“But wait, there’s more…”
Billy Mays

This week the sales world lost one of its great Pitchmen, Billy Mays. His ability to create millions of dollars in sales by pitching common household products landed him on his own Discovery Channel show known as Pitchmen. So what can we learn from Billy that will make us a top Pitchmen or Pitchwomen? Well there are many lessons, but perhaps the biggest one that stands out is Billy’s ability to make common products seem uncommon. To do this, he made his demonstrations fun. They never got stale or boring. He was able to get more done in a two-minute commercial than most “professional” salespeople can get done in 60 minutes.

So this week, pick your favorite product to sell. Then sit down and write a short two-minute commercial on what makes that product so special. It should include

•    An introduction,
o    “Hi, I’m Billy Mays here for What Odor.”
•    Heavy on Benefits
o    “Eliminates Embarrassing Odors with One Spray.”
•    The Secret to How it Works
o    “Non-Toxic, All Natural Formulation of 41 Oils.”
•    Where to Use it
o    Sour Milk, Moldy Rotten Cheese, the Litter Box
•    Wow Examples
o    “Can eliminate a Skunk’s Odor”
•    Call to Action with UREGENCY
o    “Order now and we will add a second bottle.”

By taking time to think like Billy Mays, you will have developed the essential ingredients of what will become your greatest sales presentation. So thanks Billy, for teaching us how passion, energy and an occasional loud voice are essential tools to not only getting prospects interested, but committed.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.
-Walt Disney

The definition of entertainment is: an activity that is diverting and that holds the attention. So when delivering your product presentation, do something that diverts your prospect’s mind to keep your message interesting. If you are a team leader holding a meeting, do something entertaining to make your audience want to listen to your vision. Below is a list of some entertaining things you can do to spice up your delivery:

•    Smile and laugh more frequently. When your audience sees you loosening up, so too will they. And when their mouths are open with laughter, so too are their ears…and their wallets!
•    Tell a story that illuminates your message. As you paint the picture, their imagination brings them closer to your words. Stories are salespeople’s most effective yet most underused sales tool.
•    Use images, audio and even video to stir the senses. These can be used in email, voicemails, PowerPoints or any other place you make customer contact.

In short, have a BLAST when selling or presenting, by adding entertainment to every contact you make. Because the Sales Business can be just like Show Business. And there’s no business like it! So let YOUR Show begin!

Funny works. It sells a ton of product, brings the walls of resistance down, get’s you the attention of a tough audience and can create the type of business culture that makes people comfortable to be themselves. So if funny actually can mean more sales, more influence and less stress, why don’t more people use it as one of their greatest business weapons? Well they should, and so should you!

But what if you just aren’t that funny? Well fear not! You don’t have to be Jerry Seinfeld to add a spark to people’s day. You just need to be willing to be a little funnier than you are right now. For instance you may choose to:

•    Take funny pictures of customers with your product and use them in a monthly newsletter to other prospects.

•    Go to Google Images, type in a funny topic that you and a client discussed (i.e. Octomom, Attack Gorilla, 401K … now that’s funny) and add that image to a follow up email. Then find a way to work it into the text of your email.

•    Speaking of email, create a tagline at the bottom of your signature that describes you in a “less than serious” way. For instance, “Your Industry Bailout Specialist” Or perhaps a meaningless quote like, “96.7% of all statistics are made up” or “Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?”

•    Open your next meeting with the funniest story you tell your friends (clean it up!) and FIND a business message in it (believe me, there is one in there).

If some of the above ideas made you feel a bit “goofy,” GOOD! Because that’s what humor is supposed to do. It is meant to take people out of their routine and into a place they would rather be. And when you make a habit of combining humor with the serious business value, you become the unstoppable force that your competition will not find very funny. And only then will you be laughing all the way to the bank.

To learn how to find your Humor, go to www.preciseselling.com/Radioaccess.htm to hear Brian interview humorist, Brad Montgomery, co-author of the book “Humor Me-America’s Funniest Humorists on the Power of Laughter.”  As president of PRECISE Selling, Brian Sullivan helps improve sales, customer service, negotiations, leadership, and presentation skills through seminars and Internet training programs. He also hosts “Entrepreneurial Moments,” a radio show on business and personal development. For more on his speaking, consulting or book, visit: www.PreciseSelling.com or email: bsullivan@preciseselling.com.

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense and into your good sense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you ever sat through a corporate or business presentation, only to find yourself counting the minutes until this nightmare was over…so you can go back to being productive? Well guess what? If you don’t look at your own presentations as “show time,” your audience and team members often feel the same way!

So if YOU had the choice between jumping off a cliff or presenting a topic to a large group of people, which one would YOU choose? Fact is, every time you get an OPPORTUNITY to get up in front of a group, you are also given the opportunity to impact people in a meaningful way. And here are some quick tips to getting it done:

•    If you use PowerPoint, use as few slides as possible to get your point across. (Has anybody ever said, “That presentation was lousy because there weren’t enough slides!” ANSWER: NO)

•    Practice at least the first four minutes of any presentation OUT LOUD several times so it rolls of your tongue as if you were Ronald Reagan Obama.

•    Survey or ask the audience members BEFOREHAND what THEY want to hear. Then craft your presentation with a “what’s in it for them” message.

•    Smile, have fun, add stories, YouTube Video, etc

By focusing on these small but key areas, you will leave your audience smarter, more motivated and better prepared to put your recommendations into action. And as you add more value to them, your own value to your people, your company and your industry will increase. And as you get your audiences out of their bad sense and into your good sense, don’t be surprised if you have a few more CENTS in your pocket at the end of the year.

This week, Brian interviewed author Kevin O’Conner on his weekly radio show. Kevin wrote the book “Present Like a Pro.”  To get  specific tips on making YOU a better presenter, go to www.preciseselling.com/Radioaccess.htm to listen to the interview. To find out more about Brian’s sales and leadership programs, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.

Several years ago after delivering a sales seminar, an attendee approached me with a stoic look on his face. He said he enjoyed the session but he felt I was a bit too “animated” in my delivery of the content. He said he felt like the humorous anecdotes, video clips and interactive exercises were a bit “over-the-top.” As I sat at my office desk the next day, preparing for my next seminar, I began thinking about what the man had said. I thought, “Maybe he was right. Maybe I should ‘tone it down’ a bit. Maybe I should be more “professional.” I immediately began pulling stories, video and audio clips from my presentation and retooled my delivery.

The next week as I delivered the more “professional” and watered down version of the same presentation, something was different. The audience didn’t seem as engaged. I couldn’t connect and as a result, they weren’t learning. Then I realized why…because that wasn’t me up there talking. In trying to be something I wasn’t, the audience couldn’t get to know me. I wasn’t having fun so they weren’t having fun. My “soul’s desire” was to help these people sell more product than at any point in their career but they couldn’t see that because they couldn’t see “my nature.” They were seeing some guy faking somebody else’s nature. After being saved by a coffee break, I quickly gave that lame presentation the extreme makeover it needed. By injecting “me” back into it, I began having a blast again. My posture changed, the audience engaged, and we went on to have a great day.

So what’s the message? Be authentic! Be You! Don’t be what you think other people want you to be. Are there imperfections in being YOU? Absolutely! But who cares? Because by giving everybody around you more access to those imperfections, you will also give them access to the “perfections” that make you so amazing.