General Consultant Discussion

Oh, and how such a large company as Sage can put 3 keynote speakers in front of such an influential audience with absolutely the worst presentation skills is beyond me. And just as a note, when you're in a presentation or demo and you get to the end, don't use a slide or visual with ""Questions"" or ""?s""...or what the Sage folks had up during Q&A. Their slide was up a good 15 minutes (it was a one liner that had to do with a step of some sort)...which is my point. The last slide tends to stay up the longest of any slide in your presentation, especially a Q&A session. If you're going to use a visual aid, have it say something like benefits of doing business with your firm or benefits of whatever you're presenting. ""Questions"" doesn't really say anything. Sorry to vent. My therapist says it's healthy for me to get my pet peeves off my chest!

That's one of the features and benefits of 90 Minds - a safe place to vent!

Good tip!

You need to go out and hit a few golf balls @BobTobey !

And drink a few beers!

@BobTobey Did @GaryFeldman delegate the venting to you this year? :-) Having been the primary liaison with Sage, the process was definitely a good example of herding cats. Rob and Kerry became default guys because no one else was available apparently, and I know they were not excited about getting the nod on this. It's not like there are not good people in the organization that could have done this presentation. The biggest issue was that CEO Circle conflicted with our conference, so anyone higher up than Dianna Lane was unavailable. If Scott Ehmen had been at MOTM, I know he would not have let this come off the way it did. They also did not have upper management involvement in the planning and making sure this came off properly. I started by meeting with Nancy Harris and Connie Certusi in Atlanta, and they delegated it to Kerstin Demko - Director of Marketing (there is no Marketing VP currently as far as I know). She then delegated to her people to find people to present. In retrospect, I (we) should have created the detail of what we wanted to see and reviewed what they were going to present according to that. I made a big assumption that they were mature enough to understand the importance of this group and to give us a presentation that was appropriate. I'm not completely certain that Sage can improve next year, although only a little more effort would top this performance. I plan to communicate with the same people I started with, assuming they are still there, to determine if they are committed to this.

OK, we can fix part of this. CEO Circle for 2017 e-mail just came out and that will be February 5 - 9, 2018. No excuses for them, since we will either be later in February as usual or possibly later.

I liked the payroll 2.0 presentation. I thought Steve Malmgren and Kent Makall did a fine job. The Sage 100 road map was OK. Basically the same slide we have seen before several times. Linda Cade knows the product well and is one of the few Sage employees that has been through the war for many years.

Bob when I worked at Sage, one of my roles ironically was a presentation skills coach. I relate very much to how you feel with pet peeves on this subject. On morning of Day 1, I was cringing watching my old co-worker not have his wireless lav mic set close enough which then left his voice fluttering and distracted everyone from the messaging. He was nervous too until he did the Abbott and Costello bit which was funny but a bit odd to see. I wish I could've helped him. He's actually a great fun guy and has partial Tony Robbins type potential as a speaker. But overall like John Hoyt I was wondering why bigger names other than Dianna Lane weren't there. The presentations from Steve and Kent were fine and very relevant and well received. But from the product mgmt and executive mgmt side, I think we were treated as an important large group of partners but could've been treated as a strategic, influential group of partners, something just as important as BPAC.

I agree, Payroll 2.0 was very well presented, but 90 Minds specifically asked for that session, content and presenter.

I want to thank @JohnHoyt for 'herding the cats' for the Sage session and @MichelleTaylor1 for working with Diane Coffman for the PR 2.0 session. Many, many thanks!!!

Just to be clear, I didn't have a problem with the titles of the people that showed up and didn't have a problem with the content. Most large companies, GE, Toshiba, etc., provide a presentation coach for their executives and practice before standing in front of a group to present, especially for people who don't present as part of their job description. That's all I'm saying plus providing a presentation tip. Oh and @AlnoorCassim...the wrong guys was holding the bat!

Overall it was great to have Sage participating, especially as a paid sponsor of the event. I agree with the comments but also think Dianna Lane was a great representative for Sage to have. She was straighforward and even called us her customer! I thought Sage 2.0 was far superior to the previous presnetation because it was more tangible and because the presenters were actually listening to our suggestions. It took Dianna's intervention to get the show of hands for a web interface and there was tremendous resistance when we all scoffed at the automated download and installation of any product. As well as people may know the Sage 100 product they will not be good presenters or developers without getting out of their ivory tower and listening to the feet on the street.

I agree that Dianna was a great representative. She told us she plans on being there for a long time, so let's support her so she does. Longevity and consistency make all the difference.

I emailed Dianna to ask abut the Demo program she mentioned and the MDF funds for training. The Demo program is still a work in process, but she was very fast to respond.

I'd rather have a bad speaker who is responsible for the product. That said, Diane Coffman can really whip up a crowd. She ought to MC for the others and ask ""Who wants Sage Anywhere!? Whaat?! I can't hear you!

@BobTobey - Hasn't your therapist drilled it into your head that if you are supposed to take your meds every 12 hours that you take your meds EVERY twelve hours. Yes, you may feel great after the meet and greet Thursday night but this is not a good reason to skip your next round. Bad karma at Sage presentation will happen every time!!!! Even if you are NOT singing Bad Moon Rising at karaoke. Dianna was great, but the big question is whether she will return next year. With the exception of the coders and support techs, no one seems to last very long any more. Take a look at the link below find the ones still with us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFZ5FVF_xLs

Smiling faces in Irvine - I can tell that's 6 years ago.