She did it. I didn't.

One girl scored a home-run yesterday while this girl barely managed a bunt.


She did it! :)

How energizing to wake up this morning to hear that Hillary won 3 out of 4 of yeserday's Primaries. I think it's going to be a difficult case to make for her to win the nomination still and I would hate to see her win by scraping together delegates but I'm glad to see that she's not going out with a knockout blow.

I didn't. :(

I had a pretty important sales webinar yesterday for a big broker out east and, for a couple of reasons, I sort of bungled it. It wasn't an out-and-out disaster but it definitely wasn't my best performance. I've done a lot of these things now and have a pretty good patter down - I'm definitely not the world's most gifted salesperson but I know my product and I'm pretty good at building a rapport across the faceless virtual world with my prospect. Despite these things, I sort of fell apart because, for the first time, my boss was sitting in on the webinar with me.

This is totally my problem, not hers. She's a wonderful, gifted person and I certainly have no fears that she'll deliver bruising critiques on my performance. BUT she's a great presenter and a naturally gifted sales person and her opinion matters a lot to me. Knowing this, my usually relaxed, confident presentation style disappeared and in it's place emerged a stumbling, bumbling, amateur who just was trying too hard.

Instead of letting the product speak for itself and confidently selling it's benefits, I practically beat the prospect over the head with our comparisons against the competitio - I'm pretty sure I came across as just a little desperate and as if I was making excuses for our product (which admittedly has some improvements to make in some areas to stand up to one competitor's product - but then it's my job to get past those). I missed benefits, I lost flow, I developed nervous 'repetitive phrases' (I can't remember what it was now but I know I kept repeating the same thing and couldn't stop), I failed to move the meeting forward and got stuck on questions.... in short I did many of the things that I critique other webinar presenters for doing.

I was so disappointed in myself. Not only did I miss a key oppportunity to make a good first impression with this client, I left my boss with the impression that I've been giving 3rd-rate webinars for the past 12 months. I know, if I was her, I would be thinking: Wow, how much more business would we have closed if she could improve this webinar?

I spent all morning being determined to pretend this was just any other webinar, that I wouldn't think about her being there, and then failed to pull it off. I hate that. And it's just plain stupid - it's a self-created phobia based upon nothing truly solid - I can do it, I've been doing it for a year, and I like my boss. What the hell is my problem!?