Sunday 29 August 2010

How do you pitch your idea quickly?

"How do you pitch your idea quickly?" That was a question that came out of a chat I was having yesterday with Jason, my digital designer buddy.  He was showing me his great designs for a new company logo at the time. We talked about presenting these to his co-MDs for agreement ...and got onto the general subject of pitching ideas.
There are a many issues to think about when putting a pitch together. Issues like:
Is it in response to a pre-qualified brief?
Is it a competitive pitch with a decision to come later ...so a "highly memorable" presentation is key?
Will a decision be made on the day and so should the style be more options based and participative?
Or is it a situation where a need has to be established as the first step.
That last scenario is what we see reflected in the classic advertising sequence Attention! Interest! Desire! Action!  ...etched in stone generations ago. And of course for any of us that served a traditional sales and marketing apprenticeships ...it would have been etched in our brains too! As was the 1975 upgrade "the 5 Part Brand Talk" which made Market! Product! Pack! Support! Profit!  unforgettable as an etched-in-my-brain Sales Talk template.
And unforgettability is the beauty of it! To have an embedded pattern around which you can pitch an idea or proposition ...when as occasionally happens you have to do it spontaneously.
What I love about this old favourite is that you can adapt it to suit whatever you're pitching:
Market: What is the proven opportunity or need?  What are its size or growth  characteristics that make it a must have? 
Product: What is the solution we're coming up with that meets that need? What makes it really special and says it will be a winner?
Pack: (keeping the anticipation going here) So what does it look like ...feel like ...sound like?  Let's get enthusiastic about the details and benefits ...experience the solution and understand why it's special!
Support (The reassurance part)  What is the research that proves it's a winner? What are we doing to "guarantee" a result?
Profit What will you get out of this? What is the financial ...people ...reputation value that this delivers?
Follow this Jason and it should be a piece of cake with the MDs!


For more on persuasion visit the Resource Centre at www.persuadability.co.uk

Friday 20 August 2010

The "Concrete" base of persuasion

It was like one of those meetings that we have all been to. A group of "interested parties" trying to brief a design company on the key messages for our new marketing brochure.  And believing that we could quickly "knock them out" ...without any prior agreement on our proposition or our distinctive competence (preferred speak for USP.) Let alone a published mission statement ...or company vision and values. And adding to the challenge...it was with some  creative agency colleagues.  So we had a room full of clever minds ...excess testosterone ...and fierce desire to see one's own idea prevail.
As generally happens the MD and I got into a row! He was insisting that we should lead off with "service excellence." "But what does that mean?" I asked.  "What are you saying?" he retorted "...that we shouldn't want to offer service excellence...that's stupid!"  He "qualified" stupid in the way that he qualifies most words when being assertive.  Then as we do ...our exchanges deteriorated into moody mutterings ...all my persuasion skills having long since "crashed!"
 If only I had read Made to Stick ...and knew then what I know now about "Concrete" as the authors apply the term to making your message work. 
I would also have known the full and proper meaning of the word Abstract!    
But then I've always known what abstract means! It means abstract...like as in abstract art. You know! Modern. Not the real thing! 
And I guess that's the first problem the MD and I had, as do so many others when communicating - not sharing the same meaning of words.  But now that I do understand better the meaning of abstract ie: considered apart from concrete existence  I can see the other problem that we also had. When you discuss things in abstract terms it leaves too much vagueness for clear understanding. To achieve that, you must convert abstract terms into their concrete equivalents or constituents.
This is the point explained so well by Chip and Dan Heath in their book.  Illustrating this with several examples, my favourite deals with the challenge of raising grants to protect California's vast  environmentally critical areas.  Acreages or area percentages were abstract. The solution was to identify the key areas they wished to protect with the recognisable "concrete" term Landscapes.
My problem with "service excellence" was that it is too abstract. To influence prospective clients, "service excellence" needed to be translated into its concrete constituents such as "cost management" or "sustainable production" or "project communication."  Then the MD and I would have had some concrete terms we could recognise  ...evaluate ...and I'm  sure to ultimately agree on.
But at the time I didn't know what abstract meant.  Next time I'll do better!

For more on persuasion visit  http://persuadability.co.uk/

Saturday 14 August 2010

Which of these options would you prefer?

Do options encourage decision making?
Well it's something I've always believed since it was ingrained into me in my Sales Training Manager days at Kraft Foods.
We were taught and so in turn taught others to:  "Offer a choice between an in-cabinet promotional display of Dairylea or a dump bin." And more often than not we got one or the other. Always the innovator! I introduced the "options approach" when selling in large sizes of regular  stocked lines like Philadelphia in the then 8oz size. "Suggest to the store manager that with one size only customers have a 50% choice of saying yes. With two sizes the choice is small, large or no. So we're increasing the chance of a sale to 66%!"
To be honest our success with this line did surprise me! But it seems I was simply ahead of my time with my persuasion psychology.
Since then some serious research has looked at the issue of options and decision making. I was introduced to one in the excellent book "Made to Stick" by Dan and Chip Heath. They discuss work carried out by Psychologists Amos Tversky and Donald Redermeier into situations where the existence of choice affects how people make decisions.
In one example, students faced the choice between - going to the library to study or attending a lecture given by a famous author. 21% chose to study.
Another group of students was given the same choices and a 3rd option was  offered - to watch a foreign film you've been wanting to see. 40% chose to study. Suggesting that increasing the number of alternatives to the "responsible" option reinforced it as the choice that should be made.
Further insights into the impact of choices are currently available in a  fascinating presentation by psychologist Sheena Lyenger available on http://www.ted.com/.  She points out that different cultures respond in different ways to choice. Apparently Russians see a proliferation of soft drink brands as simply one choice of soda!   And she also makes the interesting assessment that too many options result in bad choices being made. 
Clearly no researchers are trying to mathematically model the probability of success based on numbers of options - apart from me that is!!! But when planning that next response to a business pitch ...as an option to the single solution  response why not work up two options? And ask them which one they prefer? You'll probably increase your odds of success!

For more on persuasion browse through the Resource Centre at http://persuadability.co.uk/

Friday 6 August 2010

What is the most important step in the Sales Process?

"What is the most important step in the Sales Process?"
I love the questions that are pitched into the discussion groups on Linkedin.
And of course you can't resist offering an opinion...for a variety of motives:
- Genuine altruism from sharing "wisdom" with industry peers.
- Satisfaction when peer approval and agreement is bestowed on your opinion!
- Recognition as being a trend-savvy pundit if you get in early on a subsequently popular discussion.
All of which was in my mind when I posted my carefully considered answer:
"Happy to echo what most others are saying here. Yes it has to be the Qualification step with Rapport Building as its essential pre-cursory step. When prospects/clients etc feel that you really do understand their needs and share their values, and you maintain this state of rapport when discussing solutions and recommendations, then they will instinctively trust and believe in you and your ideas...."
And I absolutely do believe that. Based on the realisation over time that almost all of us do not enjoy being sold to. Because most of those that try are content to learn something about our needs, and then happily attempt to satisfy them... without any recognition or reference to the underlying values and wants that drive our needs.
And that "values referenced" approach is even more critical when seeking acceptance of change in opinion or behaviour in business and life. Persuading a colleague to happily change to another team, or enthusiastically embrace new practices  means finding reasons that align with their inner motivations.
Discussion Groups are of course exercises in persuasion.
We want buy-in to our views and opinions. Ironically, groups with Sales Professionals tend to go heavy on the weight of opinion rather than subtly with values recognition! Response number 370 kind of summed it up "Oh for heaven's sake. How is Trust part of the Sales process ...Does any body know of what a Sales Process consists?
Are well! I guess he like me didn't find his inner needs of peer approval and recognition were satisfied.
But then we should have remembered that you should never try and sell to a saleman!

For more on persuasion visit http://persuadability.co.uk Resouce Centre