“I believe we can help you” isn’t a good sales line.

My belief that I can help you isn’t persuasive; you would expect me to believe that whatever I’m selling works (I hope). If the most common sales mistake is not articulating the reasons to buy, next is assuming that because you have identified ways to drive value for your client, so have they.

Prove it!

Step 1

The search for Proof is more likely to be successful if you know what you are looking for. Often marketing teams search in vain for relevant case studies because they don’t know what they are trying to prove. The client likes us isn’t a good qualification criteria. Lewis Caroll wrote, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” So, start with a specific proof point. For my business, I have to prove that clients improve their sales win rates when they work with my team. If I ask my marketing department to provide me with statistics on that proof, it’s a much easier directive than “please create some compelling case studies.”

Step 2

Look in these four areas:

1. Testimonials: 1st person (using your own data and personal experience), 2nd Person (profile the success of a client with similar issues as the prospect), 3rd Person (a credible, independent verification of value, not capability) 3rd person testimonials from a trusted source are the most persuasive, but quoting Private Eye in the UK or National Enquirer in the US don’t qualify, and 2nd person is probably better than 1st. On the whole, testimonials are only as powerful as the source and only if they are relevant!
2. Processes: list the steps involved in driving value and compare your process to the competitors (or their lack of process.)
3. Technology: whether it’s online systems, hardware, a methodology or Intellectual Property – just try and avoid making it about people. Any sales person with a modicum of passion about their company can wax poetic about how much smarter, faster and more talented their people are than the competition.
4. Logical arguments: if in doubt, create a deductive chain starting from a known fact and ending with value for the client.

Step 3

Look for stories that tie in multiple types of proofs. This may include a case study profiling a 3rd party that recognizes the value driven from a process derived from a unique bit of your intellectual property. Now that is compelling.

Step 4

Draw the slides, and then get somebody who has the time and the skills to put them into PowerPoint.

Step 5

Practice.

Step 6

Win!

Simple really – good luck!

Lewis Carole had it wrong: “begin at the beginning” said the King to Alice.

Writing 3000 sales presentations and critiquing the same number has taught me a lot, but if there is one thing that I know for certain it’s that most people start off wrong.

Don’t write the first slide of your presentation first.

Regardless of what the presentation is about, it’s best to start with the end.  In a sales pitch, that needs some careful thinking. Most sales people think the desired outcome is simple, (TO WIN!) – but in my experience that’s usually unrealistic. While it might be a good outcome from the whole sales process, it may not be a SMART goal from the presentation  (SMART being Specific, Measurable, Action orientated, Realistic and Timed.)

Some of the questions it prompts me to ask are:

• Who is the decision maker?
• Are they in the room?
• Can they make a decision in the meeting?
• Do they need to see anything else before they can make their decision?

So, tip #1 is to make sure you have a question to ask at the end of the presentation – your “close” – is SMART. Then you can start building a pitch.

In searching for a value proposition, do not ask “What?” but “Why?” Why would the prospect give you the order for business? Most people believe that this is easy to articulate; right up to the moment their mouths open to do so and then they realise that what seemed obvious isn’t so. Rigour, challenge and persistence is my advice, keep asking “So What?” until you hear something that sounds like a good argument for action.

Then collect tangible proof that you can deliver this value to the client.

Proof Points

I like proof to be:

• A testimonial
• A process
• A technology
• An argument
• Preferably visual, short and ideally poignant

Once you have this, you pretty much have your presentation. You can write the introduction last, introducing the information the audience will need to understand. The arguments that follow should rapidly (less than 3 mins) establish empathy with the prospect and credibility for the presenter, organisation and solution.

Clearly I could write a book about this (oh.. I have!) but that’s the 300 word summary.

Have you ever attended a course or read literature that uses the phrase “research shows?” I’m getting skeptical in my old age. “Research shows that…” is used more often than the referral to a higher authority, and usually is an indication of fiction.

“I believe that the most popular colour of lingerie is nude.” This may be true, but nothing in this statement says that it is true – belief is entirely dependant on the reader’s assessment of my integrity (dangerous at best).

“Research shows that the most popular colour of lingerie is nude.” This reads like it isn’t my opinion and because the word research is mentioned, it must be true. However, there is still no validation of the truth.

Add some detail, and the statement, standing on it’s own, is more believable. “Research conducted in India this year by Debenhams, a leading retailer, shows that according to POS data, the most popular colour of lingerie is nude.”

Add a reference, and the statement becomes more credible. Here’s mine: Times India Dec 2010

When I am writing sales presentations for clients we need to make the proof statements believable so we try and provide as much detail behind the proof points (most often case studies) as possible. Data is king; and quantifiable data is extremely persuasive. If I add the fact that 72% of shoppers choose for nude lingerie and sales are up 38%,  there is now trending, relevant data that my audience can act on – whether that’s stocking more nude lingerie or changing a marketing scheme.

So when you hear somebody say “research shows,” ask the following questions:

• What research?
• When?
• Who executed the research?
• Can you show me the data?

Otherwise, assume it is made it up to strengthen a weak argument.

By the way, the alternative is to just state it as a fact: “‘Nude lingerie is the most popular, the question you should be asking is Why?“

About every other course somebody asks me about how Visual Cognitive Dissonance (VCD) sits with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). My tongue-in-cheek response is that VCD is based on science and, as far as I am aware, is consistent with all the major religions, and so almost certainly consistent with the minor ones such as NLP.

Why do I compare NLP to a religion? Looking at the research, it’s at best inconclusive and at worst labeled as pseudoscience. Linguistics isn’t my main calling, but I’m pretty convinced that the fundamental tenants of NLP may be suspect. In fact I love the following quote from the founders of NLP:

We have no idea about the “real” nature of things, and we’re not particularly interested in what’s “true”. The function of modelling is to arrive at descriptions which are useful

Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. (1979), Frogs into Princes: Neuro-linguistic Programming, Moab, Utah: Real People Press
I also love the publisher! Moab, Utah…makes me think of the brilliant musical for the non-pious, “The Book of Mormon” – also beautifully relevant for this observation.

An act of faith

NLP requires an act of faith, and most believers aren’t particularly interested in a debate about whether their belief system is true or not. And, some may be offended by people like me saying rude things about their belief system. Since I have some friends who are NLP practitioners, I am careful not to offend these people by blaspheming. I do, however, wonder what NLP hell looks, sounds or feels like…

Like all belief systems that have bright, intelligent followers, NLP has to be consistent with empirical evidence. It may fail the scientific method but much of the surrounding advice is basically sound. “See the world from the others point of view” is a pretty much a fundamental NLP concept, but I’m sure its one of Coveys 7 habits (Think Win Win) and it’s pretty much in line with Phase 1 of Killer Presentations, which makes it just plain common sense.

If you want to believe that modifying your language can help you communicate effectively, then I’m in agreement with you—if you need to call that NLP, well each to his own. I’m pretty sure that most religions include some degree of practical self-help. None of this should be thrown out just because the basic tenant seems unlikely.

Most courses I have seen based on NLP would be just as valuable without validating the content with the NLP philosophy. Given the lack of evidence, I would drop it and stick to actual science. There is a remarkable amount of research that can inform most of what I have seen passed off as NLP.

So if you’re interested in this debate, take a look at some NLP literature and ask yourself how similar it sounds and feels like an advertisement for a religion.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this one. If you have observations, I’d love to read and respond to them. If you have statements of belief, I really don’t want to offend anyone and probably won’t respond.

I am 43 years old today and for the first time in about 10 years I am away from home and working on my birthday. The kids all phoned me this morning with birthday wishes, but the best present came in the form of a conversation with a delegate on the course I am facilitating in London.

Let me give you some context. 18 months ago, I was asked to speak at a conference about a consistent Value Proposition. I was give a one-hour time slot and was told that the delegates would have been working on a case study and have their draft VP’s ready. My talk was supposed to set up a presentation exercise afterwards. I had agreed with the organiser that when I arrived they would give me the list of VP’s and I would use this as the basis of my presentation. When I arrived, they hadn’t got that far in the exercise and so with 5 minutes to go I had to change the presentation.

I came off stage thinking I had done ok, the crowd seemed pleased and engaged and the applause genuine. The next day, however, I received an abusive e-mail from the organizers, accusing me of a whole host of sins—that I had offended and upset most of the audience and would never be invited back. I was upset for about a month but eventually came to the conclusion that you can’t please everybody and that maybe this lady was just having a bad day.

So this morning—18 months later—that company is one of m62’s largest global clients, and a delegate from the course came over and thanked me for that very same, allegedly offensive presentation. He has used my “Happy and Safe” story and the Killer Presentations diagram over and over again to argue to his management team that they need a consistent message and stop using bullet points.

So, my birthday gift? The reminder that for every person in the audience who disapproves of your content, there is another who’s finding it useful. I think there is a good chance the Lady Organiser is chewing out another presenter for not being psychic, while today’s delegate is enjoying a useful two days with the m62 crowd. You can’t please all the people all the time, but pleasing most of the people most of the time is good enough for me.

Happy days!

I recently delivered the Killer Presentations course to a group of financial service industry sales professionals in New York City. An important learning in this training is to trim the information in your presentation to include only the most relavent data you want your audience to remember. A few days later, I got the following question from an attendee about all the other information that needs to be delivered eventually:

If the sales presentation delivers 4 or 5 key points you want the audience to know, what’s the best way to communicate the much weightier technical detail that lies behind those key points?

The first question is do you really need to get into technical detail in the presentation? When I am teaching kids to sail, I need them to know that to turn the boat, they must move the tiller in the opposite direction.  Do they need to understand the mathematics of how the rudder creates turning momentum on the stern of the boat?  No.

How much detail does the audience need to understand your value proposition?

People often include too much technical detail in their presentations. I’m guilty of it. When we deliver the course it’s often hard to judge how much of the science and research behind the Killer Presentations Philosophy is appropriate. Some sales people don’t care how or why it works, as long as they close more business using the techniques. Others need more proof than my recommendation to change the habits they’ve developed over 20 years of presenting.

Determining how much to deliver is difficult and dynamic based on the audience, their level of understanding of your industry/product/service; the number or presentations they’ve already seen; and the amount of time you’ve spent educating them in advance. Audience size matters as well, the bigger the group, the greater the chance of “pockets of interest” that drive information flow to minority groups in the audience. Meaning, time consuming questions that are only of interest to one or two people in a big team. You just lost the majority of your audience explaining how the sausage is made.

Over-prepare, share as needed, rinse, repeat.

My advice is to develop more material than you need, then take your cue from the audience as to how much to present. We preach to the students in our Killer Presentations course that they must refresh their recall on important information one day, one week and one month after hearing it to ensure it stays in their memory.

If you can get your prospects to review the material (repetition) and think about something new but associated (elaboration), we know recall and application increase. In which case having more detail in the follow up communication is extremely useful.

It also helps to provide that content in a variety of media, including PDFs, videos, podcasts—whatever forms your audience will absorb best. Also consider the impact of the information flow. People learn more if they can work at their own pace and journey through the material at will. Self directed learning requires more content than a simple linear information flow.

In summary:

• Give them what they need
• Give them control over the quantity and depth
• Give them multi modal information
• Sequence delivery over time to improve recall

A question can tell you more about the questioner than they realise: be careful what you ask!

I’m helping a bid team prepare for a major RFP and eventual presentation. It’s for outsourced global business services to one of the largest companies in the world, and the team has an opportunity to ask clarification questions tomorrow. Today our conversation focused on what information is needed to improve the RFP response–a good thought process only one side of the equation.

What impression do you want to leave the prospect with?

Every meeting is an opportunity to sell and if we are not careful an opportunity to lose the deal as much as win it.

Imagine a three-way conversation about anything–let’s say a sport. Two people are discussing the merits of a coaching strategy, when the third person asks what kind of ball is used in the game. What do you think the two strategists now think about the third?

What you ask, tells people what you are thinking, what you understand and more importantly what you don’t.

Open and closed case.

When we are teaching teachers, we actively encourage them to listen for “open” or “closed” questions. Closed questions signify that the student is seeking confirmation or clarification of their understanding of the material. Open questions are often a signal for a lack in comprehension. Look at the difference between the next two questions (both asked of me last week when running a sailing course) and think about what you might infer about the questioners:

So I push the tiller the opposite way I want the boat to go? (closed)

What happens if I pull it towards me? (open)

In sales, questions can indicate potential pain: “Could your solution help me identify costs I could eliminate?” Or, they can be an attempt to gain control of the conversation: “Yes, that’s great – but I want to know how you would eliminate costs.”

For the seasoned salespeople, this is standard stuff and there are lots of resources around how you, as a presenter (teacher or salesperson) should respond to a question. But what about asking questions?

Strategic questions

If you are familiar with SPIN selling, you know that we don’t always ask questions in the sales cycle because we want to know the answer. More often, we are asking questions to prompt the prospect to consider an issue and realise they have a problem – naturally one that we can help them solve.

So questions like, “If we could improve the product while reducing the total cost by 10%, would that drive the kind of value your shareholders are looking for?” isn’t about gaining insight into the customers world as much as making them evaluate the impact of your solution.

Telling people they should buy your solution and making it clear you believe its the right thing for them isn’t a good way of selling. Asking questions that make them realise they cant l’ve without you is much smarter approach.

But then I guess the most important question “So, when can we start?” is inappropriate tomorrow!

Here’s an interesting article on the developments in meeting and conference presentation technology, and some tips for enhancing speeches. Gary Bowerman, a KL-based writer, asked for some insight for this feature article in MIX magazine, Asia Pacific’s leading corporate meetings, conferences and events magazine – please read on for some more details on our experiences in the marketplace and some of the new products/services m62 has developed.

Download AV Management Captive Audience Article

Several people have asked me lately which is more difficult – developing a wining pitch presentation for the incumbent already delivering the service, or for the competition attempting to unseat them. As with all things, there is both a short and a long answer.

In Short, No.

There should be an advantage to being in place already, but in reality there is no difference. We have completed 36 sales presentations over the last 2 years with a win rate of 78%.  The ones lost are split fairly evenly between incumbent and competition. So I would say that your chances of winning with us are at least 2 out of 3 regardless of whether you are rebidding for existing business or pitching for new work.

It should make a difference; there are real advantages to being the incumbent but in my experience organisations rarely capitalize on this advantage.

Clearly, as we are developing the pitch strategy for a client we are keen to know:

• Who currently deliver’s the services?
• How is the current performance?
• How are the relationships?
• Why is the contract out for renewal?

Since these answers help us paint a picture of the prospect’s drivers.

For example, a company has been providing the scope of services for 39 years to their client, who is extremely happy with the service. But, it is a public intuition in New England and they have to prove to the ‘Public’ that they are paying market value for the services. If I were advising my client’s competition I would tell them to NO Bid as it’s a blatant price comparison exercise and the client has no real desire to change. If an new bidder comes in at a better price or a new service offering it is extremely likely that the organisation will feel obliged to offer the deal to my client on the condition the new price or service is delivered.

The first rule of thumb is to understand the prospect’s attitude to change. We have won deals where the incumbent has been underperforming by promising ‘change with out the risk of transition’ equally we have won deals as a new business pitch by promising ‘transition is the only route to real change’.

Ultimately it comes down to your ability to present an argument, the advantage we give clients is that their arguments resound clearer with our help and so they win more often. Give me the underdog with a good pitch presentation than the top player with bullet points any day!

The Long Answer: It Should!

Where the real advantage lies is in the ability to find compelling proof for the value proposition if you are the incumbent.  We once helped a client win a hospital construction project by spending a day on-site surveying staff and using the information to argue that our solution was better based on this “research”.

For a decision maker struggling with a difficult choice between two equally good candidates, the one that provides relevant, research-based proof points is likely to win. It’s tough to ignore stats, quotes or video evidence that document your stakeholders wanting something and very compelling that the candidate took the time to listen.

I am working on a deal for the same client as above, we are 12 months out from a ‘potential RFP’ but we are agreeing on the value proposition now and building a series of interactions to uncover proof that they can deliver it. By the time we get to the pitch, we should have already won the deal…

It is straight out of Sun Tzu:

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”

Which in reality, is the reason that this isn’t reflected in the stats, that a good job thinking through the value proposition – a year out – ends up with clients avoiding a formal RFP process and not actually having to re-bid. Which, with hindsight, is good for them but really isn’t good for business for me!  fewer presentations to coach!

Should you produce handouts for your presentation?

The process for my company’s newsletter allows me to edit and vet before it is published. It’s a process that never quite works and this month pretty much failed, hence I get the uncomfortable job of publicly disagreeing with the team.

Their position in the article “PowerPoint Handouts” (in my opinion) is fundamentally wrong. The short answer to the lead question isn’t that there are pros and cons to the use of handouts at all. It’s a resounding NO NO NO.

In the last 10 years, I have presented (conservative estimate) about 1500 times – and on how many of those occasions have I printed off a set of slides and handed them out to the audience? NEVER. Not once or twice, not occasionally. NEVER.

Why print and hand out your slides to the audience?

Let’s ignore the real answers – habit, fulfilling someone else’s expectations, ignorance etc. – and let’s instead look at the possible intelligent responses.

• To help the audience follow the presentation
• To help the audience remember the presentation
• To help the audience pass the information on to others
• To save the audience from the effort of taking notes
• To allow them to consider the content ahead of the presentation

Now clearly, an effective presentation has to be engaging and memorable to achieve its objectives. Lets assume you have a presentation that has been designed to be both using Visual Cognitive Dissonance (VCD) and Passive Mnemonic Processing (PMP):

1. To help the audience follow the presentation: Handouts distract the audience and encourage them to jump ahead and ignore the flow of information you have carefully constructed. If an audience member has a question, I want them to ask me, not flip back or ahead to check out my slides. More importantly, if the slides use visual cognitive dissonance, they miss everything important if they’re not paying attention to the actual presentation.
2. To help the audience remember the presentation: Passive mnemonic processing is a technique used to lock ideas into the audiences’ memory. Unfortunately for the handouts, this technique requires a human to effectively synthesize the information for the audience. If they have the option to think about it later (when they read the notes in the bath that night… and other myths!) why would they bother?
3. To help the audience pass the information on to others: If you really want them to deliver your message for you (really!?) then you will need more than a printed copy of the slides. They need to be trained on the material and to rehearse the presentation. For me, I always look for the opportunity to deliver the message again to a different audience. Why would I undermine that by allowing someone to interpret my message and my material?
4. To save the audience from the effort of taking notes: No, the act of taking notes forces them to synthesis the information, preventing them from taking notes is presenter suicide. Believing that giving a copy of the slides will increase the chances of them making notes is stupid. Easy answer: give them note pads and pens!
5. To allow them to consider the content ahead of the presentation: This just defeats the purpose of the presentation doesn’t it? Might as well send a briefing document (which IMHO is what most PowerPoint files actually are) and facilitate a debate afterwards. This might be an effective meeting but it’s not a presentation.

Printed slides versus printed support material

What if the question was not about the use of handouts, but “printed support material” (e.g. brochures). Well that’s different. Now, the m62.net article makes more sense – but even here they miss the most important point that of using Information sequencing to promote synthesis and recall.

Teaching Presentations

m62 courses have a workbook, most of which is designed to encourage the delegate to write or draw copies of what they see and learn as a means to synthesize the material. This is one of the 5 passive mnemonic processes we teach – actively repeating a diagram by drawing it as a form of rehearsal. Pre-course material covers some of the syllabus, but it does so using different examples, diagrams and visuals. Post-course material is designed to improve recall, encourage transition and embed the learning. None of this contains printed copies of the slides.

Tools to encourage the use of information learned are essential, processes, tick sheets, forms, spread sheets are all exceptional ways of encouraging post-course synthesis. None are as useless or as pointless as printed versions of the presentation slides.

One final comment, on the “it can’t hurt” argument for handouts during training. Rubbish! It can and it does alter the students’ propensity to listen, engage and therefore synthesize the information. They can and will make effective teaching harder. The only advantage of printing a copy of your slides is that its easy, it doesn’t require the thought necessary for a proper solution, it is ineffective precisely because it doesn’t take effort or thought to do. It’s at best lazy and at worst criminal.

Sales Presentations

The single biggest reason for not having handouts in a sales situation is that the day you give it to a prospect is the day before they give it to your competitors.

True story: It is much easier working out how to position for a sale if you know what the competition is going to say. I helped a client bid on a $1B data center project against IBM, after reviewing one of IBM’s recent data center pitches courtesy of a friend of a friend. I am sure when the IBM salesperson gave his slides to his prospect it was with the best intentions of winning the deal, instead it cost them dearly.

The second reason is that more often than not, the biggest challenge in making a sale is finding the excuse to talk to the prospect on a regular basis. The more printed material he has the less likely he is to call or meet with you. Your chances of closing are best when you are seated in front of the decision maker. Getting there is the trick and printed versions of your pitch take away your value at best and at worst enable to pitch your wares for you. Not smart selling by any means.

I should stop here. To me, those reasons alone make the case. However, the m62.net article suggests an executive summary if you are going to leave something behind. Again, I disagree.

• Every piece should sell – any printed material should focus on the pain the client is experiencing while leaving an invitation and solid reason to contact you.
• It should pass the “3-second rule” – that is, glance at the page for 3 seconds, did you get you see a something that would leave you wanting more information? If not, then it is destined for the bin unread.

Handing out your slides is never a good idea

There is a case for some pre-presentation material and for some post-presentation material but it’s probably better as a rich media communication not a paper based, self-explanatory slide dump.

If you have a presentation that doesn’t use visual cognitive dissonance or passive mnemonic processing, and therefore is self-explanatory and poorly structured, then I suggest you don’t have a presentation. At best, you have a script; at worst you have a complete waste of everybody’s time. Have confidence in your message and your singular ability to deliver it effectively.