Alper mentions a sales presentation webinar he was leading recently, and in particular, suggestions he gave for building one’s self-confidence in the delivery, and what are the right things to practice and what are the wrong things to practice. Also, what is an alternative to the all-too-common “about us” introduction.

Episode transcript:

Matt Krause
Alper a couple weeks ago, we did an episode where we were talking about sales presentations. So we’ve both had sales presentations on the mind for a few weeks now. And then today, earlier today, before we recorded this podcast, you were doing a webinar. And during that webinar, the webinar, the subject of the webinar was sales presentations. Is that correct?

Alper Rozanes
Yes. Yep.

Matt Krause
And then during this webinar, you asked the participants a question, you took a poll, you asked them a question, what was that question?

Alper Rozanes
It’s a question that I came up with very recently. And I just wanted to pick their brains on that. And the question was, what is one thing you would like to improve in yourself regarding sales presentations? And..

Matt Krause
What is one thing you would like to improve about yourself? So what did they say?

Alper Rozanes
Well, there were about 250 participants, a little more than half of them participated in the poll. And the poll is, like one of those word cloud generators. So there is the there’s a dialog box, and you can only enter one response, it can be a couple of words, but it’s just like, one time you enter something, and then the graphic is generated.

Alper Rozanes
And the most popular, let’s say, or the most used word comes up in the middle, like in bold, giant letters. It was very interesting, because it took maybe 30 or 40 seconds for, for the participants to write their responses.

Alper Rozanes
But I noticed that from the beginning, the world, the word self confidence, took a comfortable spot right in the center.

Alper Rozanes
It just grew bigger and bigger, and the cloud grew as well, because there were so many words around it. Self confidence just looked at me right from the beginning. And it was so confident in the place that it was taken at the center of the center of the cloud. And…

Matt Krause
So the word self confidence was being self confident.

Alper Rozanes
It was very self confident about its position. Yeah. And it just stayed there for the rest of the poll. Well it was like 60 seconds, that whole thing, but it never blinked. It never even doubted itself. It just entered the stage from the first second and stayed there very confidently, yeah.

Matt Krause
So you’ve got a bunch of people who are telling you on this webinar, that their biggest concern is self confidence during the sales presentation…

Alper Rozanes
The biggest improvements that they would want to make.

Matt Krause
So what did you, what did you what did you tell them at that point?

Alper Rozanes
Well, my first reaction was Wow. But at the same time, I wasn’t surprised, because just like in other presentation situations, sales presentations can be intimidating as well. But, and I understand that, you know, being good at it, being confident at it is key to be successful and close deals.

Alper Rozanes
But I think the first thing I mentioned was the understanding that this is not something that we’re born with. By the way, I said that with a disclaimer, I’m not I’m not a scientist, I’m not, I’m not in a position to make absolute claims about of what we are born with and what not.

Alper Rozanes
But from my personal perspective, I mentioned that I think this is something that we’re, I think this is not something that we’re born with, like presentation skills by the way, but something that we achieve through time, through practice. And through repetition, those were the first things that that I talked about.

Alper Rozanes
Of course, then we went into detail more detail about, okay, we understand that it’s not something we’re born with, we understand that it’s something that we do over time, we gain over time. So how do we do that? We talked about that as well. And today, we can talk about them as well. So that was my, that was my first reaction.

Matt Krause
Okay. One thing that strikes me about what you just said is that you mentioned that practice is one of the factors in increasing self confidence. And I’m wondering if, because practice, ad infinitum, is one of the things that I also do with my clients. And we practice their presentations over and over and over until the client is practically sick of the presentation, with the express purpose of increasing exactly that, the self confidence during the delivery. Is that what you mean?

Alper Rozanes
Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that I believe practice eventually makes perfect and we don’t even need to achieve for perfection. We don’t need to aiming for perfection.

Alper Rozanes
And no in the sense that I think it’s important to make sure from the beginning that you’re practicing the right things.

Matt Krause
Okay. Practicing the right things.

Alper Rozanes
For example, in the webinar, we also talked about changing the perspective of sales presentations from a me oriented, like my company, my products, my references, my stuff, oriented presentations to client oriented presentations, like the way the things that they want to achieve in their lives, how my products and services can help them get from point A to point B.

Alper Rozanes
So if I keep practicing the first one, my my products, you know, my presentation, my opening and everything, then yes, I will have more confidence in those areas, but it’s not going to work out because I think that will be the wrong way to approach a sales presentation. So I think the first step would be before practicing diligently would be choosing the avenue for practicing and, and go through there.

Matt Krause
Choosing the avenue for practicing. What do you mean by that?

Alper Rozanes
So yes, I understand that, you know, the confidence will eventually stem from knowledge, you knowing your stuff, you knowing your topic and everything. But also, I think it’s crucial to invest time to understand the audience like their needs, their preferences, their pain points. Those actually will be my guiding lights in coming up with the content that I will be sharing in that sales presentation.

Matt Krause
Okay, so, but let’s get back to back to your webinar today. When these people ask this question, how do we increase our self confidence during the sales presentations? What other advice did you give to these people?

Alper Rozanes
I gave one of the advices that I wish I had known at the time when I was suffering from a lack of self confidence. And it was I had difficulty with embracing rejection as a natural part of the sales process. Because I used to go out there, when I was doing active sales, I used to go out there with the idea that okay, I’m going to meet three clients a day, I need to make three sales.

Alper Rozanes
I had absolutely no idea that rejection was an inevitable and crucial part of the whole sales process. But through practice, and trial and error, let’s say, I think it is possible to see this, this this process of rejection as as a chance for growth and development.

Alper Rozanes
And in return, it helps with your self confidence. I’m not saying that there will be a point where you will have absolute zero rejection, I don’t think that will ever happen, because God knows what people are going to reject you for.

Alper Rozanes
But I think we can learn from each setback, get back to the office, analyze what went wrong, what didn’t work. Did I fail to make a connection? Did I fail to convey the value? Did I fail, for example, to build credibility or trust? And after such analysis, let’s say, I think we will be able to make the necessary just adjustments.

Alper Rozanes
And by the way, in this regard, I would like to give a shout out to Frank Underwood from the House of Cards, one of my favorite characters. I mean, I didn’t talk about him in the webinar. But come to think of it, I should. One of one of one of my favorite quotes that he said in the show was you cannot get from a no to a yes without the maybe in between.

Alper Rozanes
So the way I saw it every no back then should be a yes. And it should be quick. But now I realize, hey, there is a maybe in between, to start with. And even to that we may not be able to get to, but it’s okay.

Alper Rozanes
This is this is a continuous learning learning process. It’s not just from one day to the next we’re going to become very confident. We’re going to embrace rejection, like we have never done it before. No. It took me years, literally years, if not a decade, to do that. So… Well, I’m not the most intelligent person so other people can make it faster. But I don’t think it’s going to be like in a matter of a week. We need more time than that.

Matt Krause
Let’s, let’s talk slide design for a moment. In the first slides that people tend to take into a sales presentation will be often this is our product, and this is who we are.

Alper Rozanes
Oh yeah.

Matt Krause
We’ve both seen a lot of that. This is our product and this is who we are, and actually not always in this order. Sometimes it’s this is who we are first. So…

Alper Rozanes
Yes, about us.

Matt Krause
Yes about us. So, so tell me what you…

Alper Rozanes
We were established in 1979 in somewhere, some state, covering like so many square meters.

Matt Krause
So if I am, I’m a sales manager and I’m looking at the slide deck that I’m sending my company, sending my salesforce out there with and the first slides in the slide deck are about us slides, what would you suggest putting in there instead?

Alper Rozanes
That’s a good question. I would definitely recommend not starting the presentation about me, but starting it with about them.

Alper Rozanes
And by the way, that would require a lot of work because now we’re not talking about a one size fits all company presentation that I can take to every single client meeting that I’m going to have.

Alper Rozanes
No, we’re talking about, like 80% of the presentation, staying intact throughout different client visits, but maybe different openings for each client. And I’m not talking about only putting their logo to the to the title slide, no.

Alper Rozanes
I’m talking about starting the presentation, at least starting the conversation with what it is that they want to achieve, where is it that they want to end up with their business with their position with whatever it is that I can help them with?

Alper Rozanes
So at that point, I mean, in the initial stages, I don’t believe the client will be too interested in your history. Your milestones, even your team.

Alper Rozanes
But I think, I mean, you know how I like saying that we’re selfish creatures, especially as presentation audiences, it’s always like, me, me, me, hey, talk about me talk about me. Well talk about them. If that’s the case, if…

Alper Rozanes
Well, why do I say that? Because if I’m making, if I’m making the sales present, presentation to you as my potential client, then I believe you have more power on the on, over the conversation.

Alper Rozanes
I believe I need you more than you need me. Well, you may be needing my product, and you may not even be aware of it. But we’re not at that point yet. We’re at the point where I am in a position that I’m making the sales presentation to you. So I need to cater to your needs.

Alper Rozanes
It’s not my information that should be in the opening, it should be your needs, your desires, as Blair Enns likes to put it on the Win Without Pitching, your desired future state.

Alper Rozanes
What is it that you want to be? And how can my products or services help you with that? Let’s start talking about that. And then we will talk about maybe my milestones. Maybe. I doubt that.

Matt Krause
Yeah. So you might, if you might go through your entire initial sales meeting, and never get to the About Us section.

Matt Krause
It might be there, buried in your slide deck somewhere, but it’s not the foot that you lead with.

Alper Rozanes
Absolutely. And if we ever come to that, I would recommend not showing a slide about us. I would actually maybe, hit the B key, blackout the slides, turn off the computer, whatever. Look people in the eye and talk about your company. Tell them your company, tell them your milestones. Don’t show me like five circles in a row. Showing step one, step two, step three, no, tell, you tell me about your company.

Matt Krause
That’s a good point. And if I had if I had $1 for every time I saw those five circles, I would be a rich man.

Alper Rozanes
We would not be doing this podcast, we’d be sipping margaritas on some Caribbean beach.

Matt Krause
Yeah, we would be sipping margaritas brought to us by our staff help. On our yacht.

Alper Rozanes
Yes. Until then, no more about us slides. Until that happens.

Matt Krause
Yeah, until that happens. Alright, so we’re about out of time today. So thank you very much, Alper, and I will talk to you next week, then.

Alper Rozanes
Thank you. And by the way, I’m sure this is something that we will keep digging in. This deserves so much to be talked about.

Matt Krause
Yeah, in fact, we’ve talked we’ve kind of touched on the subject a little bit before, not only were we talking just a couple weeks ago about sales presentations, but we were also, we’ve also talked about a nonlinear presentations, exactly the kind of presentation that would allow you to take this about us section and just sink it in the back of the presentation, knowing that you might never even get to it. So we’ve touched on this subject many times.

Alper Rozanes
Yeah. And I’m sure we’ll come back to that as well.

Matt Krause
Yeah. So thank you very much, Alper.

Alper Rozanes
Thank you. Take care.

Matt Krause
All right. I’ll talk to you later.