ClickBrain » sales

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

Brad — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:04:13 +0000

Excellent advice from Guy from 2005 that is wroth repeating. Do yourself a favor and read the entire post. You will thank him and your audience will thank him!

I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.Ten slides. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting

via How to Change the World: The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint.

Selling is an art. The Art of persuasion

Brad — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:41:25 +0000

You must read this post about buying a rug in Turkey when he never intended to buy a rug in Turkey. It is brilliant. It gives you a precise breakdown of the anatomy of good selling. I always fall for that guilt setup of getting something and feeling obligated to give/get back. If you want to train someone to really sell well, then this is a great place to start. The most beautiful thing about the sales job the guy did on him was that he knew he was being tweaked and turned and used and even tells the salesman exactly what he is doing. Love it!

Hat Tip to my blogger “friend” Guy Kawasaki for the link.

PILOTed: What I Learned Buying a Rug in Turkey

According to Robert Cialdini, there are 6 weapons of influence. We can all use them, and they are used on us, either knowingly or by accident:

1. Reciprocation: we try to repay what another person has provided us
2. Commitment and consistency: we desire to be consistent with what we have already done
3. Social proof: we tend to rely on what other people are doing to determine our own actions
4. Liking: we tend to go along with and follow people we like
5. Authority: we feel a sense of duty to follow someone who has authority
6. Scarcity: opportunities seem more valuable to us when their availability is limited

You can see how the rug salesmen used practically every one of these weapons in getting me to purchase the rug.

Making Cold Calls Hot

Brad — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:36:41 +0000

While not technically marketing, this is how to sell and how to generate new business and I love this technique for looking at cold calls, but actuaally for ANY kind of prospecting calls. The fears are the same, but this approach is positive and proactive and turns the tables on your own brain and lets you realize that your purpose is to find those most likely to need what you have rather than those that have no interest in speaking with you.

I sent this link to our call centers, because it makes a lot of sense. I know I will use this moving forward.

Hotting Up On Cold Calls | Aussie Rules | BNET

Not surprisingly, the biggest reaction that’s generated by cold calling is the fear of failure.

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Running a close second, is the fear of rejection.

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The third fear is that of giving offence.

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Imagine instead, you had approached the exercise with this goal:

‘To attract people who are genuinely interested in hearing about my work’

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By listening out for those ‘who are genuinely interested’ it is possible to quickly disqualify anyone appearing unsuitable or disinterested. Through these means, you’ll move more quickly to the next call and with a greater sense of purpose. What’s more, you’ll do so without being rendered inactive through fear.