I’ve spent a great amount of time pouring over hours of audio recordings of myself presenting workshops and teleseminars in preparation for unleashing the entire Duct Tape Marketing Small Business Marketing system on the world in self-study fashion.
The exercise has been both valuable and eye-opening. The lesson I’ve gained is that one of the best ways to improve your speaking and sales presenting is to force yourself to listen to how you do it currently. I suggest that every sales person should be forced to record a couple sales calls in an effort to improve their presenting skills.
I don’t suggest this just for those who want to become professional speakers by trade, I suggest this for anyone that needs to persuade someone to listen to their story.
Listening to hours of my voice hammered home the fact that (self degradation doesn’t come easy for me) I have some really annoying speech habits, I can occasionally sound silly, I too often forget to finish my thoughts. Okay, why all of this confession? I have become acutely aware of the fact that almost everyone has a handful of bad speaking habits.
Even if you don’t ever intend to present a keynote address, I believe your marketing will improve if you:
- Record your sales presentation and listen to it over and over again
- Rid yourself of years of “ums” and “you knows”
- Present your products and services more concisely
Two suggestions:
- Find an area Toastmasters Chapter that looks like a good fit and start practicing in a supportive environment
- Buy an Olympus DS-2 Digital Recorder and start recording your phone pitches and sales conversations
(More on using this device in a future post!)
