Tag Archives: power point

Put Your Deck on a Diet

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It’s that season again, the season for thanks, for family, for spirit and giving. But if you’re like me, you’re still in a food coma from one holiday meal or another, so it’s also the season for looking down at your stomach and saying, “Whoa, where’d you come from?”

Yes, it’s about this time of year a lot of us start making promises that include dropping that five, 15, 25 pounds we’ve been trying to lose since… forever. There are so many options out there for diets… low calorie, low carb, low fat. Atkins. Jenny Craig. Grapefruit. Avocado-only. South Beach. South Deck. Wait, what? South Deck?

That’s right, the South Deck Diet. Last month’s edition of The Feed showed you how your company’s packaging, collateral and presentations can get “plump” from letting too much well-intended input clutter your message. (Just like we tend to plump up around the holidays from all the well-prepared food.)

This month, we’re giving you a proven, five-step lifestyle change to get your slide deck looking leaner, hotter and healthier.

Step #1: Detox by watching this introductory video.

Step #2: Cut your intake. You can’t force your prospect to digest content if they don’t know how it helps them.  Take an honest and naked look at your marketing and sales slide deck and ask yourself:  Is it everything on the menu, or just what the buyer is looking for?  Is it loaded with extra, high-calorie content that contains little nutritional value?  Or does it deliver high-energy nutrients in every slide?

Challenge yourself to cut your slide deck by 75%.  (This means if it’s 100 slides, you need to lose 75, for your ideal figure of 25). Less is more. Increase your font size, and keep your slides to five bullet points or less, each one on a single line, if possible.

Also, don’t throw in ingredients that your buyer won’t understand. Propylene glycol alginate, carrageenan, and lecithin probably don’t mean anything to you when you read the back of an ice cream container, so don’t use unknown acronyms, abbreviations, or tech-speak in  your deck  or your delivery. You are looking for a decision, so use the slides that make it easier for a prospect to make that decision, don’t just pass out a lot of information.

Step #3: Dress for your body type. Nobody’s perfect. But you can make sure your deck flatters your company’s strengths and unique differentiators.  Show the parts of your solution that really make you stand out from your competition. Never show slides that you’re not willing to talk about, or that look like everyone else. Use the “B” key to black out the screen when telling stories, asking questions and after you present to keep eyes on you.

Step #4: Use the Buddy System. All successful South Deck Dieters have a support system.  Grab a colleague and show off your slimmer self.  Let them see and hear the new presentation.  And, ask them to hold you accountable to your deck dieting goals.

Step #5: Rest & Maintain. Once you’ve trimmed the fat, don’t forget to keep your newfound slim and sexy deck sharp by giving it a break. Force yourself to step outside the comforts of a PowerPoint-only presentation. Use it, but don’t abuse it. Spice up your presentation by adding in a healthy amount of variety. Try using a flipchart or a whiteboard. Bring in a physical object to help you illustrate a point. Tell a story. Finally, revisit the slide deck now and then to make sure it hasn’t gained back any of the excess baggage.

Stick with these five steps, and you’re sure to get results!

Enter our Slim Down Sweepstakes to win a Slide Deck Makeover by sending an email to newsletter@corpv.com with “Slim Down Sweepstakes” in the subject line. One lucky winner will receive a full makeover from one of Corporate Visions Inc.’s professional consultants, for one presentation.

Stories: Concrete vs. Intangible

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“Hey Dave, I’m debt free!”

“Congratulations. How’d you do it?”

“Beans and rice, Dave – beans and rice!”

If you’ve ever tuned in to the Dave Ramsey talk radio show, you’re probably familiar with this exchange that occurs dozens of times a day. Individuals and families who were ‘buried in debt,’ call in to proclaim their freedom from the proverbial financial noose that used to hang around their necks. They have saved their financial health and well-being, and they give Dave the credit for helping them, not only see the light, but providing them with the successful game plan.

One of the core tenants of Dave’s advice in rebuilding your financial health is to stop using your credit cards. In fact, going one step beyond that, he tells people to cut them up and start paying for everything in cash. Why is he so relentless in this approach?

Dave believes that people spend 12-18% more when they purchase things with credit cards rather than with cash. Why is that? “Credit card purchases don’t feel real. Flipping a credit card up on a counter registers nothing emotionally” It is intangible, an abstract spending experience. It doesn’t feel like you’re spending real money, until you get your credit card statement at the end of the month and you gasp in amazement. “I can’t have spent that much money. Did I really spend THAT much money?”

However, when you reach into your pocket and pay for the purchase with cash that’s a completely different buying experience. You feel the money leaving you. It’s more concrete, as you know that when you hand the money over the counter, you’re going to have $50, $100 or $200 less in your bank account. You take more ownership in each and every purchase, and it’s a more emotional experience for you when real cash is leaving your pocket or your bank account.

There’s a highly valuable lesson that applies to the fast paced world of business today.

Why is it that when people need to be their most persuasive: in front of customers or on sales calls, during executive presentations or board meetings, or inspiring and motivating the ‘troops’ in company meetings that they fire-up their PowerPoint slide deck? They click rapidly from one slide to another, directly spelling out the message, ‘hitting them between the eyes’ with the facts? The challenge is that while the facts may seem logical to you, they are often intangible to everyone else. People are left wondering how to make sense of it and what it means to them.

If you want to motivate your customers or employees, rather than just give them the facts, tell them relevant stories. You engage your audience and involve them with the ideas that you’re sharing. In his book, The Springboard, Steve Denning says, “In addition to creating buy-in, stories mobilize people to act. Stories focus people on potential solutions. Telling stories with visible goals and barriers shifts the audience into a problem-solving mode. A story is an exercise in mass customization – each audience member uses the story as a springboard to slightly different destinations.”

Relevant stories are more concrete, and they go beyond telling information which is often an intangible exercise and show your audience exactly what you want from them.

So, the next time you need to be at your persuasive best, don’t bury them with information. Tell them a relevant and meaningful story.

By Mike Miller, Consultant, Corporate Visions Inc.

The Buzzer Sells Another Million Dollar Deal

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Submitted by Ryan S., Account Representative, Major Health Services Provider:

We were in the final stage of selling a surgical repair service to a large hospital, and we were the last group to give a 20-minute presentation after seven competitors.  In the previous presentations, everyone had used PowerPoint®. So, when we walked in, they naturally asked where we wanted to plug-in. When we announced that we were not using PowerPoint, the audience was so relieved that they actually clapped and became quickly intrigued when we handed out the board game.

Prior to the presentation, I bought five Operation games (by Milton Bradley®) and bent out the forceps to make it more difficult to play. We passed out the games and proposed a contest to see who could get the bones out first. The game grabbed our audience’s attention; they laughed, had fun playing and got frustrated trying to use the bent forceps. After the game was over, our team talked about how frustrating it is when your equipment doesn’t work properly. The point was made – they got it.

Then, my team used a ‘Number Play’ around why facilities come to us. The Number Play highlighted my company’s uniqueness by identifying the savings made through services and education. We used the rest of the time in our presentation for the audience to ask us questions, which engaged them more and worked out really well.  It was Power Messaging all the way!

A few weeks later, I ran into one of the decision-makers that were in that meeting The person immediately recognized me and said, ”Hey, you were with the guys that brought in the Operation Game.”

The final result:  we beat the competition and took over the service agreement for a $1,000,000 a year contract with the biggest hospital in the area. Props are such a valuable tool to master.

Thanks to the Corporate Visions’ coaching team, for their help and for coming through the night before we presented.

-Ryan S.

Don’t Give Your Customers What They Expect

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It was an absolutely beautiful morning in Hong Kong. I received the standard friendly greeting from the doorman upon exiting my hotel. As I made my way around the circular walkway, I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful trees and colorful flowers so impeccably manicured surrounding the entrance of the underground mall near my hotel. I made my way to Queensway Road East, which would take me to my meeting.

The city was already bustling below with people going every direction in taxis, cars, and motorcycles, or just walking the streets. As I looked out onto Victoria Harbor, I could see the Star Ferry running out to Kowloon. I set out on the two block walk that I had taken the day prior. Relaxed, I made my way to the office complex where my meeting would be held. As usual, I was heading in early.

I quickly walked up the steps, and across the very large, modern atrium. Upon approaching the elevators, the doors opened, I waited for several people to exit, and proceeded in. The doors quickly shut behind me. With the doors now closed, I looked up to select my floor. There were no buttons! No floor indicators! Something was wrong. How would I get to the right floor in this very tall building? What was going on? My heart began to beat quickly. Something was out of place. My eyes darted around the inside of the elevator searching for clues to determine what to do. The elevator started heading up, and I had no way to stop it or indicate what floor I needed. There was no way to get out. My mind was racing, and yet, it seemed that every second was passing so slowly, so deliberately. After what seemed like a very long time, the elevator doors opened. I was at the wrong floor, high above where I needed to be. I made my escape in an attempt to figure out what was going on.

As I think about this event from seven months ago, I can remember so many vivid details. I could describe to you the inside of the elevator. I can still recall the brand of the elevator, even the model number. I can remember the distinct feeling of relief and confusion as I got off the elevator. I can recall with great detail, the feeling of anxiety as I wondered if I would be late to my meeting.

What if during your next meeting, you could create a similar “elevator experience” for your customer that would have them remember vivid details about you months later?

In their book, Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath provide some insight in building memories that last. They conclude that, “…surprise jolts us to attention. Surprise is triggered when our schemas fail, and it prepares us to understand why the failure occurred.” Their research appears to find that as humans, we develop a way, an understanding or a pattern, of how we expect things to occur. During the thousands of times that I had been in an elevator and pushed the button to get to my destination, I was acting within my expected schema and the event was mundane and unmemorable. However, when the doors shut in the elevator in Hong Kong my schema was violated; my natural survival instincts ignited and my mind raced to determine what was happening.

My event in the elevator not only got my attention, but caused clear memories about that specific event. “Unexpected ideas are more likely to stick because surprise makes us pay attention. That extra attention and thinking sear unexpected events into our memories…surprise makes us want to find an answer—to resolve the question of why we were surprised”

Think about your next meeting. Do your customers have a schema, an expectation of what will occur? Will your customer view your meeting like the last several they have had with you? Will the results of your time together be like my thousands of trips on the elevator prior to Hong Kong—uneventful, and unmemorable? Can you contrast an expected meeting with something that will change the schema or expectation of the customer and get their attention to wonder, “What’s next?” By doing so, is there some way that you can create more vivid memories of the content of your presentation?

The book, Made to Stick, refers to a research study conducted by Robert Cialdini who concluded, “You’ve heard of the famous Aha! experience, right? Well, that Aha! experience is much more satisfying when it is preceded by the Huh? experience.” For me, the “Huh?” was created when I looked up and saw no floor selection buttons. Keeping in mind what is written above, the challenge for your next meeting is how will you initially create that break in your customer’s schema with a “Huh?” (expectation of your meeting, sales call, etc.) and follow it with that “Aha!” moment. How do you contrast your next presentation so that it does not look like your last presentation; or even worse, so that it does not look just like your competition? Do you always present the same? Do you start off with the same old introduction, agenda and dim the lights for your PowerPoint© presentation? Are you creating the “typical elevator ride” when you turn the lights down?

George Loewenstein, from Carnegie Mellon University concluded that, “curiosity…happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge.” How can your next presentation create that gap for your customer and increase their attention? Armed with this knowledge, you have the opportunity to grab the attention of your audience by contrasting your presentation from the expected. Presentations today are loaded with facts, figures, charts and diagrams. Chip and Dan Heath conclude that there is an important order here: “One important implication of the gap theory is that we need to open gaps before we close them. Our tendency is to tell people the facts.”

This blog is full of Grabbers that are used to get the attention of your audience when used appropriately. Grabbers can create interest in your entire presentation as a whole, or individual components that you build to dramatize a specific point. Instead of your normal introduction and company overview followed by an information dump, I would highly encourage you to create an elevator experience for your customer. Grab their interest. Get them curious. Have them thinking, “What next?” Grabbers are tools that can be used at anytime throughout your presentation. This approach will contrast your next meeting with your customer from your competition. By introducing the unexpected, you contrast messages and your chances of being remembered as unique are much higher.

Walking into that elevator in Hong Kong was an absolute contrast to any elevator ride I had taken before. It was a memorable event. Every sense I had available was charged up to figure out how to get out of the confinement of that Schindler, Model 7000 elevator. How can you use contrast and Grabbers in your next presentation to fire-up the survival instincts of your customers to help seek the need for change—to move from their existing pain to your solution?

A few suggestions here as you approach your next presentation:

  1. Surprise for the sake of surprise is never enough. It must be relevant and followed by credible information that satisfies the information gap you create.
  2. Start with your customer, not your presentation. Build every presentation from the ground-up, realizing that each customer, each selling situation, each opportunity to message to your customer, is a unique experience.
  3. See your customer from their perspective. How can you make their pains, needs or desires come alive? How can you emulate that “elevator experience”? Use contrast to demonstrate their current situation (pain) and the resulting gain by moving towards your solution.
  4. Look for a Hot Opening and create interest from the start. Contrast your solution by finding something that is vital to your prospect and more importantly, something unique that only you can provide.
  5. Don’t give in to the pressure of conformity. It causes everyone to look the same and present the same (PowerPoint presentations with a barrage of charts, graphs, and data). Be yourself. Stand out. Be different. Contrast yourself, your approach, and your message.

Some of you may have had a similar experience with one of the newer automated elevators. I did make it to my meeting that day, and I did get there on time. I eventually made my way back to the atrium and found a key entry pad about twenty-feet from the entrance of the elevators. As you approach the elevator, you indicate the floor you desire to get to. The computerized elevator then matches you with others going to similar floors in the building and directs you to one of the six elevators available – an incredibly efficient process once you understand it!

I challenge you to elevate your next presentation. Be different, be unique, focus on your customers’ world; momentarily close the door to their elevator and create memories that will last far beyond your meeting.

By Steve Hub, Consultant, Corporate Visions Inc.

References:
Heath, Dan & Chip, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Stick and Others Die, Random House 2007 (pages: 67-69, 80, 84-85).