Tell a Good Story to Pitch Yourself and Your Business
Everyone loves a good story, but how many of us are good at telling good stories? For the most part, I think we create exciting and stimulating stories about our personal lives. We certainly have a tremendous amount of material to serve as our database. We love to tell stories about our girlfriends, spouses or partners, children, grandchildren, neighbors (good and bad). And we have no problem adding emotional content and passion to our stories.
Stories are a great way to draw others in and influence their behavior, yet many of us hesitate to use the same emotions and passion in our storytelling when pitching ourselves and our businesses. As a result, the stories don’t have the impact that we desire to grab people’s attention and stimulate further conversation.
In a recent article in Fast Company, author Kaihan Krippendorf, talks about a workshop he attended on storytelling where he was told to “use lots of LOTS”.
Our facilitator, Gary Lyons, senior coach at The TAI Group, told us a story and had us dissect what we remembered. Do this, and you will realize your audience is often checked out, comatose, or unable to hear or remember what you are saying. The key to engage them is to use lots of “language of the senses,” or LOTS. When telling a story, share with us what you see, smell, feel, taste, and hear. When you trigger a sense in someone, you bring them into the story with you.
Think about your own story. What type of senses can you bring into your story to engage your audience?
See: How can you open someone’s eyes to “see” your value? What do they experience when they see your product, walk into your store, enter your office? What visual trigger will add to your story?
Smell: Perhaps your product or service can be best described by its scent. How can you add this to your story?
Feel: This is a great one! What does success feel like? How does someone feel when they use your product or service? What is the end result? People love to hear stories where they are transported to a new positive mindset. Take them there with you story. Is there a tactile aspect of your product? Is this something you can talk about?
Taste: “I’m so close to success, I can taste it.” We use the sense of taste figuratively and literally. If your product is edible, describe in great detail what the experience of tasting that product is all about. Yummm.
Hear: Another great sense to include in your story! People are talking about your services. There is a buzz that starts slowly and builds up to a feverish pitch. Colleagues and clients are standing up and cheering for you! YEAH! What do you hear?
Kaihan Krippendorf goes on to say about the workshop,
We close with a “before and after” exercise. One of our members gets up to practice a pitch; he is raising money for an energy tech venture. He starts speaking, but I just can’t follow. When he finishes, I realize I have not heard a word. Gary coaches him–lots of LOTS, story spine, look us in the eye, take us in–and the speaker tries again. Now it is all waterfalls of electricity pouring down the mountain, the opportunity to create something and break through with passion. I heard every word, and so much more.
Improve your ability to tell stories–about the company you are building, the project you are leading, the life you live, and will enroll people more completely and emotionally in your mission.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Are You Being Stingy?
Are you being stingy?
…by not letting others know what you have to offer?
…by not speaking up and sharing your opinion or ideas?
Sometimes we are so focused on our “own stuff” and our fears or discomfort talking about ourselves that we forget that what we have to offer helps others. That’s right! Think about it. What you have to offer, whether it’s a product, a service, an innovative idea or new approach to a problem or simply your opinion, helps other people and improves their lives and/or careers in an important way.
Re-framing this as an offer to help is a terrific way for you to move beyond your fear and discomfort and focus on what the other person needs. It gets you beyond the “stinginess” factor.
How would your next job interview go if you used this mindset, understood what you had to offer and focused on how it could help the company?
How would your next networking event go if you used this mindset when meeting new people, finding out what they need and offering your assistance?
How would your next senior management or department meeting go if you used this mindset and offered your ideas and opinion?
For the next few weeks, I am offering you the opportunity to write and tell me specifically ONE way you help your company or clients (what value you offer), and I will feature your “commercial” in a new section of my blog/newsletter.
Please include your name, position, company (company website or personal website) and email so that other women can contact you.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Staying Focused Takes Focus!
True confession time. I have a little gremlin inside me that often rears its ugly head and causes me to lose focus. Of course, it’s easier to blame a gremlin than to admit that I am often challenged to stay on track with my business.
When presented with compelling new opportunities, new ventures, new products, new technology, I have been known to veer off my well planned strategic path from time to time. As a result, I find myself headed down a dead end road chasing something that not only doesn’t make sense, but consumes my time and energy.
Does this ever happen to you?
I can’t even count how many times I’ve said, “Yes. I can help you with that.” “Wow! Of course I can do that for you.” All this willingness to help out leads me astray and off my mission.
How does this happen? Let’s face it. We are constantly presented with new enticing opportunities. Every day I receive emails, tweets, invitations to connect that all brings potential new prospects for my business. It takes a tremendous amount of focus to stay focused!
So how do we stay on point? How do we evaluate new opportunities that come our way? Should we accept every client, every consulting gig, even if it’s not aligned with our core business? The answer is “no”.
The best advice I can give (which I admit is a challenge for me) is to put up a sign in your workspace with your mission and keep it visible at all times. When presented with new opportunities, evaluate them against your stated mission. Does is make sense to move forward and investigate this further? Does it align with my mission? Does this project or client best reflect my core message?
The reality is that staying on message and living your mission and values is THE best way to grow your business and attract the right clients. When you stray off course and send mixed messages, people get confused and as a result, it becomes more of a challenge to engage with you.
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. ~ Peter Drucker
How do you stay focused?
Any tips you’d like to share?
The Big Juicy Payoff
Our decision to buy a new car is often more about the status and sex appeal than transportation and functionality.
We can purchase a great looking pair of jeans any where, but we are more likely to choose a popular brand that has some status and recognition. The advertisements tell us we will be more attractive and appealing in these jeans and we believe it. We pay more money even if we can’t afford it, for the opportunity to wear these status symbols.
So what’s this all about?
It’s all about the emotional connection. The advertisers create an emotional benefit for you when you purchase and use their products; a big juicy payoff. You will be more attractive, sexy, respected, admired, etc. That’s the big payoff; not the specific features of the products themselves.
As entrepreneurs, we often make the mistake of focusing on the features and details of our products and services instead of the big emotional payoff. We don’t make the emotional connection between what we offer and what our customers need.
Think about your target audience. What is their need or their pain, and how does your product or service fulfill their need?
Making this emotional connection is the most powerful way to promote your business. Identify the big juicy payoff or emotional benefit and clearly communicate that to your prospects. You will grab their attention and win their business.
There can be a big payoff for you in more clients, more referrals and more money!
I’ve designed a 90-Day Intensive Program for Entrepreneurs that starts January 20th for entrepreneurs who are challenged promoting themselves and their business.
Is this you? Do you have a pitch that falls flat and doesn’t get you new clients? Do you freeze when asked to promote yourself at a networking event?
Start 2011 off with a big bang and learn how to overcome your barriers to self promotion, create a powerful message to attract more clients and business than you thought possible AND if you register before January 1st, you receive a special $700 discount.
Also, a very special bonus gift for the first 3 women to sign up: a FREE 60-minute consultation with PR expert, Lisa Elia, who will help you plan how to increase your visibility in 2011. This consultation is worth $500!!!
Check out the program now and invest in yourself and your business. Imagine feeling confident and comfortable selling your services! Register now and take advantage of the special discount and gifts.
Ice Cream Melts and Three Other Marketing Tips for Summer
This week’s guest post is by Jamie Eslinger, a friend, colleague and fantastic marketing coach.
Jamie “Sling” Eslinger loves to make consumer brands shine. As the founder of MarketingTiara she also coaches entrepreneurs and marketing mavens to be brilliant.
We all have experience chasing ice cream around the top of the cone before it falls off slowly dripping into a puddle on brand new summer sandals, right? But that’s the fun of it! The point is… you KNOW this because you have EXPERIENCED it first hand, or first lick whatever the case may be.
Let’s pretend you are from a far flung universe and ice cream is new. How you would explain it? Describe it? Package it? Convince others to try it?
Let me just get to my point. You know and experience YOUR OWN product better than anyone. You live it, sleep it, dream it, work it. In many cases, especially for consultants or entrepreneurs, TAG you ARE it.
So here are three tips to make sure your marketing plans don’t melt this summer:
1) Drinking Too Much Cool-Aid
Sometimes marketing people fall so in love with their own ideas, they forget to ask the most important person on the planet (hint: the customer) what they might think about it.
Solution: Reach Out and Touch Someone
Even if you already subscribe to third party consumer research, conduct your own.
You can easily create surveys, do in-store questionnaires or hold focus groups with your best customers. And sometimes it’s even better to talk to your worst customers (the ones who don’t hold back any comments). In the end it doesn’t matter how you do it, just make sure you take some advice from the old AT&T ads …reach out and touch someone. Find out why they like your product or why they don’t. It will be insightful for your next product launch and you might be surprised what they say.
2) Analysis Paralysis
If you’ve ever made fifteen spreadsheets to prove what just one will tell you, you know this state of being. Usually it means there are other issues at hand. For most projects you can only measure so much before it’s time to take action. Of course, it’s the measuring that leads to success so use the age old advice of measure twice cut once — not measure two billion.
Solution: Testing Schedules
If your team is stuck in the land of analysis it’s time for a test. Encourage them to take action. One way is to set up a market test. Be sure the market is small enough to be measurable. It is also critical to give the test a start date and end date and know what you want to measure BEFORE the test begins. The classic questions to ask are: will this meet sales goals, profit goals and consumer interest? It is easy to get sidetracked once a test starts so make sure you set success parameters ahead of time. It should be very easy at the end of the test window to know if the test passed and the launch is a go. If not, you go back to the drawing board but now with a lot more information than just a spreadsheet.
3) Social Media Blues
Feeling behind the times with social media? Who doesn’t’?! It changes every day. That’s what makes it fun and so hard to keep up with too. In the old days of advertising a marketer paid for tons of research to prove if a television ad or radio commercial was on brand, or if it was compelling enough to sell before the ad ever saw the light of day. Not so these days.
Solution: Merge It
If you are a little weary of how to add social media to your standard marketing, let me just point out there is a huge international focus group in real time just waiting for you – it’s called facebook, sometimes referred to as twitter and other times it comes in the form of a blog. You can tap into this instant information engine to gain free insight about your products. It can be a barometer of what your current customers actually believe and tip you off to important messages you need to address in your advertising. By merging consumer thoughts collected through social media into your standard marketing mix, you can effectively create traditional media (tv, radio, even internet ads) with social media intelligence.
To see a three month plan of how this works, read this great article by Bill Flitter:
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/27277.asp
For a marketing strategy that won’t melt I recommend mixing consumer insight with action (test something, do something, don’t just sit there looking at your computer screen) and tap into your social media friends and followers for some key insights and messages. And to the Dog Days of Summer I say enjoy the ice cream and leave the Cool-Aid behind.
Sign up for MarketingTiara’s Shine On newsletter at: http://conta.cc/signupforshineon
Follow her blog at: www.consultsling.com
Check out Jamie’s marketingtiara retreat in September here: bit.ly/aLzx56
Wisdom from Seth Godin
Seth Godin has a new book out called Linchpin in which he talks about our “lizard brain”, that part of our brain that holds all our fears and limiting beliefs. The Lizard brain keeps us from doing our most creative work and often signals us to stay in our comfort zone and not take risks.
This audio is a 45 minute presentation that Seth did in New York last week. He talks about how these fears sabotage us.
I really love the story he tells about an employee he had in his company years ago who never failed at anything he did. He was his best employee, but Seth spoke with him and said if you don’t fail at something soon, you’re fired! Why? Because we all need to stretch and take risks to truly be creative and successful and distinguish ourselves from others.
Listen to the wisdom and let me know what you think. How do you tame your lizard brain?
Stop Talking Already!
This is a guest post by Laura Caton from The Cornerstone Group Inc. www.thecornerstonegroupinc.com
To listen well is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well, and is as essential to all true conversation. ~Chinese proverb.
On May 21, more than 200 people attended the Sales 2.0 Conference hosted by Selling Power Magazine in Boston; unfortunately I was not one of them. However, a good friend of mine did attend and she came back from this meeting, brimming with enthusiasm. As we sat enjoying a delicious glass of chardonnay Saturday night, she explained her renewed gusto for selling–she was reborn. We talked about social networking and how this was the new way to generate leads. We both bemoaned the lead time for closing a sale and how businesses appear to be paralyzed by spending, any spending!
One of the more interesting observations that apparently came out of this conference for her was from Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and CEO of Personal Selling Power Inc. In his opening speech, “7 Key Trends in Selling,” he talks about ditching the pitch. (btw, Bonnie offers a program called Ditch the Pitch). She said, “You know, it’s more about having a conversation. It’s more important than ever before to talk with prospects, as opposed to at them.” Wow, I didn’t know this was a news flash. I was even more surprised to hear my friend, who I also saw at the hunter/sales person personified, say this straight faced—as if this was news to her! Quite frankly, I was more interested in drinking my wine and talking recipes from this month’s Food and Wine.
Curious as to what else happened at this conference, I went on the Sales 2.0′s web site for more information. I stumbled upon this, Barry Trailer, a Partner at CSO Insights, was quoted as saying, “The number one mistake I see in the area of “customer engagement” is that the Sales Reps think they should be doing all the talking”. Okay, maybe doing the stop, listen and listen is a news flash!
As a wholesaler for a large mutual fund company in the early 80′s, the sales approach was the same; product, product, product. Every quarter was devoted to hawking a particular sector. Jam it down their throats whether it fit our audience’s business model or not. It was a matter of shelf space for prospectuses at the Merrill Lynch office and points earned for fantastic due diligence trips. Just pitch the fund du jour and move to the next office. It was an unfulfilling sales position to say the least and I felt, dare I say, whorish at times.
Taking a more customer focused/consultative sales approach to selling is all about listening, and then asking strategic and investigative questions (so you do get to talk!). It applies to every sales appointment, phone conversation, and meeting you have with a potential buyer. Nancy Martini, CEO of PI Worldwide, states, “In a selling situation, the real world is divided into two “worlds” – yours and the prospects/clients. Often, sales professionals only focus on the “world” they are familiar with, their own.” The key is you can’t ask strategic questions if you don’t start by listening to the client or prospects’ needs.
Listening provides you with the information you want to work effectively in the prospect’s world. Good listening means you can link your value proposition to the client’s specific needs. It also means you can have a meaningful, shared conversation, as Mr. Gschwandtner suggests.
Most of us love to talk and listening is pretty hard. Many of us in sales love to share and socially connect with a person; which means talking.
So here’s a question, how well do you listen? Listening does not mean nodding your head in agreement and waiting to say what you want (this is my big listening challenge). It truly means putting your agenda aside. Make a point to practice good listening skills. Good listening is a commanding skill, which can set you apart from other out there. Ditch the pitch, sit back and never stop listening.
With extensive expertise in organizational & leadership development, the Cornerstone Group helps clients to build more productive organizations by better leveraging their most important asset, people.
Their unique approach to assessing people, finding their core strengths, and leveraging those strengths in current and future roles helps their clients to hire smarter, manage more effectively, and develop stronger leaders. Their unique process of assessment, training, consulting and ongoing support allows them to partner with their clients and create a road map for organizational success. www.thecornerstonegroupinc.com
Why Can’t We Just Get Along? Women Bullying Other Women
Don’t we have enough obstacles in the workplace without having to deal with other women sabotaging our efforts? Why can’t women just get along and support each other in their efforts to advance their careers?
The New York Times this week ran an article, “Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Work”, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/business/10women.html that presented statistics to support the fact that 40% of all workplace bullies are women and that women bully other women 70% of the time!
Bullying is categorized as behavior that can include spreading rumors to derail someone’s career, withholding important promotional information, pushing and shoving (yes, do you believe this one?), bad mouthing others, passive aggressive behavior and more.
So why does this type of sabotaging behavior occur in the workplace?
There are several theories:
- Women need to adopt aggressive behavior to get ahead and once they are in a leadership position they still maintain this behavior.
- Women see other women as potential threats and competitors.
- There is not much opportunity for advancement and so women are more competitive.
- Women are being stereotyped as “bullies” but this is not necessarily the case.
- Women are insecure in their leadership positions and feel the necessity to sabotage other women to maintain their position of power.
Here is a wonderful quote from the article,
As we get into the corporate world, we’re taught or we’re led to believe that we don’t get ahead because of men. But, we really don’t get ahead because of ourselves. Instead of building each other up and showcasing each other, we’re constantly tearing each other down.
Do you see evidence of women bullying other women in your workplace?
Have you experienced another woman sabotaging your efforts at work?
I would love to hear from you. Please send your comments!
Create Visibility to Market Your Personal Brand
Visibility is the key component to any successful marketing campaign. There is no limit to the ways that you can market yourself. Visibility is contagious and once you get started it takes off. The biggest challenge is to get started.
Be aware that everything you do and everything you don’t do or choose not to do is all part of your personal brand. It all communicates your value and character. The way you answer your phone is part of your brand message. Your voice message, the way you respond to emails are all part of your brand so it’s important to be conscious of the way you are communicating to people.
Here are some tips on how to create visibility for yourself to enhance your profile at work:
- Sign up for a special project or committee that has visibility within your company which will introduce you to new colleagues and showcase your skills or teach you new skills.
- Become a SME (subject matter expert). Teach at a community college or an adult education course.
- Start a blog on the subject. Create buzz about you and your brand.
- Write a contributing article/column for your local newspaper or alumni magazine. You will have a track record of your work.
- Sign up to speak at a conference. Volunteer for a panel discussion.
- Be strategic about social media networking sites. Choose the sites that best suit your needs to promote your brand and carefully craft your promotional message and profile online.
- Nurture your network. The best way to market your brand is word of mouth marketing. Find conscious ways to communicate your message to your contacts. What they say about your contributes to the value of your brand.
Marketing your brand requires you to act selfishly to promote yourself and to grow yourself. This is a win-win situation for you and your company. Everything you do to promote your personal brand and grow professionally is gravy for them. When you are learning, growing, building relationships,and delivering great results, it’s good for you and good for the company where you work.
Want to be an Internet Radio Show host? Check out Coach Deb Bailey’s teleclass next Wednesday April 22nd.
“Boost Your Marketing and Visibility with Internet Radio”
Learn the strategies for hosting your own internet radio show for maximum visibility and revenue
Hosted by Coach Deb Bailey, host of “Women Entrepreneurs-The Secrets of Success” internet radio show
Where: on the phone
Date: Wed. April 22
Time: 08:00 PM to 09:00 PM eastern
Cost: $10
Sign up: http://www.dbaileycoach.com/teleclass_radioshow.html
Teleclass will include:
- Where to promote your shows and how to get on iTunes
- How to find high-profile guests
- What platforms to use to host your show
- How to make your show come across as a “professional” broadcast
- What business models will generate revenue from your show
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20 Minutes For $20
20 Minutes of Interviewing Coaching For Only $20...
Present yourself with confidence!
