Do you remember public speaking class back in high school? Were you terrified? Did you stammer your way through the speech, or did your hands shake as you drew on the chalkboard or fiddled with the projector?   I know I did. A lot. I stared at the ground like it was my safety net. I didn’t stand up straight, causing my voice to sound more muffled than it really was. And I was so backwards from nerves I was showing different slides, forgetting what other slides meant to my speech, and just had about as awful an experience as you could imagine.  I was so frustrated and scared the audience was judging me, which just takes whatever ounce of confidence you might’ve had, put it in a lockbox and tossed it into the ocean, never to be seen again.     Presenting - whether it’s in front of your leadership team or in front of potential clients - needs a certain degree of confidence to go along with expert organizational skills. Learn to build your confidence quickly with these 4 tips.   Prepare Like There’s Always More to Learn   You might’ve "winged it" with your high school speech, but you cannot "wing it" with presentations about your company’s product. Even if the slides on your PowerPoint are laid out flawlessly with key information, you still need to walk through every inch, anticipate questions and have answers ready.   That takes plenty of rehearsing and reviewing key benefits against possible objections. The slideshow could have soothing music or well-crafted videos meant to drum up excitement to your audience - but if you don’t know what you’re talking about, your confidence will dip, you might start to talk faster, your body language will fail and the audience will tune out.   Tone Down Your Fear With Exercise   This post would be way too long if I went over the benefits of exercise and how it relates to feeling better and performing better at work. Rather, I’ll just say that when you exercise before going to a presentation, your body releases enough dopamine to make you feel like you’re walking on air at times. You feel happier, your voice projects more clearly and you have that sense that you’re ready to take on whatever’s in front of you.   So consider doing a few jumping jacks. Run in place. If the presentation’s early in the morning or right after lunch, hit the gym or go for a run and take that energy with you.   Because it’s a fleeting thing, this dopamine kick, which is why you must use the limited window to extract every ounce of energy and confidence to help knock your presentation out of the park.   Stamp Out Negative Thoughts   Confidence and negativity do not go together well. Negativity just makes failing seem easier to you if you let it. If you have an "Aw Shucks" moment with a failed presentation and try to paint excuses that, "Well maybe this prospect wasn’t as warm to begin with," or "The product’s great sales will speak for themselves, so my so-so presentation doesn’t reflect that badly" or whatever saying you tell yourself to basically cloud your judgement.   From the time you greet the receptionist to the time you shake hands and introduce yourself to the prospect, be positive every step of the way.   It’s All In The Eyes   As a kid, your parents and teachers preached the importance of eye contact when socializing. That’s because eye contact helps make you appear more powerful, more personable, more trustworthy, more qualified and more emotionally stable - even if you’re secretly neither one of those five. And like any skill, eye contact takes continual practice. The more you experiment in social settings, the easier it becomes to strike a chord with your viewing audience. And during any presentation, make sure you’re constantly shifting your eyes around the room to make every person listening feel more involved.   Final Thoughts   Whether it’s a big presentation or a big face-to-face meeting, your confidence says a lot about not just your selling skills, but the company you stand behind. That’s why you must develop it and know there’s always something else to add to it.   Beginning May 1st, the ej4 learning campus welcomes two new upgraded series to the fold, Presentation Skills and Nonverbal Communication! It’s all a part of our second biggest content launch of the year! Sign up for a free trial of Thinkzoom or speak with a member of our sales team for more information. The post Presentation Skills: How Confident Are You? appeared first on .

A 2013 HuffPost/YouGov poll found that of the employees who said they’ve experienced sexual harassment, 70 percent did not report it. One of the reasons employees don’t report harassment is fear of retaliation or fear of not being taken seriously. Harassment claims are nothing to take lightly, and businesses must be able to communicate zero-tolerance policies, what an employee can do if they feel they were harassed and provide other assurances to help keep your business harassment free and avoid costly mitigation issues.   With our upgraded Anti-Harassment series, we’ve change the tone and look to deliver a greater impact toward educating businesses on anti-harassment.  Don’t create an environment where employees fear harassment or retaliation. Check out a quick preview of this 6-part series below.     Sign up for a free 15-day trial of Thinkzoom to watch the first part of our Anti-Harassment series! The post Our New Anti-Harassment Series is Live! appeared first on .

There are plenty of metaphors for sales; battles and sports are among the most used. The reasoning is pretty obvious. While sales don’t have the life-or-death stakes and aren’t as trivial as a sporting event, the importance of preparation for battle cannot be understated. Preparing for each customer, client, or prospect call is slightly different, but a lot of the elements are the same:   Research Industry Competition Understanding the prospects current situation Knowing the influencers from the decision makers Setting the agenda Planning the outcome   It’s important to get the right people in the room, and know whom the decision maker and influencers are. If there’s not a decision maker in the room, you may be wasting your time. Prior to the meeting, ask questions like: Who controls the budget? Will we need to involve someone from purchasing or procurement in the meeting? Are there other in-house subject matter experts that should be in the meeting with us?     Prepare a list of questions in advance that can help you identify your prospect’s needs. Make sure the questions are open-ended and don’t sound over-rehearsed or canned. You want to be relaxed and have a conversation - not an interrogation.   Perhaps one of the best outcomes of planning is confidence. A plan is only perfect on paper. But, having done the preparation, you should be able to adjust and adapt to most any situation.   To get a clear understanding of pre-call planning and make sure you make the most of every opportunity, watch our short, educational video and you’ll never be caught off-guard again.   The post Can’t-Miss Tips for Pre-call Planning appeared first on .

Did you know nearly 75% of people are glossophobic?  That means they’re terrified of public speaking!! Presenting - whether it’s in front of an audience of 5 or 5,000 - requires a combination of skills to succeed and make a positive impact. Our new 14-part Presentation Skills series covers everything from gathering talking points to  closing with a bang.  It has everything you need to make you deliver the best presentation possible.   Check out this quick preview below.     Want a longer experience? Sign up now for a free 15-day trial of Thinkzoom to see one of the courses, Basic Questions, in its entirety! The post We’ve Upgraded Our Presentation Skills Series! appeared first on .

Sales opportunities don’t just spring up out of thin air. You have to uncover them. If you aren’t prepared to ask the right questions, they could be precious opportunities lost.   Finding the problem will lead you to the best solution for your client. Here are four important reminders when uncovering leads.     1. Build trust and rapport Nobody likes to be interrogated with questions; it can make them uncomfortable - or even worse- defensive. Start the meeting casually, as if you were meeting with friends, but don’t be overly familiar or waste their time. People like doing business with people they know, like and trust. Let the prospect know the purpose of your questions - they should see that you’re trying to genuinely understand their business and determine if there’s a solution you can offer.   2. Ask the right questions at the right time Have a list of questions prepared before the meeting, but don’t be a slave to your script. Their answers to your questions will likely bring up follow-up questions. By being prepared in advance, you can shift the conversation in the direction that will uncover their true need. Remember to always ask open-ended questions (who, what, when, where, why, how). Questions that can be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ won’t necessarily get you the information you need - you don’t want to limit their ability to answer in any way. Take notes, it’s a sign that you’re truly interested and engaged.   3. Dig deeper Once you’ve uncovered areas of opportunity, continue to ask questions, repeating some of the words that they’ve used to show that you are listening and understand what they are really saying. Delve into the opportunity, and continue to ask open-ended questions. The more they talk, the more you’ll learn.   4. Summarize and set the stage Once you’ve uncovered the opportunity, state it to your prospect clearly - again, trying to use as many of their words as possible. Confirm that you ‘got it right’ and then suggest how you could help solve this problem. If they agree that your solution may be a fit, set a clear expectation of what happens next.   It’s one thing to assume you have their needs, it’s another to know you do. Time is precious, and your chances of getting the right deal from a qualified buyer requires the right questions from the get-go. Go deeper into discovering your client’s needs with ej4. Click the link below to watch the course, "Asking the Right Questions," now!   The post 4 Quick Tips to Uncover Your Customer’s Needs appeared first on .

Right now there’s someone nervously shifting their feet so much that it’s distracting another employee. There’s a salesperson forgetting to keep proper eye contact at the negotiation table, or there’s an executive whose facial expressions are inadvertently giving off bad vibes. Whether it’s first impressions or everyday interaction with co-workers, nonverbal communication is essential to success on many levels.     Yet, nonverbal communication is so much more than gestures, facial expressions, and body position. In our new 5-part series, Nonverbal Communication, we zero in on the often overlooked aspects of nonverbals, and how it all can impact your success in the workplace.   Here’s a preview.     Find out more about this new series and other courses on better communication at work with a free 15-day trial of ej4′s Thinkzoom. The post Our New Nonverbal Communication Series is Here! appeared first on .

"Sales success is the unique combination of having the right product, projecting your personality and working with a sales system that fits."   In Christine Harvey’s Secrets of the World’s Top Sales Performers, learn about the best kept secrets of cold calling, the perfect pitch, the close, and other key sales strategies in between. The post [Download] Secrets From Top Sales Performers appeared first on .

An Inside Sales study shows the average salesperson only fulfills 68% of their quota. So where’s the rest? And how do you, as a sales manager, help your team push those numbers up?   In our new video, we outline the benefits of Thinkzoom for your sales team to help them get the sales training they need, when they need it, to become well-versed in finding the true needs of prospects, getting prospects to see your product as a savior, and pushing them to the dotted line faster than ever before.   Take a look!     Access our award-winning Sales Curriculum with your sales team today with a free 15-day trial. The post [New Video] Thinkzoom and Better Sales Quotas appeared first on .

The Daily Muse recently wrote an article about how employees should answer this famous question posed during most interviews:   Where do you see yourself in 5 years?   And it’s still a great question to ask; you need to know what this potential employee’s aspirations are, whether they want to be challenged with a promotion, etc.   However, while the hiring manager is asking that question, they should also be asking themselves this question:     It’s no surprise that hiring a replacement costs companies a lot of money. While it’s hard to gauge during the interview whether an employee has long-term staying power, companies should still have a 5-year plan (at least) in place to make every new hire think twice about leaving.   Here are some important steps to add to that plan:   Onboarding with a purpose: If you ruin a new hire’s first day with a complex onboarding system - or no onboarding program at all - you’re painting a bleak picture of your company. You need a quick - but continual - way to train new hires on company goals, job expectations, open enrollment information, and other areas that help newbies stay afloat, informed and satisfied. Ensure management actively communicates: Supervisors must be active and upfront with new hires, helping them adjust to their role, setting them up to learn new, career-building skills, and just continually mentoring them to be greater than they were a day ago. Remain true to career progression: New hires should not expect to be on the career progression train the day they’re hired, but they need a signal sooner or later or they’ll leave the station. If, during the interview, you spoke glowingly about employees moving up the company ladder, you shouldn’t be surprised if they ask when their turn is - if their work merits it - and how the company attempts to stay true to their word. Remove red tape: No matter the size of the company, unnecessary red tape is a morale killer for employees. Policies that stunt productivity - like having to communicate to 5 people to get to 1 supervisor to sign off on something, or having unnecessary pre-meetings about future meetings - can cause some employees to look for an escape hatch after a while. If there are important policies that are proven to raise accountability and profitability, then obviously keep those; but unnecessary policies that don’t reflect either of those two themes should be examined (and modified, if need be) and communicated to employees.   That’s just a sample of ways to see your staff in a 5-year plan and beyond. The important thing is you build an effective new hire training program that sets them up for success the minute they adjust to their workspace. From there, it’s about building open and honest communication of company goals, and trying your best to eliminate unnecessary roadblocks that put the competition one rung up on an employee’s wish list.   See how ej4’s New Hire Curriculum can set your new employees up for a lengthier stay with a free 15-day trial of Thinkzoom. The post Why HR Should Be Asking "How Do I See This Employee Here in 5 Years?" appeared first on .

"Coming together is the beginning… Keeping together is progress… Working together is success." - Henry Ford   No company is truly successful with a lone-wolf mentality; you need teams to build employee morale and boost productivity. But as a team is assembled, many questions come to mind: Why do some teams go right to the top while others fall flat? What specific characteristics make up a winning team? How do teams diffuse conflict?   This 6-part series highlights the essentials of teamwork, what makes effective team members, and much more.   Press play to preview the series now!     This brand new Team Building series is now live on ej4’s learning campus. Contact us today to hear more about it! The post New eLearning Series: Team Building appeared first on .