Category Archives: Professionalism

Oct 01 2015
Leadership, Professionalism

Oh the Places You’ll Go

At a recent team meeting, I conducted a brainstorming session about where you can go from the Pre-Sales role in your career.

What would you think of someone who was…

Self-motivated, decisive, skilled at presenting, loved to learn something new, knew customers, listened well, understood a variety of industries, sought solutions to problems, was skilled at managing projects, dealing with situations, and enjoyed thinking, writing, and managing their own time?

Would you think Sales? Executive Leadership? How about Marketing Communications, Product Management or a People Manager?  Why not Business Operations, Strategic Alliances, Industry Expert or a Global Account Manager?  Getting outside our own little world, wouldn’t such a person make a great entrepreneur, politician, parent, writer or keynote speaker?

Pre-Sales demands a broad and deep set of interpersonal, business, and organizational skills.  Doing this job is a non-stop professional skills exercise program.

We all knew people within our own organization who had passed through this role to become anything from demonstration technical support to members of the board.  And many who had stayed right where they were, because that’s where the action was.

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Feb 10 2015
Leadership, Professionalism

How to not be seen*

At a moment that calls for leadership, respond thus:

Happy to support you guys, just let me know…

Or

Looking forward to working with you on this.

Or

Many thanks for the guidance …greatly appreciate it and will adjust the message accordingly!

Or

I have a conflict meeting on that date.  Let me know.

*heavy sigh*

Not being seen is simple, really.  Send a message expanding upon your enthusiasm for the project with a dash of “just let me know,” and you’re off the hook.  Be sure to make the victory party and share some high fives.

*Inspiration from the uninspired.  Oh, and Monty Python, of course.  http://www.montypython.net/scripts/hownot.php
May 08 2014
Presentations, Professionalism

“Next Slide, Bill”

I don’t care if you’re the CEO of Wal-Mart, the President of the United States, the Pope, or the Global V.P. of Self Importance.

Never,

never,

never,

never,

never,

ever

have someone else click and advance your slides for you.  It is insulting and condescending to your audience.

And it’s unprofessional.

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Mar 13 2014
Humor, Professionalism, Selling

Social Feedback Loop

Don’t you love it when you get a message from LinkedIn that people are looking at your profile?

Don’t you love it even more when the person doing the looking is the customer you just had a solid interaction with?  It’s like getting a firm handshake at the end of the meeting.

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Feb 28 2014
Presentations, Professionalism, Selling

Overheard

Imagine the following phrases uttered in a customer engagement:

“Most companies I see…”

“Jump in! This is for you!”

(While snapping fingers) “Very, very quick.”

“Everyone loves the mobility.  It’s fantastic.”

Customer: “Our biggest issue has always been data gathering.”  Response, without missing a beat, “Well, let’s talk about that then.”

“This is something new and cool.”

“When our customers have needs, we move quickly.”

“I want to tell you a secret.  Can I tell you a secret?”

When you get the opportunity to watch a peer present, take it.  And take notes.  All of these gems* were dug up in a single morning’s demo.

*Regardless of solution-space or industry, phrases like this are examples of the highest level of professionalism in any demonstration of technology.  What customer (or sales rep, our other audience) wouldn’t be thrilled to conduct a conversation in this manner?
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Feb 18 2014
Learning, Presentations, Professionalism

Second Person Narrative

You arrive at the customer site twenty minutes early.  Your sales rep and your client chat about the meeting ahead as you set up.  But something’s wrong. You can’t get onto the network, the projector isn’t cooperating with your tablet, and your sales rep starts talking about areas of the solution you aren’t prepared to cover.

I arrive at the customer site twenty minutes early.  My sales rep and my client chat about the meeting ahead as I set up.  But something’s wrong. I can’t get onto the network, the projector isn’t cooperating with my tablet, and my sales rep starts talking about areas of the solution I’m not prepared to cover.

Much is said about “I-talk” and “you-talk,” the idea that you should phrase your demo clicks in the first person or the second person.

Which of the two examples above had you more involved?  When it was happening to you* or when it was happening to me?  If you want to better involve your customers in your presentations, go with your gut.

* I was delighted to realize, upon review, that most of my posts here are in the second person narrative.
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Jul 23 2013
Learning, Presentations, Professionalism, Selling

Earn a firmer handshake

One way to judge the value of your meeting is through the quality of the handshake you get on the way out the door.

If you’ve inspired someone, made them think, or incited some action, you’ll probably get a firmer and more sincere handshake on the way out the door.  If you get the dreaded “we’ll be in touch,” you can bet they won’t.

Earn a firmer handshake.

Jun 11 2013
Presentations, Professionalism

One Sentence at a Time

In a recent presentation skills course,* participants were coached to address individual audience members one sentence at a time.  Here’s the gist of the technique: Your interaction with the audience will be a verbal paragraph, so as you speak, look at someone, speak one whole sentence, look to the next, speak the next sentence, look again, and complete the thought.  Bonus points if you can complete the thought with the same audience member you started with.

Magic happened.

“Um,” “And,” and “So” crutches disappeared from speech patterns.  Credibility and authority suddenly appeared.  Voices were lower and steady.  The presenters had, well, time to think on their feet.  One sentence at a time.

My penmanship has become atrocious through the years, especially when capturing ideas in customer discovery sessions.  I’ve been writing this off as some kind of mystical kinetic absorption of content- if my hand is moving, the ideas are somehow seeping into my brain and I’ll retain it better.

Balderdash.  When I look at my notes, I can’t read them and no, I can’t recall the details.

This week, I’ve applied the one sentence at a time principle to my note taking on calls, forcibly slowing my hand down and putting legible words to paper.  The magic works here as well.  My understanding was insightful and my conversations suddenly carried more weight and  credibility.  There was no rush, just measured confidence in making my points and pursuing the next topic.

One sentence at a time.

*More than presentation skills, it was a session focused on exuding executive presence.  Created and conducted by Roz Usheroff, whose web presence can be found at remarkableleader.wordpress.com , and whose books can be found here and here.
Apr 02 2013
Learning, Professionalism

Dealing with Obstacles

What will that obstacle be?

An impediment towards your goal?

A sign-post telling you to change direction?

Or an excuse to turn around and go home.

Mar 04 2013
Leadership, Positioning, Professionalism, Solutions

Meddling Fools

As the subject matter experts, rock-stars that we are, we’re often burdened with taking the customer’s challenges and needs and developing our position, messaging, and solutions for the rest of the team.

We all know it is easier to edit than create, and therein lies the challenge.  After blood, sweat, and tears are invested in solution creation, the meddling fools who delegated the creation authority to us in the first place feel the need to take our effort and begin the process again from the beginning, turning over each stone.

And turning them over again.  And again.

The horse is dead.

Stop beating it.

Stop thinking on our time; We’ve invested our creative effort offline, previously, and have communicated it to you with good reason.  Be a professional, stay up to date, and be prepared.

The review is not the starting point; it’s the affirming close.

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