagery and video can add a useful visual support to your presentation, keep the formatting of your slides simple, so that the PowerPoint element always remains in the background, behind you. Your customer will not choose you because of a groovy PowerPoint presentation. They will choose you if they like your product and can afford it, if they have a need for your product, and if they trust you.

Call me - 0121 420 3457 / 07760 444 946

Email me - enquiries@impactlife.co.uk

Connect with me on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpain

Like me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpactLifeUK

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/andrewpain1974
Check out my website - www.impactlife.co.uk

Business Development Tip 2 - USPs v GSPs

A car which could fly ... now that would be a pretty cool unique selling point!

But the problem with the majority of USPs is that in reality, there's very few which are genuinely unique.

"Our business is a 6 partner practice with offices in Birmingham and London"

"I've been in business for over 23 years"

"The difference with us, is that we genuinely care about the quality of our print"

"The thing about me is that I'm a maverick"


The above phrases are real examples of unique selling points, pitched to me by people trying to sell their services and products. Unfortunately, they're all meaningless phrases and say nothing about why I should use that particular business, rather than hiring one of their competitors.

• None of the statements identify how my pain will be solved or how my aims will be achieved by using that particular business.

• With the exception of the first example, the above phrases are too general.

• In all of the above cases, none of the claims are particularly impressive. 

The fact is that they are not USPs, they're GSPs (generic selling points) and your use of such statements will indicate to your prospect that you're just another salesperson, thus reducing your ability to influence. Ask yourself the following questions before you speak to your clients:

• Are my USPs genuinely brilliant? 

• Are they clearly communicated in a creative and concise manner?

• If I put myself in my customer's shoes, would I be impressed by my USPs?

• If I was in a room of 30 people who do exactly what I do, would I have something I could share with them, which would inspire them to copy what I am doing? 

If you answered 'no' to any of the above questions, I'd love to talk to you!

Call me - 0121 420 3457 / 07760 444 946

Email me - enquiries@impactlife.co.uk

Connect with me on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpain

Like me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpactLifeUK

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/andrewpain1974
Check out my website - www.impactlife.co.uk

Business Development Tip 1 - Pains and Aims

Find out about your client's pains and aims and then clarify how you will help to solve their pains and achieve the aims

Whatever your business need is, your initial motivation to source a product or service will be because it:

a) Solves your pain and hassle

and/or

b) Contributes to making your business great

Therefore, as business developers, we need to identify and understand our customers' pains and aims, so we can then clarify how our products or services solve their pains, whilst achieving their aims.

Great questions for identifying PAINS: 

• What challenges does your business face? 

• What is the impact of those challenges on your business? 

• What is the estimated annual cost of that impact on your business? 

Great questions for uncovering AIMS:

• What do you most want to achieve in the next 12 months? 

• What's important to you about achieving that? 

• How would you most like my service/product to help you achieve that? 

Thanks for reading

I help businesses become more profitable by developing their people: 

Call me - 0121 420 3457 / 07760 444 946

Email me - enquiries@impactlife.co.uk

Connect with me on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpain

Like me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpactLifeUK

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/andrewpain1974
Check out my website - www.impactlife.co.uk

Leadership Howler 5: Rigidity riles

Skyscrapers are built to be flexible at the top so they can move and sway with the wind, otherwise the elements would crack them over time. Like buildings, rigid leaders also crack because they alienate themselves, miss vital opportunities, resist new things and cause resentment among their team members. Working for rigid leaders is frustrating and demoralising.

Flexible leaders however:

- Deal effectively with change.

- Respond wisely to the different personalities of the people they lead.

- Demonstrate empathy, which is crucial in terms of delivering outstanding customer service, as well as outstanding employee experience.

- Empower and develop a range of people with different 'skill-sets'.


FLEXIBILITY DEFINED:

Being flexible does not mean being a door-mat and allowing people to walk over you.

Being flexible does not mean giving in to the many different demands which are made of you, or acting against your beliefs or gut instinct.

Being flexible does mean that you're able to stand in other people's shoes and consider the world from their point of view, before deciding whether that insight will alter the decisions and actions you take. It also means that regardless of your personality and strengths, you're able to apply a number of different leadership styles in the work-place.

Most people I know would argue they're very flexible, because they know that inflexibility is another word for dogmatic or narrow minded, but the reality is that inflexibility characterises many leaders. We can all improve our flexibility because being flexible is a skill and something which can be developed over time, so long as you are committed to continual self development, you have the right tools to help you, and the willingness to experiment with different behaviours, actions and choices which may not come naturally to you at first.

Thanks for reading!

I help organisations to become more profitable by developing their people

Call me - 0121 420 3457 / 07760 444 946

Email me - enquiries@impactlife.co.uk

Connect with me on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpain

Like me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpactLifeUK

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/andrewpain1974
Check out my website - www.impactlife.co.uk

Leadership Howler 4 - No vision

John was promoted to a Managing Director role, following a successful spell as a salesman (this is a true story by the way!). In fact, it was partly due to his consistent sales performance over the years, that there was a team of 20 people for him to manage.

Keen to rise to the challenge, he was determined to ensure that his high standards would be replicated by his team members and as the months passed by, he worked harder and harder to make a success of his new role. He believed his energy and dedication would be infectious to his team members, but in making himself so busy, he lost track of his vision and become bogged down in the every-day matters of running a team of 20 people.

Unsurprisingly, by the time I started working with him, team performance had stagnated, morale was low and his team lacked direction. Like many leaders, John had made the common mistake of losing sight of the bigger-picture because he'd become so busy with the everyday stuff and his responsibilities were so numerous.

Good leaders take the time to regularly ask:

• What are we trying to achieve?

• How are we going to stand out from our competitors?

• What are our long and short-term goals?

• What do we need to change in order to be better?

• How are we going to make a difference to the world?

• What could we do, which is completely brilliant?

Good leaders will explore these questions in spite of how busy they are. 

Call me - 0121 420 3457 / 07760 444 946

Email me - enquiries@impactlife.co.uk

Connect with me on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpain

Like me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpactLifeUK

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/andrewpain1974
Check out my website - www.impactlife.co.uk

Leadership Howler 3 - Adoration needs

The most helpful feedback I've had in my life has been some of the most hurtful to receive initially. The fact is that however humble we may think we are, it's natural to want to believe that we're right, brilliant and wise. Therefore, when we hear feedback which is to the contrary, we can feel under attack, something which makes us defensive and can hinder our ability to develop.

When people become leaders, the need to be adored and admired often increases with the responsibility and therefore the potential pain of receiving negative feedback increases with that need.

Wise leaders recognise that the need for adoration is natural, but it limits their leadership potential ... because if you crave adoration: 

1) You'll get told what people think you want to hear, because it's perceived that you can't take the bad news. Thus you live in a bubble rather than reality... and eventually, all bubbles burst!

2) The problems for which you're responsible are not reported to you by the people around you but they'll certainly grumble about them (behind your back).

3) You become isolated

Controlling your adoration needs involves:

• Remaining humble

• Being able to laugh at yourself 

• Adopting the following mantra - the best leaders know they are doing well when the performance of each team member surpasses their own performance. With this in mind, such leaders leave no space for adoration needs, because they're so focused on the development of their team members. 

Thanks for reading

I help people to achieve more by developing their resilience, influence and productivity. 

Call me - 0121 420 3457 / 07760 444 946

Email me - enquiries@impactlife.co.uk

Connect with me on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpain

Like me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpactLifeUK

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/andrewpain1974
Check out my website - www.impactlife.co.uk

Leadership Howler 2 - Crawling your talk

Make sure you walk your talk, rather than crawl your talk because as the leader, you set the tone for the behaviour of your team.

I recently worked with a team leader (I'll call her Sarah for reasons of confidentiality) and she despaired at the lack of good time management among her team members:

"They simply don't prioritise"

"He's runs around like a headless chicken"

"She gets bogged down in things which aren't important"

Interestingly, within a few weeks of working with her, I was subjected to several last-minute cancellations and one 'no-show'. It was pretty clear that her team members were not the only ones with time management issues!

Whether your team members respect you or not, as the leader, they'll follow your lead to some degree. If you work long hours, jump reactively from task to task, neglect the important things and live chaotically, don't expect your team members to fare any better.

Tip: 

A) Write a list of the ideal behavioural traits and habits of your 'dream team'.

B) When it's complete, work through the list with a friend/parent/partner (or someone else who is prepared to be honest with you) and identify 2-3 areas on the list where you know you personally struggle.

C) Develop some small actions you could take, so you get better at the areas you identified and you walk your talk, rather than crawl it.

Call me - 0121 420 3457 / 07760 444 946

Email me - enquiries@impactlife.co.uk

Connect with me on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpain

Like me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImpactLifeUK

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/andrewpain1974
Check out my website - www.impactlife.co.uk