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You’ve set up a meeting with a potential client. You’ve dressed appropriately, your shoes are shined. You’ve got your portfolio and your business cards, and you have an idea of what you want out of the meeting. In a word: you want business.

This is the way 95 per cent of small business people approach meetings. However, if you spend a little more time preparing your presentation, you’ll make a more powerful impact and will get more work.

The major rule is: when you’ve landed a meeting, always make a proposal. Have a clear idea of exactly what you want. You present your proposal via a carefully scripted, and rehearsed, presentation. This is not the time to leave anything to chance, or to wing it.

Before you can create your presentation, you need to know what your proposal is. For example, let’s say you’re a freelance copywriter approaching a graphics design agency, with a view to being considered as a sub-contractor.

Remembering “WIIFM”, (What’s In It For Me), you realize that you will need to create your presentation’s proposal from the view of the agency.

Before you do anything else, make a long list of What’s In It For Them. Why does it make sense for them to sub-contract work out to you?

What’s In It For Them is the heart of your proposal. On your notes, make sure you put WIIFT on each page, so that it stays at the front of your mind. It’s easy to make the mistake of talking about what you want, but please don’t. You can leave a CD copy of your presentation with the prospect, but again, it MUST focus on how you can help them.

==> Preparing your presentation

The easiest way to prepare your presentation is to use presentation software. If you own Microsoft Office, then you also own Microsoft PowerPoint, it’s part of Office. It’s worth taking the time to learn to use PowerPoint. It makes creating an effective presentation easy.

What do you put into a presentation? Your proposal, and supporting material. Remember the agency wants to know what’s in it for them — how you can help them make money, save money, and make their lives easier and more pleasant. Everything you include in your presentation — the kind of work you do, items from your portfolio, testimonials from satisfied clients — must relate to *them*.

Think of the presentation as being a combination of a speech, an advertisement for your services, a showing of your portfolio, and a proposal, all rolled into one. Aim to make it around 10 to 15 minutes long. Have some fun with creating the presentation. Include plenty of slides with bullet points, and graphics.

You can get double-value out of your presentations. Just copy your basic all-purpose presentation onto a CD, and send it to prospective clients. You can also make your basic presentation a download on your Web site.

It’s also a good idea to print out some of the slides from any presentation you give personally, so that you can leave the slide copies with the client after the meeting. (Note: don’t hand out copies before the meeting. You need to make sure that everyone is paying attention to your presentation.)

==> Control your nerves: rehearsal is everything

Many people hate public speaking. However, if you prepare yourself, you’ll be just fine, and each presentation you give will enhance your confidence.

Write your speech out completely. Ask someone else to read it and help you brainstorm ideas. Then leave the speech for a week for a gestation period. You’ll find that other ideas will come to you, and you can incorporate these.

As you prepare your speech, you can also prepare the slides in PowerPoint. Use photographs and other graphics, to bring your presentation to life.

When you’re happy with the speech, learn it. Practise giving the speech in front of a mirror, then practise giving it as you click through the slides in PowerPoint.

If you don’t have a notebook computer to take with you, take your PowerPoint file along on a disk or CD. You may be able to borrow a computer. If you can’t, then give the presentation without the file, but leave the presentation CD and notes with the decision maker.

==> Who will be at the meeting? Pitching to decision makers

Before you set a date and time for the meeting, ask who will be attending the meeting. You need to be sure that you’ll be making your presentation to a decision-maker in the company. If you can’t get an assurance that the decision maker will attend, postpone the meeting until she can attend.

==> Get an agreement before you leave the meeting

You’ve given your presentation. You’ve made your proposal. Now what?

Now you get an agreement.

This is the “close” in sales-speak. It’s the most important part of your presentation, aside from the WIIFM aspect. Many otherwise competent people skimp on the close, because it makes them nervous. However, no matter how nervous you are, you must ask for the sale.

So, in our scenario, as you wind up your presentation, you would ask to become a sub-contractor for the agency. This will lead to discussion, but unless you get an immediate agreement to sign you up, make sure that you attempt to close at least three more times before you leave.

In the best of all possible outcomes, you won’t leave the business before you have a check in your hand. This is your aim. So when the decision-maker says: “Yes, that sounds fine, we’d like to put you on our books as a sub-contractor”, you say: “Great, can we make a deal now? I’d like a retainer, and _______ (mention the terms of your services agreement). A deposit of $X would be fine.”

Good luck with your presentations. They’re a sure-fire way to build your business in a hurry.

Author of many books, including Making the Internet Work for Your Business,
copywriter and journalist Angela Booth also writes copy for businesses large and
small, and consults on search engine marketing. Angela has written copy for
companies in many industries, ranging from technology and real estate to the
jewellery trade. Her clients include major corporations like hp (Hewlett Packard),
WestPac Bank, and Acer Computer. For copywriting services and marketing
advice contact Angela at angelabooth.com

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Someone asked me recently, if I were to expand an existing professional services business onto the internet, what marketing steps would I take first: set up a web site, a shopping cart, a newsletter, or a blog?

This is a very good question. Five years ago most Internet marketing specialists would have all responded in chorus, “A website, of course!” Then they would recommend their services to create an elaborate website with lots of bells and whistles.

I had an interesting email this week from a reader who asked me about website design fees. This is not my area of expertise. But this reader is a very smart guy. Why? Because he knows from my ezines, blogs and web site that I’ve been online for a few years and making a decent living from it.

He’s a rabbi who has many years experience counseling people. He now has made a wise decision to start offering coaching services to people, and wants to leverage the internet to find clients, sell ebooks and other programs.

The First Step - Ask Questions

He has many questions about what to do first, where to invest his marketing dollars, and how to get set up so everything works seamlessly and automatically.

While I don’t profess to have all the answers to his particular questions, I want to emphasize what’s important here. He is asking questions!

Many people just go with their gut or common sense. It goes something like this:

“I need a way to find people online. Ergo, I need a web site. Who can do a web site for me, that doesn’t cost too much? Oh, you can? Only $1000. Okay, that seems reasonable. Do it.”

It’s only later on down the road when they want to start an ezine, or a blog, or sell an ebook that they realize they need more than just a web site. That’s when the web designer kicks in with hourly fees.

I’ve never heard a programmer say they can’t do something. They always say they can easily set up autoresponders, gather email addresses, send out a newsletter, create a blog on your site, and even create a secure payment system for sales. I’m sorry, but here’s the real news: programmers and web site designers can do all these tasks with your web site, but they will charge you for it, and it still won’t do everything automatically. And you will be tied to their hourly fees (and schedule) forever.

Back to the question asked of me at the beginning of this article.

While my partner and I recommend an all-in-one solution and setting up all the elements together if your budget permits, there are a couple of ways to get started.

Unless you have a database of prospects, you will not sell your services or products. Therefore, we recommend getting started the right way by building your database by offering an ezine or free content to attract people to your business. And, you need a place on the Internet where people can find you and subscribe to your content.

The first two pieces then, especially if you’re just starting out and have a limited budget, are a blog and a shopping cart program with an autoresponder system.

Third Party Shopping Cart Systems

A third party shopping cart system is where you get an account hosted online by a company that specializes in providing automated database management, autoresponders, email broadcasting, online merchant credit card and payments, ad tracking, and affiliate programs.

When you start out, all you need to do is deliver your ezine and automated emails through autoresponders. You can get a basic level shopping cart account. As your business grows and you develop products, you can upgrade to get more features on your shopping cart, such as affiliate program management and digital delivery.

There are many online email broadcasting services to manage your newsletter. But be aware that an all-in-one solution such as a shopping cart program will save you time and money in the long run.

We strongly recommend starting off with a shopping cart program that can manage your database and newsletters under one roof. It is better to have all your automated marketing functions with one service provider, than to separate your database and newsletter out to another external email service provider.

For detailed information and questions to ask about how to pick a shopping cart system, there are a series of articles you can review at our website.

What’s next?

You have your shopping cart system, now what? We’ll explore the issue of websites vs. blogs in our next article.

As the The Blog Squad, Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman have teamed up to work with professionals to maximize their marketing strategies by implementing blogs, ezines and ecommerce tactics. They are co-authors of “Build a Better Blog: The Ultimate Guide for Boosting Your Business with a Professional Blog”,” Confessions of a Reluctant Blogger: From Boring to Brilliant in 30 Days” and “Secrets of Successful Ezines: A Guide to Writing and Publishing an Ezine that Gets Results.” Are you ready for a blog? Take The Blog Squad’s free assessment at http://www.snipurl.com/Ezine_Blog

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