Mark Stiving, MBA, Ph.D. helps companies implement value based pricing strategies to increase profit.

As a pricing strategist, he ‘spreads the gospel’ of value based pricing. His message inspires manufacturers, marketers and others concerned with pricing to capture greater value through pricing improvements and to focus on creating real, quantifiable value for the benefit of their customers and their bottom line.

Mark has addressed pricing professionals and executives at major conferences for the Professional Pricing Society, International Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC), American Marketing Association, Consumer Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), Marketing Science and in additional professional settings.

As a coach, Mark helps companies create and implement new pricing strategies to capture more of the value they create. He has consulted with Cisco, Procter and Gamble, Grimes Aerospace, Rogers Corporation, and many small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures. He currently works full time developing and implementing new pricing strategies at National Semiconductor.

Mark has published pricing articles in the Journal of Consumer Research, Management Science, and the Journal of Commerce. He freely shares his knowledge and latest thoughts on pricing on his Pragmatic Pricing website and has a forthcoming book titled “Big Picture Pricing.”

As an award winning speaker, Mark’s favorite hobby is public speaking, generously giving back to the Toastmasters community that helped him excel as a professional communicator.

Mark earned a BSEE at The Ohio State University, an MBA at Santa Clara University, and a Ph.D. in Marketing at U.C. Berkeley.

Pro-Track Profile

Mark is an active Toastmaster who wants to take his game to the next level. He was introduced to the NSA Northern California Chapter’s Pro-Track program by a fellow Toastmaster.

To hear him describe his expertise and what he hopes to get out of Pro-Track 2011, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:04 — 961.7KB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

The history of the annual State of the Union speech is examined in a fascinating article by Bob Lehrman in the Christian Science Monitor.

State of The Union: The crafting of a speech looks back at the speechwriters and presidents who have delivered State of the Union (SOTU) speeches.

The very first speechwriter to help write a STOU speech was Judson Welliver, hired by President Warrren Harding.

Lehrman explains why the speech is inevitably a laundry list of topics, and the process by which speechwriters approach the task.

Changes in technology have had a profound impact. Early in the 20th Century fewer than 1,000 people actually saw Woodrow Wilson deliver his SOTU. Last year 48 million watched Barack Obama on television or the web.

No matter how Obama’s speech is received this evening, somewhere in Washington DC a team of speechwriters will already have moved on to their next assignment.

Kurt Shaver delivers high-impact sales training and consulting to companies seeking increased production from their sales force. Kurt’s live training classes are followed by reinforcement sessions and exercises that insure the lessons become lasting habits. Consulting includes areas such as sales systems (CRM) implementation and effective compensation plans.

Kurt brings 25 years of real selling experience to each client. His “street credibility” is critical to being accepted by a room full of seasoned salespeople. As a sales rep, Kurt learned how to build rapport, uncover needs, and differentiate his solution to win the business. Kurt won numerous Top Salesperson awards in his role as an individual contributor. Major accomplishments include closing a $5M deal for AT&T’s first private satellite earth station for a corporate customer and selling some of the first electronic catalogs to companies like IBM, Sprint, and Texas Instruments.

As his management responsibilities grew, Kurt built sales teams at a number of fast growth companies. One of them made it to No. 11 on Fortune Magazine’s “100 Fastest Growing Companies” list for 2004. In the process, he developed the systems and skills to motivate and train salespeople to be successful.

After 25 years of corporate sales success, Kurt started The Sales Foundry in 2008 to share his knowledge with businesses seeking to accelerate their revenue growth. The name “Sales Foundry” was chosen to represent the blue-collar, roll-up-your-sleeves nature of Kurt’s work. It is not board room strategy. Kurt focuses on teaching salespeople the tactical skills they need to succeed. Kurt has completed just about every well-known sales training methodology there is and he feels that it is less important to pick the right one than it is to pick one and embrace it completely throughout the organization. Kurt was named a “Top 25 Channel Sales Executive To Know” by VAR Business magazine and received the “Partner Excellence Award” from Salesforce.com. He holds a Master in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology but he has never let his knowledge of complex integrated circuitry get in the way of closing a big deal.

Pro-Track Profile

I interviewed Kurt at the January 22, 2011 NSA Northern California 30th Anniversary meeting, the week before the 2011 Pro-Track class kicks off.

Kurt shared with me the reasons he is investing in Pro-Track. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:03 — 1.2MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Alan Stephens’ Presentation Tip of the Week

Alan Stevens is the current President of the Global Speakers Federation. He is a PR Professional and expert on media and communications. His company ,The Media Coach, covers both traditional and social media. He’s also a member of the British Computer Society, and broadcasts regularly on technology and consumer issues. This posting appeared in his weekly newsletter.

Opening Up

The first line of your speech is crucially important. It may be the only line that every member of your audience hears, so it needs to be good. The more engaging it is, the more people will listen to the rest of your speech. If you’ve done your homework well, you will know what interests them. It won’t be the same for every audience, so don’t just have one option.

Firstly, here’s what not to do:

• Tell them your name. They know that already.
• Say how glad you are to be there. That’s a given.
• Start with a joke. You don’t need me to tell you why not.
• List your credentials. They will already have seen your bio.
• Tell them how funny your speech is. If you do, it won’t be.
• Make fun of them. It’s OK to make fun of yourself, not your audience.

Now we’ve got that out the way, what are some positive openers? Here are a few ideas, with examples:

• An intriguing promise “You will improve your memory by 10% in the next hour”
• Something contrary to popular wisdom “The Internet is finished…”
• A puzzle “How could you find the secret of success?”
• A simple piece of value “Three simple steps to double your business this year”

Of course, you have to deliver what you promised. Remember you have give something of value every time you speak. Tell people right at the start what it will be, and you will grab their attention.

This information was written by Alan Stevens, and originally appeared in “The MediaCoach”, his free weekly ezine, available at www.mediacoach.co.uk

I enjoyed the Tom Hooper movie The King’s Speech with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter. It details the relationship between a (literally) tongue-tied King George VI and the Australian speech coach he rather reluctantly hires to help him overcome his debilitating stutter. The film covers the period leading up to his ascension to the throne and the times in World War II, when as king he was required to address the nation on radio.

I won’t spoil the movie by giving away the plot. I recommend this movie to anyone interested in:

• Overcoming a fear of public speaking
• Reasons the medical establishment once recommended people “deeply inhale” cigarette smoke
• The relationship between the client and speech coach
• Ways to overcome the barriers of class, rank and power to make an effective human connection
• The historical (as opposed to current) dysfunctions of the British Royal Family

Above all, this is a compelling true story that wonderfully captures the feel of a bygone era. Go see it.

The topic Speaking to Inform was the top request in my recent poll asking what people would like to hear about in my blog.

If you are delivering a public speech the goal should be to communicate as clearly as possible. In business settings, the more succinctly you communicate information, the better. This might not be true of an after-dinner or humorous speech. A speech can be entertaining even though it contains little or no new information. However, when you are speaking to inform, your audience will appreciate hearing information that is relevant to their concerns delivered in a manner they can absorb.

I believe there are four main ways of speaking to inform. More or less information can be delivered in an unclear or clear manner.

1. The foreign policeman

The least-useful form of communication is to deliver little or no information in an unclear manner. A classic example would be a tourist in France, who does not speak the language, hearing a command from a gendarme. The amount of information is minimal, but failure to understand could be fatal.

Acronyms convey information in an abbreviated form. But if members of the audience do not understand them, they are left in the dark. As brief as they are, always spell them out.

Few speakers would risk going in front an audience with little to say and no ability to be understood. However, were Dudley Moore to take to the podium when he was as drunk as he was in the movie Arthur, the result would be a complete disaster. So stay sober when you speak in public!

2. Road Signs

Even very long speeches can be broken down into concise nuggets of information, delivered in a manner that is quickly and easily understood. Road signs are designed to communicate important information instantaneously. When you are whizzing by at 60 mph, universally recognized icons are easily understood.

Intonation, cadence and gestures are your road signs to an audience. They improve people’s ability to follow what you are saying. Done right, they reinforce your message. Done wrong, like an overly verbose sign on the highway, they slow things down or even confuse people.

Presentations that use PowerPoint or Prezi convey information that supplements the spoken word. But the slides must be crisp and clear. The fewer words you display the better. Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte demonstrate the best way to display information visually. Done right, slides can help inform the audience. Done wrong, too much information on the screen will distract people from hearing your message. What you are saying will be ignored while they read the slide. If you have a wordy slide, stay silent while the audience reads it.

3. The subject matter expert

Subject experts often present too much information. They think that speaking to inform is merely creating lists of dry facts, in bullet form, and reading them aloud. Rather than loading the speech with facts, give the audience a white paper or printed report with the data. The fundamental error many corporations make is to put subject experts front of customers to explain their products.

If you need to present complex information, follow these simple rules.

An extreme example of information being presented in a rapid, incomprehensible manner are the legal disclaimers read out at the end of some radio ads. There are a surprising number of presentations given in the corporate world which sound like this. Remember, the answer to having too much information is to simplify the content, not to speak faster.

4. The storyteller

What subject experts fail to understand is the limited ability of the audience to absorb facts. People can only remember two or three main points in a speech. A few days after a talk, most of the information that is presented will have been forgotten.

What will be remembered are the stories you tell.

The most powerful way of speaking to inform is to use stories. These can be as simple as parables or nursery rhymes. By evoking an emotional response they implant information in a more memorable way than merely reciting facts. If you are speaking to inform, tell stories.

As voice coach Kate Peters says:

…creating stories out of raw information can help you see a problem or situation better in order to understand the solution better. Sometimes the data is overwhelming, but the story behind the spreadsheet can be illuminating.

A version of this article was first published by ragan.com.

Thanks to Kate for bringing this wonderful video to my attention.

Poet Taylor Mali demonstrates the problems with run-on sentences, up-speak and the “tragically cool and totally hip interrogative tone” which signals uncertainty to an audience. What has happened, Mali asks, to our sense of conviction and ability to speak to authority:

Joel F. Wade, Ph.D. is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Life and Executive Coach, writer, and speaker. He is the author of Mastering Happiness: Ten Principles for Living a More Fulfilling Life; a book that makes the burgeoning research from the field of Positive Psychology accessible and useful for anybody with a desire to live a happier, more resilient life.

He has played competitive water polo for many years, playing at UC Santa Barbara on their 1979 NCAA championship team, captaining their league champion team of 1981, and as a member of the US National team. Now in his fifties, he continues competing at the Master’s level.

From these experiences and through his work, he knows what it means to be passionate and devoted to a course of action, what it takes to see it through to success, and what resilience and gratification – and great fun – can be borne of such dedication.

Having personally traveled to over 60 countries covering six continents, he has seen and experienced the tremendous variety of lifestyles and cultures; but also the great common ground of human existence. The specifics are as varied as the barrenness of the Kalahari Desert to the richness of the Amazon jungle; but a good life centers on common themes that are intrinsic to human nature: love, friendship, resilience, faith, absorption in one’s activities, mastering one’s impulses, and finding and building a sense of meaning and purpose in life.

In his work with businesses, what Joel offers is not some idealistic system for creating a perfect business culture; but practical, real life coaching, teaching, and problem solving for bringing out the best that you and your people have to offer your hard earned creation: your business.

In his presentations, he teaches a vast array of effective and tested tools and skills that you can use right now to improve your happiness and effectiveness in your life. If you want to learn how you can live a happier, more satisfying life, not as some sort of idealistic or theoretical fantasy, but taking your actual life, as it is, with all of the hardships and problems as well as the strengths and blessings, then you’ll want to have Dr. Wade come and speak to your group.

Pro-Track Profile

This month, Dr. Wade completed the 2010 Pro-Track class offered by the Northern California Chapter of the National Speakers Association. I asked him about his practice and his plans to put the lessons he has learned in Pro-Track into practice. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:38 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

The National Speakers Association of Northern California November Meeting

Last Saturday NSA/NC held an outstanding Chapter meeting. A full day of invaluable information for speakers and executive communications professionals. Over 120 members and guests attended the event sponsored by the Pro-Track program, now enrolling for January 2011.

Facilitation: The Secret Weapon of Professional Speakers, with Kristin Arnold

NSA National President Kristin Arnold started the day with a compelling presentation on facilitation. This is her area of expertise, since she has 20+ years experience and is the author of Facilitation Skills.

She distinguished facilitation (high process, low content) from keynoting (high content, low process). Her recommendations included:

• Never do for the team what they can do for themselves
• Type up meeting minutes as a value-add
• Guide the meeting along the path from generating to organizing ideas, deciding on responsibilities and acting on them
• Create an action plan, listing the who, what and when that will make things happen
• If you ask for someone to volunteer for an action, be silent until you get a response.

The Power to Inspire: The Non-Verbal’s of Dramatic Presentations, with Michael Grinder

Michael presented on both side of lunch for a total of 90 minutes of instruction. He’s the master of non-verbal communication. His claim is that an average communicator informs; a good communicator persuades and a great communicator inspires. Michael is clearly a great communicator.

Michael showed, in fine-grain detail, how a speaker’s posture, voice, gesture and breath combine in the three phases of a conversation: speaking, listening and pausing. Understanding when and how to vary these tools allows a presenter to move between credibility and approachability. Not knowing undermines your message. For example, asking “Any questions?” in a monotone, with chin locked and palms facing downwards, creates a much less favorable audience reaction than asking the same question in a modulated voice, nodding your head and holding your palms up. No-one likes to interact with a dictator.

I loved his demonstration on the podium which showed how speakers should be aware that “Locations have memories”. If you have bad news to deliver as part of your talk, move, literally, to a different part of the stage. Then avoid that place for the rest of your talk.

I purchased Michael’s package The Elusive Obvious which includes DVDs, flash cards and his book The Science of Non-Verbal Communication. His material lists 21 non-verbal secrets found at the heart of all communications, no matter how differently they might appear on the surface.

The content takes speakers through the four stages of professional development:

• Content: the verbal level or the “what”
• Process: the non-verbal or the “how”
• Perception: timing or the “when”
• Receptivity: permission or the “if”

The first two levels are part of the Science of communication, where the speaker is searching for the words to speak and deciding how to deliver them. The Art of communication assumes you know the tools of the Science and need to be conscious of when to deploy them appropriately. The highest level, Receptivity, is when speakers harvest the power of effective communication in terms of reputation, name recognition and high esteem.

Speaking to the Big Dogs: Getting Things Done with Executives, with Rick Gilbert

Past NSA/NC President Rick Gilbert closed the day by sharing his insights around speaking in the Board room. Rick’s framework for planning a C-Suite presentation is based on the advice from interviews with 23 Silicon Valley executives. They said that when they hear from a mid-level manager they expect that person to:

• Have done extensive homework before the meeting
• To get to the point immediately
• Use data over stories
• Make the numbers bullet proof
• Reduce PowerPoint slides
• Be prepared to have their time cut and topic changed without notice
• Know how to deal with conflict among a group of executives
• Know how to present bad news
• Focus on strategy over style.

Rick’s framework for a Board room presentation lists some key points an aspiring middle-manager should use as a checklist prior to presenting:

• Set the context for the meeting, confirming the topic and the time available
• Cover the bottom-line “ask” for the discussion up front
• Give solid reasons and list the value and benefits of the proposal
• Present evidence (facts and data) for no more than two key points
• Summarize these key points
• Repeat the bottom line
• Repeat the reason
• Close with action steps.

That’s it – get in, and get out. Save squishy interactions for ordinary mortals, like, umm … your family.

Also, understand that you are not in charge and that you are in a time constrained environment. Presentations to senior management require the ability to improvise. You are dealing with people who control others for a living.

As someone once said, either have a plan, or be part of someone else’s plan.

National Speakers Association White Paper

National Speakers Association (NSA) President Kristin Arnold has published a remarkable document. The Professional Speaker’s Imperative: Bringing Value to Today’s Global and Tech-Savvy Marketplace is a 20-page White Paper on the past, present and future of the speaking profession.

Seven NSA members assess current trends implications for the future of the speaking profession. Each of the speakers brings a specific area of expertise to the table, looking both into their rearview mirror and crystal ball as best they could.

Each chapter of the document covers a specific topic:

• The History and Growth of Professional Speaking
• The Evolution of Professional Speaking
• Breadth and Depth of Today’s Speaking Industry
• Today’s Professional Speakers
• Other Practitioners Who Speak
• Putting the “Profession” in Speaking
• Audiences and Clients of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
• Implications for Professional Speakers
• The Use of Technology
• The Value Is in the Solution
• Conclusions
• Recommendations and Next Steps

The opening chapter looks back at the folk roots of the profession of speaking:

The roots of the speaking profession can be traced to the Greek and Roman sophists, orators and lecturers, and then to a nomadic group of entertainers, often called gypsies, who traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East to perform for various townsfolk. These early professional speakers also used their vocal expertise for gossip, satire or political commentary.

The impact of technology, which began with amplification, proceeds into every aspect of the network as a platform for speaking:

Speakers are delivering presentations to audiences face-to-face, virtually or as a hybrid of the two. With online conferences, web-based seminars, self-directed learning modules, and a wide variety instructional formats with the ever-increasing possibilities delivered by constantly changing technical capabilities, the platform is evolving upon which professional speakers deliver their words of expertise. Increasingly, there will be in-house or core people gathering in the conference room, while geographically dispersed stakeholders will be linked into it—or will replay a download later.

The single most valuable chapter is “The Value of the Solution” which details how speakers can convey value to their clients before, during and after a meeting. There’s a whole range of ways listed to engage with an audience, apart from the moments when the speaker is on the podium. These include starting a virtual conversation via blogs, social media and community networking sites. Following-up with coaching and the provision of online resources suggested.

The paper concludes with a reminder that “…it always comes back to the message.
Professional speakers―keynoters, trainers, facilitators and consultants—deliver valuable messages. Their primary mission is to deliver content and inspiration through the spoken word face-to-face or virtually.”

I encourage anyone with an interest in professional speaking to download this valuable paper.