Get your act together – literally

The discipline of video rehearsal is a game changer for sales, presenters

Public speaking is one of peoples’ greatest fears. And when confronted with the prospect of getting in front of an audience or delivering an important sales pitch, we all tend to have the same response: obsessive mental rehearsal.

Whether in front of a mirror, while driving or pacing across a room, we run through the things we want to say, over and over again, until we have some semblance of comfort that we won’t screw up and fall on our faces with everyone watching.

Getting it half right

But there’s a problem with that approach: it’s wholly self-focused. Amid all of our “I’ll say this… and then I’ll say this…” ruminations, we take for granted that the gems that come out of our mouths will enthrall our audience.

And as anyone who’s been on the receiving end of a public performance can tell you – that’s no sure thing. Sometimes, seemingly minor things like personal mannerisms can derail an otherwise strong presentation.

We had an associate who unconsciously rolled his eyes upward as he performed his mental script. To the disconcerted audience – who saw just the whites of his eyes and no irises – he appeared to be a talking zombie!

Taking mental shortcuts

The other problem with purely mental rehearsal is that it doesn’t fully articulate what we plan to say. Unless you’re actually speaking it aloud, it’s very hard to force yourself to put your thoughts into complete sentences.

Instead we deal at the outline level: “First I’ll talk about their problem, blah blah blah, then I’ll talk about how our company started, and how that relates to their problem, blah blah blah…”

The weakness of this rehearsal approach is apparent when it comes to putting all those blah blah blahs into actual words. It’s like, well… no rehearsal at all.

Doing a video recording of yourself giving the presentation is an answer. Not only do you have the benefit of actually putting everything into words, but you also have a complete record of your manner of presentation, which is the starting point for making real progress.

Benefiting from an objective view

Most of us would agree that witnessing our performance objectively, from the point of view of the audience, would only enhance its quality – but few of us recognize just how much.

This however is one of the biggest items of feedback we’ve heard from Allego users: that by recording and reviewing rehearsal videos of their sales pitches and presentations, they are able to make huge improvements to the quality. Perhaps even more importantly, their self-confidence skyrockets as a result.

It’s not uncommon for people to feel a bit uneasy when they record themselves for the first time, fearing they’ll dread the video that results. This of course might be the very best reason to take the plunge: shouldn’t our basic expectation be that we’ll come across great on video?

And what we find with Allego clients is exactly that: after just a few practice videos, even the most Negative Nicks are converted into true believers. “Priceless” is a common piece of feedback we hear as sales people and others enhance their ability to connect with their audience, improving their eye contact, pacing, message delivery and more.

Benefiting from one’s peers

Allego also has unique features built-in to optimize the power of video rehearsal. It allows for easy sharing of user-generated videos between teammates, and organizes feedback from multiple viewers to provide clear advice on how best to improve the performance.

One Allego customer used this feature to upgrade the caliber of its global sales force. All sales people were required to learn the new, three-tiered messaging strategy and present it via video. Each sales person had to demonstrate mastery of the first tier – improving their video performance based on feedback – before they could advance to the second, and then again to the third tiers.

Within just a few weeks, they had achieved full competence across the sales force – both in terms of mastery of the messaging, but also the ability to present the messages to prospects in a powerful way.

So, when it comes to improving the caliber of your presentations, we have just two words: Click record.