Speaking is one of the top ways to get new clients/customers. People get to know you and you instantly start building a trusted relationship. Now that’s the way to grow a business quickly! I made the following 3 mistakes when I first started putting together presentations. I don’t want you to do the same, so here we go!

Mistake #1: Didn’t Have a Presentation Template: Duh. Each time I put together a talk, I started from scratch staring at a blank page in Word. Now I have a system I use every time. While I don’t use Microsoft Powerpoint to give the presentation, I do use it to create my presentations. I can print out the “slides” to use as my notes. I like this system because it allows me to keep just one point per page and is large print for my over 40 eyes.

1. Create Your Title. Be sure it’s clear and enticing. Tell yourself in one sentence, what you want the audience to leave with at the end of the presentation -this is for your eyes only. It helps you have a clear intention for the presentation which will keep you focused on the end goal.

2. Get their attention right away. Have an opening that is powerful and tells them what they will leave with. I’ll use my upcoming teleseminar on “How to Create an Information Product That Sells” as an example. I’ll open with this “By the end of our time together today, you will be able to create your first information product in a week or less.”

3. Give them a roadmap of where you will take them. For example, “in the next hour, I will give you 3 powerful strategies that will tell you exactly how to complete your information product in a week or less.” The 3 strategies are: #1 choosing your topic, #2 choosing the format of your product and #3 resources to use to get it done.

4. Be real. I am authentic when I present. Yes, I position myself as an expert, but I’m an expert who learned from experience and I am there to help them shortcut many of the mistakes I made. While I rarely have jokes prepared, I do naturally weave in humor and warmth into my presentations. Be yourself. This will build relationship with ideal clients who want to work with YOU.

5. Have a strong close. Don’t say “In summary.” People tend to shut you off when you do. At the end of my talks, I give the audience a “call to action.” I ask a few participants to tell us what they plan to do as a result of the talk they just heard. And then I close with a final, powerful point.

Mistake #2: Didn’t Use Stories: I thought I had to give a presentation chock full of facts to show folks I knew what I was talking about. Boring! The next time you are in the audience, count how many stories the presenter tells. If she is good, when she feels the audience’s attention wander, she’ll pull out a story. A story captivates us. I now know the power of weaving in success stories of clients I’ve worked with. This not only gets the attention of the audience, it also reinforces that when they work with me, they too can have similar successes.

If you are just starting out and don’t have many of your client’s stories to tell, you can share stories from your own experiences and the stories of others. The Chicken Soup for the Soul book series is one place to collect stories. Keep your eye out when reading magazines and newspaper articles in your topic area and collect stories to use in future talks.

Mistake #3 Didn’t Collect Testimonials: Testimonials are another great marketing tool that don’t cost a dime! Have you ever purchased a service or product after you read some great testimonials? You can place a testimonial form in each person’s handout packet or on their seat. At the beginning of your presentation you can say that “if you feel you’ve benefited by this presentation, I’d appreciate it if you’d jot down a few specific things you received and what you will now do as a result of being here today.”

Or, if people come up to you during a break, or after your presentation, and say glowing things to you, jot down what they’ve said and ask if you can use their statements as a testimonial. Get correct spelling of their name and ask permission to use their city/state. Ask if they’d like free publicity by adding their website to the testimonial or their email address if they don’t have a website. Getting their photos is a powerful tool to add to the testimonials. And now, for those of you with websites, video testimonials are the newest thing. You can purchase an inexpensive video camera like the Flip Video Camcorder to do this.

The third and last part of this article will focus on how to market your presentations without spending a fortune.

Christmas is a time when you exchange or present Christmas gifts to everyone who is near and dear to you and who plays an important role in your life. These gifts represent your warm wishes, to send across your feelings and for motivating and inspiring. Thus, this is the best time to present gifts to your employees, partners and bosses.
 

If you do not want to spend time in engaging yourself in selecting and placing a bulk order for a personalised or corporate Xmas gift and do not want to spend much money on them either, then there are few great and simple ideas for you in store. Without spending much time and money on ordering a bulk of personalised gift items, you can still find amazing options and methods to convert affordable yet useful gift items into personalised gift items which show your gratitude and warm wishes towards your employees and co-workers on this Christmas.
 

Corporate Christmas Gifts Ideas:
 

Employee Gifts: Christmas shows your appreciation towards the hard work and efforts put by your employees throughout the year. Thus, in a sense it’s a payback time, therefore the gifts should be special. However, mostly the gifts handed out by corporate are usually predictable and non-exciting. Therefore, select an innovative and fun way of presenting creative yet practical gift items.
 

Corporate Party: organise a corporate Christmas party for your employees and co-workers. These parties do not necessarily need to be a grand and an expensive affair. However, it does not even needs to be dull and boring like a conservative buffet style dinner parties and a sit down gossip session after dinner.
 

Include seasonal music, decide some theme or arrange a fancy dress competition and award the winner. You can also arrange a Santa Claus Fancy dress competition where the contestant who looks and acts the best like a Santa gets the prize! Select a good array of food that goes along with the festive mood.
 

Gift Distribution: try an innovative way of gifting Christmas gifts this year around.Make different gift baskets and hampers like yummy gourmet hampers containing scrumptious cookies, or selection of dark chocolates, Christmas cakes of different flavours, etc. You can also get some wine baskets, book baskets containing, most selective bunch of books, a collection of DVDs, Music, gardening tools, sport gears, etc.
 

Arrange these kits on a display and allow your employees to take a pick from them according to their own preferences and taste! Make sure you get a good number of each type of gift baskets. Or, if it is possible for you, try to find out the hobbies of each of your employee and gift them a gift basket accordingly.
 

Personalise the Gifts: To personalise these gifts add a certificate to them to give them an intimate feel.
 

Every company hands out Christmas gifts to their employees, however, the way and the manner in which they are presented makes all the difference. 

Are your business presentations persuasive? Does your audience remember and act on your message? If not, perhaps you are following conventional wisdom. The problem with conventional wisdom is it’s often irrelevant, out of date, or just plain wrong.

Here are some widely held presentation myths that you would do well to ignore.

Tell ‘em three times. There is an old saw for presenters that says you should first tell your audience what you’re going to tell ‘em, then tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em. This might have worked in our great grandfathers’ time, when people were less educated and had longer attention spans. If you tell a modern audience the same thing three times they will feel insulted. Don’t treat your audience like children.

If you feel your message is so complicated that you need to repeat yourself, you need to simplify your message instead.

You need a rich, resonant voice. This is true only if you are a radio personality. A good business presenter has a voice with three qualities:

It is loud enough to be heard. If your voice isn’t loud enough, use a microphone.

It is clear enough to be understood. This is not a problem for most people (see articulation, below).

It is enthusiastic enough to be compelling. A monotone is boring. Enthusiasm is contagious. If you don’t sound excited about your message, why should your audience care about it?

Provided you are loud enough, clear enough, and enthusiastic, your natural voice is probably just fine.

You must articulate clearly. It’s OK if you slur some words together or drop a letter here and there, so long as your audience understands you. Don’t try to sound like a radio announcer speaking the Queen’s English if you have a certain accent. Be yourself. Your audience wants to connect with you as an individual. They know a phony when they hear one.

Moreover, you don’t want to sound like everyone else has been taught to sound. If you sound like the crowd you will be perceived as a commodity. You want to sound like yourself – unique.

You need more polish. A business audience is skeptical, critical, and hard-nosed. They have strong opinions and are not easily sold. Making better eye contact and smoother gestures will not make much difference to them if they don’t like your message.

Gestures, body language, and other niceties of delivery style are like polish. Polish can add a bit more shine to something that is already shiny, but it cannot bring luster to something that is inherently dull. A discriminating audience is looking for content, not a slick delivery.

You need great visual aids. Most presenters use slides and other visual aids as a crutch. They show a slide and read what’s on it. Your audience could just read the slides themselves, making you redundant.

In many cases you may not need visual aids at all. The most compelling visuals are the mental images you evoke in the minds of your listeners through metaphors, examples, and stories.

Your audience is interested in your message. Most presenters assume their audience is enriched by their presentation. This is a dangerous assumption to make. Chances are some (if not most) of the people listening to you are only there because they have to be. They may not agree with you, they may not want to hear you, and they have other things on their mind. They are doing you a favor by giving you some of their valuable time and possibly some of their limited attention. You need to give them something they value in return. And you need to let them know you are offering value from the very beginning, or you will quickly lose them.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. You don’t have to practice very much. This is a business presentation, not a soliloquy from Shakespeare. You won’t be perfect, and you don’t need to be. You just need to master the material.

Mastering the material means being able to discuss it comfortably and convincingly. Your audience expects you to be in command of the subject matter you are presenting. This does not mean memorizing.

Having said that, you should memorize your opening because it must grab the attention of your audience. You should also memorize the call to action in your conclusion, because it is too important to ad lib. In between your memorized opening and closing lines is the meat of your presentation. Work from a carefully structured outline, but be flexible.

Most presenters buy these myths. They try to look, sound, and present like other good presenters. They strive to be plain vanilla. Vanilla is popular. Vanilla is safe. But it isn’t memorable. If your message isn’t memorable, your presentation has failed.