Follow these steps and you won’t have to dance
I’ve written a lot about planning and preparation, but there is also tremendous value in having the skill and poise to rise to the occasion when someone springs an unexpected question on you or asks you to say a few words on a particular topic. Having survived (so far) 21 years in front of trainees, I’ve developed a few habits that have served me well.
Plan for the unexpected. This sounds like an oxymoron; how can you prepare for an impromptu talk? If you’re going to a meeting, think about who will be there, and based on your knowledge of their history, their positions and their stake in the topic, what might they ask? To be really sure, don’t limit yourself to the scheduled topic. You might be there to discuss a particular project, but someone might have an interest in one of your other projects as well.
Practice situational awareness. Have you ever had the feeling of looking up and seeing all eyes turned on you? It’s easy to tune out or check your email momentarily when someone else is speaking on a topic that doesn’t immediately concern you—and that’s when Murphy’s Law guarantees that someone will direct a question to you. There’s nothing more credibility-crushing than having to ask someone to repeat the question.
In the late 70s I was friends with James and Jonathan, twin brothers who were, to put it charitably, unconventional thinkers. One had been a lawyer but they both gave up what they were doing and moved to Fort Lauderdale in their mid-20s to become lifeguards and pursue their dream of becoming world class swimmers. Since they began their careers older than most world-class swimmers who had already retired, they quickly realized that their passion was not enough to make them successful. Then they had the brilliant idea that they would swim the English Channel —doing the butterfly!
Anyone who has ever tried to swim butterfly knows that it is by far the most grueling stroke; but that was the essence of their genius: no one was crazy enough to try it, so just about any time they got in the water they broke a world record. As one who accompanied them (on a paddleboard) for a 10-mile swim along Fort Lauderdale Beach, I can attest that they were two of the most passionate and determined guys I’ve ever met. But for some reason history has forgotten them.
I’m reminded of these guys when I see yet another article or tweet that tells us the key to life is following your passion.
A clear goal won’t help right now
By now, it’s no secret that mastery in any field requires thousands of hours of hard work and deliberate practice. We know that there are no shortcuts, and that we have to work hard all the time. Yet, it’s possible to work harder than anyone and still go nowhere. It’s equally important to identify and focus on the right things to improve. As Anders Ericsson says, “the critical variable for performance improvement is identifying areas of desired goals of achievement (my italics) and engaging in effective training and practice to attain the associated improvement.”[1]
I was inspired to write this post by three stories I’ve read recently:
The first is the most recent. It comes from last week’s Sports Illustrated story on Tiger Woods. “Last Saturday night, less than 24 hours before he won on the PGA tour for the first time in 30 months, Woods was the only golfer on the Bay Hill range.” That sentence says a lot. His opponents no doubt wanted to win just as much as Woods did, but he was the only one out there on a Saturday night. What’s even more instructive is the reason he was out there: his third round had ended badly, and he and his swing coach had identified the problem: too much weight on his left foot. “Woods hit balls until dark, stopping only to change clubs and sip on a Diet Coke. The more balls he hit, the more the fog from the late-round mistakes lifted.”
The speaker should have read this article
As we saw in Part 1, stories can be a powerful way to sell products or ideas. In this post, we will look at five suggestions to choose, craft and tell your stories for maximum persuasive effectiveness.
Bring out the conflict
Screenwriter Robert McKee, interviewed in the Harvard Business Review, said, “Essentially, a story expresses how and why life changes.” He goes on to say that all great story tellers “dealt with this fundamental conflict between subjective expectation and cruel reality.”[1]
Stories are such a natural fit with solution selling because they share the same aim. They both begin with a situation and then introduce some gap, or conflict that introduces tension or conflict. They then ratchet up the tension enough so that the listener is more than ready for some resolution. That sequence of situation-conflict-resolution is at the heart of a good story, and if you think of it, is also the essence of sales questioning or conversational techniques that get the customer to sell themselves.
When everything is good and there are no problems, there is no story—and no sale.
