Dealing With Dangerous Audiences

On very rare occasions a group presentation will turn ugly. No matter what happens, keep your cool. If you get a hostile question or comment, thank the person for sharing their thoughts with you, then deal with it just like you would handle an objection. If the whole room starts twitching in their seats, stop your pitch and ask them if you’ve said something wrong, then correct your misstatement.

The most common problem you’ll face with groups, though, isn’t hostility, it’s keeping them on the track you want them to follow. It seems like every group has a leader or a loud-mouth (sometimes it’s the same person) who wants to comment on every point you make, and everything everyone else says, too. Don’t take it personally, though, because this person probably acts the same way every time this group gets together. In fact, you can usually identify this guy before he opens his mouth because the rest of the crowd will start rolling their eyes when they see his hand go up the first time.

I wish I had a magic incantation for you to use in this situation, but I don’t. All you can do is stay pleasant and polite, not hesitating to change the subject back to your presentation before the loud-mouth can ask a follow-up question. Try to resist the temptation to put them in their place the way a stand-up comic deals with a heckler in a nightclub. Just grin and bear it and try not to lose your place in your pitch. Actually, the sympathy the rest of the group feels for you might well work in your favor

Another unpleasant situation is when the meeting degenerates into the dreaded “I Can Top That” routine. When the war stories start, everyone in the room seems to have a primal urge to contribute one. Each one has to be more horrible than the last one, of course, and the negative energy in the room just builds and builds. If it goes unchecked, you end up with an ugly mob on your hands.

Once again, the best tactic is to jump in before the momentum builds. The best rule of thumb is to interrupt after the second story is told. Don’t let the third one even get started. Give them a polite “That’s very interesting” and get back into your presentation. If you’re really good, you’ll be able to relate the benefits of your proposal to the problem that sparked the first story.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Keys To Sales Presentations To Groups

The dynamics of group presentations can be interesting, to say the least. This is a sales presentation, not a floorshow, so you want to encourage questions and comments from the group. In fact, you should plan to ask some questions of your own just like you would if you were meeting with the prospect one-on-one.

Your questions can either be thrown out to the group as a whole or addressed to one person in particular, depending on which is more appropriate. You will find that agreement questions such as “Do you like this idea?” don’t work very well in a group setting. There’s too much danger of the group splitting into factions or a particularly out-spoken member shooting you down before you get into your presentation.

Information questions, though, such as “Who is your biggest competitor?” can work very well. Many times, they’ll spark an intra-group discussion, which is a great time to listen closely and learn a lot. Watch the group dynamics to learn who the leaders really are. Obviously, you’ll want to listen to what they say about their business, their market, and their competitors as well as what they say about your idea, your company, and your competitors.

You should welcome questions or comments that come from the group, even when they break up the flow of your presentation. If the question is one you don’t want to answer yet, it’s perfectly acceptable to say that you’re going to cover that subject in a minute. Just make sure you do cover it before you end your presentation. If it’s a question about your proposal that indicates the listener doesn’t understand something, take the time right then to make it clear. If one person didn’t get it, there are probably others who missed it, too.

Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.

Making Public Golf More Fun

The golf course architecture firm of Robert Trent Jones II® (RTJ II), designers of such storied public golf courses as Poppy Hills and Spanish Bay in California, Washington’s Chambers Bay, and hundreds of others in more than 40 countries around the world, offers ten tenets supporting accessible and affordable public golf.

They come in the form of a Public Golf Proclamation that complements efforts of the ASGCA, NGCOA, USGA, The PGA of America, and golf organizations, associations, and governing bodies worldwide to bring the game to more people in more places.

We should all embrace the comments made by Master Architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr., who said, “We believe that golf should...be easily affordable and accessible to everyone who wishes to play it.” Jones took this further, writing in a recent letter to the New York Times, “Golf architects are often called upon to design courses that support upscale real estate developments. But the game’s roots reach down into the Earth, not up into trophy homes. Golf first developed 500 years ago as an accessible and affordable sport that brought people together outdoors, rather than separating them. Many great golf courses serve the public and the environment. The future of our sport lies in embracing the Scottish tradition in which all people are equal as they stand over a white ball.”

The firm's tenets say:

We aspire to:
1. Work with municipalities and other government entities to create great golf courses for their citizens through insightful, integrated master plans specific to each community.
2. Assist communities in creating programs and initiatives that make great public courses accessible and affordable to everyone.
3. Advocate for the creation of golf facilities on degraded sites to return unproductive land to productive and sustainable public uses.
4. Always protect and enhance the environment for the good of all.
5. Design courses that require less earth moving, water, fertilizer, and other resources in an effort to keep investment and operating costs—and therefore green fees—reasonable.
6. Create wider strategic routings and sets of shorter “family tees” to encourage children to take up golf and have fun playing it.
7. Advocate for innovative practice facilities where young people and newcomers can learn to love golf, and support programs and organizations that introduce new players to the sport.
8. Design facilities that encourage speed of play, including inventive layouts such as “Learning Courses,” par-three routings, 6-, 9-, and 12-hole loops, and others.
9. Create public courses that are flexible, fun, and challenging to golfers of a wide range of abilities.
10. Encourage golf course owners to support local businesses and take an active role in their communities.

Given the declining state of the game today, it makes sense doesn't it?

In addition to writing about golf, Dave Donelson distills the experiences of hundreds of entrepreneurs into practical advice for small business owners and managers in the Dynamic Manager's Guides, a series of how-to books about marketing and advertising, sales techniques, motivating personnel, financial management, and business strategy.