Speaking nerves and…New faces and…

Speaking nerves and…Overcoming them

Most of us think that people who’re great public speakers are naturally at ease in front of a group. Well, that would be a faulty assumption. In truth even the best orators are a bit nervous. But they’ve mastered the art of calming their fears and getting comfortable.

There are a number of tricks or psychological devices that we can use to achieve that relaxed state (which is BTW absolutely necessary to delivering a great presentation). For starters we need to know our audience. That is we need to understand what they know and don’t know about the subject we’re discussing.

And to the extent possible we need to know them personally. If we can do that the nerves tend to melt away pretty quickly. That’s why most skilled presenters will try to mingle with those folks informally before they begin.

Then they also know the 2X power of eye contact. Most think it’s only a factor in making the people in the audience feel connected to you as the presenter. But it works both ways. If you’re looking them in the eye – one at a time, suddenly you’re talking to one person at a time and not an intimidating crowd. And that’s a lot more comfortable!

New faces and…happy transfers

Transferring any account from one representative to another is always tricky. And aside from the situation where the old servicing rep has departed on less than good terms, the next most sensitive is bringing in a relative newbie who’s taking over for an old hand.

But the good news there is that the old hand can take part in the handoff and provide the customer with the comforting reassurance that they’re still available to lend a hand if necessary.

In the end the most critical part of any transfer is to assure the customer that their business is important to everyone and that the shift in servicing rep isn’t a change in that fact. Moreover the message we need to send is exactly the opposite and that they’ll be the beneficiary of even more attention in the future.

One way to cement that feeling is for the new rep to take the opportunity to replace those old and maybe tattered wall charts and give the equipment a good cleaning (inside and out). One more step that can help assuage those fears is to “straighten up” the dispenser installation if that’s called for. Undertaken together those actions send the desired message in a very tangible way.

Next up: Knowing those top ten.