When I was a new salesman, I was scheduled to give a product presentation to my branch about a new product our company had. 
I had given presentations to customers about it before and I had above normal knowledge of it and was comfortable with it.
The night before my talk, I partied with my group and had a really good time. So, the next day, I started my presentation and had a complete case of memory block. I could not remember basic facts and information about the product that I knew so much about. I looked stupid and incompetent. It was the first time I realized that having a hangover could affect my ability to function.
The next year I gave a talk on a different product. I hit the presentation with belief that showed and presented the facts and figures without a hangover. I won the branch prize for the best talk. I went on to give a lot of product presentations nationally.
This last Thursday and Friday, I attended a presentation skills training class given by Anne Warfield, CEO of Impression Management Professionals. Anne is a nationally recognized speaker and author. She is friends with many nationally known speakers and (to me this is awesome)is a friend of Vince Flynn who is a New York Times best seller every time he writes a book and admired by former presidents like Bill Clinton and George Bush.
Anne’s training held my attention for two whole days and with me being an Internet marketer that isn’t easy. I’m convinced that IMers develop ADD as a side effect of our business. But Anne held it completely because she knows how to teach and she knows how to speak to an audience or in our case a class.
Full Disclosure: Anne is a client of mine for Internet Marketing but, if I didn’t believe what I am writing here, I wouldn’t write it at all. This is unsolicited and she won’t know I’ve written it until after it has been published. I only share what I think will be helpful to my readers.
Anne showed us new ways to approach and begin our talks like telling stories that others can relate to. She went over personality types and how they think about things and how we should present to them. She taught us about their hot buttons and how they receive what we are saying. Basically, she taught us how to give a presentation from the audience perspective.
One of Anne’s abilities is being able to drop into role playing so that you can picture a message she is teaching you happening before your eyes. Its an incredible experience and the learning happens at the subconscious level which is more effective than learning at the conscious level. That is also important because learning from Anne is like drinking out a fire hose. There is so much information that it will take time to soak in and germinate. but when you need the information it will be there to pull out. And, in case I need to review the information, I left with a binder of notes and other materials Anne provided.
While I have given quite a few presentations over the years and had various levels of training, I have never had training that is so (and I hate to use this word) transformational.
In case you are wondering how this all relates to Internet Marketing, well, IM is connecting with your customers at a level they can relate to and learn from. The best copywriters are doing this all the time even if they don’t know it. That is also what makes Social Marketing so successful.
Now back to my original story, I hope I never have to give a presentation again after partying too much the night before, but if I do, I think Anne gave me the tools to get through it just fine.
If you want to know more about Anne’s training go to http://www.impressionmanagement.com.
