Presentation Skills Advice (Video)
In this video, Mala Subramaniam, President of MKTinsite, offers a key piece of advice for successful presentations to senior level executives.
Presentation Skills Critical Factors (Video)
In this video, Mala Subramaniam, President of MKTinsite, explains Presentation Skills Critical Factors to help you get ahead.
7 Easy Tips to Get Your Resume Noticed
Adopt the New and Drop the Old practices in Your Resume
“Work while others are wishing.” – Thomas A. Edison
Heads Up: Don’t let anyone else write your resume – it shows and it is a turn-off!
Don't Let Others Write Your Resume!
Tip #1: Start the process by preparing a Grid of your Accomplishments organized by your past and current jobs.
Drop the practice of writing your resume without defining yourself – Get to know yourself. This Accomplishment Grid is your reference – it is not only a kick-start to your resume, but also a confidence-booster and an interview guide. A sample Accomplishment Grid that I share with my clients is in the Free! Essential Special Reports titled: Get Your Resume Noticed. It is downloadable!
Tip #2: Use the “in-phrases” to describe your job.
Drop the habit of writing your resume without doing some research. Comb the internet to find jobs, industries and companies you are targeting. Understand what you need to include in your resume to prompt action in your favor. Begin your resume now….
Tip #3: Start the resume with a Positioning Statement.
Drop the phrase “Job Objective” – especially, if you are an experienced professional – this is like stating the obvious. Create this storyline for your career journey – it grabs the reader’s attention and says: Read on. It is an action-driven statement. Not a passive: I want this. More like: I am this – are you interested?
Tip #4: The next heading should read: Strengths or Significant Achievements.
Drop the old heading “Summary of Qualifications” – a very passive description of your background without alignment to job market. Your Strengths constitute your value-proposition – What’s in it for the employer? Why Me, or What do I bring to the table? Connect the Strengths to the Positioning Statement – message has to be consistent.
Tip #5: Be precise about your Professional Experience.
Drop the boring list of all your Experience – Build your story. Connect your experience to your Strengths or Achievements. Name most recent employers– don’t go beyond 10 years or 3 employers, unless you have some relevant industry experience prior to the 10 years. This is the advice I give to clients who need help in making presentations – don’t do a data dump, although very tempting, give the audience what they need to take action.
Tip #6: Logistics – Be Clever
- Drop writing your physical mailing Address. Give URL; email; Linkedin address [only if your profile does not contradict your Resume], links to Blogs and telephone.
- Drop headings “Volunteer work and Extra-curricular Activity.” Replace with Active Contributions to Community
- Drop extensive details in the Education section unless you are applying for faculty positions – Include relevant advanced degrees like MBA with your major in the Strengths section.
- Drop References even if the job asks for it. If you have strong recommendations relevant to job, give Linkedin address
Tip #7: Modify Resume to fit the job
Drop the lazy “One size fits all” strategy. I am not asking you to lie, but to use applicable phrases and content to describe what you have done and what you are capable of doing.
For more information about career or personal development, please contact Mala Subramaniam to schedule a strategy session where your individual needs and big picture goals can be discussed in detail.
You are Not Unemployed. You are a Consultant.
Keep your business cards. Don’t discard them when you get a job!
I got a big blow for the first time from Mr. Layoff. I was given a glossy exit package from my management job and escorted to the doors of an Outplacement Specialist. These professionals help ease the pain of job loss and push you rapidly into your job search. My specialist gave me the best piece of advice, after glancing at my then sketchy resume:
- Welcome to the world of consultants, Mala. You are not unemployed. You are a consultant in Strategies, Planning and Research. My first company was named SPR Associates!
- Make your business cards and keep them forever – don’t dump them when you get your next job.
I see people scrambling to become a consultant after losing their jobs. They print business cards, get a website going and desperately search for clients for their consulting, while job-hunting – losing six months of valuable time. I am never in-between jobs, since I have a permanent business card as consultant, trainer and coach. When I was restructured out again in 2005, this strategy gave me the courage to ‘go for good’ in the direction of consulting/ training without much time wasted in learning to do it.
Here are 3 Tips to all those employed in corporate America:
TIP 1: Keep your consulting hat on and build network of positive relationships
This helps you look at work projects from a strategic angle and builds your confidence as an expert. You are what you project – it will make a difference with your peers and superiors at work, if you have to call on them in the future for consulting assignments.
TIP 2: Help people informally and gain references. Here are some stories to back up my advice:
People see me as a Presentation Expert
I help many technical friends to communicate their message without drowning audience in data. A friend from business school was at her wits end because she had been given a challenging assignment by a tough boss, who knew she did not have the qualifications. Her job was at risk. She reached out to me and I put on my strategic thinking hat, sat with her for a few hours, looked at her project and helped her develop it into a dynamic presentation piece – convincing her to self-promote through this piece. I gained her trust in me as an adviser.
I am a Multicultural Communications Expert
My former colleague called me to ask, Hey, Mala, I am calling on physicians to market a service. Some are Indians. What gifts do I give them for Christmas? My advice: You don’t give them gifts for Christmas. You wait for their big holiday and surprise them with confection from an Indian store. It was a hit!
TIP 3: Follow up with the friends who benefited from your advice.
I am now teaching technical professionals how to deliver data without tranquilizing them with details, and educating outsourcing professionals and their clients to see business interactions through a cultural lens.
Market Yourself, Get the Job
Why You?
The First Steps in Marketing Yourself to a prospective employer or a client are: Knowing your Skills and Knowing your Market. Any Marketing expert will tell you these are the critical questions:
- Define your product – i.e. who are you, what do you offer, what have you accomplished?
- Who will buy your product – what prospective employer or client needs you?
- Why do they need you – what need do you fill?
- What’s the catch – what is your value proposition?
- How will you find them?
- How will you approach them?
Finding answers for the first 4 questions is half the battle. It is like the dreaded job interview question: Tell Me about Yourself. Tell the employer or client who you are with confidence and be taken seriously. If you don’t know who you are, how can you expect others to know and hire you?
Mala Subramaniam, President, MKTinsite LLC
How I Defined Myself: I had to define myself when my last employer sent me home with a glossy exit package. I did not go looking for another corporate job. I wanted to share my knowledge with others – but who, what, where?
I considered myself a Marketing Guru – now I had to practice what I preached. Jumping into job search without the 6 Steps is like driving in a new country without a map. I am reminded of a meeting I scheduled with Kim, a former colleague, in the city.
Kim and I made an appointment for lunch on a Friday in the city. She emailed me her address and contact information. I entered it all in my cell phone. On Friday, I parked the car in the station, ran like an Olympic runner [untrained and panting, though] to catch the train and reached Penn Station at 11am. I reached into my pocket book for my cell phone. It was not there! I panicked. I remembered her street address, but not Kim’s floor or telephone number. I am ashamed to say I did not know her employer’s name or her most recent last name. The doorman of this multi-story building restrained himself from dialing Security.
So, don’t go looking without knowing what you are looking for!
Some research and introspection led me to define myself. Here’s looking at ME:
- Who am I? - I am a trainer, an instructor, and a coach.
- What can I offer? – leadership, marketing, communications expertise
- Who will benefit?– anyone who needs skills to succeed in a business environment, particularly in the IT outsourcing market, where interactions between Americans and Asian Indians need help
- Why ME? Am I different?
Why Me? YES, I definitely can claim:
- Experience in diverse industries, including IT – So can a Million others
- Expertise in highly-specialized areas as research – So can a Million
- Skills in writing, platform, research etc… So do a Ton of other MBAs
- Training certification – Market is flooded
- Passion for Teaching – Just look at Academia
BUT, where will you find an Asian Indian corporate executive, with all of the above, and the ability to establish a rapport with both Asian Indians and Americans? I GOT IT!
7 Critical Steps in Market Intelligence
Get Business Marketing Intelligence Training from MKTinsite
There’s a sequence of logical thought that needs to happen in the intelligence process – I call it the 7-Step MI process. This process, taught in the Market Insights training, will also require you to explore existing research and different avenues for securing the research to get to the desired results.
5 Tips for Answering Questions
Don’t think of answering questions during a presentation or meeting as a stressful time. Instead, be prepared to let your subject matter expertise and personality shine.
Try to remember these 5 tips the next time you find yourself in a Q&A setting:
- Pause and take a breath
- Answer the person and not just the question
- Respond – do not react
- Don’t start the answer with – “that’s a good question…”
- Bring the focus onto your key message
Hope this is helpful. Please share your tips with us, too!
Market Research Insights – Telling Your Story
Most market research goes unused because market research professionals are too busy doing the projects, analyzing, sometimes with advanced stats, and putting together a 75-page power point deck to present results. Market researchers need to learn how to tell their story. The audience is impressed, but overwhelmed, wondering, “So What? and What can I do about it?”
Get Business Marketing Intelligence Training from MKTinsite
Sometimes, in a market research presentation, the audience feels like a patient in a doctor’s office. The doctor looks grim while reading out a bunch of medical reports and telling his patient, “Your BP is high, your cholesterol is well above normal, sugar is borderline, you failed the hi-tech stress test. your weight and eating habits leave much to be desired.” The patient is in panic wondering, “What does this mean? Am I dying?” How refreshing it would be, if the doctor started out as follows:
- You are lucky, you now have an opportunity to get back to good health, and prevent heart problems. Here are test results that have raised some red flags
- Do you have any ideas of how you can restore your good health? Shall we brainstorm some ideas?
- Here’s some thoughts: a healthy diet including low salt and low sugar foods, exercise routine and some relaxation techniques.
- Would you be interested in nutritional guidance? Hospital X offers some free programs – would you be interested?
The patient walks out with a key takeaway message and knows what to do about it. Similarly, if market research presenters translated data into intelligence, and brainstormed with clients/audience to arrive at the insights, then the recommendations will be a natural outcome. If audience is not involved from the very start of the study and if the researcher does not take an interest in the business, then the recommendations are done in a vacuum and of limited value to client. There are some very interesting techniques like, Decision Pyramid, Patterning, that facilitates the process.
Research without insights is like medical readings without a diagnosis and a collaborative treatment plan. Learning to tell their story is the most critical skill for any market researcher – this is what will influence decisions.
Audience and Your Journey
At the end of many business presentations, audience walk away with their own interpretations and messages. People in the audience take their own journeys, and not the journey of the presenter, since the destination is not apparent. Speakers miss the golden opportunity to accomplish the stated objective for each presentation. Why? Most fall into the unfortunate category of “data dump” and fail in clarity of the critical message – the end in sight.
Leader or Manager
Making the distinction between management and leadership is essential to success in any project or business endeavors. You lead people, but manage tools, budgets, machines, time and other related resources. Leadership comes from a sense of security and management from a place of insecurity. If you have the right persons for the positions, they can be led to stretch to unimaginable heights and accomplishments. People follow once the leader gives a clear vision and an understanding of how they fit into this vision.
Managing people implies goals, deadlines, reports and constant monitoring – a fine-tuning and maintenance fit only for machines. All these are time-consuming. You are creating the “I am paid to do what I am asked to do. I am a limited being,” persona.
Specific class exercises and team games can illustrate this distinction, and help make the transition, among training participants, from a people manager to a people leader.
Read my Special Report for details: Are you a leader or a manager?
Don’t Hesitate, Let’s Connect Now!
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