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5 Steps to Building a Great Management Team: A Guide for Startups

Posted: 12 Jun 2020 08:22 AM PDT

By Chris Moon

The key to any successful business is the person who runs it, and up until now, this person may have been exclusively you. But as your company grows, you may have found it more and more difficult to manage all aspects of the business yourself. You've also probably found that you're better at some roles than others.

To move your company forward, you are going to need a team of managers with the right combination of skills. A winning management team can effectively plan for the future, as well as effectively deal with any challenges or opportunities that may come up. You want a team who understands and cares about your customers, and also knows how to make a profit.

If you're looking either to set up or develop a management team, then read on for some guidance.

1. Determine what skills you need

The roles you need and the skills required to fill them will depend on the nature of your business. But as a general rule, the types of jobs you’ll need may include:

CEO

For many business owners, the role of leader is one they adopt naturally. But if your skills lie elsewhere, or you would prefer to focus on a specific area of your business, then it might make more sense to hire a CEO. This is particularly the case where entrepreneurs are good at innovating and want to spend more of their time on product development, rather than being caught up in the everyday management of the business.

Hiring a CEO is, of course, a significant decision and you'll need someone who not only has excellent leadership skills and a strong business acumen, but who is equally passionate about what your company does and is easy for you to collaborate with.

CFO

This person should have an excellent financial brain, good reporting skills, and be detail oriented. For some small businesses, the basic financial services provided by an accountant or bookkeeper may be sufficient for their needs. However, if you're lacking in financial strategy and need someone to provide actionable information to inform your decisions, then it could be time to bring on a CFO.

There are also other specific situations which often require a CFO's help, for example, you're raising outside funding, expanding into new markets, experiencing rapid growth, or preparing for an acquisition.

A popular option is to use a part-time CFO, as many businesses need the direction provided by a CFO but can't afford to hire one on a full-time basis.

Operations manager

Maybe your business has complex operations or you're planning an expansion, which will make things more complex. Or perhaps you're finding it difficult to work on strategy while also overseeing daily operations. In this case, hiring an operations manager can free up your time to focus on the bigger picture, instead of being bogged down in the details. Look for someone who is always looking for ways to improve.

Marketing director

If you don't have the time or expertise to develop your brand, position your products, and get your messaging right, then you need to bring on a marketing expert—fast.

Salesperson/sales manager

Most startups have a problem generating revenue, even if their marketing and brand awareness is good. Salespeople are a very specific type of individual, so you will also need to know how to manage and properly incentivize them. Once you've gotten a few salespeople on your team and need someone to manage your sales process, then consider hiring someone to head up your sales team.

As we've mentioned, the level of skills required for each of these roles varies from business to business. You're not always going to need (nor may you be able to afford) a C-level executive. And as a small business, especially if you're newly established, a few of these roles may be covered by the same person.

2. Figure out the skills you already have

Review your business's current situation and look at your existing team. Who is responsible for which business area?

A good exercise is to write short biographies of your team—including yourself—and identify the skills each staff member has. This way you'll know where your strengths and weaknesses are. You should then focus on addressing these weaknesses and ensure there is enough expertise dedicated to each critical business area.

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3. Fill the gaps

If you've spotted a skills gap, think about the best way of addressing it.

Could someone on your existing team be a good fit for the role? Promoting from within gives you the opportunity to identify and evaluate staff with leadership potential. If you need with a shorter term task or a job that only requires assistance periodically, then it might be better to outsource than to recruit a permanent member of staff.

You can also surround yourself with strong board members (who will work for equity instead of salaries), and this can often bolster the team sufficiently.

There are lots of options, but don't be afraid to hire someone new with the skills your business needs. It's good to have a mixture of internal and external hires. Diverse backgrounds with aligned goals is what you're looking for.

4. Hire the right people

The right leaders will help guide your company towards success. Making a wrong hire of a top position, however, can have damaging consequences. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you're hiring for your management team:

We've already mentioned diversity. Hiring people with different experiences and backgrounds who can provide varying perspectives and ideas will help to spur your business's growth.

Look for previous leadership experience. It's not always about industry experience or the level of expertise someone has in a particular area. For example, the best salesperson may not be the best leader of your sales team.

Wait for the right candidate. If you haven't found the ideal fit, it's probably better to hold out until you do, rather than recruit the wrong person. Most people will make a knee-jerk hire when they're drowning in work, which invariably leads to making a wrong decision. If you're struggling to find someone then start networking, broaden your job search, or try using an executive search firm.

Culture is the most important thing with hires in a small firm. Use the interview to really understand who the person is. Find out what motivates them, how hard they work, and what their values are. Do these align with your company values? In turn, having a strong, well-defined culture will help you to attract and retain talent, so focus on defining and communicating this to your current and future employees.

5. Keep building and developing

So you've succeeded in hiring the right individuals for the right positions—now what? As you take a step back and hand the reins over to other people, you need to know that they're delivering.

Make sure to set clear objectives, hold regular reviews to monitor performance, and provide training and development. Give your management team what they need to carry out their jobs well, and consider ways of rewarding good performance.

Understand that your business's needs will evolve over time, and different skills will be required at different stages. Keep reviewing and addressing any skills gaps, so that at every stage you have the right team in place to reach your goals.

Finally, look after your people. Employee churn is extremely costly and often damaging to a business’s culture. Create a high-performance team. The VC mantra is management, management, management, so make sure yours is the best.

RELATED: 10 Key Lessons for Startup CEOs and Founders

About the Author

Post by: Chris Moon

Chris Moon works as the Group Marketing Manager at the Development Bank of Wales, which provides loans and equity investments for businesses based in Wales.

Company: Development Bank of Wales
Website: www.developmentbank.wales
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The post 5 Steps to Building a Great Management Team: A Guide for Startups appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Guest Post. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.

Cracking the Code for Business Growth: How QR Codes Boost Marketing at Any Stage

Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:41 AM PDT

By Nils Engelking

The strength of a company's marketing and sales strategy has a huge impact on its success and growth. Including quick response (QR) codes in a marketing toolbox can be an effective and inexpensive way for a business to promote brand awareness, reach a target audience, boost customer engagement, as well as measure a campaign’s success.

Whether your company is a startup or an established brand, learn how to effectively use QR codes to enhance your next marketing campaign.

1. Existence stage: Increasing brand awareness

Startups, in particular, are often hard-pressed just to get their company noticed and let potential clients know what problem their product or service can solve. With QR codes, they can add a digital button to print ads, business cards, posters, or storefronts to make it as easy as possible for customers to connect.

When reggae musician Craig Thompson, or Craigy T, first began building his record label, GafJam Records, he was looking for ways to connect with fans and get his music directly into the hands and smartphones of a new audience. With a social media QR code printed on business cards and album covers, he was able to display all his profiles in one place. More than that, he was able to use scan statistics to better identify his audience.

"The platform has enabled me to grow and analyze my fan base in ways I never thought possible for a growing brand," says the Kingston native. "Awesome stuff!"

2. Survival stage: Calculating costs and pinching pennies

The mobile IT tech support team at Mac Zen was trying to spread the word about the company’s services, using the best advertising medium they had available: their vehicles.

"I needed to place a QR code on my car so that passersby could grab a digital business card. [This] gave me the unique opportunity to have a scannable code that I could repurpose over time without the expense of reprinting," explains Mac Zen founder Aitan Roubini.

For small businesses, cost savings on printing marketing materials might make the difference between boom or bust. Dynamic QR codes can be changed and updated as often as needed, saving both time and money.

But besides just making ends meet, emerging brands want to build trust with their customer base. One way to foster this is to create a unified brand message along all channels, which can then be applied to your QR code materials. For example, using a matching URL to link the code to a custom domain name adds an extra layer of transparency for scanners.

"The ability to use custom domain names for the address meant that when customers scanned the code, they would have higher confidence that the link they're going to is safe," Roubini points out.

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3. Success stage: Selecting the right campaign strategies

Once Nils Will had a firm foothold for his German industrial cleaning supply business, Furth Chemie, he then faced a challenge common among small business owners: how to better identify his target markets and improve his marketing strategy. By using QR codes on product packaging, Will was able to identify which products were selling well and adjust the design of the QR codes to see how his customers were engaging with the products.

"In this industry and for these types of products, the code has to do something useful. Buyers of industrial cleaning supplies are interested in function over form, so the QR codes are more practical by design," explains Will.

The codes on his cleaning supply product packaging often lead to an online reorder form so customers don't have to waste time searching for the right product in a specialty cleaning supply store. For especially sensitive products, Will includes additional product information or an instructional video to encourage safe use.

4. Established brand: Maintaining the lead with QR codes

For established brands, QR codes can be a way to give back to your customer base, such as by hosting giveaways or promotions.

For example, the Dutch recruiting agency Synensis wanted to connect more with its target market. The solution: Host a bike giveaway with a branded QR code on a poster. Not only did this make one lucky scanner's day, but it also increased awareness of the brand through a simple but cost-effective technique. And with a dynamic QR code, the company is able to adjust and repeat the giveaway action many times without having to reprint the poster, saving time and money.

In another example, Diesel Power Gear, a retail provider for diesel automotive-themed apparel used QR codes as an auto decal to promote a giveaway for a massive diesel truck—with astonishing success. To date, more than 30 diesel trucks have been given away, and thousands of scanners from all over United States have engaged with the brand by using this QR code marketing tactic.

Successful companies pull out all the stops

Granted, not all companies make it to the "success" stage. In fact, according to the Small Business Administration, only around half of all small businesses survive past their first five years. Aside from offering a quality product or service, having strong sales and marketing strategies are often game changers. After all, what good is having the best product when no one knows about it?

Companies that figure out how to reach their customers using all the tools at their disposal will be the ones that make it. These are the companies that want to make their product more customer centric—and when it comes to enhancing the customer experience, QR codes are valuable tools to have.

With strategic planning and attention to design, placement, and functionality, QR code marketing can be a cost-effective way to boost growth for small and medium-sized enterprises in any industry. Whether it's a way for customers to track the origins of olive oil, score a delicious recipe, or download an exclusive coupon, the possibilities for QR codes are as varied as the businesses themselves.

RELATED: How to Create an Integrated Marketing Strategy for Your Small Business

About the Author

Post by: Nils Engelking

Nils Engelking is co-founder of the software-as-a-service company Egoditor. Together with engineering expert Nils Drescher, Engelking successfully bootstrapped the startup without external financing to become a leading international platform for QR code creation and marketing. Armed with a degree in international business from the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany, he specializes in QR code marketing, business organization and leadership, and international scaling strategies.

Company: Egoditor
Website: www.qr-code-generator.com
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The post Cracking the Code for Business Growth: How QR Codes Boost Marketing at Any Stage appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Guest Post. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.

Ethical Marketing in the Age of the Coronavirus

Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:30 AM PDT

Under normal circumstances, coming up with a successful marketing campaign can be difficult. It needs to appeal to a wide variety of people. It needs to reach those people frequently enough without being overbearing. And, most important, it needs to make people want to buy your products or services, or buy in to your brand as a whole.

Of course, we are not living under normal circumstances, with many people under lockdown due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This makes marketing especially tricky, particularly if you run a business that sells non-essential products or services. How do you market to people who are far more concerned with their health or with paying their bills in the face of overwhelming job losses? Should you even market to them at all?

This is an ethical question that has come up for marketers in the age of coronavirus. Can you straddle the line between the needs of your business (profit) and the needs of your customers (health, safety, sustenance, etc.) with appropriate sensitivity?

Some unscrupulous businesses are using less than ethical tactics to exploit the pandemic, but we know that the reward for doing this is only temporary and consumers will remember if they were misled or goaded into buying a product out of fear. Taking an ethical approach can engender far greater loyalty in your consumer base for years to come.

What exactly is ethical marketing?

Ethical marketing doesn't have just one definition. It also encompasses a wide variety of ethics issues. In basic terms, ethical marketing is any type of marketing endeavor that is transparent, factual, and not misleading.

An ad that practices good ethics would tell you what the product is, what it can do for you, and how it does it. By contrast, if a new company cropped up claiming to have the "best smartphone in the galaxy" that can solve all your problems, it would rightfully be met with skepticism from the general public.

But, ethical marketing goes beyond ad copy and can be a measure of what your business does rather than what it says. In recent years, many companies have enacted policies aimed at curbing the effects of climate change, ending world hunger, or promoting fair trade. This effort to maintain some corporate social responsibility doesn't always make it into advertising, but it can become part of your brand's ethos if done correctly (i.e., with genuinely altruistic motives).

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Ethical advertisements and the coronavirus

Ethical marketing has taken on a new look in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The world, at least for now, no longer operates like it normally would, and brands have had to make rapid changes to their marketing strategies. You've undoubtedly seen and heard the shift in tone in television and digital ads.

For essential businesses like grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, or restaurants, the tone of the ads has been largely informative, letting customers know they are still open and taking appropriate precautions. For instance, Pizza Hut and Domino's have both run ads touting their "contactless" delivery.

Video Thumbnail

Contactless Delivery Business :30

Under normal circumstances, coming up with a successful marketing campaign can be difficult. It needs to appeal to a wide variety of people. It needs to reach those people frequently enough without being overbearing. And, most important, it needs to make people want to buy your products or services,

Others have taken an approach that urges viewers to stay home and follow relevant guidelines. IKEA, for example, started a campaign in Spain that showed various indoor activities from the house's perspective with the tagline "Yo Me Quedo en Casa" ("I Stay Home"). The ad used footage from a 2017 campaign which allowed them to avoid issues with social distancing guidelines.

Video Thumbnail

IKEA: I Stay Home

Under normal circumstances, coming up with a successful marketing campaign can be difficult. It needs to appeal to a wide variety of people. It needs to reach those people frequently enough without being overbearing. And, most important, it needs to make people want to buy your products or services,

Some companies are avoiding social distancing snafus by featuring no people and using text, animation, and/or images to get their message across. For instance, in early March, Hershey's removed an ad from the airwaves that featured handshakes and hugs, both actions that could potentially spread the virus. Instead, their ads have predominantly featured their chocolate bars with voice-overs and text.

Even non-essential businesses have changed their advertising model. Hotels.com, which operates in the hard-hit hospitality industry, filled airtime with ads featuring their famous mascot, Captain Obvious, social distancing rather than spending time in hotels.

Video Thumbnail

Hotels.com – Social Distancing :15

Under normal circumstances, coming up with a successful marketing campaign can be difficult. It needs to appeal to a wide variety of people. It needs to reach those people frequently enough without being overbearing. And, most important, it needs to make people want to buy your products or services,

All in all, these ads have a few things in common:

  • They acknowledge uncertainty
  • They promote safe practices
  • They provide basic information about precautionary measures
  • They let you know how they can help
  • They are transparent about what they can and cannot offer
  • They are levelheaded and free from exaggeration
  • They do not promote panic or misinformation

Being conscientious and sensitive to the needs of your customers will result in better brand loyalty in the long term.

Marketing through ethical actions

Ads certainly aren't the only way to engage in ethical marketing. Many businesses have taken actions to serve the greater good during the coronavirus pandemic, most notably by producing products that are essential for patients and frontline workers. LVMH, for example, began focusing more heavily on the production of hand sanitizers and donated about 13 tons of the disinfecting gel to France's public hospitals. Other beauty brands like L'Oreal and Coty followed suit.

The automobile industry has also taken up the mantle with both Ford and GM reconstituting their factories to construct ventilators and personal protective equipment. Fashion and textile brands like Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, American Giant, and Los Angeles Apparel have all pivoted to producing masks. It's clear that being helpful in a time of great need improves the standing of these brands.

Other brands have offered substantial assistance to their employees. For instance, Microsoft and Cisco both guaranteed that employees would be paid throughout the duration of the crisis, whether those employees are able to work or not. Major internet providers like Comcast and AT&T also pledged to avoid service interruptions, regardless of a customer's ability to pay during the crisis.

Could these policies hurt a company's bottom line? Sure. But failing to provide protections to vulnerable people during such an uncertain and chaotic time can lose a lot of goodwill. Positioning your company as a helpful, ethical, and essential facet of combating the coronavirus and mitigating the damaging effects of widespread lockdowns will only do you favors in the long run.

RELATED: 5 Smart Advertising Strategies During the COVID-19 Crisis: Why You Should Be Spending More Right Now

The post Ethical Marketing in the Age of the Coronavirus appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Mike Wood. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.

15 Collaboration Tools for Remote Teams (That Aren’t Slack)

Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:15 AM PDT

Today, with so many employees working from home, maintaining productivity in an office requires tools that can connect teams through voice, chat, and video. Slack rules the roost as a top team collaboration software, but it's far from being the only reliable one.

Dozens of team collaboration tools have recently gained popularity. Some of them offer similar functionality to Slack and may even be better at some tasks; others are sorely lacking in utilities to help a team get organized.

To help those working remotely in a group environment, we asked 15 entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

Besides Slack, what is a good collaboration tool to help remote teams stay on task and communicate? Why does it work so well?

1. Carrot

Slack is a great tool, but it's easy for important messages to get lost in the noise. One tool that has helped to alleviate some of this Slack stress is Carrot. Carrot lets you keep key company communications in one place. The key to Carrot is the fact that it’s not for everything. We use it for important all-company communications, promotion announcements, and shout-outs. —Jonathan Steiman, Peak Support

2. Chanty

I like Chanty. For one, it seems to be a lot easier to use than Slack, and it's a bit more affordable. Plus, workflows can be optimized, great ideas can be pinned, and there are several other features which make it a better alternative compared to Slack. —Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

 

 

3. monday.com

Since we’ve been working from home, I’ve found that monday.com, a project management tool, is very effective. It allows me to stay in touch with all team members, track project progress, and collaborate with clients. It’s an affordable alternative to other project management and communication systems. —Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

 

4. Zoom

Slack is great for asynchronous communication, but when it comes to good old face-to-face conversation, nothing beats Zoom. There are other tools out there for video chat, but I’ve found Zoom to work consistently without any buffering or shaky video. You can have one-on-one meetings or an entire team, all-hands gathering. It’s easy to use, fast to set up, and works on a variety of devices. —Michael Averto, ChannelApe

5. Freshconnect

Freshconnect by Freshworks is a collaboration tool that supports both inter- and intra-team communications via one-on-one meetings or group chats. What is great about this platform is that it allows users to start a discussion right in the CRM/helpdesk that can be shared with contacts outside of the organization. —Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.

 

6. GoToMeeting

Hosting meetings while working remotely can be difficult, especially if you are working with outside contacts like customers or vendors. GoToMeeting has been a great tool to launch meetings through email, IM, or project management tools. It incorporates well with other tools, making access to engage easy and fast. —Matthew Podolsky, Florida Law Advisers, P.A.

 

7. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is great because it integrates with the entire Microsoft 365 suite of products. This makes it very easy to bring together more tools you need to collaborate onto one screen. —Angela Ruth, Calendar

8. Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Planner is a great, user-friendly, and simple software for organizing teamwork online. Our team has been using it for a while and it has a lot of features that will help your company save a lot of time, share files and tasks, and perform even better and faster. —Kevin Leyes, Leyes Media & Team Leyes, by Leyes Enterprises

 

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9. Skype

Skype is a great way to communicate with your team on the fly. You can have scheduled meetings or simply jump in if everyone is talking in the chat channel. There are plenty of great features that make connecting with multiple people fast and easy. —Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

 

 

10. Asana

Asana organizes our tasks and projects as a team. What makes it so great, however, is that you can also track your team’s progress so you know what stage a project is in and what else needs to be done until completion. It also reminds you of the tasks you have due that day so you don’t forget about even the smallest things on your to-do list. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

 

11. Houseparty

In order to stay on task with our workload and projects we use Asana, but there are some elements to communication that we miss in project management software. When you hit a wall in communication or with brainstorming sessions, you need to lighten the mood and take a break. Houseparty is excellent for team breaks and has a Pictionary game that is wonderful for keeping culture alive and projects on track. —Matthew Capala, Alphametic

12. Calendly

My biggest obstacle when working with my remote teams is organizing everyone's schedule, whether it's for team meetings, conference calls, weekly check-ins, etc. I use Calendly so everyone's calendars sync up and there's no guesswork with time zones or conflicting meetings. It keeps everyone in the loop without the need for back-and-forth emails and saves me considerable time setting things up. —Jordan Conrad, Writing Explained

13. Basecamp

There are plenty of collaboration tools that you can use to help remote teams stay in touch. Basecamp, for example, is a great tool to keep projects on task and to keep everyone in the loop. Videoconferencing tools like Zoom are also integral to having face-to-face communication, even when you’re not physically together. —Maria Thimothy, OneIMS

 

14. Google Drive

All of our important files and uploads go straight to Google Drive for instant access. You can leave comments on these files to start a conversation if anything needs tweaking or editing. Although it’s not a direct communication system, G Suite is a great tool for teams to collaborate on projects effectively. —Jared Atchison, WPForms

 

15. Trello

We have half of our team in house, and the other half works remotely. For us, Trello has worked great. It allows everyone to stay in the loop and up-to-date on what is happening within the company. Through the app, we can assign projects, give notes, and communicate 24 hours a day with everyone. It has truly made our lives easier. —Zach Binder, Bell + Ivy

RELATED: 10 Proven Strategies to Increase Employee Productivity

The post 15 Collaboration Tools for Remote Teams (That Aren't Slack) appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about YEC. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.

Sales Presentation Techniques: 7 Powerful Ways to Get That Sale!

Posted: 12 Jun 2020 07:14 AM PDT

By Ashish Arora

A sales presentation is a defining moment for your organization. If all goes well, you're likely to seal the deal with multiple prospects. If it doesn't go as well as you'd hope, that precious window of opportunity may slam shut, never to be opened again.

No pressure!

Without question, a solid sales presentation will illustrate the value of your product or service and keep your audience engaged. A weak presentation, on the other hand, will leave your audience confused, bored and thinking about lunch.

To get your next sale, here are seven powerful presentation techniques that will help you convert.

1. Know thy audience

The presenters that try to sell their audience won't be very successful. The presenters that try and help their audience solve a problem will be wildly successful.

In order for you to help your audience, you have to take some time to get to know them first. This means going beyond basic demographics to truly understanding what pains they have. What keeps them up at night? What information do they need to move forward in their life or business?

Once you know what challenges your audience is facing, you'll be able to position your products or service as their ideal solution.

2. Customize your presentation

You know your audience and are certain your organization offers the perfect solution to their problem. Great. Now you've got to get that idea across to them in a way that is completely understandable and relevant.

When it comes to speaking to a specific audience, a one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter approach will not work. Spend some time following your audience on social media to see the kind of language they use and how they interact with each other. You are far more likely to connect with your audience if your presentation is 100% tailored to them.

3. Stay on point

The goal of your presentation is not to tell the audience every single thing you can think of—your goal is to get them interested enough that they come speak with you afterward.

People have short attention spans, so keep your presentation on the shorter side. Before the big day, go through your presentation, rehearse it, and think about what absolutely needs to be included and what can be taken out. As the old saying goes, "Leave 'em wanting more."

4. Define your specific goal

Obviously the goal of every company is to sell more. But the truth is, it generally takes more than one touch point to close a new customer; define what your specific goal needs to be for your presentation. Do you want your audience to:

  • Schedule a demo?
  • Set up a free trial?
  • Get more information?

Once you have determined the specific goal of your presentation, you can develop your speech around it, making sure to only add relevant information that will get your audience to take the right action.

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5. Appeal to emotion

Emotions are what really sell. Logic is reserved for after an emotional decision has already been made. Emotions help you connect with your audience and help them internalize the benefits your solution offers.

For instance, luxury car companies play on your emotions. They know most people want their peers to see them as wealthy and successful. You buy a luxury car because of the perceived prestige it gives you. Only then do you even consider the horsepower or safety rating.

Storytelling is one way to harness the power of emotions and get buy-in from your audience. Using images and video in your presentation is another way to engage your audience emotionally.

6. Seek feedback

Here's what you don't want to do during your presentation: Go on and on as if you are having a one-way conversation. This will almost assuredly get people to tune you out. Not only that, but you'll never know if you are being successful at getting people to get on the same page as you. Standing on stage and giving a monologue won't help you look like an expert in your industry and it certainly won't inspire people to do business with you.

One of the most effective sales presentation techniques is to get feedback throughout your presentation. This can be as simple as pausing and asking questions every once in a while like, "Did what I just say make sense?" or "Are you starting to understand how this could help your business?"

By offering up these engagement questions, you'll create moments of genuine connection and keep people interested in what you're offering.

This leads me to my final point…

7. Embrace interruptions

As I just mentioned, a presentation should not be thought of as a monologue. Selling is helping, and helping more often than not requires an interaction with the person you're trying to help.

An interruption is a great thing, because it means people are listening to you and have questions. If they have questions, chances are other people in the audience have the same question. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to connect, pivot, and offer information that will help people see your product or service as the perfect solution.

Bonus tip: Use a closing phrase

Every direct response marketer knows they need to end every ad with a strong call to action. Every effective sales presentation needs to end with a strong closing phrase.

Refer back to technique #4–having a specific goal. What was it you wanted your audience to do after your presentation? Schedule a demo? Sign up for a free trial?

Don't make you audience guess what you want them to do after your presentation; come right out and say it: "If you want to schedule your free demo, please come speak with me in the back."

Next steps

People make selling out to be much harder than it is. When you focus on helping people, finding out what their challenges are, and inviting them to have a true dialogue with you, you'll naturally be able to close many more sales.

By following these sales presentation techniques, you'll get into the habit of creating a presentation that inspires your audience to take the next steps with you.

RELATED: 12 Small Business Podcasts That Will Help You Sell More

About the Author

Post by: Ashish Arora

Ashish Arora is the co-founder of SketchBubble.com, a leading provider of results-driven, professionally built presentation templates. When he is not working, he enjoys traveling around the world.

Company: SketchBubble.com
Website: www.sketchbubble.com
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

The post Sales Presentation Techniques: 7 Powerful Ways to Get That Sale! appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Guest Post. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.
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