"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
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/
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/
"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
"These are great. They used to be brand leader!" was the last ditch pitch from the stationery goods sales representative stood beside me in Goss's General Store. He offered Mrs Goss the card of ball-pens from his now empty sample bag. She remained indifferent ...and seized the opportunity to serve me as her excuse to close the sale.
I remember that lovely sales cameo from about 40 years ago. Today our friend the sales representative could have used a different story.
"Consumers prefer these because they're not brand leader!"
Well that is the case according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. To be precise what they are telling us is that consumers do actually favour underdogs. It seems that it is part of our psyche to sympathise with a hero who has overcome a disadvantaged start compared to their adversary, and who triumphed because of a determination to beat the odds. Remember how we all felt about Leonardo di Caprio's character Jack in Titanic when he came up against Billy Zane?
In terms of market position it is something that Avis Car Rentals recognised almost 50 years ago. They were second behind Hertz and made a marketing virtue out of it...adopting the slogan "We try harder"
They make a positive persuasive statement to their customers that they should expect to be treated better with Avis.
Yet many of us in business do not follow the Avis lesson. Perhaps we believe it is better to pre-empt what we feel is a conspicuous weakness and confess that we are "a small company" or "quite new" or "provincially located."
And then because language works at two levels... not only do we make the prospects see a concern that they probably didn't have ...but we also send a sub-conscious negative signal of our own lack of belief and determination.
So check out your own language. Are you making a virtue out of being "a responsive company" with "a fresh approach" and "free of expensive overheads.
Time to be a hero in your business!
Cognitive dissonance did it for me!
Yes I remember the date November 11 1996. That was the day I quit smoking. After the usual number of failed attempts and despite the discouragement of my puffing peers I finally did it. And the secret of ultimate success was seeing myself as somebody that just wasn't a smoker.
So I quickly related with a recent article in Science Daily reporting on a study carried out by Dr. Reuven Dar of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology which found that the intensity of cravings for cigarettes had more to do with the psychosocial element of smoking than with the physiological effects of nicotine as an addictive chemical.
In observations on in-flight attendants with limited opportunity to smoke and on religous Jews subject to a sabbath ban they found that both groups had low craving levels in situations where they expected not to smoke. For anyone that has ever smoked they would recognise that this is a pretty extreme illustration that our behaviour is formed by perception and belief. But it is the case... if I had been one of the flight attendants in the study and I smoked in flight then I would feel that my behaviour was at odds with what I believed to be right. Just like when I quit. I told myself that I was no longer a smoker. If I had a wavering moment I would have been experiencing cognitive dissonance ...the feeling of discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs.
People tend to seek consistency in their beliefs and perceptions. In an often quoted study of misbehaving children it was shown that telling them that they were bad simply reinforced the bad behaviour. When told that they were good they ultimately corrected their bad behaviour because it was dissonant with being good.
All of us have deeply held beliefs. All of the choices that we make such as how we behave...to the kind of work we want to do....to the car we choose to drive are based on needs and wants that ultimately are derived from those deeply held beliefs. Anybody in sales will more than once in their career have encountered buyer's remorse and a cancelled sale. And probably dismissed the purchaser as a "time waster."
Truth is....if we are in the business of influencing others and we attempt this without regard for their beliefs and values then we shouldn't be surprised when we encounter some serious cognitive dissonance.
Talk to anybody that watched the recent World Cup Final and they will probably agree that Holland had tried to kick Spain out of the game. Holland of course cried "foul" insisting that referee Keith Webb had been biased in favour of Spain.
I couldn't see any bias myself but if there was one it could have been to do with the direction that Holland were playing when the fouls were called? It seems that Soccer referees have an unconscious bias towards calling fouls based on the direction of play. According to a recent study into football referees carried out at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, there was clear evidence of more fouls being given when play was moving from right to left. The main conclusion drawn being that the mind is conditioned by reading to accept information flowing from left to right as normal...and therefore right to left flow seems instinctively wrong. The study participants were all English Speaking so we assume that Chinese referees would call it differently.
Many of the familiar optical illusion "tricks" we come across are also answered by this "seeing what the mind expects to see" explanation. And if you want some fun with these follow this link to the exploratory.org and check out their illusions.
In a creativity workshop last week I had fun in an exercise that had us randomly scrawling our representation of various emotions on blank paper. It was interesting to see how some of us came up with similar images for a given emotion.... but that others chose that same shape as interpretation of a quite different emotion.
And the point to emerge from this?
We see what we think we see... and what you see is possibly quite different to what I'm looking at!
Modern technology has added enormously to business communication but e-persuasion and the "so convenient" emailed pitch is risky!
To make sure you get your meaning across get in front of the people...tell them ...show them ...experience it with them and make sure they do see what you mean.
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