A good, short, sharp presentation grabs the audience by the throat and gets to the point fast. Then, when you have their attention, ask for the referral.

Don’t try to be cute or oblique, and you’re not telling a joke with a punch line at the end – remember you’re scrapping for your audience’s attention. Even if they look like they’re listening, it doesn’t take long for a person’s mind to go wandering.

Simple and succinct beats rambling every time.

A good formula is the proven AIDA principle – Grab Attention, stimulate Interest, create Desire and call to Action.

A good, short, sharp presentation grabs the audience by the throat and gets to the point fast. Then, when you have their attention, ask for the referral.

Don’t try to be cute or oblique, and you’re not telling a joke with a punch line at the end – remember you’re scrapping for your audience’s attention. Even if they look like they’re listening, it doesn’t take long for a person’s mind to go wandering.

Simple and succinct beats rambling every time.

A good formula is the proven AIDA principle – Grab Attention, stimulate Interest, create Desire and call to Action.

Let me use as an example a 60 second presentation I delivered last week. It’s not a shinning example, but I think it does the job…

Example:

“When Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, women laughed at him. ‘What,’ they wanted to know, ‘would we do with all the extra time your machine will give us?’

“As business people we’re always striving to be innovative, to be the first to deliver a bigger, newer and better offering to the market ahead of the competition.

“Elias Howe’s sewing machine was all of these things.

“Yet Elias Howe lived his life in borrowed suits, little knowing that one-day his machine would be instrumental in making the very suits he could not afford.

“It doesn’t matter how good, or commonplace, your product or your service is, you will end up in the poor house if you don’t know how to sell.

What matters most, is how well you market your products and services – just ask a successful insurance salesman, or mortgage broker.

“A broker’s products are common and their markets highly competitive, but the good ones still make a lot of money because they are first and foremost marketers.

“My job is to help you sell your products and services better than the competition.

“A good referral for me this week is any broker companies, in the insurance, mortgage and financial planning industry.

“Colin Kennedy, Iron Road Communications.

In this example I used a story to get attention, I turned a common belief on its head (that new is better) and then showed people that the ‘holy grail’ is actually far more attainable than they thought, provided they just do what they do well.

And then I was very specific in my referral request. That’s what is most important. Be very specific in your referral request.