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Effective Sales Presentation Skills – Learning Session #1, #2, #3

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

All three recorded sessions below:

Effective Sales Presentation Skills by Bill Attardi – YouTube

Bill Attardi’s Effective Sales Presentations #2 

Effective Sales Presentations with Bill Attardi, #3 – YouTube

 

You owe your audience a good performance!  This is about giving an effective sales presentation to a group of customers and closing that sale.  Not as easy as it sounds.  Had the great pleasure to be a speaker at a recent Amerlux sales meeting here in New Jersey when I presented this topic. Went well and now we are offering it to the general public.

 

First 30-minute session covered:

Preparation Strategy – The Will to Prepare to Win

  • Selling is simply communicating effectively and it’s always a Selling Situation
  • The Platinum Rule…treat customers the way they want to be tyreated
  • Preparation is everything…internal & external research
  • Always start with knowing your audience / the customer
  • What is your Call to Action
  • Rationale to take that action

 

Second 30-minute session covered:

Presentation Strategy – Bring to the meeting something no one else knows…

  • What is Your Objective – TO SELL!
  • Connect with your audience – interactive questions
  • The Power of PowerPoint: Verbal & Visuals working together
  • Create closing slide first – all roads then lead to your destination

 

Third 30-minute session covered:

Organizing the Presentation – FFAB (Features / Functions / Advantages / Benefits)

  • Create clear / thought starter slides – six by six rule
  • Creative Opening – your first impression
  • Meaningful Content – relevant to your audience
  • Compelling Close – lasting impression
  • Create a climate for learning

 

Techniques in Presenting – When you stop getting better, you stop being good

  • Plan & Promote Interaction
  • Eye contact – you are talking to individuals that happen to be in a group
  • Confirm understanding on a continuing basis
  • Project Acceptance and Handle Resistance
  • Never close on someone else’s question – before I close are there any questions?

 

Personal Delivery – Mechanics of Communicating Effectively Orally

  • The Audience –Your Body – Your Voice – The Room set-up…..
  • Audience reads left to right – you stand on their left; slides on their right
  • Commit yourself to improve…

 

Commitment: you will confirm some of what you already know and you will learn something new about giving an effective sales presentation to close those sales that are so important that you are asked to address a group of customers. 

SATCO|NUVO’s SMART WIRELESS VIDEO DOORBELL WITH REMOTE CHIME

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

Easily expand home security with SATCO|NUVO’s Smart Wireless Doorbell with Remote Chime. This complete doorbell system comes with rechargeable battery so that the unit can be installed with no electrical work. Motion detection sends alerts directly to your mobile device allowing you to view historical events and live events in real time, from anywhere. The included chime plugs into standard 120V outlets, making the doorbell audible, even if your mobile is on silent.

  • Complete doorbell system
  • Simple wireless installation
  • Rechargeable battery
  • Remote viewing and two-way talk
  • Live and event history monitoring
  • Expandable micro SD card storage

SN1640_SmartVideoDoorbell_PI_7-1-24.pdf

SATCO/NUVO > New Products

AI & the Annual SWOT Analysis – Time to Adjust to the New Normal by Bill Attardi

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

The SWOT (Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats) Analysis is an important tool in the strategic marketing planning process and is taught in every graduate and undergraduate business course in academia.  My view is that this should be an annual event, to spend the time during the planning process to ask your key people the select critical questions in each quadrant because it starts us to gather the most viable internal and external information to plan and run a successful business.  How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose.  Bill Gates.

 

Crucial: today, you win or lose if you do not understand and use artificial intelligence.  Let me explain…

 

The lighting industry has been my life and something happened that just does not happen ever in any industry. Seven major lighting categories will soon be one: LED!  Every lighting source out there will be replaced by LED over the next 5 to 10 years.  Everything!  That means every Taco Bell, every Home Depot, every Olive Garden, every Walmart, every home, office, hotel, hospital, streetlight, supermarket, et al will be upgraded to Intelligent Lighting and to all the advanced technologies that connect everything we do. When your customers learn about the advantages and benefits of the new technologies, and there will be many, will they buy them from you?  Why not?  What are you telling them? Where do you want to dominate?  Not just in a leadership position but in a dominant leadership position….

 

Well, in my travels in the lighting world, I offer a shortcut guideline to effectively conduct a SWOT Analysis that could help us maneuver through the intelligent lighting combat zone and be on the winning side.  This is directed to your Sales Force.  What happens here at the sales level is where we keep score……..face-to-face with the major income generating source of any business, the customer.  Important then that we understand Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats (SWOT) at the Sales level.

 

SWOT Categories

1. Strengths – INTERNAL – inside your business

  •  What are your core competencies? Those unique strengths, embedded deep within your business that allow you to differentiate your offerings so profoundly that they create higher value for your customers than anyone else.  Identify them…  Can you identify SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES, those not easily duplicated by your competitors.
  • What’s motivating your customers to buy from you?  The focus of all your marketing activities is the customer.  When they understand the advantages and benefits of the new technologies, will they buy them from you?  Why?
  • What are you doing to your existing competitors that’s working for you?   Not just in a leadership position but in a dominant leadership position…

 

2. Weaknesses – INTERNAL – – inside your business

  • What weaknesses are holding you back? Can they be corrected / overcome? If they cannot, what must you do to compensate?
  • Identify and address internal limitations.
  • What are your existing competitors doing that’s working against you?  Your first responsibility is the day-to-day operations of your business to win in a very competitive market. What’s holding you back?

 

3. Opportunities – EXTERNAL -what’s happening in the marketplace

  • What business opportunities tie right into your strengths? Short-term and long-term?
  • What are the key technologies shaping your industry? Every lighting source out there will be replaced over the next 5 to 10 years.  Everything!  Where do you want to dominate?

 

4. Threats – EXTERNAL -what’s happening in the marketplace

  • What changes in the marketplace offer the most significant challenges?
  • Who are your major competitors?
  • Who are the new entrants in the industry that are a key threat?

 

 

Artificial Intelligence – Is AI an integral part of your strategic thinking? Why not?

It’s important to recognize that AI technology will be, if not already, the most significant development to aid businesses to solve problems and make sound decisions. In fact, my students, future decision-makers, will absolutely need to become proficient in using such tools as they enter the workforce after graduation. Fact: 64% of marketers are more likely to hire a new employee with AI certification compared to someone without?  You have to use it….you have to get better at using it….you must be exceptionally skilled at using it.  It’s the most powerful search engine ever developed.  If there are or will be problems with AI, let them figured it out. Progress can be painful.  In today’s hyper-connected world, we have at our finger-tips the computer, the internet, social media, cell phones, email, text messaging, now AI, ChatGpt, Claude, on and on and on. (I’m not going to explain ChatGPT or Claude….if you don’t know, you should.) Sometimes taking advantage of opportunities is a choice.     AI is not going away. So where do you want to address AI: under opportunity or under threat?

 

Guidelines for Conducting a SWOT Analysis for a Sales Team

1. Individual input, everyone participates:

  • Include all levels of sales responsibility
  • For small businesses: conduct at a national level
  • For multinational businesses: conduct at local sales level (Branch / Region / District…)
  • Email input to the Team Leader – five or six points for each SWOT category

 

2. Assign a Team Leader that is AI-proficient……AI Certified if possible.

  • Responsible for gathering input from all participants
  • Prompts AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT or Claude) to consolidate and prioritize the input
    • Highlight most important points for each SWOT category
    • Remove duplicates

 

3. Final Document – two-page report (it’s really that simple)

  • Page 1: Strengths & Weaknesses (Internal)
  • Page 2: Opportunities & Threats (External)

 

4. Team Review:

  • Conduct a meeting with all participants (virtual is fine)
  • Review the consolidated report
  • Reach consensus on the final SWOT analysis

 

5. Implementation:

  • Use the finalized SWOT analysis for strategic planning and decision-making

 

 

If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside,

the end is near.  Jack Welch

 

 

The Whole Customer Value-Added Proposition by Bill Attardi

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

Let me define what I mean before I relate it to the lighting industry. Much has been written about the value proposition, the almost holy value proposition.  It’s a simple question: tell me what value you bring to the market; what makes you better than your competition?  We have to teach it at the under-graduate and graduate level in any marketing course and I have often wondered that maybe we place too much emphasis on it.  Well, we don’t.  A compelling value proposition is the essence of all our selling efforts.  In its simplest terms, a value proposition is a positioning statement that explains what benefit your product or service provides for your customers and how you do it uniquely better than your competition. It’s what you actually provide that is tangible and/or intangible and everything else your customer needs to make it acceptable to them as a solution (solving a pain point).  Well, that does sound like VALUE!  Warren Buffet tells us that we sell on price while customers buy on value.

 

With that said, let me justify why we must sell on the Whole Customer Value-Added Proposition, with emphasis on value-added.  In the high-tech digital world that we now find ourselves, my view is that we must expand the concept and must address three (3) distinct / essential offerings and they must all work together in a uniqueness that you own:

  1. The Product
  2. The Solution
  3. The Service

 

Now let’s look at the transition happening in the lighting industry…..and the Whole Customer Value-Added Proposition necessary if you intend to play in this new game. Yes, NEW GAME! “It’s a whole new world out there, with new playing fields, rules, and players. Your choice is to either learn this new game, or continue to be the very best player in a game that is no longer being played.” Larry Wilson

 

Let’s first deal with THE PRODUCT…..tangible lighting products.  Back in 1879, we experienced a disruptive innovation called the Edison light bulb.  Disruptive innovation because it would eventually replace every kerosene lamp in the marketplace, and lead to the life changing electric power industry.  For the first 50 years, it was all about quantity of light, then and who really knows when, quality of light became a focus.  Quantity and quality of light for over 100 years was the value proposition. Then innovation took the form of longer life; then energy efficiency.  All contributing to the evolution of a vibrant lighting industry.  Disruptive innovation is happening again, right now, as every lighting source commercially available will be replaced by solid state lighting.  Think about it…….most of us grew up with seven (7) major lighting categories: you know, incandescent, fluorescent, HID, etc.  We are now moving to one (1): LED: ONE MAJOR LIGHTING CATEGORY FOR EVERYTHING! The value-added value proposition is back to quantity and quality of light.  Long-life and energy efficiency are off the table as it is intrinsic with SSL.  When the possibilities are 300 lm/W efficacy and 100K hours of long life, let the innovators do their work on quality of light and we get the benefit.

 

Next, THE SOLUTION: it’s not just about light anymore, right?  Light has always had ancillary benefits but now, we are talking about allowing us to manipulate the timing / intensity / tuning of light leading to incalculable benefits in our living and working activities. To explore how lighting products can solve a pain point……  We are in the evolution stages of light becoming a value-added solution to many industry problems, dealing with improved productivity and increased performance in this “new” normal, even as a disinfectant solution…..thank you COVID.  Indoor farming is happening all over the world thanks to LED lighting.  We are finding lighting solutions wherever lighting is found and it’s everywhere:

 

  • Office
  • Retail
  • Healthcare
  • Human Centric
  • Education / Institutional
  • Horticulture
  • Automotive
  • Outdoor / Streetlighting
  • Sports
  • Specialty
  • Many other market segments: home, hospitality, commercial, industrial, on and on……
  • Where there is light, there will be a value-added solution, maybe for the first time.

 

THE SERVICE: if it’s not about light anymore then what is it about? It’s about AI, IoT / IoE / PoE / VLC / Li-Fi / VoIP / SAE / Big Data / Big Networking / LaaS and much much more… It’s the LaaS, I want to address now.  Lighting as a Service! If lighting has the potential to be the core connector to every electronic / digital device you own, we are not talking about traditional customer service: having the right product; in the right place; at the right price. That’s so yesteryear….If we believe the solution to today’s lighting systems must be a managed solution, dependent upon correctly designing / building quantity and quality of light, that requires intelligent specifications, competent installation, ongoing accurate measurement and monitoring, then we have no choice…… expanding services will play a more significant role, value-added and ongoing.  It will include a financial service as well that offers intelligent control, connectivity and data collection.  We will be asked to guarantee both the savings and performance for the entire design life of the solution, beyond providing just illumination. LaaS is a game-changer, a chance to create new user services.  All aboard… the value train is leaving the station.

 

pain point + targeted solution = loyal, happy customer

Remember the Movie “The Last of the Mohicans”? by Bill Attardi

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

Well, that did not end well for them… To my friends and cohorts that run successful small businesses and are in the market everyday fighting the good fight. You are the doers. You compete in a very competitive marketplace and have my deepest respect. My goal is not to tell you how to run your businesses but rather to contribute to your strategic thinking going forward. I offer my thinking to provide you with some encouraging guidelines in order to disrupt your existing business model for success in disruptive times…

  1. Milk your traditional lighting business as long as you can but maybe you heard of Jack Welch and I quote: If the rate of change outside is greater than the rate of change inside, the end is near.
  2. Create a new SMART lighting business model or acquire one….a separate business. If lighting is not about illumination anymore, then it must be about something else, so call it something else…..
  3. Consider a business model that can satisfy the basic turn-key needs of your customers…… it’s so obvious: they want SMART buildings:

– Project management from the audit to ongoing monitoring of the result

– Supply of the most advanced electronic technologies, not just lighting

– Installation & maintenance – as technologies change so does your value proposition

  1. Don’t put traditional people in charge – hire those that are not hampered by the good ole days: it ain’t your grandfather’s lighting business anymore. You do not need those who constantly want to justify what they did yesteryear but rather, leaders with vision that demand taking an uncharted and maybe alien direction going forward.
  2. Hire qualified Millennials, those that understand the transition to Smart Lighting and more importantly, to WHERE IT IS GOING – TO INTELLIGENT LIGHTING……….a systems approach and they can work your social media activities as well. Millennials are disruptive tech adopters—they grew up with a phone in one hand and a tablet on their laps and are proficient in the use of disruptive innovations. Most are technologically enabled in unprecedented ways. Tap into the Millennial World……proceed with caution as they do need to be competent and taught practical supply and demand disciplines.
  3. Customer mining – dig deep into your existing customer files and determine what they buy and why they buy from you. Remember, every single one of your customers will upgrade to a SSL system. Either you will sell them or your competitors will. LED lighting is now 70% of the market; will be 90% by 2030.
  4. Dominate small niche markets first. A big fish in small pond strategy that seems to work with high-tech companies. The old traditional strategies that worked well in the past will certainly not work going forward. Serve those niche markets you know best. You cannot be all things to all people when change at this magnitude happens. Do what you do best…
  5. Create a new business development department with a competent leader, to continue to look at the disruptive innovations that will continue to evolve and change course when necessary.
  6. Put someone in charge of Content Marketing – the core of effective communications these days. Even traditional marketing disciplines are changing…..remember the four (4) Ps, well now it’s the four (4) Cs:
    – Product………………..Customer solutions
    – Place…………………..Convenience to buy
    – Promotion……………..Communications
    – Price……………………Cost to satisfy
  7. Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) – the expansive variety of advertising and promotional venues to reach existing and potential customers continue to increase and so does the noise level. It requires innovative approaches to communicate in a clear voice with a consistent message, integrated for maximum impact on customers, employees and stakeholders.
  8. Focus on social media and e-marketing as a means to enhance CRM (Customer Relationship Management)… keep your business fresh in the minds of your customers and entice them to reconnect with your new business model. Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.
  9. Lighting as a Service (LaaS) – stay plugged in to your customer’s lighting / data service needs on an ongoing basis and charge them accordingly, why not. Look for neoteric, word of the day, ways to service your customers and service the hell out of everything you sell.

 

One last thought: about AI, Artificial Intelligence; and ChatGPT; and IoT, Internet of Things; and POE, Power Over the Ethernet; and all the rest. At Monmouth University, I encourage my students to use ChatGPT as a writing resource.  Why: because they have to get good at it when they go to work for you.  It’s not going away, so it must be an integral part of your strategic thinking. Understand it all as it will drive the direction of your new business model; and more importantly, it will allow you to be more connected to your customers than ever before. Tanti Auguri!

What I’ve Learned Over Many Years Trying to Do the Right Thing by Bill Attardi

William Attardi on December 31, 2024

As a follow-up to my inquiry about creating LearnersLive.com, I offer the following

  

  1. I have to start with what some say is the first commandment of success: Get a good education / develop a skill in something you really love to do and work hard at it. It really is that simple.

 

  1. Never worry about your next job……work hard at the job you have and the promotions will come. A sports lesson: athletes understand that the best are playing in the playoff games. They just cannot worry about the next team they may play if they want to beat the team they are playing.

 

  1. If you have a manager title, your primary responsibility is to develop the people who report to you…….don’t just manage, teach.

 

  1. Critical: develop both your oral and written communications skills at the highest level of your capability. No matter your job or position, your ability to communicate effectively will determine your relationships and your success in those relationships.

 

  1. When you are asked to present / teach what you know and give to others. Be sure to entertain as well as inform. In today’s electronic information age, it’s the only way they will listen.

 

  1. If everyone agrees with you then you are doing all the thinking. Encourage others to debate the issues and make decisions based on divergent intelligent thoughts.  Education happens when you learn from others.

 

  1. Love your family and your friends and don’t hate your enemies. Hate gets in the way of doing a good job as a parent, as a loyal friend, as a successful person.

 

  1. Never stop learning. It should never be final.  I’m learning something new every day, learning more and more as we go through life.

 

  1. Make time to read for information and for pleasure too. It really helps to escape the pressures of everyday living.

 

  1. Go to church or your chosen house of worship and give just one hour a week to God to thank him for your blessings. It may not have to be more than that.  It can be that one hour when you can pray and meditate and feel a sense of calm that refreshes your thoughts and better prepares you for life’s struggles.

 

  1. Never retire! Why would you want to stop what you love to do and are good at it?

 

Wireless Lighting Control Systems by MaxLite

William Attardi on November 26, 2024

MaxLite has expanded its c-Max Network Partners ecosystem with the addition of Casambi Technologies, a developer of wireless lighting control systems. This strategic partnership was developed to enhance MaxLite’s c-Max Lighting Controls platform and offer customers a wide range of advanced wireless control options.A true plug and play platform that offers multi-tier control solutions, c-Max™ Network Partners represent a perfect synergy of innovation and efficiency that unlocks access to advanced lighting controls by combining MaxLite’s controls ready luminaire portfolio with industry-leading technology partners control solutions. Built on c-Max value proposition it enhances use cases without changing fixtures and adds more functionality and features with an easy swap of sensors. It further represents MaxLite’s commitment to bringing controls agnostic solutions to meet customer needs and performance specifications.

C-MAX Network Partners

LED Bollards with Selectable Wattages by naturaLED

William Attardi on November 26, 2024

naturaLED® has LED Bollards with customizable wattage capabilities. 8″ diameter for easy retrofits and 4 configurations. Perfect for your area lighting, pathway, or perimeter lighting projects! BLD bright pathway lighting is important for the safety of pedestrian foot traffic. Ensuring that sidewalks and pavement are well-lit reduces the risk of people tripping and falling. The superior quality of our DLC Bollard light fixture provides glare-free lighting that replaces 100-watt metal halide fixtures and produces 2000 lumens. led bollards – naturaLEDWatch the Frank Grobmeier video: Discover the Difference between Pathway & Bollards (youtube.com)

Signify Small Track Lighting

William Attardi on November 26, 2024

Lightolier 3D Crown Series Small Track, from Signify’s Genlyte Solutions business was developed for retail, gallery and restaurant applications. The luminaire offers spec-grade performance, with interchangeable optics and accessory compatibility; a sleek, compact design (2-in. aperture) that’s easy to specify; excellent lumen maintenance for more consistency over time; sustainable 3D printing production; and eight different color options (with the possibility to mix and match the rim colors, too) to suit the interior design. The fixtures are made from 55% recyclable polycarbonate and are designed to support circularity at end of life. The Lightolier 3D Crown Series Small Track is scheduled for commercial release on Sept. 27. 3D printed lighting products| Lightolier | Signify

Leviton LED Baffle Slim Downlights with Selectable CCT

William Attardi on November 26, 2024

Leviton Baffle Slim Downlights are designed for a wide range of applications: Single- and Multi-Family-Residential, Hospitality, and Light Commercial spaces. A direct mount downlighting solution that does not require an existing housing or junction box that can be used in Retrofit, Remodel or New Construction applications. The Baffle Slim Downlights are ideal for remodeling or new construction, and do not require an existing housing or junction box. The Regressed Lens with Baffle and field selectable color temperature (CCT) help reduce glare and improve visual comfort. Baffle Slim Downlights (leviton.com)

What Do the Colors on Bread Tags Mean? – These color-coded tags indicate the date the bread was baked and packaged.  Now that you know that the color-coded tags actually mean something, how can you remember which color means which day? Luckily there is an easy way to remember the schedule. The colors correspond to weekdays in alphabetical order: Blue (Monday), Green (Tuesday), Red (Thursday), White (Friday), then Yellow (Saturday). Maybe you just learned something you did not know…..