Anne Miller | Make What You Say... Pay.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Eggs-actly!

Be "Egg-ceptional"

What is the best way to ensure your presentation message or main point in an argument is remembered?

Make your message the last thing your listener hears. Keep it short. Give it a rhythm. An excellent example of this principle appeared in an ad in USA Today, 8/25:

A Message From America’s Egg Farmers

You’ve probably heard about the recent egg recall. As egg farmers, we’re concerned, and continue to work closely with the FDA and USDA to help ensure the safest and highest quality eggs possible. The potentially affected eggs, which make up less than 1% of all US eggs, have been removed from store shelves.

You may be wondering if eggs are safe to eat. Yes, they are. Thoroughly cooked eggs are thoroughly safe eggs, according to the Center for Disease Control and the FDA. Eggs should be cooked until the whites and yolks are firm.

To find out more information on this recall and the safe handling of eggs, please vist eggsafety.org.

And, remember, thoroughly cooked means thoroughly safe. (emphasis mine)

"Eggs-amine" Your Communications

Whether in a formal presentation, giving an answer to a question, or in a conversation across the desk, make it easy for people to remember what you said. Leave them with a short, snappy summary of your main point.

Remember, Short messages last longer.

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Download two chapters Free from my new book, "Make What You Say Pay! Details: www.makewhatyousaypay.com

50+ Stories of how savvy business people used metaphors to win the day from distinguishing themselves in their market to closing a deal to melting resistance to change to making the news.

No one should lead, sell or influence without a command of metaphors!

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MWYSP! will be on vacation through Labor Day. Have a wonderful holiday.

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Execution is everything: Make What You Say Pay!

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Thursday, August 19, 2010

New Book - Complimentary Download

The difference between the right words and just words is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." Mark Twain

After many more months than I ever thought it would take, my new book “Make What You Say Pay! The Language That Opens Minds, Closes Deals & Wows Crowds” is finally here. And I want you to sample two chapters for free. Just go to www.makewhatyousaypay.com for the download.

50+ short stories and take-away tips demonstrate that you do not need to be famous nor particularly talented to be more persuasive, memorable, and effective in any situation. My goal in writing this book is to help transform the state of business conversations from fact and figure dumping grounds into whirlwind exchanges of ideas that escalate into action quickly.

Download the free chapters today and share this link with all your friends, clients, and colleagues as well. They will appreciate you for sending this really useful information,.(Don't miss the video.)

Available online $14.95

Available as pdf $14.95

Enjoy and thank you for spreading the word!

Execution is everything: Make What You Say Pay!

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Thursday, July 22, 2010

From Dull to Dazzling

I was momentarily thrown by the surprise response I got when I called the operator at the W Hotel in LA this week to order a wake-up call for the next morning. She said, “Hello, Mrs. Miller. This is Terry....

“What is your wish?”

What is my wish? My immediate reaction was, “How about a 40% bounce in my portfolio, world peace, and thinner thighs?” However, I restrained myself, and, in a tone of voice that suggested I was accustomed to talking to tooth fairies every day, I simply asked for a 7AM wake-up ring the next morning.

So, this little exchange made me think about you, the readers of this blog. What would my “wish” be for business people at both large and small companies whose job it is to sell, present, or otherwise influence various groups of people? I think it would be that you get beyond the facts of your information and more creatively use language to bring your products, services, and ideas to life for your listeners. Consider these comments made by William Safire, who, until his death in 2009, was a political columnist for The New York Times, and also known for his popular “On Language” column in that paper’s Sunday magazine section.

“Suppose I’m describing the reaction of baseball fans on that unforgettable evening when Henry Aaron hit the home run that broke Babe Ruth’s lifetime record. I might say, ‘Aaron was given a standing ovation by fifty thousand fans. The tribute continued for at least five minutes.’ That’s accurate. It’s what happened. No doubt about it.

“But compare that description with this. ‘Fifty thousand fans sprang to their feet, clapping, screaming, cheering wildly in a pandemonium that went on for a full five minutes.’ That’s also what happened. Is there a difference?

"You bet there is. The first version tells what happened all right, but it doesn’t involve the listener. There’s no fire, no passion. …The second version paints a word picture that puts the listeners right in the stadium, making them part of the clapping, cheering crowd.”

Grant Them Their Wish

No matter what you sell, use the richness of language to put your listeners smack in the middle of the experience your products, services, or ideas will give them. Let them “see” what it will mean to use what you are selling. Use vivid language to describe the results of what your dry facts, features, metrics, analytics, or processes, mean to them. Let them get excited by the possibilities of that experience. In short, let them see their "business wishes" coming true when they work with you..When you do that for your listeners, then, your wishes for greater success and increased bottom-lines will come true as well

Execution is everything: Make What You Say Pay!

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News: My new bookt Make WhaT You Say Pay! is finally done! It will be available in hard copy as well as in an ebook version. As soon as the finishing touches on the website are done for it, I will let you know how you can sample some chapters and get a copy for yourself.

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

If speed and change are two key drivers of business today, then a third one must also be adaptability.

I was reminded of this recently, reading an article about Steve Jobs, “The Last Pitchman” in Bloomberg Businessweek. Jobs is known for many things: his great presentation skills, his amazingly cool products, and the almost manic secrecy and attendant drama he brings to the launch of every new Apple product. You will recall that that game plan was seriously challenged recently with the iPhone4, when a junior Apple engineer left a prototype on the then-unreleased iPhone4 in a California bar. Gizmodo, a popular tech blog got its hands on the device and broadcast the news about all its exciting features--which meant that there was little left for Jobs to reveal at the Apple launch event itself.

What was he going to do? What was he going to say?!

Jobs adapted to the totally unexpected situation by opening with the perfect Gizmodo incident quip. He said, “Stop me if you've seen this before”—and then demonstrated what he called “the most precise, beautiful thing we’ve ever designed.” His immediate and humorous acknowledgment of what had happened returned the show to Jobs and he had his audience’s undivided attention again.

Why do I bring this up?

Because I am constantly dismayed by sales people and other executives who seem to operate on automatic pilot when they fail to adapt to the cues and unexpected events that come at them during a presentation. This rigidity may come from fear, or lack of confidence, or lack of product/industry knowledge, but whatever the cause, the net result is to alienate a buyer/listener because you are basically saying "I don't care about you." Here are just three basic examples of “Failure to Adapt.”

Panicking in the face of changed needs. When a prospect says the needs have changed, some people plow through their presentation anyway, hoping that something they say will resonate. A waste of time and a demonstration to your buyer that you are not listening to him/her. It is wiser to adapt to this unexpected turn of events, put your prepared remarks/presentation away, ask what has changed, and be prepared to, again, adapt to what you hear. If you can still make your remarks work, fine. If not, ask for another meeting to present new ideas based on the changed needs.

Telling a client who expresses interest in Topic X to “wait” until you get there. Hey,who is buying and who is selling here?The client isn’t listening to your information in the order you planned? Adapt and either jump right to Topic X or re-assure the listener that Topic X will make more sense once he sees the background to it, or give a short response about Topic X and promise that you will be sure to go into greater detail in a minute. Then, check if that is all right. If it isn’t, adapt and jump to X.

Going past expected meeting time to get all your points in. You will never be punished for ending a meeting earlier than expected, but you will incur eternal wrath for keeping people at the table a minute longer than they signed on for. When time gets shortened, adapt and either pull out the salient points in the remaining time or ask for another meeting.

Adapt or die is a rule of nature. It applies equally to business relationships. The failure to adapt says more about how you view your buyer/listener than all the slides you brought in your deck.

Execution is everything. Make What You Say Pay!

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Thursday, July 08, 2010

And Where Were You on Christmas Day?

Lighten Up

You have to admire Elena Kagan during her Senate Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearing last week for her response to Senator Lindsey Graham’s annoying insistence on knowing where she was on Christmas Day...

At first, seemingly confused by the odd question, she began to answer seriously. Graham interrupted and repeated, “No. I just asked you where you were at on Christmas. Switching gears, Kagan replied, “You know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant” – which caused the Senate Chamber to laugh and give her a round of applause. As the Washington Post noted, her response was “brilliant in its humor, timing, and the self-effacing manner in which it was delivered.”

In all the talk about how to succeed in business today, (appropriate) humor gets very short shrift. We live in tough times, stressful times. People like to—need to—laugh. If nothing else, it gets all those feel good endorphins jumping around inside them. Self-effacing, spontaneous humor is a welcome relief from what seems like deathlike intensity in business today. Moreover, even for just a moment, it endears you to your listeners. Nothing wrong with that. Former President Eisenhower put it well:

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

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A little short in the humor department? Rev it up at The Humor Project where they “seek to help people get more smileage out of their lives and jobs by applying the practical, positive power of humor and creativity.”

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Book Recommendation: On a different note,if you want quick ways to prep for sales calls, interviews, or other important meetings, you must read “Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling” by Sam Richter. Sam goes way beyond Google, Yahoo! LinkedIn and Facebook and shows you new sites and little known ways to get smart fast about people, companies, competition, and trends. Content is king on the web and knowledge is power with clients. Sam provides a road map to really useful web content to give you incremental knowledge that will help you leapfrog the competition.

Execution is everything: Make What You Say Pay!

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