WOW, for 39 years, International Confex has led the exhibition event space for the events industry. International Confex is a two-day event at ExCeL London.
I spoke at International Confex; this is my third or fourth year. I do it because the peopleinvolved in this event are exceptional. I love the networking and atmosphere created by the organiser and attendees.
Mind the Gap: Closing the Sales Opportunity Gap.
I wanted to summarise the three key strategies in my presentation:
Getting in the head of your key customers
What your customer prioritised in 2019/2020 is different in the post-pandemic climate. 2023 has seen a further re-prioritisation, driven by their customer changing prioritise. The closer you get to what drives your key customers, the more you can see the world as they do and anticipate their needs.
Identify The Priority
With all our customers’ competing and overwhelming challenges in 2023, understanding customer priorities are more important than understanding their pain points.
While pain points help you identify the challenges or problems that your customers are facing, customer priorities help you understand what your customers value most and what they are willing to spend money on more immediately.
Creating Sales Efficiency
Recent research has shown that businesses that take a data-driven approach to sales are more likely to be successful.
We analyse your data, taking the guesswork out of the sales operation and closing the sales opportunity gap, helping you make data-informed decisions. We use data to identify patterns, then use this information to optimise your sales approach and focus your efforts on helping your buyer to buy what they need most. Analysing your data, at SCALE know what good looks, having conducted this analysis over 25 years on data from 2.3 million sales professionals across 200 industries, looking at 462 data points, a crucial step in identifying and closing the sales opportunity gap.
It was standing room only and even better to receive this LinkedIn testimonial; thank you to Nastassja Keenes– Head of Business Development at Sleek Events.
“I attended a valuable session hosted by Janice B Gordon – Customer Growth Expert FISP FPSA FRSA, who did an inspirational speech on what to do next with closing the sales gap opportunities! Thank you – I look forward to putting this newfound knowledge to use.”
Insights gained from other presentations:
How TikTok can Supercharge your Event attendance – Tom McMahon
Creating Awareness and driving Consideration to Conversion is done on an individual basis, not corporate. Whether B2C or B2B, you promote Individual to individual or H2H.
Tom shared in their presentation the comparative cost of one of their campaigns:
LinkedIn: CPC £4 CPM £7
Google Search: CPC £1.50 CPM £30
Facebook: CPC £1 CPM £7
Tik Tok: CPC £.034 CPM £2.19
I just discovered that there are 20 million daily active users in the UK alone and that the age range is diverse. TikTok is great at creating awareness, and some say that Google Shorts will make TikTok redundant. This may be so; however, the cost compared to LinkedIn, Google, or Facebook makes it worth considering in an integrated campaign.
The co-presenters shared how to ensure you Fuel, Ignite and Accelerate events with dialogue, engagement, and well-designed stimulation.
They propose developing the agenda with stakeholder engagement to set the strategic goal. That keynote should be shorter, out with the 45-minute presentations, and networking breaks should be longer, like one hour, to ignite interactive discussion and insight. An event summary measures the outcome and ensures the dialogue continues, and actions are taken post-event.
Kerrin MacPhie, CEO of the Meeting Industry Association, shared her experience implementing these methods; those positive results far exceeded her expectations. https://www.mia-uk.org/
This session was undoubtedly AHA.
My Lightbulb ❤️
The highlight of my day was seeing David Meade, Keynote Speaker, attending my presentation; he is a global international speaking god :-).
With a team of strangers, we built a prosthetic hand, the hour passed seamlessly, and I felt connected to three other team members Kat Rack, Dave Turner and Natasha Jackson.
This is hand down (pun), the best team-building and networking activity I have participated in, ever! After the session, I told David Meade that he has my heart, and his origin story presentation and activity were impactful. You could not help but be changed by the experience.
Pardavimų formulė was my biggest speaking event with 1800 delegates, so I can tell you I was nervous.
Three months before the event, I would think about it and get nervous; all the ridiculous what-ifs were racing in my head. But the closer I got to the event, my nerves relaxed, and it was all about the logistics.
I was grateful I had my good friend and colleague, Bev Hancock, with me; speaking internationally may seem glamorous, but it can be a lonely affair.
I remember reading Patricia Fripp Presentation Skills Expert newsletter about dealing with nerves before a presentation, and now I always stand on the stage, ideally the day before my presentation. Knowing what it feels like and making the stage your friend is essential and one less thing to deal with on the day.
🚶🏾Once I waited so long for my turn to present, my legs felt like lead, and my energy was low. I never make this mistake and now walk around before going on stage.
Here are six tips to ensure your nerves do not control you during your presentation:
Picture yourself rocking that presentation, feeling like a total superstar. I imagine I am Oprah!
Take deep breaths to let that tension melt away.
Pump yourself up with positive self-talk, reminding yourself how awesome you are.
Connect with your audience by making eye contact with the whole room and consciously remember to smile.
Kick off your presentation by opening with something attention-grabbing and captivating.
Spruce things up with engaging visuals that fit the size of the audience, and less is more on a slide is more powerful.
If you are not nervous, you are either dead or as bored as the audience will be. Embrace your nervous energy and convert it into enthusiasm and energy you give the audience. 🤸🏾
The venue was excellent the calibre of speakers too. Dainius Baltrušaitis and his team do a fabulous job in staging and hosting. I have never met any conference organiser so calm and relaxed at an event, and Danius made it all the more fun.
It is a relief to be able to be myself and have fun, and I certainly did at Pardavimų formulė. I love getting into the audience and talking to as many delegates as possible, and I loved the warm reception and conversations during the breaks. My social media engagement demonstrates this and went nuts😊.
In my keynote – What can you do to be the best choice in the eyes of your customers, I shared three practical strategies and three stories:
1. Priority
2. Simplicity
3. Futureproof customers.
The feedback was delightful; I was quoted on LinkedIn, “Price is what customer pays. Value is what your buyers must buy. Simplicity earns a Premium.” Another messaged, “Thank you for inspiring speech😊”
The programme of Speakers at Pardavimų formulė in Vilnius, Lithuania, was impressive:
Balys Virsutis – Aka Malcolm Gladwell, 10,000 repetitions to mastery.
Dr Loreta Vaicekauskiene – Sociolinguist, delivered a very humour presentation.
My absolute highlight was meeting and sharing a hug with Chris Gardner, who oozes leadership and charisma. Sharing many lessons from his Mother and insights from his books Start Were You Are and Permission to Dream.
I always learn a lot from watching and listening to other keynote speakers’ presentations.
Two tips Sales professionals can learn to enhance their sales presentation skills:
I continue to improve my storytelling engages my audience. The more salespeople can incorporate storytelling into their sales presentations to create an emotional connection, framing the products or services within a story that resonates with the buyer’s needs, priorities, and aspirations will increase success.
I aim to deliver impactful presentations to capture and hold the audience’s attention. An effective using of body language to convey messages with clarity and confidence is a technique that will enhance salespeople’s communication and presentation skills to be more engaging and persuasive.
This trip was an experience. This is why I love to travel the world and share my content with the sales community. I believe it is the highest honour to educate others and learn from shared experiences.
Travelling with my friend Bev Hancock, who supported me during the event and took many of the photos that captured the experience. After the fabulous event, we explored Vilnius’s old City further with a walking guided tour and visited the Museum of Occupation and Freedom Fights. I love the history and the pride in the culture.
I am grateful for the welcome and warmth; it was a delight to gain access to Lithuanian humour and experience so many delightful people.
🚗Thanks to Mindaugas Reinikis, GTD recommendation, we even got a lift to see Kaunas, met professional basketball players, and joined a motorbike convention. 🏍
You never know whom you will meet and what you will see when you are open to experiencing everything :-).
