Entry Number: 30
DATE: November 24, 2009
In my role as Managing Director of De Leon, I get to deliver, and receive, a number of business presentations.
Since I started out as a rookie 30 years ago, and on various occasions subsequently, I have attended courses where brushing up on public speaking skills has been part of the agenda. I can recall courses where we have spent half an hour discussing how to stand! Other courses have talked about the “voice” that you use when speaking, whilst others have concentrated on content and format.
The world has moved on and a quick search on the Internet will take you to lots of advice from all sorts of professionals on, for instance, the “5 killer things to remember when giving a presentation” or ” 3 ways to “wow” your audience”. Many of these are USA based sites and are, quite frankly, a bit scary.
There are videos produced by super-confident individuals showing themselves in action – often talking about the art of public speaking. But here’s the thing. So many of them are totally contradictory!
For instance, one site says that PowerPoint is dead. It argues that “Death by PowerPoint” has now entered the vocabulary and the instant anyone switches on a projector - everyone sees it as cue to fall asleep. Other sites say that the combination of the spoken word together with images and the written word are unbeatable and that recipients retain X% more when PowerPoint is used in conjunction with the spoken word.
Other sites talk about the format of a presentation. “Tell ’em what you are gonna tell ‘em, Tell ‘em, Tell ‘em what you told ’em” is the universally (almost) excepted format of choice. However there is also video online by a very accomplished speaker saying that if you show an agenda that indicates this format then you might as well change the phrase to “Tell ‘em how you are going to bore ’em, bore ‘em, tell ‘em how you bored ‘em”!
“Stand still and don’t make hand gestures – you will distract your audience”, or, ”move around your stage, make eye contact with different individuals at different times, use your body to emphasise points and to illustrate your enthusiasm and passion for the subject”.
As for the “voice” thing – don’t go there! Unless you are using your “presentation voice” most of the time this is doomed to failure. If you start a presentation when you are little nervous and keyed up then you can usually “act” a coached “voice”. However, as you get into the presentation, you relax, you start to enjoy yourself and you end up doing a reverse “Pygmalion”. You start sounding like you were brought up at Eton and end up sounding like you were eaten and brought up (this joke doesn’t work quite so well when it’s written down).
One of the great things about being middle aged is that you become less self conscious as you get older and I guess I’ll just have to keep doing what comes natual – and hope for the best!
Philp Westerman De Leon Personal Reputation Mangement
Entry Number: 11
DATE: October 14, 2009
Our current design work for our website, brochure, stationery, etc was entrusted to a local design and marketing agency called Side-A. The boss is a chap called Simon Ashley and their offices are in the village of Long Crendon on the Bucks/Oxon border.
I became aware of Side-A as a result of receiving a copy of their “newsletter”. Not very innovative or exciting you may say! Bear with me.
I had a meeting in London first thing and had elected to take the 7.30am commuter train on the Chiltern Line from Haddenham and Thame Parkway to Marylebone. It was actually a nice bright morning as I stood on the platform waiting with all of the other bleary-eyed “suits” setting off for their day in town.
On the north bound platform opposite, on a bench, reading the morning paper, sat someone in a gorilla suit, with a pink tutu, reading the morning newspaper, apparently waiting for a northbound train.
Even the conservative, non-speaking commuters were stirred from their routines to wonder, and even talk to other passengers about the “vision” opposite. I then became aware of someone moving down my platform handing out a newsletter entitled “Go Gorilla!”
Once we were on the train, I noted the amount of people reading the newsletter – some people even smiling.
The newsletter was unusual, quirky, written in a very overt and friendly style with case studies, testimonials, marketing news, etc. The newsletter showed examples of quirky marketing campaigns – but also some more high-brow design work with gravitas and quality. One of its main messages was that you don’t have to pay top London Agency rates to get top quality creativity and design.
To cut a long story short, I called Simon Ashley, had a meeting with him and gave them De Leon’s design and creative work for our rebranding. This blog, and this site, is their work and, I hope, you agree that they know what they are doing!
QED – Gorilla Marketing works!
Philip Westerman, De Leon Ltd, Personal Reputation Management
Entry Number: 5
DATE: October 14, 2009
I had a meeting yesterday with a client for whom De Leon did some work a couple of months ago. He runs a small, provincial accounting practice and his major target market for new business is start-ups and local SMEs.
Prior to the personal reputation management work that we have now implemented, the “marketing” of his company, in his own words, comprised the company web site and the occasional advertisement in the local paper. However, he said that most new business comes by referral or recommendation.
We had discussed this process and the client had pointed out that most referred, or recommended, clients also got the names of other potential accountants during the process and that potential clients usually did some research on their options prior to deciding to pick up the telephone and call.
Our work concentrated on working on his digital presence and that of his partner (business partner). We determined the criteria upon which a potential client may decide that our clients were right for the job. We concentrated on getting coverage on articles about starting a new business, press releases about his clients that had grown from start up to successful businesses with him, and created a personal blog site for each partner.
We helped write the first few blogs to indicate the style, content and stories that would be interesting and attractive and helpful to his target market. The blog site also included, in this case, some additional pages covering their business roles, their background and provided some RSS feeds on local business content.
In his words, the results “are astounding”! He has got new business in the last couple of months of course – but, importantly, two of the new accounts indicated that they had “read up on them” before deciding to call.
He generously told me that our fees were more than paid for already! The even better news is that he is a “total convert” and is now recommending De Leon Personal Reputation Management to others.
To any of you that are out there running businesses, you will understand how satisfying it is to work hard on behalf of a client and then be rewarded with unsolicited praise.
Philip Westerman, De Leon – Personal Reputation Management