A company’s story can’t be about convenience, low-cost, premium-value, and great selection.

A politician can’t talk about lowering taxes, increasing services, attacking bureaucracy, and reducing the deficit.

A Little League coach can’t preach health and fitness to his team and then sneak a cigarette while the kids are running laps.

I realize that it’s hard to take a stand, to tell people what they don’t want to hear. But it does no good to change your story to suit your audience. Sooner or later people will figure out that you don’t stand for anything at all, which means you’ll be gone tomorrow.

If you want to improve your presentation skills, there is no one better to study than Apple CEO Steve Jobs. His keynotes captivate audiences – and you can learn to do the same. Communications coach Carmine Gallo breaks down his methods in the video below.

Here is a summary of the Jobs presentation approach:

1. Create a headline that sets the theme. Make sure that it is clear and consistent throughout your presentation.
2. Provide an outline. Then open and close each section with a clear transition. This makes it easy for others to follow what you’re saying.
3. Generate enthusiasm. Nothing is worse than a listless presenter. Remember, great communicators don’t transfer words – they transfer emotion.
4. Make numbers meaningful. You should back up your points with numbers, and those numbers should be expressed in context.
5. Make it visual. Limit bullet points and text. The more data you put into each slide, the more likely it is the audience members will start checking their PDAs.
6. Create a memorable moment. Identify this ahead of time, then spend your presentation building up to it. Jobs is known for keeping audiences in suspense waiting for his “one more thing” – a traditional joke he makes before announcing the next big thing at the end of his keynotes.
7. Rehearse. No one – not even Steve Jobs – can pull off an intricate presentation with video clips and demonstrations without hours of rehearsal. If people are willing to invest time listening to you, then you ought to be willing to spend the time necessary to create a polished presentation.

There is another kind of follow-up that seems hard, but really isn’t. And since it takes place in moments other than when a sale is on the line, it’s much more powerful.

I’m not talking about generic thank you emails or satisfaction surveys. They’re boring, and do nothing to create customer loyalty or referrals. What I mean is someone from the company connects with the customer in meaningful way.

Let’s use an easy example: high-end restaurants. People aren’t dining out as much these days, and those that do are typically buying cheaper wine and ordering fewer courses. To lure customers in, many restaurants now offer value menus or run promotions. Fine. But the only time they follow-up with a customer is when confirming a reservation.

What if they decided to follow-up with patrons in a simple but unconventional* way? Someone from the restaurant could call to ask how dinner was the night before. Or the wait staff could send handwritten thank you cards to their customers. And if those doing the follow-up are empowered to resolve problems, than you’re much closer to establishing an emotional connection with your customers than you were before.

This small act is inexpensive, and chances are it will do more to generate repeat business and referrals than advertising ever will.

*This is unconventional for a restaurant, which is why it might work. The point here is that you need to figure out what is unconventional for your business and act on that.

It’s not what you think. What terrifies me is how people approach networking these days. In an age where the masses no longer exist and individualism is king, many still network as if it were a contest to see who gets the most business cards by the end of the night.

Part of the problem is nomenclature. Networking isn’t an event, it’s a process.

If you consider it too much trouble to build a network the right way, then it’s probably too much trouble to do business the right way as well. At least that’s how it looks from my perspective.

I experienced one of these the other night. I was engaged in small talk – in other words, nothing being discussed was going to alter the quality of my life. But small talk led to a colorful conversation, which quickly resulted in a difference of opinion. No big deal, right?   

Not exactly. In this case, our emotions were strong. And since the other person was my fiancées best friend, the stakes were a bit higher than if I were debating someone I had just met. While I’ll spare you the details, let’s just say we could have sold tickets to the first act.  

We didn’t make any progress in that initial round. I didn’t immediately realize why, but it turned out that something was missing from the conversation. We were both focused on what was important to us, and said nothing that mattered to the other person. Sound familiar? 

It should. Think about how companies communicate with employees, customers, and prospects. Seems to me that something is missing there as well. 

When employees complain about a management decision, are they frustrated with the actual decision or the way it was communicated? Do customers have issue with company “policy” or the fact that employees only know how to explain it from the firm’s perspective? And exactly how personalized is SPAM? Or that jingle that cost a fortune? 

The answers are obvious. So is the solution. Every interaction should be personal. 

That difficult conversation from the other night had a better second act. We both took a step back and thought about the other side. Then we sat down and talked again, this time from the other person’s perspective. Suddenly we were on the same page, so we hugged it out. 

If you want to get someone to consider your point of view, DON’T talk about what matters to you. No one cares. Instead, give them something useful (information, a story, etc.) that will matter to THEM. 

You can hug it out as well, but that’s optional.