This is episode three of our 12-week series on how to win shortlist presentations or other types of group sales presentations. Last week, I briefly overviewed the five biggest secrets I've discovered about these high-level sales presentations. These secrets are the things that have allowed us to win over 80% of the interviews that teams that I have coached have been on.

This week, I will give you ten things you can do when you are preparing or delivering these presentations that will help you stay calm and poised.

However, early on in this session, I tell a quick story about how important it is to "dig your well before you're thirsty," so to speak. High-level sales presentations have a tremendous amount of pressure, which causes a tremendous amount of nervousness and anxiety.

If you throw an unseasoned presenter into a pressure cooker without any help, you can really hurt that presenter (and your team.)

So, these ten tips can help reduce tension and nervousness. But you'll get a lot better results if you train your potential presenters well before they are under the heat lamp.

This is episode two of our 12-week series on how to win shortlist presentations or other types of group sales presentations. Last week, I explained what these presentations were and how I first got exposed to them. Just as a review, a Shortlist Presentation or Shortlist Interview is a very high-level sales presentation. Companies will often submit a proposal to a potential customer or client. The potential customer or client will weed through all of the proposals to create what they call a "shortlist."

Then, the remaining companies will often each get a shot to come in and pitch themselves to the customer. We talked about how this type of presentation can be nerve-racking even if you are a confident speaker.

This week, I briefly overview the five of the biggest secrets I've discovered about these high-level sales presentations. These secrets are the things that have allowed us to win over 80% of the interviews that teams that I have coached have been on.

Next week, I'll give you ten things you can do when you are preparing or delivering these presentations that will help you keep calm and poised. So we have a lot of ground to cover!

This week, we start a new series on how to win Shortlist Presentations or Shortlist Interviews. Basically, this is a very high level sales presentation. Companies will often submit a proposal to a potential customer or client. The potential customer or client will weed through all of the proposals to create what they call a "shortlist."

Then, the remaining companies will often each get a shot to come in and pitch themselves to the customer. If you think about it, this type of presentation has a number of very unique challenges. First, the stakes are really high. Some of these projects may be worth millions of dollars. So if the team does well, they may close a really big contract. And if they do poorly, they get excluded from that same contract. So, even if you are a confident speaker, this type of presentation can be nerve-racking.

The next big challenge is that most of the presenters who deliver these presentations are technical experts -- they are NOT skilled presenters or salespeople. For instance, if the project is a building project, the presenters are often mechanical engineers, architects, or construction superintendents. Or if the project is a technical project, the presenters may be engineers or people who write and edit code for a living.

Many of these presenters have never delivered any type of business presentation before. And this first one has a ton of pressure.

On this episode, I tell about how, over the last 20 years, I and my team accidentally became experts at this unique type of presentation. Then, in the next few weeks, I'm going to reveal a few secrets that will make this type of presentation much easier. I'll show you have to reduce the nervousness and tension. We'll also show you how to master Q&A sessions and be more persuasive. Then, in the final sessions, I'll show you step-by-step how to design a really good shortlist presentation that will make the audience want to hire your team.