Seven Customer Service Lessons I Learned in One Day With Richard Branson [Video]
It’s rare to find a leader who elevates the experience for employees and customers to such a degree that other brands benchmark against his or her company. I recently had a unique opportunity to spend a day with one such leader, an entrepreneur and billionaire who has...
Delivering a PowerPoint? Your Audience Will Tune Out After 10 Minutes
Your audience will check out of your next PowerPoint presentation after about 10 minutes. I know your presentation is engaging, I know you’re a wonderful speaker, and I know that your slides look really cool, but neuroscientists now know that the human mind gets bored...
Successful Retailers Learn That Fewer Choices Lead To Higher Sales
Successful sales professionals in any field realize that they can improve the odds of making a sale by offering their customers more than one option of a service or product. But how many choices should you offer? This week I've been invited to be the keynote speaker...
Presentation Skills: The 10-Minute Steve Jobs Performance That Revolutionized The Music Industry
In a 10-minute presentation on April 28, 2003, Steve Jobs reinvented the music industry and persuaded millions of music lovers to pay 99 cents a song. Ten years ago Apple launched the iTunes Music Store and completely changed how we acquire and enjoy our music. For 99...
What Kid Rock Can Teach You About Creativity And Innovation
My wife recently bought tickets to Kid Rock. “They were only $20 each,” she said. Twenty bucks? Has he fallen that far? I wondered. As it turns out, the five-time Grammy nominee is doing just fine. In fact he announced the low ticket price to make a statement and to...
Teaching America’s Top Scientists to Communicate the USA TODAY Way
Few topics are more complicated than nuclear weapons. If the world’s leading scientists in the field can be taught to communicate more simply, anyone can. Over the past few years I've been invited on several occasions to work with scientists at America’s leading...
Six Simple And Irresistible Alternatives To The Elevator Pitch
“The purpose of the pitch isn't necessarily to move others to adopt your idea, it’s to offer something so compelling it begins a conversation,” according to New York Times bestselling author, Daniel H. Pink. I recently talked to Pink about his new book, To Sell is...
America’s Happiest Employee
“You name it. I make it happen.” That’s what Rosalind (Roz) Searcy said when I asked her what she did for her employer, Zappos.com. I’ve met thousands of employees. I speak at their companies, conferences, or interview them for my columns and books. Most employees...
Media Training: Anne Hathaway Artfully Diverts Today’s Matt Lauer
Media training is the practice of preparing spokespeople (executives, celebrities, experts) for interviews. Media interviews are easy to handle when all is good with the company or brand. It’s predicting and answering the more difficult questions that cause the most...
How Wegmans, Apple Store, and Ritz-Carlton Win Loyal Customers
Wegmans, the Apple Store, and The Ritz-Carlton are considered customer service champions in their respective categories. These companies field calls daily from people eager to learn their secrets (In fact, The Ritz-Carlton created a Leadership Center to teach its best...
High-Tech Dropouts Misinterpret Steve Jobs’ Advice
Steve Jobs dropped out of college so he could drop in to the classes that looked more interesting. Reed College offered the best calligraphy course in the country. In those classes Jobs learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, something with no practical...
Constraints Are The Key To A Creative Presentation
I’m often asked, “How long should my presentation be?” I believe the Goldilocks zone is 18 to 20 minutes. If it’s shorter some members of your audience (especially investors, clients and customers) might not feel as though they received enough information. Any longer,...
Barack Obama: A Master Class In Public Speaking
President Barack Obama uses three public-speaking techniques to captivate his audiences. Like all of us, sometimes he has an off night. When he’s at his best, though, Obama is a gifted speaker who has something to teach all leaders in business and politics, regardless...
Apple Retail Reduces Stress of Shopping on Black Friday
Adding staff for the holiday season is not unusual in retail. What is unusual is how America’s most profitable retailer, The Apple Store, trains its employees to communicate with customers to reduce the stress and frustration of shopping on Black Friday and other busy...
Best Buy Invests 50,000 Hours of Employee Training To Attract Windows 8 Customers
Many customers shopping for a new PC this holiday season will be surprised by the new look and feel of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. “Live tiles” are the centerpiece of the experience. The vivid and animated tiles fill the screen and are built for...
Apple Elevates Steve Jobs’ Spiritual Partner
Jonathan Ive can look at a sunflower and see a computer. That’s why I’m excited to hear that Apple has given more responsibility to its chief designer. The announcement takes place in the context of a major executive shakeup. This week Apple announced that Scott...
A Rockin’ Presentation: Microsoft Exec Brings Passion To The Surface
Microsoft’s new Surface tablet has been met with some mixed, but generally favorable reviews. The New York Times product reviewer, David Pogue, calls the operating system “smooth, beautiful, and fun to use.” A blogger for the technology Web site, The Verge, said...
Apple Execs Use Clever Statistics to Make iPad Mini a Big Deal
If I told you that the Apple iPad Mini was 7.2mm thin, would you be excited about it? Probably not. What if I told you that it was as thin as a pencil? The product suddenly becomes more interesting, doesn’t it? Apple spokespeople have all mastered a communications...
Richard Branson’s 5 Elements of a Perfect Pitch
When billionaire entrepreneur and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson had the idea of launching Virgin Atlantic, he pitched it to his fellow directors who had no previous experience in the airline business. He delivered the idea simply, concisely, and effectively....
Richard Branson: If It Can’t Fit On The Back Of An Envelope, It’s Rubbish (the Interview)
Richard Branson doesn’t care for PowerPoint. He prefers eye contact and conversation. Branson doesn’t have patience for long, confusing presentations. He prefers short and simple pitches, even if they’re written on a beer mat. Branson also disdains sterile conference...
Why Ben Affleck Should Be Your Wardrobe Consultant
When director/actor Ben Affleck promoted his new movie, Argo, on shows like Bill O’Reilly and Jimmy Kimmel Live, he wore sharp-looking suits and ties. When he appeared at more casual events he still wore suits and high-quality dress shirts, but he lost the tie....
Saleswoman Seeks Better Boss: Will Accept 50% Pay Cut
My wife’s friend, “Susan,” is frustrated with her CEO and is looking for a sales position at another company. Susan makes well into the six figures, but she is willing to leave her job and take a 50 percent cut in salary to work for a more inspiring leader. Susan’s...
Small Biz Owner Earns Millions By Adopting Steve Jobs Presentation Style
Two days after Steve Jobs died I appeared on ABC’s 20/20 to discuss the seven lessons I believe he taught all business leaders and entrepreneurs. Number seven was “master the message.” You can have great ideas but if you can’t deliver those ideas persuasively, it...
11 Presentation Lessons You Can Still Learn From Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs is still the word’s greatest corporate storyteller. I’ve seen plenty of talented speakers in the past year and I've written about many of them in this column but I have yet to find someone as good as Steve Jobs. This is why I have spent so many years...
3 Techniques That Made Romney Look More Prepared Than Obama
Who was better prepared for the first 2012 presidential debate? If you monitored Twitter like I did, the overwhelming opinion favored Republican Mitt Romney. I tried to do as subjective a search as possible and tracked the keyword “prepared” along with the hashtag...
What Arnold Schwarzenegger Taught Me About Building a Successful Career
It’s difficult to have a conversation about Arnold Schwarzenegger without talking about “the secret.” In his new book, Total Recall, Schwarzenegger reveals details about his affair and the child he kept secret from his wife, Maria Shriver. Since I strongly believe...
Ryder Cup Captain: ‘Believing Was The Most Important Thing.’
Like many golf fans, I was shocked at how the United States Ryder Cup team let a big lead slip away, allowing the European team to retain the title. The European golf stars were well behind the U.S team on Saturday night but they received a healthy dose of inspiration...
The Five Steps Apple Store Salespeople Take To Sell You An iPhone 5
Apple sold five million units of the iPhone 5 in its first weekend. No doubt most of those customers were eager to buy the new phone and didn't need a lot of convincing. But now the real salesmanship begins and Apple Store specialists (salespeople) will educate...
3 Traps to Kill Your Team’s Creativity
This week I had the opportunity to deliver a keynote presentation to a group of new car dealers in British Columbia. The conference was held at a unique resort called Sparkling Hill. Although it had spectacular views of the Okanagan valley from every room, I was...
Why Apple Uses 67 Characters To Describe The iPhone 5
How would you describe the iPhone 5 in one sentence? I’ve been monitoring Twitter for one week since the new phone was first introduced. Thousands of tweets use the same adjectives, almost as if one person had written it. The posts say the iPhone 5 is “thinner and...