Presentation Potential

I was working for The Anthony Robbins Companies and my job was to speak for 45 minutes to sales teams across the country and sell tickets for an upcoming event.

It is known as an  “one-call close” presentation where you have just one time to speak and sell the audience, there is no (or very minimum)  follow-up calls or appointments.

I was in my second year in this job, and like the other speakers and sales professionals in my team, I had my share of successes and failures.

I had spoken to 100 people and sold NOTHING, and I had spoken to 25 people and sold 19 tickets for a $ 697 seminar per person (not bad for a 45-minute presentation).

Because I was being inconsistent for a while I decided to become a student of presentation and influence strategies.

I was literally spending approximately 10% of my monthly income in books, coaching and seminars, and I was slowly progressing, but nothing truly substantial.

One day I had a presentation in a Real State Office in Los Angeles area.

I arrived at the meeting 40 minutes before my presentation and I started talking to the audience members.

It was a room full of real estate agents and I spent 15 minutes asking questions, listening and connecting with them.

I then connected with the manager and after a few short minutes he introduced me and I started my presentation.

There were 42 people in the room, and by the time I was done speaking, I had 45 forms in my hands, they all signed up for a $ 697 program (per person).

Now, you may be asking “Roberto, how is that possible?  There were 42 people in the room and how could you have sold 45 people?” It was possible because 3 people bought a ticket for their spouses.

Now, that felt AMAZING!!! I had spoken for 45 minutes, and in the end of it, I had OVERSOLD the room. That was definitely one of the highlights of my sales career.

But looking back now, what happened?

Was I lucky?

Can I duplicate this result again?

Can I teach others to do the same?

Let me answer these questions for you.

First, I was not lucky.

As I mentioned to you before I had been working on my presentation and influencing skills for awhile and eventually it all came together.

I transformed my presentation potential into real influence.

Second, these results are indeed duplicatable. It happened again in my career, where I oversold the room (It does NOT happen every month, but it happens more than you would think).

Most importantly, the strategies that caused me to use more of my presentation potential are transferrable.

You can incorporate these lessons so you can expand your presentation potential, increase your closing/conversion ratios and even oversell the room as well.

One of the principles that I learned during my 11-year career in coaching is that any breakthrough in performance starts with a breakthrough in thinking.

If you want to experience a positive breakthrough in your presentation performance, you have to adopt a new level of thinking about your presentations.

Today I would like to introduce you to 3 mindsets that have helped me to increase my presentation potential.

Mindset # 1:
You can be WAY more effective than you are now. It does not matter how great you are, you can take your presentation skills to the next level, PERIOD.

One of our clients, a Chiropractor, has spoken 3 times a week for the last 8 years.

He has a closing ratio of 80% on average.

He is already a SUPERSTAR by any standards.

But he knows that if he improves 5%, that 5% over the years are equivalent to thousands of people he can help and millions of dollars he can add to his bottom line. When is the last time you took a presentation skills training class? How many presentation and public speaking books have you read this year so far? Have you ever hired a coach to review your presentation and give you feedback?

Mindset # 2:
If you want to use more of your presentation potential, you have to adopt a new belief system. If you agree with me that your beliefs impact how you feel and what you do, then you would agree with me that your beliefs impact your presentation. One of the reasons that caused me to improve my closing ratio was the fact that I adopted new presentational beliefs that made me more effective. During our Influencing From the Front training we share over 20 beliefs that helps you tap into more of your presentation potential. For now, let me share with you 3 of these foundational beliefs:

Mindset  # 3:
You are ONE presentation away from changing your life.

This is a BIG one. Your next presentation can be your VERY best presentation, THE presentation that will change your career for better, forever.  It happened to me 3 years ago, when I was invited to speak to a group in Atlanta. That ONE presentation lead me to more than 15 paid speaking gigs (I was able to book them because one person that saw me speaking in Atlanta referred me to another person, and a chain of referrals started), dozens of coaching clients and several products sold. The best part of all is that I had a chance to help the lives of thousands of people during all these presentations.  Again, you are ONE presentation away from changing your life for better!!!

We believe that if you don’t use more of your presentation potential you will have a hard time growing your business, advancing  your career and experiencing the level of success that you are aiming for.

Improving the presentations you do (videos, webinars, one-on-one conversations, public speaking) is your best chance to differentiate yourself in the marketplace and acquire more leads and clients.