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Chris Davidson's Competitive Difference Archives
We regularly email our free "Chris Davidson's Competitive Difference" tips, techniques, or strategies about "the business of speaking".
CDCD's are short, to the point, and cover a wide range of subjects. Use the sign-up form on the right to subscribe to CDCD tips. We value your right to privacy and we will never sell or share your email address with others, nor will we ever send you spam. Unsubscribe instructions are included with every email.
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Are you solving the right problems for your customers? (CDCD Volume 3, Issue 5)
Chris Davidson
If you're running a wildly successful business then you'll be solving lots of your customers' problems. Problems that have acquired a sufficient status in their lives that they're willing to attribute a value to their solution. If you're running a rather more modest, 'ho-hum' sort of business, still dreaming of wild success, then there is a number of possibilities: You have a good solution to your customers' problems, but your marketing isn't as good as it ought to be. You're solving the right problems for your customers, but actually you're not doing it as well as your competition - your offering just isn't technically that good. You have a solution to problems that your customers (by and large) simply don't have (or don't recognise they have). Of course, none of these possibilities is mutually exclusive, which just goes to add to the general confusion that exists in getting a successful business off the ground and keeping it flying over the long term. . . . keep reading
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Things you can do when times are tough - part one (CDCD Volume 3, Issue 3)
Chris Davidson
It is possible to acknowledge reality, without buying into its consequences. My Mum used to describe it as being in the world, without necessarily being part of it. What do I mean by this? I mean that it ought to be pretty obvious to any business owner right now that times are tough. However, that doesn't mean you have a ready excuse for slack behaviour or rubbish business results. Don't buy into the gloom and doom that's going around. Here's stuff you can do to get your business on a growth path, even through tough times. . . . keep reading
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Tracking Business - Great CRM System (CDCD Vol 3, issue 2)
Chris Davidson
This week's CDCD has a specific technology focus, as related to your marketing efforts. I want to focus on Peter Drucker's comment, "The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer". This is true and sounds simple enough, so why do so many companies find it so difficult? I believe the answer lies in their unwillingness to take absolutely massive action and I mean... ...massive action . . . keep reading
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Attracting New Clients - Review (CDCD Vol 3 Issue 1)
Chris Davidson
I'll open this first "Competitive Difference" broadcast of 2010 by wishing you all an abundance of peace and prosperity for the coming year. However, just because I wish it for you, doesn't mean it'll come to pass. You make your own peace and your own prosperity. These are, of course very different notions and so it makes sense to deal with one at a time. In the last broadcast of last year (Volume 2, Issue 50) I set you some homework - let's kick the year off by reviewing it. I prefaced the task by saying that, "Somebody, somewhere, needs what you sell and your job is to find him or her and put forward a winning argument for your stuff being bought in favour of anything else that's competing for the budget at the time." The overall objective was to help you create a strategy for nurturing your clients throughout 2010. . . . keep reading
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Why headlines aren't just for newspapers (CDCD Vol 2 Issue 49)
Chris Davidson
Why headlines aren't just for newspapers In a hurry? Want to quickly find out what's going on in the world? Scan the newspaper headlines and move on. Got some time to spare? Scan the headlines, select an article that looks interesting and settle down to read it. We all do it; it's an established way for us to process information. You should structure your presentations in the exactly the same way. . . . keep reading
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Why speaking is like driving - a codicil (CDCD, Volume 2, Issue 48)
Chris Davidson
The previous two broadcasts used driving as a metaphor for explaining the two major errors I've observed in people speaking in public - namely insufficient thought giving to structure and planning, along with inappropriate breathing technique when actually performing. Both broadcasts triggered quite a few emails from you and so I'm following up this week with a codicil to collect together the commentary and questions raised. . . . keep reading
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Why speaking is like driving (part 2) - CDCD, Volume 2, Issue 47
Chris Davidson
The second of two broadcasts addressing the two most common errors I see people make when presenting. Last week I wrote about the sin of poor structure, resulting in material that's too cryptic, too inaccessible, too complex and unable to simply answer the audience's main question of "What's in it for me?" This week I'm addressing poor breathing technique, which often results a message the audience can't hear, or can't understand. . . . keep reading
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Why speaking is like driving - part one (CDCD Vol 2, Issue 46)
Chris Davidson
Over the next two weeks I'd like to highlight the two most common errors I see people make when presenting - be it to their clients, suppliers, staff, industry peers, whomever - these errors seem to be omnipresent. I'll illustrate their seriousness by drawing a comparison with learning how to drive. The two errors are: 1) Lack of structure 2) Inappropriate breathing technique . . . keep reading
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How to dramatically improve your PowerPoint slides (CDCD Vol 2, issue 45)
Chris Davidson
I know I've written on this topic before, however recent experience forces me to put pen to paper (digit to keyboard?) again. We are all very familiar with the oft repeat quote that "a picture paints a thousand words" and I cannot understand why this sound advice seems to get thrown out of the window (along with common sense, the baby and the bath water) once PowerPoint comes into the picture (no pun intended). Microsoft did a wonderful job in creating PowerPoint (and I fully acknowledge that the trademark for this product belongs to them). PowerPoint is a "business graphics" package (stress on "graphics") and I wish people would use it as that and not as a "word processor with big fonts". . . . keep reading
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How to increase website response rates (CDCD Vol 2, Issue 44)
Chris Davidson
Doubtless you have a website and use it as one of several means of communicating with your target market. (By the way, if you're one of the remaining minority of businesses that still doesn't have a significant web presence, then pause reading right here, take a good, hard look at yourself in a mirror and repeat these words, "It is the 21st Century and it's time I stopped behaving as if it were the 19th. Setting up a blog costs me next to nothing, so I have no valid reason or excuse for my continuing procrastination.") Those of you with a website will have realised long ago that it's all about content. Sure, design is important, but as audiences become more and more web-savvy they are becoming more accepting of design variations and more critical of rubbish content. This week I want to give you some simple "content-tweaks" to help you increase the response rates you are getting from your website. . . . keep reading
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Speaking with the brain in mind (CDCD Volume 2, Issue 41)
Chris Davidson
Speaking with the brain in mind This week I want to review some excellent research done by an expert speaker colleague of mine from The Netherlands, Frowa Schuitemaker. Frowa is very interested in highly efficient communication and how our brains actually remember material, (while other material is apparently discarded). Frowa would love to have some more input on her research - a summary of which appears below (with her permission, of course). . . . keep reading
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Speaking so the brain listens (CDCD, Vol 2, Issue 43)
Chris Davidson
This week I want to return to the work of my friend and colleague, Frowa Schuitemaker, a professional speaker from The Netherlands and member of the Professional Speakers Association Holland. Frowa has created a seven step process for more effective speaking, called: "Speaking with the brain in mind" The steps are based on research conducted into the brain activity of normal people when they are listening, learning and experiencing certain emotions. Integrating these steps into how you communicate with your audience will make you a more effective communicator. . . . keep reading
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How often do you ask for what you want? (CDCD Vol 2, Issue 42)
Chris Davidson's Competitive Difference
This week I want to remind you of a scene from a movie and use the simple, fictional, story it tells to put a spotlight on why you might not always be getting what you want. For those of you too impatient to read the story, the evidence points to one thing: You're not asking for what you want You're waffling around, here, there, everywhere but addressing the issue. . . . keep reading
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What do you do wrong (part 1)? (Impact Improver, Vol 2 Issue 39)
No doubt you're busy marketing your business and no doubt you believe that you've thought through your marketing plan clearly, logically and sensibly. I'm willing to bet there're some things you're doing that are plain wrong. Have a read of what follows and be honest with yourself. Nobody else needs to know how you respond to the points below. As long as you know and do something about it - that's what counts. . . . keep reading
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