Video Helps Build Relationships in Virtual World

Video is a great way, among other things, to help build relationships in a virtual business world. Since your companies are typically cutting back on business travel due to the economy, the greening of the environment or just for plain efficiencies sake, you need to get creative to drive the same type of connections that you would have made in person. There is a great post on using video on Chad Levitt's blog The New Sales Economy called "Next Generation Sales Reps Use Video To Win". I saw it on The Customer Collective page.

I have found video to be a very effective tool to show people what you look like and to draw them into the typically little screen they are watching as opposed to being distracted by what is going on around the screen. You can video yourself as part of the presentation or better yet include video of your customers talking about your product or service.

Beyond video, however, another very important way to keep your virtual customers engaged is to prepare for the presentation so that you can customize it for each audience. Customization and specifically targeting content at your customers' needs will keep them interested and engaged.

Finally, use social media to surround your customers with relevant content that they can go find or subscribe to so that they can keep up with what is going on around your market segment. Tools like blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and etc work great for building a stronger community than you could ever build over the phone. My company Exari just launched a "Community" page on our website to aggregate the things we are doing to build relationships with our customers.

Do schools kill our creativity?

I came home last night to find my 8th-grade son working on a Powerpoint presentation for school.  Much to my horror, it was filled with bad clip art and dense text.  Here was a very creative kid who spends his spare time making films attempting to conform to the "accepted" practices of presentations for his school.  Scary.  But this is where it all starts.

So, join me today in helping children and your young colleagues understand that communication does not have to forced into bad Powerpoint and that there are better ways to get your point across.

With my son I suggested video and images from Flickr or even better taking his own photos to supplement the communication. 

This reminds me of a presentation at TED (the thought provoking conference that now posts all of its presenations and discussion online) by Sir Ken Robinson called "Do Schools Kill Creativity?  He talks about how a group of small children were asked if they could draw,  everyone in the room raised their hands.  When asked if they could dance, everyone in the room raised their hands.  When asked if they could sing, everyone in the room raised their hands.  And, then later in life - I can't remember what grade but judging by my son it happens before 8th grade - children were asked the same questions and nearly everyone didn't raise their hands anymore.  Their confidence was gone.   Where did it go?

Furthermore, do schools force our children to begin thinking in Powerpoint and Word instead of thinking, creating and then choosing to express some part of their ideas in this tool called Powerpoint as well as in tools called writing, drawing, video, audio, painting and songs?  It seems to me that it does and it seems to me that we all have to do whatever we can to stop it or we will be doomed to bad presentations and bad communication for generations to come.  And, judging by the environment out there a little better communication couldn't hurt.

Passion is the key to great virtual presentations!

The key to presenting a subject in a compelling manner I believe is defined by one thing: passion. When presenting in a virtual world, passion and enthusiasm become even more important because whatever you possess will be repeatedly diminished by distance, bad speaker phones, distractions on the other end that you don't see or hear and etc.

All other things being equal or even failing, passion can sometimes, maybe most of the time, win the day.

I have just finished reading the book iCon Steve Jobs by Jeffrey Young and William Simon. And, among other things, I was really struck by how a passionate person who believes in himself and what he is doing can convince many smart people to do many crazy or seemingly impossible things. While you may be able to argue that he is not a saint, Steve Jobs is passionate and he is one of the best presenters I have ever seen.

So, how do you build passion and sustain enthusiasm throughout the day so that you can deliver probably mostly repetitive presentations in a compelling manner over and over again. How do you build passion and sustain enthusiasm throughout the day in this world now in early 2009 when you wake every morning to news of bad earnings and layoffs, political corruption and squabbling, scandals and foreclosures. It ain't easy.

For me, there have always been three tricks for creating passion and enthusiasm for a presentation, for a visit to the gym or sometimes to just get out of bed.

Number One is Inspiration: Find someone or a number of people who inspire you and then surround yourself with reminders of their hard work, dedication and success. For me it is Steve Prefontaine (a runner), Lance Armstrong (a cyclist) among many others. Think about the sacrifices that others have made to get where they are and how little you really need to do to get up for this next presentation. Another way to get inspired is to watch/listen to great presentations from the past. I would highly recommend listening the old Apple MacWorld keynotes by Steve Jobs (available on iTunes). There are also a good number of great presentations available for free now from the TED Conference. (www.TED.com and also available on iTunes). I would recommend listening to Majora Carter's presentation on Greening the Ghetto, Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and Sir Ken Robinson on How Schools Kill Creativity for starters. Then just follow your muse. You can also find some good presentations by Guy Kawasaki online.

Number Two is Music: Get an iPod or an iPhone or any MP3 player or use your laptop but get some inspirational music that you can play whenever you need it. In the elevator on the way up to your in person presentation or in your office for a few minutes before you pick up the phone. Whenever you can listen to the music that gets you going. Then on the way home at night listen to something more relaxing to bring you back down to a more relaxed state.

Number Three is Exercise: If I am bogged down during the day, feeling out of it, losing momentum, saying dumb things on the phone, I try to squeeze in a 30-45 minute run or a trip to the gym. Pushing yourself to talk to prospects and customers when you feel out of it doesn't do either of you any good. You can't create a sustainable value to your company or your customers without energy and health so you should be exercising anyway. However, sometimes it pays to time the exercise so that it also helps you get up for your job.

And, one last thing, unless you are in the investment business, I would try to minimize the contact with the bad news in newspapers and TV or save it for the end of the day when your down mood will not be shared with your customers and prospects. Of course, your family might not like that.

Enthusiasm in your presentations

The first order of a presentation is to translate your enthusiasm and passion for whatever you are presenting to those to whom you are presenting. 

This is a tall enough order when you are standing in the room with them but is even more difficult when you are on the phone presenting sometimes to multiple people.  When you are presenting in a webinar, you are presenting over the phone and sometimes to a group of people in a large room listening to you on a tiny little speaker phone.  Not exactly ideal circumstances. 

So what to do.

Talk Loud. Louder than you think you should.

Pretend that you are talking to someone across the room about 10 feet away not to someone right next to you. Project your voice and enunciate.

Also, I listen to music before a presentation to get myself in an upbeat mood that can carry through the presentation.

Finally, to reiterate a previous post, make sure that you ask questions throughout the presentation not just at regulary scheduled breaks or at the end.  This keeps people engaged and listening to you.

What does "presentation" mean and how can we change that?

Present. For many years in the business world, this word meant Powerpoint. Now, however, due to many different things, that misconception is beginning to change. For the little part of the world that I have started to blog about i.e. selling in a virtual environment things simply have to change.

The economy, budget cut backs, the environment and fuel costs will demand that we in sales will have to get better at spreading the word about our products and services, building relationships with customers and prospects and closing deals without standing in front of the customer, taking them out to dinner or taking them out for a round of golf.

And, Powerpoint is simply not the way to communicate passion in a virtual environment. It is not the way to engage and delight your audience. And, most importantly, it will not help you build relationships and close deals in a virtual world.

I just read a great post on the Presentation Zen blog that has some great ideas on Powerpoint and banning Powerpoint. You can link to it here. In his post, Garr Reynold's talks about a book called The Designful Company: How to buidl a culture of nonstop innovation, by Marty Neumeier. This looks like a great book that I have ordered but not yet read (review to come). Speaking of books, if you haven't read Presentation Zen that is also a must read (another review to come). Both of these books are available on my Amazon widget on this blog.

Here are some of my ideas:

1) Surprise - Everyone who comes to your presentation is expecting the same thing. Powerpoint slides with lots of text. Don't do it. Start your presenation with a video or a photo or a story or something that starts things off in a way that is unexpected. Get your audience off their heels and onto their toes. Get your audience to put down their Blackberries and shut down their laptops. If you are selling virtually, your audience can be doing all of these attention-sapping things without your knowledge, so nip it in the bud from the first interaction.

2) Humor - You are human. Your audience is human. Humans like to laugh. They like to laugh so much that it has been found to signficantly reduce stress and even cure disease. So, don't be afraid to be yourself and use humor. Don't tell bad jokes or be inappropriate but don't force yourself to be all business either.

3) Mutlimedia - Bring in things that aren't expected, like drawing on a virtual whiteboard, or video, or a cartoon or create an innovative way to demo your product, use audience participation. The best place to go looking for ideas on this is to look towards Hollywood. Everyday we watch things on TV and film, where millions of dollars and a huge amount of creativity are spent to engage us. Take a look at a Ken Burns documentary or a film trailer to get an idea of how ideas are communicated in a major league way. Another great source of ideas is the TED website. TED is a conference where a lot of great presentations are given. I just found that TED has an iPHONE app as well (search for VenueM on the AppStore).

You only have a small window of time and, in the case of virtual presentations, only the small window of a computer monitor to get your point across. Shake things up. Do something different. Get your audience engaged. Build a relationship. Get them to remember who you are.

Good luck.