In financial services, portfolio managers are often asked by business development personnel to step into a meeting with a potential investor and explain what they do. And the PMs often think their job is to inform. They need to think again.

As a portfolio manager, your job is to build trust and lower the sense of risk for the investor. You need to present your process as reliable, cost-effective, and efficient, one that offers benefits to the investor.  In short, you need to sell your process. 

You don’t need to be salesy.  You need to be you—wonky and quanty—but you need to communicate that you believe in the value of your process. 

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.  Sign up for our presentation tips and learn more about us at http://www.simswyeth.com/.

Good manners are inherently persuasive, but not at the start of your presentation.

Why? Because displaying your manners at the start is predictable, and people don’t pay much attention to the predictable, the pro forma, and the perfunctory. What draws their attention is the unexpected.

So begin your presentation with a bang. Say or do something surprising. Then, once you’ve captured your listeners’ attention, display your good manners when they are least expected.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.  Sign up for our presentation tips and learn more about us at http://www.simswyeth.com/.

The President of Avon told me a story. One of her VPs boasted that he was very selective when admitting new Avon Ladies to his division. She said she disagreed with him.

“Quality comes from quantity,” she told me. “No one can predict who will be the next big winner. We should admit them all, see how they do, and in a while, we’ll find the gems.”

Accept every invitation to present. Seek out opportunities to speak. The more you speak to groups, the stronger you become, and the closer you get to that golden moment of mastery.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.  Sign up for our presentation tips and learn more about us at http://www.simswyeth.com/.