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You’re getting ready for a main stage presentation to an important audience. You’ve put the time into crafting what you want to say and have some killer slides. Now, it’s time to deliver. Feeling nervous? Relax! Try these final tips before taking the stage.
1. Arrive Prepared
Owning the room starts with owning the content. Owning the content starts with you.
In the weeks before, write out your remarks or at least prepare a detailed outline on your own.
Practice out loud for a minimum of one hour for every 20 minutes of presentation.
Bake your script down to a simple outline with prompt points, data points and cues.
Memorize the framework of the simple outline and the overall flow of your presentation.
Carry a hard copy of your notes on cards (just in case) – one card for each outline point.
2. Rehearse On Stage
It’s easy to rehearse too little. It’s hard to rehearse too much.
On-stage rehearsals should be, at minimum, the length of your presentation. Use the time to:
Walk through introductions, play-ons, videos, any props or stage action, and handoffs.
Step through your entire presentation.
Adjust the downstage confidence monitors to suit how you prefer to see your notes.
A rehearsal is also for the technical crew running the show. Make sure they are on the same page!
Here’s what it comes down to when we’re talking about company meetings or any corporate meetings:
Maximize Your Return
Minimize Your Investment
Measure Your ROI
And, here’s a universal truth: There is not, and never will be, a substitute for in-person engagement. That’s the purpose of a corporate leadership summit, Management Team conference or National Sales Meeting. You bring people together to engage them to a degree that no virtual meeting can match, no matter how great the technology may be.
Engagement is the “secret sauce” that makes new strategies, campaigns, processes and other initiatives successful. Engaged employees and leaders feel positive about their companies – what they’re trying to do, and how they go about doing it. They understand what is expected of them and are energized by contributing to the business’ success.
Now, how do you engage your attendees? And, we mean what specific tactics can you apply, not just general theoretical ideas and concepts! What could you add to what you’re currently doing? What should you do differently than what you currently do? What could you learn from the companies that are really good at engaging their event attendees and benefiting not only with better ROI but also effecting the post-event actions they desire?
Our Guide gives you those tactics to help maximize your return, to minimize your investment and to measure your ROI based on our long history of making that happen for our clients. And we’re not keeping it a secret – have a look for yourself to see what you might do today and contact us if we can help you make it happen for you too!
Building a customer centric culture is not easy, and it takes time, which is why so few companies are successful at it.
A customer centric culture is not a new concept. If anything it’s becoming expected – at every level in the organization. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Nordstrom, Southwest Airlines, and Disney have proven how powerful a deep knowledge of your customer and thinking from the outside in, can be. They understand the job of nearly everyone in a company is to create value for the people they serve (who are ultimately their customers) and to consistently look for ways to increase that value. With the rise of social media, today’s CEOs are also very clear on the power “word of mouth” can have on their business results.
In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, initiatives to engage employees in putting customers first and delighting customers consistently requires building a company-wide customer centric culture. But it’s not an easy task and it takes time, which is why so few companies are successful at it. For one thing, many associates in any type of company may spend their careers never talking to an external customer or client – ever.
How often do we ask them to think like customer-facing employees and “become more customer centric”?
Even though customer centricity can drive product and service innovation and strengthen the relationships a company develops with its customers by improving customer loyalty, lifetime value, and lowering churn (which lowers cost-to-serve and increases employee engagement to create a competitive “moat”).
Associates may not think of the work they do as having a direct impact on the company’s customers. Many may view themselves as support functions – processing invoices, payroll, or managing internal processes not generally seen by the outside world. They know they have a role to play, but their view of how the work they do impacts external customers is fuzzy. Asked to be more customer centric, they may respond with what appears to be legitimate pushback:
“I don’t ever talk to a customer.”
“Isn’t customer centricity for salespeople?”
“I know my work is important to the business; does it matter if I’m customer focused?”
As communications leaders, we are asked to help employees become more “customer centric” to engage everyone in the customer focused culture. But, getting your associates to see and feel that what they do can impact a customer is critical to ensuring that a company’s strategy and mission can be achieved. How do you “connect the customer dots” for your team?
Over the course of my career in a variety of Communications, Voice of Customer and Customer Service roles at some of the world’s largest organizations, I was asked to think about how we connect these dots for associates. Over the years, I came to recognize three important considerations:
1. Define It: Who is your customer?
Define your customer up front, if you want your employees to think about the external customer, then define it that way. There may be internal customers in addition to external customers, so understand up front that both are part of your customer centricity strategy. It’s important in any communication about customers that everyone is on the same page with who we are talking about. Consider including the definition in annual employee satisfaction surveys, ensure it’s understood in annual reviews and, when discussing impacts or outcomes that center on customers, spell out the definition. Make sure leaders are clear on definitions when they discuss customer focus with employees.
Sharing customer insights with employees allow them to put themselves in your customers’ shoes. What are the customer pain points? What keeps them up at night? How are we addressing our customer needs? And develop your plan and communications accordingly. There are some unique and fun ways to do this – consider the following, interviewing actual customers, interviewing customer service associates, or creating a “day in the life” of a customer service representative. If you’re in retail, have employees walk the floors of your brick and mortar sites as customers and sales associates do each day.
2. Say It: “You don’t touch the customer every day”
The first hurdle in any new way of thinking is to acknowledge the proverbial elephant in the room. If associates aren’t customer facing, don’t try to tell them they are. Explain that the goal is to consider how their work makes an impact on the customer, not just whether it touches the customer. Don’t tell associates that everyone’s work touches the customer.
Philosophically, we all know our work impacts our customers. Creating a communications campaign that simply asks a non-customer facing associate to “become more customer centric” won’t work. Showing them how their work touches the customer is more important. And if you can do it visually, that’s even better (see #3).
3. Do it: Make it a game
Make it fun. Make it visual. An infographic that shows how their work connects to a customer could be fun. Ask employees to “draw” their links to the customers and share or even have them tell their story on camera about what they do that helps a customer. An example I’ve seen work well is playing “six degrees of separation”. Challenge associates to see how many degrees it takes to connect them to a customer. Create a contest and have associates share their analyses via internal social media. For instance, if you work in payroll, show how the work you do to ensure that associates’ payroll experience is simplified and accurate allows them to focus on their work and their operations in support of customers. The less time focused on issues around their pay, the more time they must focus on the work that DOES impact customers.
I’ve seen first-hand what can happen when associates are encouraged to think about their work in the context of creating value for their companies’ customers.
They begin to see themselves as ambassadors for those same customers. We often don’t think about our internal associates as an extension of our marketing department, but we could and should. By building this connection and advocacy, any employee can be empowered to feel as if they are customer facing.
To make customer focus a constant in associates’ minds, reminding them often of how their work connects to customers should become a common theme in employee communications. It’s not a one-time communication initiative. It’s about keeping the customer out in front of associates. Run communication initiatives over the course of the year that allows employees to share their voice on their connection to customers. Keep it simple, real, engaging, and fun!
Managing change is not exclusive to work. We all go through changes in our personal lives. We can learn from those personal experiences and even apply them in our change management programs at work.
What if we could learn from the personal changes we’ve experienced and apply them in a professional setting? Changes in our personal lives test our resilience, adaptability, and our expectations. Most of us come through those times a bit tougher, a bit wiser, and hopefully, at peace with the change.
The ultimate test of change management at work is if we can look back at the change and see that we’re not necessarily worse off, but maybe even better off. As Communication Managers – focused on associate/internal communications – we’re asked and expected to move teams through difficult changes in the corporate landscape. And we can leverage some of what we learn in our personal change journeys each day when developing our change management plan.
1. Communicate honestly and with empathy.
Like the stages of loss, many of us experience stages of uneasiness when change causes upheaval in our lives. Initially, we all need some time and space to process what’s different, how it impacts us, and allow ourselves to make the transition in mind and spirit. In a business setting, acknowledging the discomfort and recognizing where associates sit on the change curve is critical to getting off on the right foot.
ACTION: Spell out upfront what will specifically be different and how you envision the change impacting each individual. Explain why the change is occurring – with truth, facts, and authenticity. Understanding why the change of course is occurring helps to lay the foundation for the work to come. Ensure the facts are communicated by individuals who understand and can articulate the rationale clearly. Then, step back for a moment and let the message and details sink in.
2. Bring “the village” together.
When a tough change (or even a positive change) happens in our lives, we tend to reach out to friends, family, or inner circles. We take our concerns, anxiety, or excitement to our “personal boards” – those we surround ourselves with to help us cope or navigate change in our lives. It’s no different at work.
As communications professionals, it’s important for us to talk about the change occurring, but also where our associates can go to find answers or support. It’s critical to create a “village” of individuals who can help associates talk through what’s going on and how they’re feeling. This can be accomplished in partnership with HR, senior leadership, or others in the organization that are trusted and respected.
ACTION: Build that village and have it ready to go on Day One. Create a series of “coffee and…” sessions without an agenda. Build safe zones for employees to connect and talk. Lean in to your EAP programs and remind people of what resources are available to them.
3. Use the most common, accessible technologies.
Technology is our friend. When something new is presented to us, or we want to learn more about an item, person or activity, our first instinct may be to check Google or ask Alexa. We want to learn more; we need to learn more. Having an understanding or knowledge of what’s happening allows us to process the change in a way that can keep us from making too many assumptions and spiraling into an unknown and negative place. Technology can play a critical role in change management communications too.
ACTION: Create a variety of communication channels that allow associates to inquire on what’s happening, provide feedback, and share concerns or ideas. This can be as simple as a “change” toolkit – with details, FAQs, and resources for managing the change both professionally and personally. You can create a change “blog” where folks can share thoughts and ideas or develop a group chat on your internal social media platform for asking question or sharing information. But don’t simply replace face-to-face interactions during times of change with just technology solutions. Find ways to blend both.
We all respond to change in different ways. Reactions can vary from “I don’t have time for change” to “Everything is fine, why change?” to “This is exciting, how can I help?”, as there’s not just one way individuals react to change, or only one way to communicate change. We can learn a lot by realizing that even in business, change can be very personal, and a personal touch can go a long way.
Brands are sacrosanct and are to be jealously guarded at all costs vs. re-branding.
For some companies and brands that is true. Particularly if you are entrusted with the care of a venerable consumer brand like Betty Crocker or Pepsi. Just ask the veterans of “New Coke” to show you their scars.
But there are reasons re-branding makes sense. And young companies in fast moving markets like technology and services encounter those situations more often than most.
Here are some situations that may mean you should consider re-branding:
Have you recently launched a new product or service that serves a substantially different market and audience than your core business?
Is your market crowded with other companies using similar brand names to generate awareness and relevance?
Has some outside event beyond your control saddled your brand name (or something very similar) with a negative connotation?
Any of those things and others can create a situation where you need to carefully evaluate your current brand and consider rebranding entirely or in part. This article from Inc. Magazine looks at four of these situations in detail and the principals involved talk about how they addressed this challenge and why.
Here are eight tips from our team of producers – veterans of television, theater and event production:
1. Decide if it’s live, pre-recorded or hybrid (video within a live show).
Live production: Pro
A live production is very much in the moment. There is a more personal connection with the audience and there may be opportunities for audience involvement.
Live production: Con
A live production can require complex, potentially costly staging, lighting and choreography to pull off and there’s no such thing as, “We’ll fix it in post.”
Pre-recorded: Pro
Video offers vastly more creative possibilities in terms of available assets and ability to control the viewer experience. You can combine visuals of all kinds. You can shoot multiple takes of any scene. And yes, you can “fix it in post.”
Pre-recorded: Con
Great video production isn’t cheap, and it takes time. And compromises always show. Sometimes, that’s okay; a shot that’s meant to be just a smartphone video, for example, is fine. But if “sort of okay” won’t cut it, high-quality production is a must.
2. Consider a format that you can use as a template.
The most popular approach is parody because it taps into memory structures and feelings people already have. And the nature of the original can help drive the arc and presentation of your story.
How popular is it? Well, virtually all of the many meetings we’ve produced in the past year have included skits, including hilarious send-ups of popular television programs – comedies, dramas, sportscasts, reality shows and the old standbys, game shows.
We’ve also produced a bunch of all-original skits. One recent example featured dueling mock pitches for the Jersey Shore and Pittsburgh, competing to be the site for a performance reward getaway. (The actual prize was more exotic.) That one highlighted the different personalities of two very popular sales leaders, another common thread.
3. Consider the format that you can best work with
Getting started on a script is hard, even for professional scriptwriters. The universe of possibilities is infinite, and scriptwriting is an art.
One way to organize your thoughts is to decide between Storytelling, Conversation and Pure Entertainment This decision can help drive your choice between a live or pre-recorded approach.
Here are a couple of broad guidelines:
Storytelling approaches are best done as videos while conversation-based programs such as game shows and commentaries lend themselves well to live productions.
Pure entertainment such as music videos or song-and-dance parodies can be great fun and can drive home high-level points and evoke strong feelings, even if they don’t communicate granular information.
None of this is absolute, but the pros and cons of each offer some basic guidance:
Storytelling skits: Pro
A parody of an existing movie or show can leverage an audience’s established feelings toward it. Similarly, a from-scratch production can evoke familiar touchpoints such as the dynamics of your particular team or processes.
Storytelling skits: Con
An episodic skit show requires well-crafted scripting and production to pay off its premise without becoming awkward, silly or just plain lame. As a live show, it’s even more difficult to pay off, especially if physicality is required.
Here are a couple of recent examples to serve as thought starters:
A send-up of a popular TV show featured a misplaced coach’s “Ten Leadership Lessons” as a platform for discussing the qualities and attitudes that Sales leaders use to build, empower and support their teams. The National Sales Manager, as the “Coach” character, introduced each lesson with a philosophical lesson and then played a pre-recorded video of a team member’s observations about it. The concept was simple and direct, and the execution only required acting by the National Sales Manager; the team members on video were just themselves, reflecting on their respective lessons.
A parody of a popular remote island reality show went all-out to create a highly credible and entertaining send-up experience. Costumes, props, graphics, scene choreography, dialog, music, sound effects and editing all combined to create the feeling of watching the show.
Highlights included having teams competing to complete an assembly that is part of their sales demonstration process, and then following it up with a “tribal meeting” to determine who “survives” and who does not.
This last part was an example of how important agility and a combination of both live and video production capabilities can be. Originally, the plan was for set-up and assembly to be pre-recorded and the tribal meeting to be live. But at the last minute, as the Omicron wave began, the meeting became all-virtual and the entire presentation became a video-based episode.
Conversation-based skits: Pro
Game shows, talk shows, sportscasts, news and commentary shows are well-suited to live events because they can be staged with one anchor set and scripted to a well-defined format. They can be spontaneously funny and can incorporate apps for audience participation. And they don’t require a lot of character acting.
News and sports programs, in particular, are perfect for deeper delivery of information and commentary.
Conversation-based skits: Con
Let’s start with the obvious: game shows, news shows and sportscasts are done a lot, and they can get pretty cheesy. But somehow, they’re still popular; it’s all in the on-stage personalities. The same is true of news and sportscaster programs, which have the added benefit of being perfect for deeper delivery of information and metaphorical language gags.
Here are a couple of recent examples – again, to help trigger ideas:
A Dating Game parody used the well-known format to present a product and two of its competitors as “date” possibilities to be interviewed by the user choosing among them. Each player, speaking as the respective product, answered questions and made its case.
The format was an effective platform not just for showing why the team’s product was a better choice, but also for anticipating the competitors’ sales pitches and practicing conversations that would lead their target audience to choose that product.
A renamed and reformatted Shark Tank parody featured actual engineering teams making actual pitches for development resources based on audience responses to their proposals.
Pure entertainment: Pro
There’s nothing like out-and-out show biz to get a crowd psyched and engaged. Getting a little “out there” with a music video or live song-and-dance routine can win over your colleagues. With backing music easily available in today’s vast karaoke libraries, you can parody any music you want. Similarly, today’s stock footage houses offer video backplates of all kinds that you can use by shooting on green screen, and narrative titles can be easily animated to move a story along. (You’ll want to work closely with your agency or production company on this.)
Pure entertainment: Con
The greatest downside is lack of preparedness. A song-and-dance routine needs careful choreography and rigorous rehearsal to avoid becoming clownish. Also, some people are either unable to carry a tune or dance well. That can be charming in the case of a beloved leader willing to be self-effacing for the sake of team engagement. But generally, song-and-dance routines work best with good singers and dancers.
4. Rehearse ‘til it hurts.
There’s no way around this. If you’re live, a flub, a missed cue or some other unexpected screw-up could make an audience wince. As friends and colleagues, they might feel sorry for you, but you’ll have lost the point. On video, re-takes are great if you’re shooting to have alternatives or backup, but every take caused by a screw-up is time and money wasted. Yes, rehearsing takes time and isn’t always easy to coordinate. But it is always worth the trouble.
5. Take humor seriously.
Humor takes all forms. Whether it’s a sight gag or dialog, being funny is as tricky as it is important. In a sales meeting setting, you may be able to cross a couple of boundaries that you couldn’t in everyday business life, but not by much.
First, there are things you absolutely can’t do. You can’t be crude or offensive. It’s not a matter of being woke, it’s a matter of respecting the reality that as close as you may be to your team members, your relationship is based on business. So no sex talk. No aspersions, insults, anger or overt complaints. Nothing mean-spirited. And nothing that mocks, denigrates or diminishes your associates.
Got that? Of course.
But being close to your team members does give you a little license to have some fun. Inside jokes should be funny to insiders, but only insiders can ever see or hear them. A little gentle ribbing can be fine, especially if it’s more about a process than a person or group of people. And self-effacing humor can be endearing.
6. The takeaway should be the hook.
One thing the four examples discussed here share with most other successful skits is relevance. It takes some finesse to get there, but the objective is always to have the experience impart a single, memorable takeaway. Whatever else the skit communicates, however deep into the weeds it gets and however entertaining as it is meant to be, the end game is almost always the same – to get your audience to think, feel and do what you want them to. When the vehicle is a skit, that’s the destination.
7. Don’t be any cheaper than you want to look
If you don’t want your skit to come off like a High School play or home movie and you don’t have the internal resources for a professional-grade production, work with your communications agency or production company. In addition to creative and technical capabilities, a good one will also have solid planning and production processes and will help you get the quality you need at a price you can afford.
8. Don’t go it alone.
Let’s face it. Not everyone is a great writer, producer or performer. And the right agency or producer can make all the difference. In our business, we provide both creative and production support as needed. Of course, salespeople are often quite creative, so it’s a matter of bringing their visions it to life whether we’re just making tweaks or scripting from scratch.
So forgive the blatant self-interest in our saying so, but wherever you are on that spectrum, a good agency or production company can be the difference between a successful skit show and… well, let’s just call it the obvious rhyme.
Most companies stage major sales meetings at least once a year. Some do them as often as quarterly. Senior management as well as Sales and Marketing usually attend these high-stakes meetings that often serve as a motivational boost for much of the company management team and are critical to implementing the company’s strategy successfully. It is your job to make these meetings a success. Welcome to the world of high stakes stress and pressure! We all want every meeting to be a smash hit with stakes like these but the simple truth is that all meetings won’t be a “10” – it just doesn’t work that way. Don’t worry. If you consistently hit an “8” or better you will probably be playing in the Sales Meeting World Series!
So how do you make sure every meeting is at least an “8”?
The folks at Selling Power Magazine know a thing or two about producing successful sales meetings and we think this article from Elaine Evans interview with John Mackenzie offers a lot of sound advice. Boiling it down, they suggest six key areas of focus to get the results you want.
The Six Key Areas of Focus for Successful Sales Meetings:
When and Why: make sure you are having a meeting for the right reason at the right time
Theme: it has to fit the situation YOUR sales team is facing right now
Form vs Substance: avoid redundant messages at all costs
Rehearse: yes, this means you, and everyone else presenting too. Do it BEFORE you leave town. No exceptions
Anticipate the Worst: don’t just double check your technology at rehearsal – force yourself to have an entirely separate backup plan in place and ready to go
The Unusual: it can be the difference maker, but be sure it is creative and not contrived
Ready to put this advice to use in your meeting planning? Then check out these tips and get started on your planning now.
There’s a lot more to creating an effective presence for your brand on YouTube than just posting informative videos. Helping potential customers find your videos is critical. To do that, you need to apply a little “SEO love” when creating and posting the videos. Start with the title — what are the key search words that come to mind when a potential customer is thinking about the problem they are trying to solve? Creative? Content Marketing? Lead Generation? How about things like “Effective Communication” or “Employee Engagement”? Use these words in your title to improve the chances that your video will be displayed when your potential customer is searching for solutions.
And don’t forget about the thumbnail. In this case, a picture is worth at least a thousand words (the word count limit YouTube sets for video descriptions) and custom production of a unique picture for your thumbnail is proven to outperform the video screenshots YouTube will suggest for you. Custom production is worth the trouble. And speaking of those descriptions, remember, your viewers are looking for a video — not a novel! So keep that word count down. Instead of posting the screenplay for the video, focus on those keywords that will drive SEO and views. The same goes for other chances to drop in copy like tags, subtitles and closed captions. Check out this article for the specifics on how to lavish your next video with SEO love!
