After credibility and empathy, Persuasion is last.
After the audience and client believe you know enough to help them, and that you also care enough to help them with their problems, you have to persuade them to take action.
For each point you want to make, have at least one convincing element. This is a data point or set, a story, a testimonial, or example; whatever proof source makes sense that will show why your key point is important. Don't just say it - prove, illustrate or explain it. Make the connections between what you are advocating and your client's problem. To see your value, don't make them work any harder than they have to.
When choosing proof sources, unless you are dealing with a single person you know well, mix them up. More likely, your audience will be made up of different people who look for different kinds of proof.
Some people like facts and figures. Have some ready.
Some people like testimonials, analogies, success stories about others who have used your product or service. Have these ready too.
This way, everyone listening will have something to hang their hat on that makes your persuasive argument.
Finally, ask them to do something. Buy your product, agree to a next meeting, and make a recommendation . Give a direction that will bring them closer to solving their problem. It is good also if they disagree. You can discover what next step they want to make.
The three steps in persuasion are creating credibility, demonstrating empathy and being persuasive
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Empathy next
There is more to credibility than knowing enough. You have to care enough.
Remember “There’s Something About Mary”? Matt Dillon shows empathy and wins the attention of Cameron Diaz by sharing how he loves working with mentally disabled kids ("Those goofy bastards are about the best thing I've got going.") proving he understands her situation with her own disabled brother. That he is lying makes the whole thing fated to fail and funny.
In addition to knowing enough to help with your customers business problems, you need the perception that you care enough about your customer to help them with their problems. And what else? You really do need to really care. You have to be sincere.
I had a customer who was asked by my competitor's sales rep to cover for lies on the rep’s expense report. Do you think that rep was ever trusted by that customer?
I doubt it.
Empathy understands how the customer feels. It is giving up your judgments, your answers and interruptions. It is putting on their shoes and imagining “what if this were me…”
Show this by listening, sharing and clarifying.
Listen without interruption.
Share your feelings, and clarify by repeating, in your own words, what you understand about their situation.
These things prove you care and understand.
Repeating what you heard and understand is probably the easiest and most beneficial thing you can do to prove your empathy. But using your own words is important. Avoid being a parrot.
When I give my children instructions, to confirm I sometimes ask “now, what will you do?” If they just repeat my words back to me, I suspect they really do not understand, do not care, nor plan to do what I asked. But, if they tell me in their own words how they will do what I ask, then I know they understand.
Yes, do this consciously, and be sincere. You will win the customer’s trust. If not, like Matt Dillon, you lose the girl.
Remember “There’s Something About Mary”? Matt Dillon shows empathy and wins the attention of Cameron Diaz by sharing how he loves working with mentally disabled kids ("Those goofy bastards are about the best thing I've got going.") proving he understands her situation with her own disabled brother. That he is lying makes the whole thing fated to fail and funny.
In addition to knowing enough to help with your customers business problems, you need the perception that you care enough about your customer to help them with their problems. And what else? You really do need to really care. You have to be sincere.
I had a customer who was asked by my competitor's sales rep to cover for lies on the rep’s expense report. Do you think that rep was ever trusted by that customer?
I doubt it.
Empathy understands how the customer feels. It is giving up your judgments, your answers and interruptions. It is putting on their shoes and imagining “what if this were me…”
Show this by listening, sharing and clarifying.
Listen without interruption.
Share your feelings, and clarify by repeating, in your own words, what you understand about their situation.
These things prove you care and understand.
Repeating what you heard and understand is probably the easiest and most beneficial thing you can do to prove your empathy. But using your own words is important. Avoid being a parrot.
When I give my children instructions, to confirm I sometimes ask “now, what will you do?” If they just repeat my words back to me, I suspect they really do not understand, do not care, nor plan to do what I asked. But, if they tell me in their own words how they will do what I ask, then I know they understand.
Yes, do this consciously, and be sincere. You will win the customer’s trust. If not, like Matt Dillon, you lose the girl.
Credibility First
Without credibility, no one cares.
Credibility is the customer’s perception that you have the knowledge and experience to help them with their business problems.
Create credibility for yourself by sharing your experience and past success with customers or your presentation audience. This is not boasting, it is demonstrating you know what you are talking about. Even if you do not have experience in their specific industry, talk about how you successfully solved problems similar to theirs. For example, all small businesses have challenges in marketing themselves, or finding and keeping good talent. These problems are the same whether they are caterers or insurance agents.
Share common experiences you have with your audience. If you have worked with people in their industry, tell them. If you like the local food, history or the weather, tell them. This builds connections with your audience. Share with them who you are, so they have a reason to listen and believe you.
Dress and behave as the audience expects. Aim to be a bit better dressed than your audience, but not so much that you stand out as “the suit”. When I was making sales calls throughout New Mexico as a company representative, some customers wore business suits, many more were casual. I wore a suit and tie. But the suit jacket stayed in the car during summer visits to rural and “Mom & Pop” business customers. I kept the suit but removed the tie in cooler months. When my company endorsed a casual business dress code, I would wear a golf shirt, but made sure it was branded with my company logo, and I wore dress slacks, not chinos. How else would they tell me apart from their customers!? Some speakers and facilitators create a “brand” by wearing only black. This also makes it easier to pack for travel.
Don’t know what your audience might be like?
Do your preparation work and ask someone. Talk to someone who will be in your audience, or someone who knows your audience. Find a person of influence with your audience and ask them what you should expect to see and hear, and what you need to do to be seen as credible. Use such a decision-maker to create credibility for yourself by asking them to introduce you and give the reasons why they chose to work with you.
Lisa B Marshall does a great concise job of describing this audience discovery process in detail. Check it out for examples of specific questions to ask.
The danger in doing this is looking like an arrogant bastard. Nobody likes to tell you their challenges only to be matched by your even greater accomplishments. If I tell you how I broke my leg, don’t tell me about how you broke two legs and still out-swam a shark.
To prevent this maintain empathy and a focus on the customer. Keep their concerns the topic, not yours. Your stories should always serve to highlight your customers concerns, never out shine them.
Credibility is the customer’s perception that you have the knowledge and experience to help them with their business problems.
Create credibility for yourself by sharing your experience and past success with customers or your presentation audience. This is not boasting, it is demonstrating you know what you are talking about. Even if you do not have experience in their specific industry, talk about how you successfully solved problems similar to theirs. For example, all small businesses have challenges in marketing themselves, or finding and keeping good talent. These problems are the same whether they are caterers or insurance agents.
Share common experiences you have with your audience. If you have worked with people in their industry, tell them. If you like the local food, history or the weather, tell them. This builds connections with your audience. Share with them who you are, so they have a reason to listen and believe you.
Dress and behave as the audience expects. Aim to be a bit better dressed than your audience, but not so much that you stand out as “the suit”. When I was making sales calls throughout New Mexico as a company representative, some customers wore business suits, many more were casual. I wore a suit and tie. But the suit jacket stayed in the car during summer visits to rural and “Mom & Pop” business customers. I kept the suit but removed the tie in cooler months. When my company endorsed a casual business dress code, I would wear a golf shirt, but made sure it was branded with my company logo, and I wore dress slacks, not chinos. How else would they tell me apart from their customers!? Some speakers and facilitators create a “brand” by wearing only black. This also makes it easier to pack for travel.
Don’t know what your audience might be like?
Do your preparation work and ask someone. Talk to someone who will be in your audience, or someone who knows your audience. Find a person of influence with your audience and ask them what you should expect to see and hear, and what you need to do to be seen as credible. Use such a decision-maker to create credibility for yourself by asking them to introduce you and give the reasons why they chose to work with you.
Lisa B Marshall does a great concise job of describing this audience discovery process in detail. Check it out for examples of specific questions to ask.
The danger in doing this is looking like an arrogant bastard. Nobody likes to tell you their challenges only to be matched by your even greater accomplishments. If I tell you how I broke my leg, don’t tell me about how you broke two legs and still out-swam a shark.
To prevent this maintain empathy and a focus on the customer. Keep their concerns the topic, not yours. Your stories should always serve to highlight your customers concerns, never out shine them.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
It Is All About You
Chris Atherton talks about the single rule to follow when giving a presentation - manage audience attention. Audience attention should follow you.
Once you have audience attention, you can then delegate it to a slide, a prop, or someone else in the audience. Have the audience pay attention to whatever it is you want them to look at and listen to so that you make your point.
I say “you” because, when you are a presenter, it truly is “all about you”. This is the time to be needy and controlling, about your audience’s attention.
We are still biological beings, and we watch things that move because they might be food or make us food. For the same reasons we still watch shiny objects, like a TV screen or projected slide. We watch shiny things at the exclusion of things less important at the time, like the presenter, maybe?
So it is no wonder then that an audience will look at a slide left up on the screen long after you have finished talking about it. It is there - we cannot help but look at it! The result of this habit is to deflect audience attention away from us. Which means they do not recieve our full message.
While presenting, follow this rule: manage audience attention!
Use the B button or remote to black out a screen after you have used the slide to make your point. Thus audience attention is directed back to you so they hear your key point.
When showing a slide, stand with the screen to stage left, (Your left while facing the audience. Not being an actor, I got stage left or stage right confused. Not anymore. I looked it up.)
After you show the slide and explain its contents, move forward towards the audience and blackout the slide. This directs attention back to you, not the slide behind you.
When using a gesture like “raise your hands if you like chocolate chip cookies”, make the gesture big enough for everyone to see and understand that they too should raise their hands for chocolate chip cookies. Extend your arm straight up over your head. It gets attention and is more credible too.
Move purposefully, not aimlessly. Stand grounded to make one point, then move across the stage and become grounded to make your second point. Grounded means both feet on the floor with your weight even over them.
When presenting, the only rule to follow is: make sure the audience follows you.
Once you have audience attention, you can then delegate it to a slide, a prop, or someone else in the audience. Have the audience pay attention to whatever it is you want them to look at and listen to so that you make your point.
I say “you” because, when you are a presenter, it truly is “all about you”. This is the time to be needy and controlling, about your audience’s attention.
We are still biological beings, and we watch things that move because they might be food or make us food. For the same reasons we still watch shiny objects, like a TV screen or projected slide. We watch shiny things at the exclusion of things less important at the time, like the presenter, maybe?
So it is no wonder then that an audience will look at a slide left up on the screen long after you have finished talking about it. It is there - we cannot help but look at it! The result of this habit is to deflect audience attention away from us. Which means they do not recieve our full message.
While presenting, follow this rule: manage audience attention!
Use the B button or remote to black out a screen after you have used the slide to make your point. Thus audience attention is directed back to you so they hear your key point.
When showing a slide, stand with the screen to stage left, (Your left while facing the audience. Not being an actor, I got stage left or stage right confused. Not anymore. I looked it up.)
After you show the slide and explain its contents, move forward towards the audience and blackout the slide. This directs attention back to you, not the slide behind you.
When using a gesture like “raise your hands if you like chocolate chip cookies”, make the gesture big enough for everyone to see and understand that they too should raise their hands for chocolate chip cookies. Extend your arm straight up over your head. It gets attention and is more credible too.
Move purposefully, not aimlessly. Stand grounded to make one point, then move across the stage and become grounded to make your second point. Grounded means both feet on the floor with your weight even over them.
When presenting, the only rule to follow is: make sure the audience follows you.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Make Every Bullet Count
Bullet points are things that we take for granted, and they blot our presentations. I had debates with a co-worker about whether my presentation bullet points should have periods. He said they should, I said they were not sentences, so they should not. I realize now that I had bullets that were sentences and some that were not. I shot myself with my own bullets.
The PowerPoint Ninja Blog has a useful how-to series on creating and using effective Bullet Points. It is a practical guide to these small but important phrases we all use. They give many ideas to think about, and use, in your presentations.
In tactical presentations where you are advocating a solution based upon data, examples and evidence, bullets may be hard to avoid, and really, it is ok to use them. Just avoid the issues described in the Ninja’s blog. It would be hard to do an”image-only” PowerPoint in this context. Think “business review”.
I advocate the use of images along with a bullet point, one per slide.
I like to “build” my slides if I have several points that, when put together, explain a concept. Do a build by animating the bullet points using animations so that they appear on a click. as you speak. This way the audience is not confused by a busy unexplained slide, allowing you to introduce each idea one at a time.
I do not use a bullet graphic, the little symbol, dot or dash in front of the bullet. Avoid them when you can. You can use numbers if the bullet points are steps in a process, or part of a to-do list. If you keep to a minimalist 4x4 or less rule (no more than 4 bullet points and no more than 4 words each line) you really do not need to illustrate each line.
Finally, avoid “carriage returns” (some may not know what this phrase from typewriter days means), or continuing a bullet point on a second line. If that is happening, you need to edit and keep key words (Ninja covers this too) or make more room on your slide. Do not, in any case, let Power point automatically reduce the font size so the bullet point fits in the text box.
Don’t shoot yourself, or your audience, with machine-gun bullets. Make every bullet count.
The PowerPoint Ninja Blog has a useful how-to series on creating and using effective Bullet Points. It is a practical guide to these small but important phrases we all use. They give many ideas to think about, and use, in your presentations.
In tactical presentations where you are advocating a solution based upon data, examples and evidence, bullets may be hard to avoid, and really, it is ok to use them. Just avoid the issues described in the Ninja’s blog. It would be hard to do an”image-only” PowerPoint in this context. Think “business review”.
I advocate the use of images along with a bullet point, one per slide.
I like to “build” my slides if I have several points that, when put together, explain a concept. Do a build by animating the bullet points using animations so that they appear on a click. as you speak. This way the audience is not confused by a busy unexplained slide, allowing you to introduce each idea one at a time.
I do not use a bullet graphic, the little symbol, dot or dash in front of the bullet. Avoid them when you can. You can use numbers if the bullet points are steps in a process, or part of a to-do list. If you keep to a minimalist 4x4 or less rule (no more than 4 bullet points and no more than 4 words each line) you really do not need to illustrate each line.
Finally, avoid “carriage returns” (some may not know what this phrase from typewriter days means), or continuing a bullet point on a second line. If that is happening, you need to edit and keep key words (Ninja covers this too) or make more room on your slide. Do not, in any case, let Power point automatically reduce the font size so the bullet point fits in the text box.
Don’t shoot yourself, or your audience, with machine-gun bullets. Make every bullet count.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Jump In!
I am often asked by participants in my "UPFRONT" presentations skills class, "how do you want me to start?" I answer "just jump right into it!"
A good compelling open should be without any preface - just start telling the story! Do not lose the advantage of surprise and interest you hold at the beginning of any presentation.
Avoid happy-to-be-here, i-am-not-sure-why-I-was-asked-to-speak, I-just-found-out-about-this-yesterday, boy-am-i-nervous, ok-let's-get-started...ok-lets-get-started...ok-hello-my-name-is....
You know what I mean - drop all that stuff.
Jump right into the story like a good first line of a novel: "It was a dark and stormy night..." well, how about "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." or just: "I was talking to Bill, here in the audience, just now, and he said...."
Everybody will want to know what he said and what it has to do with you. Now you got'em.
Peter Jeff writes pointedly about your opening being a "a splash of cold water" for your audience. While that sounds uncomfortable, it is accurate. Your open should be compelling, grabbing the audience's attention from the get-go, getting them to quiet down, end conversations, put away PDA's, look and listen to you. Shock them into attentive submission.
I am asked if we should start with a joke, a story, a graph? The answer is whatever makes a clear benefit statement to your audience, that is also connected to your content. The goal is to raise the audience's curiosity, their desire to hear more from you. A joke that has nothing to do with your topic may be funny, but does not take advantage of the high attention you have in the first 15 seconds. Use that time to grab their attention, hold it, and preview the value of your topic.
Jump right in! The water is great!
A good compelling open should be without any preface - just start telling the story! Do not lose the advantage of surprise and interest you hold at the beginning of any presentation.
Avoid happy-to-be-here, i-am-not-sure-why-I-was-asked-to-speak, I-just-found-out-about-this-yesterday, boy-am-i-nervous, ok-let's-get-started...ok-lets-get-started...ok-hello-my-name-is....
You know what I mean - drop all that stuff.
Jump right into the story like a good first line of a novel: "It was a dark and stormy night..." well, how about "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." or just: "I was talking to Bill, here in the audience, just now, and he said...."
Everybody will want to know what he said and what it has to do with you. Now you got'em.
Peter Jeff writes pointedly about your opening being a "a splash of cold water" for your audience. While that sounds uncomfortable, it is accurate. Your open should be compelling, grabbing the audience's attention from the get-go, getting them to quiet down, end conversations, put away PDA's, look and listen to you. Shock them into attentive submission.
I am asked if we should start with a joke, a story, a graph? The answer is whatever makes a clear benefit statement to your audience, that is also connected to your content. The goal is to raise the audience's curiosity, their desire to hear more from you. A joke that has nothing to do with your topic may be funny, but does not take advantage of the high attention you have in the first 15 seconds. Use that time to grab their attention, hold it, and preview the value of your topic.
Jump right in! The water is great!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
What will the audience want to know?
Becky Blanton, in Six Minutes says so many right things about presentations,and about sales, I am not sure where to begin. So I will begin where she began when preparing for her talk. It is the question every presenter and salesperson should ask themselves:
If I were in the audience, what would I want to know about me?
This is the classic "Ben Duffy" technique.
Put yourself in the customer's shoes and anticipate their questions, concerns and wondering. Then prepare answers to those questions, and present back to your audience with the phrase "I am sure you are wondering... how I can help you if I am new to your business...."
If you do this in a sales call, wait for them to confirm that, yes indeed, they were wondering about that. Then give them your answer.
For both sales calls and presentations, my advice is to do this only when you are reasonably sure that the question or concern exists. You do not want to create concerns that did not exist before you spoke!
If you are new to the customer or audience, do this by speaking to someone who knows them before your meeting or talk. Identify an influential member of your audience and interview them to discover their concerns. Do your preparation.
Read Becky's blog - she is right on about how she started and so much more.
If I were in the audience, what would I want to know about me?
This is the classic "Ben Duffy" technique.
Put yourself in the customer's shoes and anticipate their questions, concerns and wondering. Then prepare answers to those questions, and present back to your audience with the phrase "I am sure you are wondering... how I can help you if I am new to your business...."
If you do this in a sales call, wait for them to confirm that, yes indeed, they were wondering about that. Then give them your answer.
For both sales calls and presentations, my advice is to do this only when you are reasonably sure that the question or concern exists. You do not want to create concerns that did not exist before you spoke!
If you are new to the customer or audience, do this by speaking to someone who knows them before your meeting or talk. Identify an influential member of your audience and interview them to discover their concerns. Do your preparation.
Read Becky's blog - she is right on about how she started and so much more.
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