Nail these 7 things or ... lose the deal

Oh … so you're pretty good at ZOOM? That's great. BUT ….

… remember when you had to do THIS kind of stuff??

This in person stuff was much more HIGH PRESSURE.

Remember when there was no “mute” button.

No way to “Turn Off The Camera.”

In live meetings …

The stakes are higher.

There is more to gain … and more to lose.

Truth is, this kind of pressure makes us BETTER.

Zoom calls don't improve your game.

Even though Zoom and MS Teams are efficient, easy and SAFE

They are too safe.

A 6-year old can do it.

Think about that for a moment.

Zoom is going to destroy your presentation skills … it's low-pressure … “ooops sorry bad connection” … “ooops sorry hold on I lost the file” … and it's making you a bit lazy.

And lazy presentation skills will kill your deals.

Kill your revenue.

Maybe kill your company.

I know.

Years ago … I really F*^%$ up a deal.

The presentation was to Richard Branson (Virgin Atlantic).

I was overconfident, lazy …. didn't prepare well.

That day I lost a $100 million deal … and this traumatized me for life.

Since that one “bad” presentation to Branson, I've become masterful at the pitch artform … I've given 1,000 damn good presentations where the audience was laughing and having a great time, and the pitch “worked.”

BUT TODAY, BEFORE I GIVE ANY PRESENTATION …

…. RIGHT THERE IN THE BACK OF MY MIND … is the memory of that one bad incident.

It still scares the sh*& out of me.

Because I know just how bad I can really be.

I know that when I mess up … I go full Chernobyl.

I create scorched earth.

The only good news here …. my screw-ups don't happen by accident.

Looking back, I can easily see what happened and why.

HERE are the specific behaviors that created my worst failures:

Prepared at the last minute
Didn't study the audience
Relied on “charisma and charm”
Read from “canned” slides
Had a “Wing it” attitude
And was generally overconfident

It's a longer story how I pissed off Branson, which I will tell on SEPTEMBER 4th at 12pm, but the key takeaway is:

The 6 items above caused me to blow up a hundred million dollar deal.

So now … I OVERPREPARE by a factor of 10.

I work 10-times too hard.

Not because I'm a Boy Scout.

It's FEAR OF FAILURE.

I PREPARE because I never want to experience the pain of bombing out.

Hey … these are MY problems, not yours.

It doesn't mean you should PREPARE to the level I do.

And maybe in your business, it's really not necessary to prepare so carefully…

A lot of people give pretty average presentations and still “win the sale” or “close the deal.” It happens all the time.

So why put in some kind of MAX EFFORT when “pretty good” can close a deal?

A “pretty good” presentation gets you this:

1. Buyers get a clear understanding of your product and service

2. Buyers become interested to learn more

3. You get an understanding of their key problems

4. You give them a proposal that meets their needs

But the MAX EFFORT, PREPARED-IN-ADVANCE, GREAT PRESENTATION gets you all this:

1. They believe you're The True Industry Expert

2. They get insight and huge value from your presentation (and want to meet again asap)

3. You create scarcity: eg. they understand you are busy and don't have time to waste on negotiators and tire-kickers

4. You reframe the competition as “good” … but not good enough for their problem

5. They trust you

6. They don't grind on price

7. And they'll ask you .. “when can we start working together?”

If you create all 7 of these effects, then your DEALMAKING becomes easy.

And it doesn't matter if it's a large deal, or small …

A phone call
Zoom call
Conference room
Stage presentation

You have to ask yourself, “how MUCH should I prep?”

… what's “normal”?

Is it normal to memorize the first 300 words?
It is normal to say, “we don't send proposals” even before Slide 2?
Is it normal to tell the buyer … “I'm here to evaluate YOU.”
Is it normal to hire a joke writer so your jokes are actually funny?

These are probably NOT normal.

But I do it.

This level of preparation costs me time, and money, and energy.

I do all this and much more …

There are 25 specific ways I prepare for every pitch.

I run the same process every time because it's tested. It works to create the Expert Frame, to Create Scarcity, to Build Trust, Reframe the Competition, Avoid Price Negotiation … and much more.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR A PITCH IS A PROCESS AND A FORMULA YOU CAN QUICKLY LEARN.

AND I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT PREPARING TO WIN A DEAL.

“HOW DEALMAKERS PREPARE TO PITCH AND CLOSE”

THIS IS A CRITICAL SKILLSET. And you've probably ignored it for way too long.

It's not your fault, no company teaches “preparation” and you probably got to where you are because of your raw talent … your charisma .. and your natural intelligence.

But today, that's not enough to become a market leader.

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