"Ever since we outlawed PowerPoint several years ago, our stock has shot up."
Scott McNealy, founder, Sun MicroSystems
Galactic Inc. believes it is dazzling its prospects with slide after slide that highlights Galactic's excellence.
The lights go on. The prospect praises Galactic's work and insight and promises to call Galactic soon. Two days later the prospect calls. Merely Global got the business.
Galactic's presenters did not know that bullet points deserve their name -- their bullets killed them. How?
Because whatever you sell, you do not sell things; today, not even products are products. They are solutions preceded by a service -- advice -- and followed by other services, including support. This means that you are not selling slides, although some companies' obsession with PowerPoint might suggest otherwise. You are selling the people clicking the slides.
This dictates that the key in presenting is not presenting your ideas well. It is presenting your people well.
When prospects gaze at slides, they are not looking at what you are selling: you. If you darken the room for dramatic effect, your problem only grows more dramatic. Now your prospects are not looking into your eyes -- where relationships are made -- and they are not listening to you. They are reading.
Naturally, you can jolt them from this dangerous practice. Just say something that does not appear on your slide.
But this makes them flinch. They wonder if they understood your slide, because the point you are verbalizing sounds different from the one they read. They feel disconnected, distracted, and uncomfortable -- a virtually unsellable prospect.
You must look into their eyes.
The rules of evidence reflect this point. The rule against hearsay forbids a party from admitting into evidence a statement made by someone outside the courtroom. That person must appear in front of the jurors, because the law also believes our eyes are windows to our soul. The jurors must be able to look the person making the statement in the eyes, to gauge whether that person is credible and sincere.
Your prospects must, too. So use slides only to illustrate a point that you cannot express well in words. Otherwise, make contact.
Prospects cannot choose in the dark.
– Excerpted from What Clients Love
Give Me One Good Reason
You want the strongest argument for a single focused message? Ask your prospects.
Your prospects have one basic question: What makes you so different that I should do business with you?
Your prospects are making the classic statement: Give me one good reason why.
It's a simple request that begs for a simple response. A complex response will just give your prospect another problem to sort out. Your prospect does not want more to think about; your prospect wants less.
An example from retailing shows the importance of a simple message. Go to a good men's store like Barney's in New York. Ask for a blue-striped oxford shirt. A savvy salesman will show you one nice shirt, which you will probably buy. But if he isn't that smart and shows you three shirts, there is an excellent chance you won't buy any shirt. The salesperson has complicated your decision and confused you with choices. And it is very hard to sell to a confused person.
Meet your market's very first need:
Give it one good reason.
– Excerpted from Selling the Invisible
"Don't give me some symbol for our company," the executive of the professional service insists. "We aren't like a soft drink. We have a story. Let's just tell it."
The executive misunderstands. You tell your story with words, perhaps, but words are only symbols, too. When you say "blue," your word "blue" is not the color. The word merely symbolizes the color. When you write "blue," that written word is not the color, it is only a written symbol for the spoken word.
Written words, in other words, are just symbols of symbols.
Just as important, many images are more vivid than words. You react far more strongly to seeing an American flag than you do to reading the following two words, "American flag." The Nazi flag provokes more outrage than the word "Nazi," just as the flag of the Confederacy continues to provoke more controversy than the word "Dixie." And we can safely assume that far fewer Dixie cups would be sold if they were emblazoned with even a tiny Confederate flag.
Images are more real than words.
You must tell your stories with "mere symbols"; you have no other way. And because visual symbols are more vivid and real, visual images are the simplest, fastest, and most memorable way to communicate.
A symbol can speak a thousand words. In today's overcommunicated era, that is more than your words ever will convey.
In today's world, symbols speak louder than words.
– Excerpted from
What Clients Love
What Clients Love
The Lighter Side
"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough."
– Mario Andretti
Clearest Sign The End May Be Near:
Tickets for Barry Manilow in Las Vegas start at $500.
Tom Petters reportedly paid $150 million from his own pocket, and $426 million total, to buy the Polaroid company. Relying on cameras, its initial and core business for years, propelled the company into bankruptcy in 2000-02. What is Petters buying? The Polaroid name -- and it appears wise. Because people still associate Polaroid with great pictures, they are enthusiastically buying its new products: DVDs and television sets.
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Harry Beckwith is the best-selling author of Selling
the Invisible, which has been named one of the top
ten business books of all time, with over 675,000
copies sold in 14 translations. He is also author of
The Invisible Touch and What Clients Love, which
have sold over 275,000 copies in 13 translations. He has been a keynote speaker for 14 Fortune 200 annual sales meetings and the National |
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Speakers' Association convention, and has made presentations in Europe, South America and Asia. He is
cited regularly in national media including CNN,
The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Entrepreneur,
Crain's New York Business and numerous
American, European and Asian newspapers. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Harry resides in Minneapolis and is the father of six. |
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