Today we have a guest post from Tom Drews. Tom is the CEO and Founder of What Works! Communications, a company that helps people to design and deliver effective virtual presentations. He is considered to be a leader in the field, and his clients include Google, Symantec, CLIF Bar, McKesson and Citrix Online. You can learn more about his programs at www.whatworks.biz.

Presenting and selling in the virtual environment is the wave of the future! It can be an incredibly effective means of communicating both your message and your value. That said, it will mean next to nothing if you can't effectively engage them. And that is the number one challenge we face when presenting online. What follows are ten best practices for engaging your prospect when using GoToMeeting, or any comparable platform.

Know Your Platform Well

In my early days, I inadvertently kicked 150 people out of a meeting, crashed my computer, and kept an audience waiting for eight minutes while I figured out how to push the start button. Learn from my mistakes and know your platform inside and out! Practice makes perfect. Make dry runs and call support when necessary, and be sure to look for an easy-to-use solution.

Present Value Throughout

The biggest mistake I see sales people make is not presenting value. You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but it will mean next to nothing if you can't effectively communicate your value based on your prospect's most important needs. The very small percentage of virtual sales presentations that hold prospects' attention are those that deliver genuine value based on the audience's most important needs. Connect with your prospect in advance to learn more about their situation, the problems they face, the impact those problems are having on their business, and their needs.

Grab Your Audience's Attention

Most people begin their presentations with an agenda, or by talking about themselves. This is painfully boring. We have to grab the prospect's attention right from the start, or else we may lose them forever. Start with a provocative question, a personal story, a quote, or an interesting fact. My favorite way to start is by presenting the number one challenge that my prospect faces, and then showing how solved the same problem for another customer. Be sure to add engaging visuals, photos or graphics to help support your point.

Keep Your Slides Simple

At least 95% of the presentations I see are crammed with text. Here's the problem with this: We are naturally designed to read what's in front of us, and while you're reading what's on the screen, you're not paying attention to what I have to say. I suggest breaking complex slides into several different slides, and adding visuals to support each point. You can also use a build, where you bring in points one by one. That way the audience isn't reading ahead. And if you absolutely have to keep your slides busy, then at the very least use the annotation tools to help draw attention to what you want your prospect to focus on.

Add Some Hollywood

Instead of designing a dull PowerPoint® presentation, imagine yourself as the writer, director, producer and actor of your own Hollywood production. An Academy Award-winning film consists of thousands of images strung together to tell a story. Apply this approach to your virtual presentations. How can you add photos and other visuals to help you tell your story and illustrate your points? For an example of how to present Hollywood, feel free to view our recorded webinar at www.whatworks.biz under the "event" tab. For stock photos, www.istockphoto.com is my favorite resource.

Make the Most of Your Voice

When presenting online, we don't have the luxury of connecting with eye communication, our bodies, and movement. All we really have to work with are our visuals and our voice. So we have to make the most of it. There are many elements of voice, including volume, tone, inflection, pace and articulation. Record your Web presentations, and then play it back for yourself or others so you can collect feedback and make an honest assessment of your voice. I don't recommend using a cell phone, but I do suggest using a headset connected to a landline.

Eliminate Distractions

I have polled literally thousands of people to learn what they find most annoying when sitting in on virtual presentations, and distractions rise to the top of the list. If someone in the audience is making unnecessary noises, such as coughing, heavy breathing or burping, don't hesitate to mute them. Be conscious of your own background noise, as well. I've sat in on webinars and heard people doing dishes, dogs barking and people snoring. You want your prospect to focus on you, your message, and the value that you have to offer, and that is it.

Use Annotation Tools

Most Web conferencing platforms, such as GoToMeeting, provide annotation tools, which include pens, arrows, boxes, circles, laser pointers and more. The highlighter is one of the most useful tools. It is essentially a pen that allows you to highlight text and other images. Using annotation tools throughout your presentation will help to keep your attendees engaged and focused on your most relevant content.

Interact Often

When presenting virtually, we can't see our prospect, and they "know" that we can't see them. So they're free to do whatever they wish. Social Media and Email are some of the most common distractions nowadays. In order to keep our prospect from wandering, it is absolutely essential that we interact often. Most Web conferencing platforms provide interactive tools such as Polling, chat rooms and white boards, which are ideal for keeping larger audiences engaged. Interact with smaller audiences by asking questions and fielding questions throughout. My No. 1 strategy for interacting and engaging with smaller groups is to address people by their first names, and ask individuals if you're on track and covering their most important needs.

Stand and Deliver

Wearing a cordless headset connected to a landline will allow you to have your hands free, as well as your body. If you use a remote clicker, as you would when presenting in person, you can move about the room while advancing your slides. If frees up your energy so you can be your most enthusiastic self. I've witnessed some of the most successful sales people walking around and gesturing enthusiastically while delivering virtual sales presentations.

In conclusion, presenting in the virtual environment can be an incredibly effective way of communicating your message and your value to your audience. Focus on your value, add some "Hollywood," and keep them entertained. By doing so, you'll be sure to more effectively engage your audience and leave them with a message they won't forget! Of course, you will also shorten your sales cycle, beat the competition, and close more business.

Photo Credit: ShashiBellamkhonda

Recently I polled some fellow workshifters on the twitter network asking about what some of their biggest challenges were when working out of the home office. It was an interesting find because quite a few folks said that the biggest challenges included trust and communications. After having been a professional workshifter for the past three years I can honestly say that I concur with this challenge. So how do we deal with them? I've created a few methodologies in which I live by on a daily basis. I hope these help. Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments. Would love to get your take.

1. Always be honest. Recently I fell ill to a nasty flu bug and needed to take a couple days off to recover. I was very open and honest with my team and did everything I could to minimize the impact on the team for those two days. Look, people will see right through a lie. I've always found that being honest whether it's for a sick day, a family event, or anything really is the best policy.

2. Keep Good Logs. I keep logs of everything I do on a daily basis. For me this happens in two places. I use Evernote for my digital logs and a yellow note pad for quick notes and a second hard copy of my daily logs. Evernote is an application that runs in the cloud. You have access to these notes on any computer with the app installed as well as the majority of all mobile devices. I am an iPhone user and absolutely love it!

3. Don't flood the email. I have found that throughout my career it's best not to flood coworkers email. This is inefficient and wastes a lot of time. If I have questions I try to note them on my pad and send one email with all the items if possible. As workshifters I know there often feels like there is a disconnect between you and the main office so email is a great way to let everyone know you're busy. Resist the temptation and be conscientious of others time.

4. Clarity in Communications. make sure that you are clear on the methods of communications used by your team. Maybe they use Google docs and spreadsheets, maybe they are heavy users of GoToMeeting and Citrix products. there are many ways to communicate but be sure to find clarity there. If your organization has no clear communications system or methodology it might be time for you to do some research and lay out a plan!

5. Do Amazing Work. This one is obvious right? It's really hard for your boss to come down on you with fury if your work exceeds expectations. This is the number one way to build trust and make sure you are always in the communications loop!
 
What do you think?


Photo Credit: Assbach

I recently wrote about a friend of mine who hosts a successful, productive workshifting collective from his home office. I'm a veteran workshifter, and to be honest, I really like working all by my lonesome in my office or studio. So I was especially curious to see how and why a group of workshifters had created a cooperative work environment. Here's what I learned during a visit to the team's HQ.

The Team
There are currently five people on the workshifting team -- four are founding members who adhere to regular work schedules and one member is a PhD candidate who occasionally uses the space to work on her dissertation. The regulars work in IT support, software programming and Web communications. Most of the gang boasts a comfortable level of technical proficiency, which is an advantage for troubleshooting glitches as a group and never leaves any one person with the responsibility of being onsite tech support.

The Scene
The group works in the master suite on the second floor of my friend's house. Garfunkel, the housecat, perches in a handmade cat tree steeped in southern exposure. Boxes of tea collect dust atop a side table (this is a group of coffee drinkers, mostly), and a Britta pitcher sits in the center of the large, multi-person worktable. The walls are painted a fresh shade of Mediterranean blue, and a red exercise ball rests in the center of the room.

Origin
With one member of the workshifting collective hailing from the UK, I wanted to know how all these remote paths had crossed. It turns out that the founding members of the group all attended the same church and had been working off and on in pairs at local coffee shops. My friend proposed that they officially set up shop in his house and see how things took from there. They've kept to a regular schedule ever since.

Balance
Opening up your house - and your work rhythm - to other workshifters certainly comes with the risk of personal and professional disruptions. Even the closest of friends may have radically different expectations and behaviors in the workplace. It shouldn't come as any surprise that workshifters absolutely must have compatible working styles to successfully share professional space. And they also need solid, straightforward communication skills to be able to say, "Hey, I'm taking an important call. Can you please turn the music down?"

Food
These folks may work outside of the traditional office, but that doesn't mean that the traditional office food culture doesn't factor in. One regular told me, "This is where I consume the best food of the day." The gang tends to eat en masse -- either cooking in the house kitchen, eating out together or bringing carryout back to the workplace. On the day I visited the group, I arrived during a lunchtime break. Food that day had been delivered courtesy of a workshifter's husband.

Benefits
According to the group, a significant advantage of workshifting as a team is being able to leverage the synergy of working together to increase personal productivity. Another biggie is creating a strong sense of community and supportive social network. For the mother in the group, having a greater work/life balance is key. Across the board, creating a space that has fewer "home" distractions (like responding to a stack of dirty dishes) is a perk of working with other workshifters in an office environment. And being able to leave workspaces intact at the end of the day without packing up every last office artifact (as one must do at a coffee shop, for example) is a huge benefit.

Recommendations
If you're considering hosting or joining a workshifting team, keep in mind the following:

•    Individual job types have a direct impact on the team. For example, if a workshifter's job requires her to spend the majority of the workday on the phone, she may not be a good fit for a group of folks who spend the majority of their time concentrating on writing code or copy.

•    Work styles must mesh well, period. Music in the background could be a delight for some and a distraction for others.

•    Create a designated workspace that doesn't interrupt the flow of the underlying household. The flipside is that a messy house won't negatively impact a designated workspace.

•    Build a workshifting community that feeds your own productivity and reduces any feelings of isolation that you might have.

•    Be wary of (and quick to weed out) candidates who treat the occasional remote workday as a day off. This type of energy can easily erode the productivity of the entire group.

When I asked if the group had a disaster plan - we live in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 types of weather - my question was met with uproarious laughter. OK, no disaster plan. Obviously not a deal breaker. But it's clear that this team of consummate professionals has discovered and implemented a healthy, productive workshifting cooperative. I'll leave you with the wise words of one of the regulars: Workshifting allows you to fit "work into life, not life into work."

What do you think?

We all think we know how to communicate, right? As children, we learn how to talk; as adults our vocabularies increase as does our knowledge of both verbal and non-verbal queues. To borrow from an overused cliche: "It's not only what you say, but how you say it..." Wellllll...maybe, yes, ok. But what about when you say it, how much of it you say and to whom it's said?

In the world at large, communication (much like knowledge) IS power - when invoked. Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, are key to the management of many of life's issues as well as professional advancement.  And, although the communicator may depend heavily on there being information at hand, it is his/her dissemination of that information to the right people at right time which results in the greatest benefit.

In the world of project management, communication is KEY. It's so key in fact, it's one of the Project Management Institute's nine knowledge areas. And, as any well-seasoned project manager knows - and as any new PM will soon find out - communication breakdowns can spell a project's certain demise. My mantra has always been, "when in doubt, OVERcommunicate." We all have too many emails in our inboxes anyway; leave it to the recipient to decide if they need the information or not.

If there is relevant and timely information which pertains to a project, disseminate it!!! I have never had a stakeholder nor project resource tell me to stop bombarding them with emails about a project, but I have certainly been involved in instances whereby a simple FYI would have gone a long way toward keeping stakeholder's anxieties at bay and resources and schedules on track.

In particular, if a project has met with any type of constraint ( be it a resource, budget or scheduling constraint) or dependencies are preventing a milestone from being met - communicating potential roadblocks will help a PM avoid having to ask forgiveness at best or admit project failure at worst. Although you do not want to instill unnecessary concerns or "cry wolf" if you will, when there is the definite potential for adjustments or parallel pathing, your stakeholders need to know.

Effectively, the art of project management involves delicately balancing a defined scope with identified deliverables, the resources involved in managing these deliverables, in order to ultimately reach milestones within an acceptable timeframe and budget. If any of these items stand to be affected, the three 'Cs' are your best friends: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Remember - one of the distinct advantages of being a project manager is the implicit trust you earn from those relying on you to steer a project to success; embedded in that trust is a willingness for your voice to be heard - so don't be afraid to use it. It's your "responsibility" !!!

At the same time, use the tools which have been created just for your project management pleasure  - tools such as MS Project and Visio are invaluable visuals which can communicate the progress of your project and any changes therein. I vividly recall managing a dual datacenter build for a methodical Japanese client (who also happened to be the parent company!), and when faced with project roadblocks for which I could neither excuse nor prevent, my constant Visio timeline updates won me all the brownie points that I needed to overcome an inevitable shift in delivery date. If you're not a techie, which I certainly am not, there are numerous tutorials and resources available to learn how to use these tools.

We all take comfort when uncertainties are minimized, and there is no better way to ensure that those who need to know are in the know than by communicating. And whether you are a professional project manager or managing a life project such as a new home purchase or renovation or enrolling in a new school, the same rules apply.

A...B...C is for COMMUNICATION. You would not settle for mis-information so don't settle for a lack thereof either


What do you think?



Photo Credit: Phantom of the Flicks

GenJuice

GenJuice is a 13 city tour that aims to connect and highlight young innovators, influencers and go-getters across the nation. Hitting major cities like SanFrancisco, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and more, they have been sharing their adventures and workshifting along the way at co-working buildings, at empty desks at start-up companies's offices and filming every step of the way. With help from sponsors Justin.tv, BazaarVoice, The Cash Flow and more they have the support of the young tech and entrepreneurship crowd and bring an interesting unconference style that draws from the personalities of the co-founders, Arielle Patrice-Scott, Virgilia Singh and Danielle Leslie. Look for GenJuice coming to a city near you!

The Way Below Status Quo Tour

This adventurous journey is the coming together of 3 nomad and lifestyle design bloggers and entrepreneurs - Colin Wright, Andi Norris and Ashley Ambirge who wanted to bring interested, motivated individuals together to facilitate in-person, connect with the communities that have supported their respective online endeavors and create a link between both groups, essentially forging a network of remarkable people that's tighter than Fort Knox. Sounds pretty ambitious and it is. They will be dropping into most of America during the trek, navigating unconferences, volunteering with charities, organizing meetups and looking to find other inspired young individuals. I'll be hanging out with the crew at their Orlando put stop on July 12th.

What Are Your Summer Workshifting Plans?

With more and more young people going after their dreams, working from the road and joining co-working spots, there is an immense opportunity to collaborate, brainstorm and integrate your ideas with that of others. The advent of Workshifting is helping to make this more and more real everyday. So as the temperature gets warmer here, what are your workshifting plans this summer? Do you want to get out of the office more and work remotely (say from a nice beach) or do you want to take your show on the road, generate experiences with your customers, readers and fans? Whatever your plans are, feel free to share in the comments below.

This afternoon's post is from Tracey Webb, a 25-year business veteran with a depth of experience in high-tech, health care, software, and financial services segments.   Having worked for global enterprises like Xerox, IBM, as well as some of the largest international learning and development organizations, Tracey has a long track record of producing success for her clients.  Currently, she serves as the Director of Consulting Services for Cox eLearning Consultants

I can remember the first formal training session that I attended at Xerox over 20 years ago.  Xerox was and still is a big proponent of training its people.  There was a huge complex in Leesburg, Virginia which rested like a monolith hidden in the woods, which included a veritable army of people in Xerox's training division.  The firm poured untold resources into sending its people to the training mecca for an in-person deep dive into various forms of skill and knowledge transfer.

The trek to Leesburg began from all over the country.  There were personnel involved in scheduling at the local branch level and at the training center in Leesburg.  Room assignments, airplane tickets, ground transportation, and of course the famous cafeteria!  The gravy budget alone must have been in the thousands of dollars.  It was northern Virginia and they put gravy on everything!  The cafeteria was huge, the selection large and varied.  The logistics and the budget to train the employees was a very large endeavor to manage and to fund.

Now it would be hard to imagine an organization flying all of its huge salesforce to one central location to train twice per year.  Training has evolved to the point where employees would probably balk at a learning and development solution that only centered on classroom training.  Today, employees expect to be fully engaged by at least a blend of modern technology and some version of classroom training.  

The technology employed had best reflect the tone, look, and feel of modern social networks with a beguiling user interface.  The days of participants sitting enthralled in classrooms by the dynamic instructor are over.  In fact, they probably never happened.  This is not to say that there aren't some fabulous instructors and facilitators out there, but the expectation of adult learners has changed.  Also, research has shown that repetitive learning in targeted doses after a training event reinforces and accelerates learning.

So what do adult learners in a more tech savvy environment expect now from training?  Well, given the scrutiny over budgets, bailouts, and layoffs, any firm that spends the kinds of funds in both human capital and actual training dollars that most of the major corporations did 20 years ago would be considered a pariah, even by its own employees.  Especially if those costs were associated with travel, given the myriad of distributed learning technologies available today.

Additionally, today's training populations expects to be given material to digest in "bytes."  This requirement is all about time and performance pressure:  the need is to be able to translate the skills and/or knowledge into useful information almost immediately.  Even the reinforcement must be easily digestible and applicable instantaneously.

So how do we develop the collective brain of the organization in a manner that has a reasonable return on investment in terms of time expended, dollars expended, and knowledge applied that results in concrete improvements?  We create a blended learning platform that includes classroom training only where necessary and cost-efficient (all of the targeted employees in one location with corporate real estate readily available for training sites).  

The e-learning portion of the platform must be carefully constructed and integrated with the brick and mortar learning methods.  The electronic methodologies must be easy to use without excessive links that must be clicked on and activated.  The user interface must have that sleek and modern appeal so common to the social media market now.  

Many of the modern electronic platforms have interfaces that replicate live human interaction in an on-line environment.  While one of the benefits of e-learning is the mobility of self-pace lessons and learning individually, there is also the crucial element of group on-line learning which provides a virtual classroom and encourages collaboration and additive learning between all students in the on-line session simultaneously.  

Technology now allows for student polls, chats, and hand-raising to facilitate discussion.  Instructional designers need to carefully consider how this technology can be leveraged in the integrated learning engagement to accelerate adoption of new skills and behaviors that produce business results.

The organizational training landscape has morphed tremendously in the last few decades, but even more so in the last five years with the advent and adoption of social media.  Participants don't quite expect to be entertained, but they certainly expect to be engaged.  They also expect that their organizations will optimize resource allocation, given the concerns about financial stability.  Integrated and blended e-learning solutions can help ensure that the organizational training metamorphosis continues on a positive trajectory that engages the learners and produces targeted results.

How has technology changed the way you learn in the past couple of years?


Photo Credit: Sir Watkyn

Welcome to the team. You'll be thrown into yet another new workspace with new faces and new challenges. You'll vet possible solutions then rework, refine, and reduce your strategy. At the same time, your new team will have to establish roles, goals, and subgroups to reach a shared vision.

We've all experienced the phenomenon of rapid team development and project management. Sometimes, it's a painstaking process that makes you want to bang your head against the wall. Other times, things just seem to click--teammates communicate, think entrepreneurially, and do whatever it takes to get the job done.

I recently experienced a Startup Weekend--a  56-hour work-a-thon where the common goal is to dream up a fresh business venture and build it. Over 500 startups have come out of these whirlwind events! During my time with my newly formed Startup Weekend team, some common themes emerged. I've taken those insights and boiled them down into three strategies for thriving in new teams:

• Clarify the vision. Time is your most valuable asset. Before you spend precious minutes moving in any given direction, make sure it's the right move and that everyone is on board. You don't have to hammer out all of the details from the start, but a deep understanding of the project's purpose and the pain you're setting out to solve will go a long way in creating a valuable output.  Once you're all in, it's time to -
• Find out where you fit. How do your skills complement those of your teammates? You probably have a number of areas in which you can excel and create real value. Find out where the holes are in the team and fill in where it makes sense - the work you do that's in your sweet spot will shine that much more.
• Be nimble enough to shift directions. It's important to buy into the team vision to some degree, but don't lose your objectivity. If something just isn't working - stop. During a big push in any project, someone will inevitably say, "We've got to stay on track." But who ever said we wanted to stay on that track!? Sometimes it's good to question whether or not you're on the right track.  If you're not, that's okay. Make a call and adjust accordingly.

The next time you find yourself in a new team situation, keep these strategies in mind. I think you'll find that you're better prepared to tackle your project and find the right track.

Our Startup Weekend team certainly had its challenges, but in the end we were able to crank out a cool new conversion tool named Ninja Button in those three short days. By the end of the weekend, the product was a little rough around the edges, but we had a valuable web-based application and the ability to charge for it as a service.


What do you think of these principles? What team strategies work for you?

Aside from the latest iPhone or gossip magazine, Millennials need instant information, instant communication, and of course instant stimulation.

As a Millennial, I had my first AOL Instant Messenger chat at 11, created my first blog at 15, and downloaded thousands of free songs from Napster (which wasted thousands of hours with my 56K connection) in high school.  My young adult life was filled with navigating the Internet for information I wanted, whether that involved making plans with friends or getting band recommendations from a music Website.  It was singular as well as collaborative, but it all involved the Web and technology.

My mouse-click away mentality shaped my perspective on how to get things done in the workplace and how to communicate with others.

I believe this is the case for most Millennials (those born between 1977 and1996).  We've taken our technology upbringing into the workplace as we balance cubicle life and social interactions.  Most of us work with our Facebook accounts open, Google Chats visible, Pandora stations playing, and Outlook emails flowing.  It's a multi-tasking, multi-browsing business world, and this is how we roll.

A study by Mr Youth and Intrepid, "What your company will look like when Millennials call the shots," highlights the distinctive work style and digital dynamic that my generation brings to the future of business. Key aspects include:

• Saying goodbye to the boardroom - Millennials choose a roundtable environment versus an authoritative approach.  Over half of Millennials surveyed said that decisions should be made by consensus.  Open meetings can be held through an online meeting platform or in-person, as both allow for flowing communication and the ability to share documents and information freely and in real time.
• Technology has feelings too - The integration of technology and human interaction has changed the way Millennials communicate.  Think about it: as a Millennial, what was the last interaction you had with your best friend?  Was it a text, an email, a Facebook message?  And for those older than the Millennials, what was the last form of communication you received from a Millennial?
• Conversations are not one-way - No one likes to be talked down to, and for Millennials this means no one likes to be talked at.  Since the inception of instant messenger, blogs, and other social networking sites, the style of communication and selling has changed.  Marketing a product is no longer done by holding up a sign; it involves a social strategy that will initiate and influence a conversation to engage a response.  Millennials understand this innately.
• Move or be smushed - In the world of technology and business, nothing stays the same.  Workers are more mobile than ever, with 75% of the U.S. workforce projected to be working outside of the office by 2013 (IDC).  With this forward momentum, companies need to move - movement in the type of technology they employ and movement in the way they think about business strategy and processes.  Technology like GoToMyPC allows access anywhere, which fosters agility and forward-thinking.

Work and technology evolve just like the latest shoe fashion.  The penny loafers of the past will soon be the Converses of the future.  It's not about the style, it's about the utility and ability to keep moving forward

What do you think?


Photo Credit: Vancouver Film School