I was speaking the other day with a coaching client of mine who felt his team needed a new presentation they could use in front of prospects. In their business, a "pitch book" is a common tool for sales calls. It can be presented in various ways: a PowerPoint deck with the pages printed in a flip-chart type of book; a PowerPoint deck that is projected onto a screen while the seller presents; a spiral-bound, printed PowerPoint deck that the seller makes a copy of for the prospect, with both of them flipping the pages.

All of these approaches are deeply unsatisfying.

Think about the last time you were pitched in any one of these ways. What went through your mind? My main thought centered around trying to figure out how many pages of PowerPoint I was going to have to endure, whether presented in flip-chart, screen-format, or book. ( "If she talks for two minutes on each slide, there are 30 slides.....oh nooooooo!")My other thought was how linear the presentation format is. The other party presents her ideas in order, maybe I ask questions during the discussion, but probably I (try to) listen and she talks. And talks. And talks.

So what about this instead: Rather than have your presentation fired up, give me as the potential customer some options that make me feel more in control of the meeting.  

You'd say something like, "Mitch, we prepared this sheet of Frequently Asked Questions. We know that most of our prospective clients are interested in some or all of the answers. Would you take a look at these and let me know which of these FAQs you're most interested in? And if you're interested in something not on the list, that's fine, too. We can start anywhere you'd like."

I take a minute to read the simple list and express an interest in knowing your product's feature and benefits first, so you take out ONE visual that addresses my interest and place it on the table, and talk to it. We have a conversation until all my questions are answered.

Then I ask about how your product compares with the competition. And you take out your ONE colorful and pointed visual that lays out the competitive landscape, and we talk about that for a while.

After that, I ask about support, and you take out your ONE visual that addresses after-sale support.

And finally, I ask you to tell me about yourself, your team, your backgrounds. And you take out NO visual. You just talk to me about your experience in the industry and serving people like me.

I feel like I've been treated with respect in the sales process because you addressed MY agenda, not your own. But of course in doing that, you've treated your own interests impeccably well. And you got my business.

Have a story about a really great, or really awful sales presentation you've received or given? Please share with a comment.

Merrill Lynch has a great webcast called  Reinventing Retirement: Second Acts, recorded in June 2010. It profiles over-age-55 people who are starting businesses. Every Baby Boomer should watch it. I coach corporate executives who want to start businesses as encore careers. This webcast illustrates many of the key points I coach potential entrepreneurs to consider.  

One very important point the webcast addresses is that some people start businesses because they have been downsized and can't find a job. That's a predicament that's hard for anyone to deal with and even worse for older people.

Sally Krawchek, president of global wealth & investment management for Bank of America Corp., makes an essential point in response to ABC's Charles Gibson's statement that "you need to save, you need to have a nest egg. And then we see a lot of people saying, well I'm going to take that nest egg, and I'm going to roll the dice, and I'm going to invest it in a this or a that or an other ... So, yeah they save, but then we say to them, given the new realities, we want you out there rolling the dice with that nest egg."

Here's what Krawchek says to Gibson (which I edited slightly for clarity): "How about, I have a nest egg. I have investments that will provide me with some stable income that I can live a nice life on, and I'm going to take some risk here, and then my spouse is going to continue to work part-time in this job here. You continue on that plan, and then after three years you say, this part is working, this part is changing, this part did better than I think. It's a continuous process of taking the temperature, taking the check and readjusting the plan."

Krawcheck is noting the different between taking risks, and putting yourself at risk.It's the most important point for over-55 would-be business owners to consider.

Some people are running so fast from unhappiness and discouragement in the work force that they grasp onto a business idea and throw their remaining resources (like their 401k) into a new venture. With no backstop. Yes, people do it every day and we often hear about amazing successes. Like we read about Powerball winners. With about the same odds.

Do you agree there's a difference between taking a risk and putting yourself at risk when starting a business? What have you learned? Please share a comment.

My company sponsored a special event of a local industrial association recently and we made some good contacts. We had a booth at which we were promoting our products, and we saw about a hundred people. Of those hundred, exactly one called me afterward as a potential client. She's a commercial insurance rep.

Her phone call was brief, confident and effective. She said she'd like to get together with me to review my insurance and see if she can save me money. No long-winded build-up to asking for an appointment, no 20 questions to get to the moment of truth, no big speech about herself. Just a simple request for my time, which resulted in an upcoming appointment. I am happy with my current insurance, but some of that has to do with inertia and habit. The fact is, I haven't reviewed it for potential cost savings in five years. So she's got at least a 50 percent chance of gaining a new client.

Here's the teachable moment from this story about selling skills.

Depending on what you're selling, you can make an aggressive request even without "relationship selling." We are conditioned these days to believe that we need a relationship with someone so that we can understand them fully, which then leads to the possibility of doing business.

But there's a difference between closing business and opening the door. You have to do the latter before the former, and a lot of people don't get that.  So just focus on getting an appointment.  If you're a financial advisor ("It was nice to see you on the golf course the other day.  Some of other club members who are clients of mine were very interested in our quarterly market update conference call, so I thought I'd invite you to listen in to the next one"); an elder-care attorney ("A lot of my colleagues from the association are dealing with elder care issues with their parents. Would you like to come in for a free consultation?"); a car dealer ("I saw you were driving a 2004 Ford. We have a zero percent APR financing offer until the end of the month. Would you like to stop by for a test drive?"); a commercial banker ("I was in your store last week and loved your merchandise. Can I stop by to see what your expansion plans are and if we can help?");  and many other categories.

One technique I hate: Take any of the above and change them to, "Would next Tuesday be a good time for you to come in and...." That's called the presumptive close. That's when I hang up the phone. Be respectful enough of your prospect to make an invitation without insinuating yourself into their calendar.

Read more on the subject of selling techniques that get you in the door.

What's your experience with "warm-calls"? Are you making them? What's works and what doesn't? Please leave a comment.

I like a good haircut. Not just because I feel cooler in this ridiculously hot New York summer, but because I talk to my barber, Nick, about small business.

Nick's about 35, lives in the same town as me, has a wife and two young children. In addition to cutting hair, he owns an Italian ice place in town that has been an institution for as long as anyone can remember. It's a great business. The gross margin on ices is about 90 percent and he owns the roadside, freestanding building that's open from May through September. I learned a few things from Nick:

• A simple business is not the same an easy business. Last week, Nick and his wife (who's a schoolteacher the rest of the year but works in the ices store during the summer) had to drive 60 miles to Manhattan in the broiling heat to pick up a tub of vanilla chocolate chip. Why make the trip for one tub? "If I don't have the flavor someone wants, they might not come back."  (Reminded me of Andy Grove's book, Only the Paranoid Survive.) Even though virtually everyone would come back, that's the kind of thinking that keeps Nick in business.

• Always look for something new and profitable. Nick spends his first one or two tips every morning at Starbuck's next door. "I'm an addict," he admits. So he's been thinking lately that the ices store should sell coffee. I asked him why he'd do that, since coffee is such a commodity, with Starbuck's, 7-Eleven and Dunkin' Donuts all within a two-minute drive. "Coffee costs almost nothing to make and it gives people another reason to drive up on a regular basis." If nothing else, it's a way to get people thinking about having ices that night.

• Ownership thinking is important. Nick asked me if I'd been to the new deli in town, which specializes in panini sandwiches. I hadn't, even though it's been open for more than a year. Nick goes there for breakfast. When he first started going he ordered an egg and cheese on a roll. Once the owner saw him a few times, though, he'd say, "You had that yesterday," and would make recommendations to spice up (and increase the price) of his order. Nick loved being sold, and soon was ordering more adventurously from the extensive menu of specials. And he's talking to me about it, so I will be going in there before long. The guy who owns the deli owns four other delis within a five-mile radius. Nick slowed down his hair-cutting to make some calculations about the net income of the deli owner.

• If your business is retail, keep an eye on youthful employees. While we were talking food, Nick pointed out that the best pizza in town was right next door to the panini place. "Everything's fresh, clean, professional." And unlike some of the other pizzerias in town that are a little casual in their service, cleanliness and adult supervision, this place is "run by older guys who are pros." Nick told me he has to keep a vigil over teenage employees. They're good workers, but sometimes forget to turn the freezer back on after cleaning it,  things like that. Which reminded me of a Baskin-Robbins store my brother worked in when he was a teenager. I don't remember anyone ever paying for ice cream. The teens gave it away free to all their friends, and the owner was usually MIA.

• Don't gossip. Good businesspeople are very careful about what they say, and to whom. The barbershop Nick works in was sold a few years ago by owners who'd be there for 40 years. They had one barber who loved  to "stir it up" -- gossiping about everyone and anyone, to customers and other employees. The owners couldn't stand him, but they kept him, for 15 years, because he was a great barber. When they were ready to sell, the chatty barber was cut out and the shop was sold to another operator. Ouch.

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