Re: presentations(marketing)

[Matt Ion <mion -at- DIRECT -dot- CA>]

On Wed, 31 May 1995 09:39:42 -0700 you wrote:

>I've been getting a few calls from total strangers that want me to give
>them a presentation. I'm petrified of the idea. I have a portfolio ready
>and i prepared a presentation package. but, i'm too scared to go through
>with it. what will they expect of me? How long should a presentation be?

Consider that the sexiest women are not those that look and dress (or don't
dress) a certain way, but those who have high self-esteem and see THEMSELVES
as sexy.

In the same respect, remember that THEY called YOU... THEY see YOU as the
expert, and for the most part, THEY will believe whatever YOU tell them.

Get up in front of them and cop a take-charge, "I'm the boss here" attitude
(without stepping over the line into an "I'm an asshole" attitude) right away,
and they'll be a lot more likely to simply take your words as gospel - after
all, that why you, and they, are there.

I set up a BBS once for an environmental-consulting firm.  At one point, he
got an audience with a monthly meeting of a couple dozen people from the
environmental divisions of a number of large companies, including McDonals
Canada, Husky Oil, and B.C. Ferries Corp., to show off this BBS and what it
was for.  And of course, he wanted me to do most of the actual presentation.

Needless to say, I was too stumped by it all to come with anything in advance,
so I decided to just wing it.  We set up a computer with an overhead projector
and I basically dove right into showing off the BBS.

The trick I learned was to spend as little time as possible trying to THINK of
something to tell them, and just find out what THEY want to know.

It worked great in this case, because the people who had no online experience
were blown away and asked really simple questions, and the ones who knew a bit
about online services (Internet and Compu$erve in particular) asked
intelligent but not baiting questions.  Here's me, all of 25, long hair and
full goatee, the quintessential rock'n'roll burnout-type, and all these
three-piece suits are impressed all to bits and discussing deep, technical
issues with me as a peer.

On top of that, I not only drew some consulting work to get some of THEM
"wired", but even got a couple new callers for my own BBS (another very
specialized-market system, one of the largest exclusively-music-oriented
online systems in Canada).

And again, I simply went in there carrying the realization that *I* was the
expert and THEY were there because they wanted to learn from me; because they
knew very little about the topic in the first place (if they didn't, they
probably wouldn't have been there at all, right?)

>Any ideas on how to get over the fear?

An audience is like a pack of wolves.  If they smell fear, they'll eat you
alive.  Feel better now?  :)

It's entirely a give-and-take situation, and you have to be the first one to
give... show them confidence, and they will give you more confidence.


Let us know how it went :)




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