Between the July 4^th Independence Day Holiday in the US, and a 17-day European Tour I am making in July – the month is going to be a little hectic. So the July updates have already been applied to the Mastering Technical Sales site, and the newsletter will be released on Tuesday July 10^th.

The July lead article is The PreSales-Sales Partnership. It’s an edited transcript of a Q&A session I held with about 20 presales managers at a recent sales kickoff. At the end of the piece I’ve included a page relationship summary sheet – that should help you judge the quality of the partnership between Sales and PreSales. It’s important, as without an effective partnership, everything and everyone suffers.

That’s followed by an updated version of 31 Great Tips – a TipA Day To Keep The Webcast Blues Away. It’s a collection of “great ideas” taken from my Remote Demos and Presentations Workshop. Unless you’ve already been through one of my Perfect Pitch Workshops I am sure you’ll pick up a few ideas from the sheet.

Ask John revolves around Presales Readiness for new product launches. So many companies are focused on just “getting the product out” that they neglect the sales and presales personnel who actually have to sell ‘it’ – whatever ‘it’ is! I encourage a more aggressive approach in demanding training and collateral before product release and setting up a stakeholder go/no-go meeting to get some leverage.

The July SE Book Of The Month is “All-In”. It looks at how some of the best and brightest leaders around the globe have motivated their teams – big and small. Once you get past some of the “well, duh..” obviousness there is actually a god concept hiding underneath it.

As far as the European Tour. I’ll be in Amsterdam on July 5^th, and will be zipping through Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia over the course of 14 days – featuring some work and some play.

Its Black And White

My wife and daughters will readily volunteer that I am one of the last people in the world who should give out fashion advice. However – here is my case why “Black Is The New White” – at least for PowerPoint presentations.

 After every single speech or seminar I give – people comment on my use of slides with a black background.

“It’s Different”  

“They Got My Attention”

“Very impactful to drive home your key points.”

“They look SO much better than our boring standard white slides”.

You get the idea. So here, with apologies to my friends all over the globe in Corporate Marketing, is my reasoning.

1. White is jarring on the eyes. It is bright; it tires the eyes and psychologically fatigues the brain. A common trick we “black hats” use is to sneak in a slide with a white background after 10-15 dark slides – the audience gasps in horror and covers their eyes.

2.  In a dark room (sales kickoff, big seminar event), the use of white hurts even more because of the contrast with the surroundings.

3.  Pictures and images display so much better – as they usually blend in better with a dark black/grey background than a white one. That means no ugly white border strips.

4.  Look at me! Maybe this is the trainer’s ego – but I want the audience focused on me, once they have read the minimal text on the slide and processed the image. Bright white light attracts the eyes away from the speaker.

5.  White=Bad. Many presentation gurus and bloggers equate white slides with the Pavlovian experience of previous really awful PPT pitches. The last bad PPT was in white, so this one must be bad too. Sometimes you do just need to be different and give the brain a chance

6.  It works for Apple. OK – that may not be a completely valid argument, but they are doing pretty well with it.

Think About It.

Give Black A Try. Maybe for an internal presentation when you don't have to worry about branding - see what happens.

The June MTS Newsletter

The June Newsletter is being released on Tuesday June 5th.

The lead article examines "Moving Beyond ROI". Even though we have been trained to look for key business issues, financial returns, economic buyers and speak a little less about our technology - there's more to making the sale than a simple ROI. Customers buy for two reasons - economics and emotion. If you have the economics but forget the emotional side of the sale - you'll probably lose.

Then continuing with my theme in May of "Pick Up The Phone" - I look at some of the reasons why you need to take your hands off the keyboard and actually speak with someone. It may be internal, like a rep or support analysts, or it may be external such as a customer contact. There are times when you can cut through all the broken processes, CYA and other emotions with some good ol' fashioned conversation!

Ask John deals with "My salesrep used to be in pre-sales; and is driving me crazy!" Enough said.

Book Of The Month is "The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook" by Green and Howe. It's a good read. I've started work on a Trusted Advisor class fopr several clients and it was great research material. Worth the read if you are being told to become the Trusted Advisor" to your client. (My entire recommended reading list is on the website).

Good Selling!