Presentations are the lifeblood of a sales team. Each presentation is a chance to sell the brand, and an effective presentation will do just that.

Your presentation should be a "Simple, Concrete, Credible and Emotional Story." If it is, your impact will increase significantly.

Here are five tips to help you do so:

• Simple: Avoid jargon and corporate-speak. With attention spans shrinking, you need to speak in easy-to-grasp common English. Think of President Kennedy's simple and concrete space mission: Put a man on the moon and return him safely by the end of the decade.
• Concrete: Be specific; avoid generalities. Establish concrete goals and benchmarks to show what you plan to do and how. It's better to "open 10 new accounts" than to "increase sales", because details resonate with a listener.
• Credibility: What's essential to your audience believing your message? Is it a prior track-record or the skills with which to face the next challenge? Is it industry expertise or M&A experience? And when you present statistics, put them in perspective. Is a 13% increase in sales really good, when the goal was 18% and the team average was 21%?
• Emotion: Once people have established a fact-based framework, they make decisions based on emotions. You may have the best solution, but if there's no trust or confidence, you'll lose to your competitor.

  (That's why the lowest cost provider is usually not the winner!)

• Story: We're used to telling and hearing stories to make points and motivate action; that's our comfort-zone. So if the thought of "presenting" makes you anxious, think of it as "sharing a story" and you'll feel more comfortable.