Your Essential Energy


News Flash: Your prospects are more interested in the messenger than the message. It’s you they want to get to know more than anything.

The product you’re pitching is far less interesting than who you are, how you think, the understanding you bring to the table, and the personality you offer the relationship.

Experts agree that 90% of communication is non-verbal. It’s your body language, your gestures, eye movements, tone of voice, vocal variety, accents and pauses that punch up and resonate the words you say. It’s not what you say but how you say it that connects the dots between humans.

If you find yourself missing sales and walking away empty handed after an otherwise perfect product presentation, you need to redirect your attention from the spoken to the unspoken. The one element that bonds all non-verbal communication into a coherent force is a thing I like to call “Your Essential Energy.”

Inside you is a power beyond your own comfort level. Your essential energy is lying in wait like a primal scream. Unsuccessful people deliver mere words, while successful people electrify their words with essential energy. It’s not about shouting. It’s about bringing your words up from the diaphragm, the gut, and transferring them directly into your prospect’s psyche. You can tap into this irresistible power right now.

Here’s a way to supercharge your next sales interview with words that energize and trigger your prospect’s right brain to action.

Schedule an hour with just yourself, a recorder, and a note pad. First, in your usual tone of voice, record the three most important sections of your sales presentation – the introduction (warm up), the high point (that place in the middle when it all comes together) and the wrap up.

Play it back and ask yourself whether the voice you’re hearing energizes, excites and inspires, or sounds like the formation of a stalactite.

Next, write out the three sections of your presentation, word for word. Replace weak and passive words with words that bump and grind. Use words that turn heads, drop jaws and bring sentences to life. Try a little onomatopoeia. Tell a story. Underline all words that need queuing for vocal variety.

Record your script and let your essential energy flow. Let the power of your diaphragm, not your throat, propel your words. Burn a CD so you can listen to your new voice in your car and around the house. Load the MP3 onto your iPod so you can really get to know this dynamic new you.

At your next sales presentation, forget everything you learned in this exercise. Your voice will automatically “remember” the energy points, the words to punch up, the pauses, cliffhangers, expressions, word pictures and money lines. This is real communication.

You will find yourself becoming more alive, more interesting, more powerful. Your sales will come to life as well because effective communication, like outrageous success, is all about letting your essential energy flow.

The Why And How Of Writing A Good Press Release


A press release is a statement written in the third person that is distributed to the media, articulating to a journalist or editor how and why a particular person, company, event, product or service is newsworthy.

Press releases conform to a short but established cookie-cutter format. They are emailed, faxed or snail mailed to media including newspapers, radio and television stations. A press release is not written to be read by consumers. Target readers are reporters, editors and news directors – those who decide what is and isn’t news.

Why submit press releases to the media?

A good press release may be published as newsworthy, which gives you no-cost publicity. A great press release will not only get published but will spark the creative kindling of a follow up story. Maybe even a feature story for print or broadcast. Unlike advertising, news is accepted at face value and delivers many times the impact. This can attract prospects to you, position you as the obvious expert, pre-sell your proposition, and propel your practice to rock star status.

How do you write a press release that gets read, published, and maybe even followed up with a story?

Start by resisting the urge to give a sales pitch. Think like a reporter – just the facts. Remove your ego. Never say “I” or “we” unless it’s in a quote, and remember a journalist has no interest in promoting your business. A reporter’s only goal is to write a story that will make editors happy and readers say, “Hmmm.”

Here, in a nutshell, is the accepted format for a press release:


Company logo goes here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: John Smith
Tel.: 444-555-6666
Email: jsmith@email.com


HEADLINE GOES HERE IN UPPER CASE


Subhead Goes Here: Used To Expand Upon The Headline And Further Engage The Reporter In A Possible Story

The press release Lead goes here and gives the who, what, when, where and how of the story. Remember, no hype. Just the facts. Two to four sentences should do.

Here you add support to the statements made in your headline, subhead and lead. Construct your case with solid material that demonstrates the angle, or hook, you’ve taken. Tell why the reader should care about your announcement. Explain how you solve a problem.

Include a quote by you as president of your company. This gives your release a personal touch and brings your name front and center. Don’t be afraid to add a little “you” to your quote. This is your moment to portray yourself as you want others to see you.

Now begin winding down your release with a sentence or two describing your company and what it is you do. This information is “boilerplate” and may be inserted into all press releases.

Standard code for the end of your press release is three # symbols centered beneath the last line.

In keeping with one of my universal truths that says, “If you don’t ask, the answer is automatically no,” I like to add one final line such as: “To schedule an interview with (your name), please call (your phone number),” just to run the thought of a possible story past the reporter.