Monday, October 20, 2014
The 5th Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint is the easiest
platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses
use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to
master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)
Here, I am going to present
to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness
of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).
Now, let’s first have a look
at #Tip 5. In case you missed the #Tip 4, it’s here.
#Trick
5- Turn Square Images
Into Custom Shapes
We all know how important it
is to use photos in your marketing (maybe you downloaded our recent stock photo
collection, perhaps?), but do you know how to customize them? Make them fit
into your favorite shapes in PowerPoint -- all with just one click.
Crop-to-Shape:
1) Click on the image and
select 'Format' in the options bar.
2) Choose 'Crop,' then 'Mask
to Shape,' and then choose your desired shape. Ta-da! Custom-shaped photos.
What other PowerPoint tricks do you keep up your sleeves? Share them with us in the comments below!
Also attend our seminar on
“Creating and Delivering Effective PowerPoint Presentations”. Hope to see you
there! | Know
more
The 4th Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint is the easiest
platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses
use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to
master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)
Here, I am going to present
to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness
of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).
Now, let’s first have a look
at #Tip 4. In case you missed the #Tip 3, it’s here.
Trick
4#- Having trouble
aligning all your items at the right place? Here’s the key!
You can manually try to line
up your images, but we all know how that works out. You're trying to make sure
all of your objects hang out in the middle of your slide, but when you drag
them there, it still doesn't look quite right. Get rid of your guessing game
and let PowerPoint work its magic with this trick.
How
to align objects to each other-
1) Select all objects by
holding down 'Shift' while clicking on them.
2) Select 'Arrange' in the
top options bar, then choose 'Align or Distribute.'
3) Choose the type of
alignment you'd like.
How
to align objects to the slide-
1) Select all objects by
holding down 'Shift' while clicking on them.
2) Select 'Arrange' in the
top options bar, then choose 'Align or Distribute.'
3) Select 'Align to Slide.'
4) Select 'Arrange' in the
top options bar again, then choose 'Align or Distribute.'
5) Choose the type of
alignment you'd like.
Click here to discover The 4th
Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.
Want to learn more on
conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register
for our seminar | Know
more
Hope to see you at the
seminar!
The 3rd Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint is the easiest
platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses
use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to
master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)
Here, I am going to present
to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness
of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).
Now, let’s first have a look
at #Tip 3. In case you missed the #Tip 2, it’s here.
Trick
3#- Having
trouble with pesky background problems? Save only the slide components
One of my clients wanted to
make a presentation for a brand. However, he was facing trouble when he tried
to save every slide as an image. Doing this he found unwanted background colors
and other background problems. Hence, it deterred the process of making
versatile images in the PowerPoint presentation. I suggested this tip and it
worked well!
Save
as image-Follow the steps below:
1) Select all items by
holding 'Shift' while clicking on the items.
2) Do right click; select
'Grouping' & then 'Group.'
3) Do right click on the entire
group and then choose 'Save as Picture.' Boom, no white space at the back!
Click here to discover The 4th
Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.
Want to learn more on
conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register
for our seminar | Know
more
Hope to see you at the
seminar!
The 2nd Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint is the easiest
platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses
use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to
master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)
Here, I am going to present
to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness
of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).
Now, let’s first have a look
at #Tip 2. In case you missed the #Tip 1, it’s here.
#Tip
2- Having trouble
making everyone understand your presentation’s theme? Use the Slide Master
Many have complained about
how difficult it is to have everyone on same page. For instance, many of my
colleagues expressed difficulty to get the marketing team understand the core
theme or idea while developing slide shares for a brand. Well, here’s the key
to let your branding commence without any hassles.
The
Slide Master! Follow the below steps-
1) Choose 'Themes' on top
navigation bar.
2) Click 'Edit Master on far
right, then click 'Slide Master.'
3) After making changes of your
choice, click 'Close Master.' Now all your current as well as future slides will
use the template you’ve selected. (This will make it easy for everyone
concerned to understand the core theme or idea of your presentation easily!)
Click here to discover The 3rd
Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.
Want to learn more on
conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register
for our seminar | Know
more
Hope to see you at the
seminar!
The 1st Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint is the easiest
platform to use. It is the de-facto software for presentation most businesses
use. However, many people are still unaware of its full potential. (Attend our seminar to
master the art of creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations.)
Here, I am going to present
to all my readers the 5 immutable tips you can use to enhance the effectiveness
of your PowerPoint presentations (with a step-by-step approach).
Let’s first have a look at Tip
1.
#Tip
1- Having trouble with
distorted images? Get your background customized!
Have you ever felt the pain
of creating an infographic and then it does not fit correctly in the slide’s
default size? Probably yes. Now you can easily unhinge yourself from such
clutches of PowerPoint slides by embracing customized background of your choice.
To
change the background size, follow the steps below-
1) On the slide’s top-left
corner, select 'File.'
2) Choose 'Page Setup.'
3) Type in the required height
as well as width of the background you need. Click 'OK.'
4) Click 'OK' again as the
dialogue box appears.
5) There it is, your customized
background is ready!
Note-
It’s good to resize your slides prior to adding any objects, otherwise your
objects will appear distorted.
Click here to discover The 2nd
Immutable Tip for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations.
Want to learn more on
conceptualizing, creating and delivering effective PowerPoint presentations? Register
for our seminar | Know
more
Hope to see you at the
seminar!
Thursday, October 16, 2014
How To Identify and Strengthen The Financial Benefits of Your Solution?
Take
help-
There’s no need to reinvent
the wheel. Take help from your sales representatives and marketing teams for
existing ROI case studies, calculators, graphs or other related material to get
started.
Keep
it easy-
The proposal should be compelling
as well as easily understandable. I recommend creating a spreadsheet containing
maximum 7-15 rows. Above this limit, it becomes confusing to anyone except the
most technical buyers.
Attain
an agreed analysis-
Both parties must co-author
see eye-to-eye on the potential financial benefits. The analysis need not be perfect,
nor should it be binding. However, it
does need to estimate the financial benefit to give your buyer a clear understanding
of the magnitude of the benefit of your exclusive solution.
Consider
all the possible scenarios-
This refers to considering
all the possible worst scenarios. It helps to enhance your value proposition
which is the value created from your solution. You’re able to enhance your
solution’s value proposition by examining the entire “pain chain” from the
buyer’s perspective. This pain chain
refers to the all the possible chain of incidents or events which may occur if
things go wrong.
Illustration-
For instance, in future
there can be a missed shipment of auto components to a supplier. As a result
the supplier may fail to provide the required components to the respective auto
company thus causing a rippling effect.
However, even in such
adverse scenarios, you give the buyer an assurance of a back-up plan which will
prevent the client from the ripple effect. For instance, in the same example,
if the supplier has multiple suppliers of the same components then there won’t
be any such hassles!
This kind of approach
will take you a long way in building a credible, trusted and valuable client
base which will act as a rich source of revenues for any business!
Attend IAM’s seminar to enhance
your various professional skills | Know
more
The 2nd Immutable Rule Of Sales Negotiation To Remember
 |
| Attend IAM's seminar to master the art of sales negotiation and selling | Know more |
After several years of
working around sales negotiation, I have come to realize 2 essential rules of
sales negotiation which I want to share with you.
In this article, I am going
to reveal the 2nd immutable rule of sales negotiation. You can
browse through the 1st immutable rule of sales negotiation here.
Note-
This
is also applicable to all kinds of business negotiations other than sales
negotiation.
After reading this article
which includes easy-to-understand illustrations you’ll be able to achieve a
win-win negotiation deal!
#Law
2- Knowing the financial benefit of your
solution-
Unawareness of the financial
benefit that your solution will provide to the other negotiating party will put
you in a defensive situation. It will make you the underdog thus forcing to
defend your price by offering discounts to enhance value. However, no
negotiating party whether in sales negotiation or other type of negotiation would
enjoy being in such a vulnerable position.
Hence, it’s essential to determine
your solution’s financial benefit to prevent yourself from such losing situations.
Remember- Numbers
talk. When you know the financial benefit you’ll be able to achieve a win-win
deal by driving a compelling reason of profitability to both the parties.
So
how is this done? You’ll understand as you read forward.
How to
present one’s financial benefit of a solution?
There are 2 proven
methods of conveying a solution’s financial value which you can use-
#Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO) –
Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO) conveys, “My solution will cost less in terms of usage and implementation
than the competitors.”
TCO focuses on cost factor
and not your solution’s unique value which it creates. Now there’s a catch! You
do not want your buyers to compare your solutions in terms of TCO. This may put
you in a situation where you no longer compete based on the value proposition
of your solution.
Hence, the buyer will make
decisions based on cost. And the best manner to enhance the TCO is by lowering
the price further, a situation nobody wants to be in.
#Return on Investment (ROI)-
ROI terms to be a better
option as it focuses the attention on the value proposition. By quoting a
yearly or a monthly benefit to buyer, you assure him a payback within certain period
of time. This is much more appealing due to the predictable and measurable
factors it consists of.
Illustration-
Say your solution helps the
client to save or earn $25,000 every month. Your total solution cost is $100,000.
Therefore, the payback period is 4 months. In this way you present a measurable
solution which the client will always feel safer to go with!
The major salient feature of the ROI system is that you’re able to convey
how much value will be created through your solution over a period of time.
This shortens the sales or business cycle. The buyer actually realizes the
gains after a period of time which makes sense to any negotiating party.
Note- If
you show your solution’s ability to give a payback within less than 1 year, the
buyer will usually allot your funds from his operating budget than the capital
budget. This requires fewer approvals and shortens the business cycle. Also
it’s easier to close!
Stay tuned for my next
article on How To Identify and Strengthen The Financial Benefits of Your
Solution?
Till then you can browse
through useful business and management related articles to get useful tips to enhance
your business related skills and management efficiency.
Attend IAM’s seminar to enhance
your various professional skills | Know
more
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
The 1st Immutable Rule Of Sales Negotiation To Remember
 |
| Attend IAM's seminar to master the art of sales negotiation and selling | Know more |
After several years of
working around sales negotiation, I have come to realize 2 essential rules of
sales negotiation which I want to share with you.
In this article, I am going
to reveal the 1st immutable rule of sales negotiation. Let’s begin
the journey towards achieving a win-win negotiation deal! (You can attend our
seminar on “Effective Professional Selling Techniques” & Become a Sales
Superstar! | Know more)
Note-
This
is also applicable to all kinds of business negotiations including sales
negotiation.
After reading this article
which includes easy-to-understand illustrations you’ll be able to achieve a
win-win negotiation deal!
#Law
1- Prior to beginning any negotiation, ask
yourself, “Am I or Are We the buyer’s top choice?
Never start your negotiations
until you’re sure that you’re the buyer's top and foremost choice. This is the
golden rule to remember, why? It’s because
you cannot simply drive your way to the number one preference merely by quoting
lower price. Also you should not! If you do then it will become a race towards
the bottom. This is because there will always be several competitors who will
be willing to offer at lower price tags. However, if you also take the same
road it will put a dent in your profitability and margins. Hence, you will end up in a
win-lose situation where you’ll be the loser!
#Remember-
·
If you are not their 1st preference, the buyer
is only using you to achieve a lowered price compared to the cost of their top preference–
your competitor.
·
If you’re the top preference– you enjoy the
right to quote a price premium.
How to
position yourself as the buyer’s top preference?
An important fact relating to sales
negotiation or any kind of negotiation-
People don’t buy price, they
buy risk!
Hence, don’t focus on
cutting your price but focus on the other party’s risk factors, both business as
well as personal. Embark on methods on how you can reduce them and give the
party a comprehensive solution.
Illustration-
Taking the business
perspective, while evaluating solutions, the client is focused on risk factors
like, “If we choose a particular party and its solution fails then…”
- Will it negatively affect our profits?
- Will it hamper our relationship with shareholders and employees?
- Will we lose out on valuable customers to the competition?
- Will it make us uncompetitive in the market?
Now talking from a personal perspective,
your client is more likely to ask himself, “If we happen to choose this party
and our relationship fails then… ”
- Will I be fired?
- Will this put a dent in my 10-year stint at the company?
- Will it affect my appraisal or bonus?
Understand
what the client actually wants?
As per my experience, there
are few buyers who worry about marginal differences in costs which exist between
you and competition. However, if they are assured of the best solution from
you, you’ve just cracked the sales negotiation or any other business
negotiation pretty well!
Note- The
best solution garners protection from the several risks of the negotiating
party which we just discussed.
Remember- No
one would want to risk their personal careers, business profile and bonus to
take care of families just to save a few company dollars!
#Concluding note- Focus
on re-affirming the negotiating party of securing their risk factors. This will
place you in a better position than competitors and you can then command a
price premium!
In the next article, I will
be revealing The 2nd Immutable Rule of Sales Negotiation to Remember.
Till then stay tuned and have a look at other useful business and management related
articles to get insights to enhance your business related skills and management
efficiency.
Attend IAM’s seminar to enhance
your various professional skills | Know
more
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
The 3 Sales Prospecting Errors One Must Stop Committing Today!
 |
| Join us at the seminar of "Effective Professional Selling Techniques" | Know more |
The 1st impressions
are everything when it comes to sales. If any sales rep fails to begin with a right
pitch to the appropriate person at right time, he is likely to lose the deal. Hence,
when it comes to selling the right way, right sales prospecting is one of the crucial
aspects.
As per my experience, many reps
ignore this important aspect of the right sales prospecting approach. As a
result, they fail to understand who is a good lead, what should they talk and when
should the prospects be contacted.
Further you’ll learn to overcome
the 3 most flagrant sales prospecting errors which are also easily fixable.
1. Pitch not the decision maker
but other influencers-
Many sales reps attempt to find
the decision maker at the respective company through their job titles. Once acquired
all the contact information, assuming the person to be the contract signer, the
reps communicate with him/her through call or email.
However, what do you do when
there’s no revert? You’ve already pitched your brand to a potential valuable
client but now you have nowhere to go!
Therefore, I suggest sales
reps to avoid searching the decision maker while at 1st attempt of
sales prospecting. Instead, reach out to other horde of influential people in the
company. Ask for referrals towards the person you ultimately want to meet. This
strategy is likely to be successful as there are greater chances the decision
maker will consider your pitch!
2. Concentrating on
short-and-quick fixes doesn’t work-
When it comes to sales
prospecting, many sales representatives think it’s all about uncovering the buyer’s
pain points and explaining how your service or product will help. Before you
buy that, consider the following illustration-
It’s the wedding of a man’s daughter’s.
The man however faces a blown tire while driving his car to the wedding. Seeing
another driver walk towards him the man feels fortunate. However, there’s a
paradigm shift when the other driver utters the following solution-
“Hey, you need a tire it
seems” says the driver.
“No! I need a ride not a
tire!” the father replies, frustratingly…
You see that? It points out
a very important difference in selling remedies for certain pain points (tires)
Vs. providing a well-thought and comprehensive solution! (Ride to the
daughter’s wedding).
Hence, sales reps should not
concentrate on short-and-quick fixes. However, you must listen to the buyer’s concerns
carefully and then provide a comprehensive solution!
3. Don’t act desperate!
Following up is a vital aspect
of sales prospecting. Many sales reps claim of being persistent without
pestering. However, many do not end up being either.
Illustration-
The wrong approach-
A sales rep ‘A’ has got 5
touches to spread across a month. He chooses the too-early-too-many-times
approach and blasts the prospect at several times trying to get attention
within short time. He spends his first 2 touch points on the very first day
followed by sending 1 message each of the following three weeks.
The right approach-
Sales rep ‘B’ spends only 1
touch on the first day followed by the 2nd after two couple weeks. He
then spends the 3rd one during the month’s last week. The remaining 2
is spent on the last 2 days of the month.
In this way, you should patiently
wait for first few weeks and gradually ramp up, not other way around!
Want to learn more about effective
prospecting and selling techniques? Come to my seminar on “Effective selling
techniques” and become a sales superstar! It’s going to be held in Mumbai,
Bangalore and New Delhi. Hope to see you there | Know
more
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Co working hubs- The Preferred Workstation Of Future Business Entrepreneurs!
Get introduced to 21st century workplace!
Co-working hubs boasting fun and luxury amenities like cafeteria, fun zones
& meeting rooms, even crèche for women entrepreneurs to carry their child
with them are becoming the most preferred workstation of tomorrow!
They are a great option for businesses
and start-ups who want well-equipped places at lesser costs compared to rents
and purchase of a place.
Versatile-
Get all your needs nurtured under one roof!
There’s one major striking
aspect of these co-working hubs which makes them a perfect workstation! Apart
from offering a favorable working environment, it helps startups &
businesses greatly to build valuable networks! You get everything from
technical help, valuable mentoring sessions, getting investors to meeting new
customers & even hiring an essential talent pool all under one roof!
Hear
from some of the executives turned successful start-ups with the help of
co-working hubs!
Ritu Ghuwalewala is the owner
of big-data analysis firm MavenMagnet started in 2009. She, at the age 28, learnt
to fire a worker. He was highly qualified & was the only local team member
in Mumbai in 2012.
And for Ritu, it was a tough
moment as it was a growing phase. "If there had been a concrete office resembling
our only company, I would not have been able to do it," says Ritu. Her brother
& cofounder worked from United States.
“Luckily, I wasn’t operating
from our own office. I had peers around me at Bombay Connect (coworking hub in the
upscale Bandra in Mumbai) where large group of skilled entrepreneurs advised me
on how to fire an employee who’s not shaping up,” said Rita.
Huddled round a table on the
1st floor of Social Connect in Bangalore are Anjali Batra &
Shuchir Suri, the young founders of Food Talk India. They work hard on their
phones & notebooks. However, the ambience boasting soft lighting and couches
along with EDM music and bar counter only suggests that the duo were living it
up all-away from the office!
Searching for lucrative business
opportunities? Get in here!
Satish Khanna who’s a former
pharmaceutical honcho turned successful entrepreneur says: "Networking is
key for a successful business." He works out of Regus which is a
multinational co-working hub boasting 5-star feel.
"Every Monday I remove time
to meet corporate and executives of 2 companies which work from here. This
helps me greatly to make new contacts & further new connections which lead
to newer and lucrative business opportunities."
There are more things you’ll
love about co-working hubs. The work tables there gets easily converted into the
lunch tables & you can quickly revert back.
For instance, at 91Springboard
in Delhi, the reception area can become a lounge with carom board and so on. This
reflects good utilization of space. They’re flexible, nimble and modern which
have made startups & businesses go gaga over these evolving workspaces of
future!
Know
More
about Indian Academy of Management’s (IAM) practical and highly informative business
seminars and corporate events to take your business and career to a new high!
Corporate Trend Alert- Picturing 21st Century Workplace!
 |
| Co-working hub |
Centuries ago, hunter
gatherers possessed farms. 20th century manufacturing era reflected the start
of factories. And then the services era brought a wave of snazzy corporate
offices boasting glass and chrome. Do you have any clues on how the tomorrow’s workplace
will look like?
It’s here! Driven by lively
startups & scrappy entrepreneurs to passionate freelancers &
consultants, it’s going to be the era of virtual world leveraging the power of networking.
The DEN of the future entrepreneurs!
In the past week, I spent
time with startups in their lovely den only to find clues of 21st
century workplace! They’re none other than what are known as co-working
hubs. Increasing number of startup businesses are showing interest in
setting up offices in various co-working hubs.
What
is a co-working hub?
Co-working hubs are shared
office spaces. You can book space on a per seat basis which is much cheaper
than the enormous rents or buying a place and even getting a plush ambience!
Start-ups are undoubtedly becoming
a hot favorite so much so that young, old & experienced executives are trading
their comfy jobs for a rough ride building businesses with these startups. No
wonder, co-working hubs are the best place to spot such start-ups.
You’ll find them mushrooming
all over. Examples include, 91Springboard, Stirringminds & Social Offline In
Delhi. There’s also Bombay Connect and The Playce in Mumbai. All have of expanding
to multiple cities & fast. Bangalore also known as India’s Silicon Valley is
the startup hub which seems far ahead with such exciting facilities.
What’s
special about these co-working hubs which have made them so popular?
There
are 5 reasons-
1)
They offer great flexibility while startups scale
up or scale down. Here, one needs to book space on a per seat basis which helps
to cut significant costs related to buying or renting a place & it’s very easy!
2)
Co-working hub reflects a plug-and-play
model. It cuts down all administrative hassles which distracts several startups
and tends to eat into their precious energy and time.
3)
Talent hiring & retention is a big issue
today where young entrepreneurs prefer a hot-and-happening work place. And for bootstrapped
businesses it’s a hard one if gone by renting or buying a place! In such
scenarios, co-working hubs act like a boon offering great place to work!
Boringbrands.com’s Aakriti
Bhargava says, “To operate out of trendy co-working hubs are major drivers to help
her attract & retain talent.”
Know
More
about Indian Academy of Management’s (IAM) practical and highly informative
business seminars and corporate events to take your business and career to a
new high!
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