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Recent Articles from Julie Hansen
Best of ColoradoBiz: Got presence?
DeNiro's got it. So does Streep. Keanu Reeves? Never had it. What is "it?" Presence. If you're alive and taking up space, you have presence, too. It's simply a matter of degree.
Best of CoBiz: Five quick acting lessons for sales pros
Unless they're Brad Pitt or Meryl Streep, most actors must audition for every role they get. When competing against hundreds of other actors, they have to find ways to quickly stand out and convince the casting director that they are right for the part.
Down with the corporate selfie!
What do you want to see go out of style this year? Kale? Skrillex? Kim Kardashian? Here’s one I hope will go out of style in business: The Corporate Selfie. What’s that you ask? It’s that slide businesses have that kicks off their client presentation. You know the one: It shows any or all of...
Five ways to stop wasting time…
“Why are you wasting my life?” Can you imagine a client saying that to you after you delivered what you thought was a pretty good, on target business presentation? Jeff Bezos did exactly that after one of his engineers delivered a complicated, boring presentation to the outspoken founder of Amazon...
Best of CoBiz: Top seven tips for creating a winning sales story
Once upon a time, the ability to tell a good story was merely a handy skill for entertaining friends, clients and coworkers. Now experts are recognizing that storytelling is also a powerful sales tool for differentiating yourself from your competition and driving home your value proposition in a...
Best of CoBiz: The anti-elevator speech
Boring doesn't win business. Boring doesn't open doors. Boring doesn't get you remembered. Clients are busy. Competition is fierce. If you can't rise above the din, you may as well stay home. The standard elevator speech is tired, dull and predictable: "I sell (insert product or service here) for...
Best of CoBiz: Is your elevator speech stuck between floors?
Much of the advice on how to introduce one’s self, commonly referred to as the elevator speech, is seriously outdated. Why? Because both elevators and people are a lot faster […]
This ain’t your daddy’s presentation
Like an actor at curtain’s rise, you must quickly gain your audience’s attention and give them a compelling reason to come along with you on your journey. This requires a whole different approach to your presentation--and your opening in particular--unless you’re willing to risk losing your audie...
A sales lesson from the Wolf of Wall Street
Scorsese’s excess-packed The Wolf of Wall Street joins a long line of films (Wall Street, Boiler Room, Glengarry Glen Ross) that cast the sales profession in its most negative light. While millions of honest people make their living in sales, they rarely make movies about them (with the happy exce...
Mad Men’s top four bad business behaviors
Even though I worked in advertising long after the Mad Men era, the ghosts of Don Draper and Roger Sterling could occasionally be glimpsed roaming the halls after a long day, ice tinkling, cigarettes glowing. The agencies I worked for grew in huge exponential bursts, expanding from two employees a...
Best of CoBiz: The world’s most powerful sales tool
What is your most powerful sales tool? Your website? Your video brochure? Your multi-media presentation in 3-D? While all of these can support your message, the answer lies much closer […]
Breaking Bad’s winning formula
Watching Breaking Bad, I rarely (okay, never) knew where it was going, but I hung on for dear life. From the first episode, I trusted that I was in the hands of a professional and that it was all going to come together like a perfect puzzle at the end - yet leave me with that not unpleasant feeli...
