Practical Eloquence Blog

Persuasive communication - Presentations

Make Them Think

By Jack Malcolm / 9.25.2012 / No Comment

“I know what I was feelin’, but what was I thinkin’?”

Dierks Bentley

Is thinking going out of style? It seems by what is being written about presentations and persuasive communication in general today, that the answer is yes. We’re told that we have to appeal to the emotional brain, that EQ is more important than IQ, that stories are all that matter in persuasion. One of the top-selling persuasion books is Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion . I actually have a love-hate relationship with that book; I love it because it’s filled with excellent research and easy-to-follow principles for increasing your personal influence; I hate it because it reduces persuasion to the manipulation of cues[1] that people automatically respond to.

The technical terms are central versus peripheral processing. When a car ad shows a beautiful model, that’s a peripheral argument; when it touts fuel efficiency, that’s a central argument; when it shows a cute baby in a child seat and explains a list of safety features, that’s a combination of the two.

I’m not advocating one way as being better than another in all situations. Our thinking processes are complicated, messy, and incompletely understood. Besides, people differ in their “need for cognition.” Some people like to think deeply, carefully and analytically about things before deciding, and others like to trust their gut. This is not about intelligence: sometimes those with higher IQs are the least likely to need cognition.

But, in business persuasion, in which you’re trying to influence the behavior of a reasonably well-educated adult, approaches that focus primarily on emotional engagement can sometimes be insulting to the intelligence of your audience, and on some occasions are even dishonest. (If you can’t convince them with logic, but you can tug at their heartstrings, maybe you shouldn’t be trying to convince them of it in the first place.) The other problem with emotional arguments and cues is that emotions wear off. Have you ever made an impulse buy, only to wonder a few days later what the hell you were thinking? A decision or impression made under the sway of a compelling presentation may be difficult to explain a week or two later, when a committee gets together to make a decision. In addition, as Steve Booth-Butterfield tells us, “Change achieved through the central route is more persistent over time, more resistant to counter-arguments, and more predictive of future behavior than change from the peripheral route.” It makes sense: minds changed on a whim can be just as easily changed back.

In many situations, people do make decisions largely on their unconscious response to cues that they might or might not be aware of, and then justify them with logical reasons later on. If they’re already on your side, or if what you are trying to sell lines up with one or more of Cialdini’s cues, and if they’re going to make a decision right then, there’s probably no reason to get them thinking too much.

But usually when you’re trying to persuade someone about something important, you’re trying to effect change, which means that you have to change the thinking that led to the current situation. Before you can change thinking, you have to engage thinking. Everyone will think deeply when they have a good reason to. Here are some ways:

Make it personally relevant. Even people who have a low need for cognition will take the time to consider logical arguments if it is personally relevant to them. If you’re making a presentation, you must analyze your audience in retail not wholesale. Even if the business need is the same, everyone in the room has a different personal stake in the outcome, and if you address it early in the presentation you stand a good chance of having an engaged and thoughtful listener.

Ask questions. One of the surest ways to know that you’ve made someone think carefully is when the say “good question”, and then pause to search for a quality answer; even better is when they don’t know the answer, and realize it’s important. A question that shows that you have researched their situation or that you have specialized knowledge has the added benefit of building your credibility. Questions are also a non-threatening way to get them to change their perspective. For example, those of us who sell training are always dealing with the understandable demand by potential buyers to cut corners in the time it takes to run a class. My friend Gary has an excellent response when asked if he can take a day off the course length: “Do you want me to teach it, or do you want them to learn it?”

Break a pattern. It’s easy to stay on mental autopilot when everything is going as expected. If you want them to engage their thinking processes, you sometimes have to break a pattern. Give them new information, use humor, etc. One of the best ways to break expectations is to use humor to change their perspective. The essence of humor is surprise, by getting people to see a side of the issue that they never would have thought of, but which seems obvious when pointed out.

Make it easier for them. This is not about dumbing down something, but sometimes you have to take the time to clarify a complex idea for others. Strip out the jargon and the unnecessary detail, and build off something they already know. Analogies are very helpful for this.

Make it safe to open their minds. If you immediately launch into an attack on their point of view, they will probably shut down immediately. Acknowledge their position, and show that you understand why they think that way. In this way, you can earn the right to be heard.

[1] Cialdini’s six cues are: Reciprocity, likeability, consistency, authority, social proof, and scarcity.

Persuasive communication

Courage in Communication

By Jack Malcolm / 9.20.2012 / 2 Comments

One of the best aspects of writing a blog is receiving a thoughtful comment from a reader. In today’s busy world, it’s a tremendous compliment to know that someone has taken the time to express their thoughts in response to a post. One such example was an email I received from Mason Jackson.

Mason, who as my former tae kwon do sensei has taught me so much, reminded me that a huge component of communication is courage: “Courage to ask questions. Courage to speak up. Courage to do the right thing even though the consequences are onerous or even potentially onerous. “

Mason is absolutely right, and I’d like to expand on his comments in this article.

Leaders show courage in communication when they jeopardize their own position to communicate what they think is right. Lyndon Johnson had a lifelong dream of becoming President. When he finally reached it through the worst possible circumstances, he might have been forgiven for playing it safe. Instead, just four days later he embarked on an ambitious program to push through long-delayed civil rights legislation. When advisers counseled against risking so much on a lost cause, he replied: “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?”

Andrew Jackson said “one man with courage makes a majority”, and I would like to rephrase that by saying that one person with courage makes a leader. In fact, the courage to speak up when on one else will, makes you a leader no matter what title you hold, and if you keep quiet through fear, you’re not a leader, no matter how exalted your position.

One vivid example of courage was personally witnessed by my mother and three sisters on a visit to Cuba to see the Pope earlier this year. As they were waiting for the Pope to arrive in Santiago, a man suddenly sprang up and began shouting “Libertad!”, and “Down with communism!” He was immediately jumped on by plainclothes police and severely beaten as he was hustled away—but not before news cameras captured the entire scene. Was it a futile gesture? Maybe—but 2011 also showed us that one man in Tunisia could spark an entire Arab Spring.

Fortunately we don’t live in a society where we have to make such dangerous choices in our personal communications, but daily life in business provides plenty of opportunities to make choices that may require courage in communicating:

A salesperson may have to make the choice to tell a customer they’re not always right even at the risk of losing a sale. Perhaps an even more courageous choice is telling the customer that a competitor’s solution is better for them.
A manager may have to say unpleasant truths to a subordinate or a superior, for the good of the company, or may have to speak out against an unfair policy.
Anyone who gets up in front of a group to speak despite having severe stage fright is showing courage, as is the person who stands his or her ground under tough questioning afterwards.
Courage in communication goes beyond speaking. As Churchill said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

The practical benefits of communicating with courage

Communicating with courage is the right thing to do, but obviously it carries great risks. Fortunately there are practical benefits which can improve the risk/reward calculation.

It will definitely get you noticed. People will pay attention to your words, if only to see what happens next. Besides, saying something that others won’t means your message will be different.
It makes you credible. Ethos is the most important of the three components of persuasion, according to Aristotle. Two major facets of ethos are your perceived personal qualities (your virtues, to use a word that’s sadly gone out of style), and your motives. Courage is still seen as one of the most important and impressive personal qualities, and the fact that you have something to lose, speaks well of your motives.
It can prevent bigger risks down the road. So many problems start out small, and only fester into major issues because people may not have the courage to deal with them early. Most communication issues don’t get smaller by being ignored—run to the problem and fix it before it gets out of hand.

…but there is a price

Of course, it would not take courage if there were only upsides. The reality is that in the majority of cases you will pay a price. The only job I was ever fired from was because I refused to lie. In 1991, I was in charge of the management training program at our bank, which had gotten itself into serious financial trouble through poor lending practices. We had 53 trainees who were expecting to move into their first management positions after graduating from the program, but my boss told me the bank could only afford to keep two or three. He also told me to keep it quiet, because he wanted everyone to stick around so that the bank could pick from the best. I didn’t think that was right, so later that day, in response to a direct question, I told them the truth. I was fired the next day.

I guess the moral of that story is that I definitely paid a short term price for speaking out. On the other hand, it got me out of a dishonest organization and into my present career, so the long run effect was positive, even if it didn’t seem so at the time.

Leadership Communication - Persuasive communication

Leadership IS Communication IS Leadership

By Jack Malcolm / 9.18.2012 / No Comment

It doesn’t work this way anymore

When a CEO complains that he wants his life back after a disastrous oil spill, is that a leadership problem or a communication problem?

When a copilot fails to speak up after noticing ice build-up on the wings, is that a communication problem or a leadership problem?

When a coach delivers a pregame speech that inspires the team to play better than they thought they were capable of, is that leadership or communication?

I was recently asked by a client to develop a talk on leadership communication, which I delivered last week for the first time in Tokyo. I don’t usually “do” leadership; I leave it to my friend John Spence and to all the other experts who study leadership traits, skills, strategy formulation, etc. I don’t consider myself in their rarefied circles—all I study, teach and write about is clear thinking, persuasively communicated.

Yet, as I worked on my material for the talk, I realized that clear thinking, persuasively communicated, is basically all that leaders and managers do. Their subject matter may be strategy and organization, they may have to know how to arrange and pull the right levers for profitability and growth, but those are just the content they work with. They need clear thinking to give them an accurate understanding of the situation and to use their judgment to make good decisions; they need persuasive communication to make sure those decisions get translated into action by others.

Even top leaders need to communicate persuasively to get things done in today’s world. No one has absolute authority and even if they did, command and control is not the best way to get the best effort out of knowledge workers. That’s why CEOs spend about 85% of their time communicating and only 15% of their time working alone. And it’s worth it: there is a clear link between internal communication effectiveness and business performance, and as the first example at the beginning of this article demonstrates, words said externally can have a multibillion dollar impact on a company’s market share.

It’s ironic that leadership communication is not seen in a better light, considering that persuasive communication is the primary reason that leaders achieve their positions in the first place. I’ve always said that people who can communicate persuasively, who can influence others even if they have no formal authority, who can command a room while delivering a presentation, are leaders. In fact, the very first post I wrote to launch this blog was entitled “Your Leadership Moment”. The best salespeople lead their customers’ thinking by bringing fresh ideas and challenging the status quo. The most brilliant engineers or scientists won’t get the recognition they deserve if they can’t sell their ideas.

Persuasive communication skills can make you a leader regardless of your role, and supply the reality without the title. But that ability gets you noticed, and the title may soon follow. When top managers decide whom to fast-track for promotion, they look for the ability to clearly articulate good ideas and to get things done through others. So, they equate persuasive communication skills with leadership. The ability to communicate propelled a junior senator from Illinois to the most powerful leadership position in the world.

So, to be a good communicator, you have to think clearly and transfer your belief to others. Is that any different from what it takes to be a good leader?

While the skill may lead to the title, it’s possible that the title can weaken the skill. You may be tempted to use fewer of the skills that got you there. Research shows that people in power are less likely to listen to others’ opinions, although they will tend to overestimate their communications ability. One study showed that only 31% of employees rated their internal communications as effective.

One reason for poor leadership communication may be that its nature is much different today than it has traditionally been for business leaders. In the old days, the most important communication skill was the ability to convert your decisions into clear directives that others could understand and follow. Whether they agreed with you or not did not matter. They definitely did not need to understand the reasoning behind your decisions, and any attempt by a subordinate to do so was seen as borderline insubordination. The ethos of the follower was “ours not to reason why”.

Clear speaking, or “transmission” is still important, but it is no longer enough. People who get paid for their brains rather than their hands have to be led differently; they have to be persuaded not just told, and their opinions and ideas must be solicited. Leaders have to spend much more of their time in communications, and they have to use a much richer variety of skills: asking questions, listening, negotiating, cajoling and even pleading. Listening and questioning are hard to do, especially when you’re in charge.

So, if you want to be a leader, study and practice the arts of persuasive communication. If you want to be a good or even a great leader, study them even more.

Presentations - Sales

Test Your Presentation for Customer Focus

By Jack Malcolm / 9.17.2012 / No Comment

No, it’s not all about you

Everyone talks about the importance of customer focus, but very few salespeople apply the idea to their sales presentations, according to my interviews with top executives who have sat through hundreds of sales presentations. They complain about presentations that focus primarily on the presenting company, with slide after slide detailing their story and showing pictures of their corporate headquarters. Or, the presentation is all about the product being sold. Even if they do care about your company, they probably already know all they want or need to know—buyers are better informed than ever.

It’s easy to fall into the trap when you’re preparing your presentation. First, you are justly proud of your company and of your offerings, so it’s altogether human to want to talk about them. Second, you probably have no shortage of presentation templates available to you, put together by your marketing department, so it’s very convenient—maybe even mandatory to use them. Out of habit, you fail to realize how seller-centric your presentations might be.

So, here are a few filters you can use to test your own presentation before you go out and bore yet another prospect. They broadly fit into two categories: content and demeanor.

Customer-focused Content: Problems, Processes and Profits

Problem first, then solution. Solutions are unnecessary without problems. You might think that the problem is understood by everyone, so there is no need to talk about it, yet that’s wrong for two reasons.

First, talking knowledgeably about the customer’s problem is the best way to establish your credibility, far better than touting your credentials or telling them how many locations your company has. And I’m not just referring to a generic description of the problems your solution addresses—you have to show that you have done the research to understand this specific customer and their perspective on the problem.

The second reason is that even when the audience agrees on the description of the problem, they don’t all agree on its impact. In fact, everyone in the room may be impacted slightly differently, depending on their function or position within the company. Buying a solution represents change, and change is risky. So, your goal is to make the listeners feel that not changing is the greater risk.

Take a look at your presentation: do you talk about their problems, challenges and opportunities? How many slides are about them vs. about you?

Process improvements. Another excellent way to gain credibility and respect is to talk about their processes. Most B2B sales opportunities are about improving some aspect of the customer’s business processes. Show your expertise in their business by describing a day in the life of a process owner, both before and after, using their own language or terminology when possible. In my own sales processes, I try to spend time with a typical sales rep during the fact-gathering stage, and when I talk about this in my own presentations, it’s usually the most engaging part, especially when I can bring up anecdotes or examples. Showing that you’ve been on the scene where the process takes place is enormously credible. Do you talk about their business processes? Do you understand their steps, inputs required, outputs, and limitations? Do you talk about how to make their processes faster, better or cheaper?

Talk profits, not products. The language that resonates with the highest-level decision makers is that which talks about their own personal scorecards: the financial impact of their decisions. If solution selling is about solving problems and fixing processes, consultative selling is mostly about understanding and being able to express the business impact of your product or service. How much of your presentation addresses the business impact? What is the effect on revenue, costs, or asset efficiency?

Customer-focused Demeanor

Besides content, the way you present yourself can also demonstrate how customer-focused you are. Although it may appear to contradict what I said earlier about showing your knowledge, you have to be careful how you do it. If you try too hard to show how much you know about the customer, they may decide to cut you down to size a little. Be confidently tentative when you present your perception of the problem, and invite their comments. This will put you on the same side of the desk with the people in the room and ensure a shared understanding of the situation.

Another very simple test is to pay attention to your pronouns. How many times do you use “I” or “we” vs. “you”?

Finally, don’t be so focused on getting your message out that you forget to monitor messages in. Are you paying attention to the audience’s reaction and adjusting your talk accordingly? Are you encouraging questions and interactivity?

If you apply these test to what you are saying and how you are saying it, every member of the audience is likely to come away feeling that you have been speaking directly to them, and that is a wonderful thing to strive for in any presentation.

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