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Persuasive communication - Presentations

What Babies Know that Presenters Don’t

By Jack Malcolm / 5.14.2014 / No Comment

Preparing for the big presentation

According to research by developmental psychologists Alison Gopnik and Betty Repacholi, babies develop empathy some time between 14 and 18 months of age, which is much earlier than was originally thought.[1]

They discovered this through an ingenious experiment in which babies of each age group were offered the choice of either broccoli or Goldfish crackers. Not surprisingly, most preferred the Goldfish. Next, Repacholi selected one of the foods and either made a delighted or a disgusted face when she bit into it. Finally, she would hold out her hand to the baby and ask for some food.

The 18 month old babies would offer Repacholi the one that they saw that she liked, regardless of whether it was the one they liked. The 14 month old babies would show confusion when she appeared to like the broccoli, and then would offer her the Goldfish.

What this meant was that they had developed the capacity for empathy, to see others as different individuals, with their own likes and dislikes. Before these experiments, psychologists had thought that children did not develop empathy until much later, so Gopnik and Repacholi pushed back the boundaries to a much earlier stage in their development.

Curiously, scientists haven’t done any additional research to determine the age at which humans lose the capacity for empathy, or for putting themselves into the minds of others. I think I may be able to offer researchers a clue. I’ve noticed a similar look of confusion on the faces of full grown adults when I tell them their sales presentations have to be about the buyer and not about themselves.

They insist on including several slides about their own companies, their products, and their cool technologies. They get excited about their product’s features, without stopping to consider whether the customer actually cares. It’s all about what they like.

It seems that humans develop empathy at around 18 months, and lose it right around the time they have to make a presentation. Just doing my bit to advance scientific knowledge…

[1] The story comes from Seeing What Others Don’t: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights, by Gary Klein.

Presentations

Change the Song in your Head

By Jack Malcolm / 5.13.2014 / 1 Comment

You get two ideas for the price of one in this blog post: how to get an annoying song out of your head and how to get in the right frame of mind for that high-stakes meeting or presentation. The technique is the same for both.

We all occasionally get a tune stuck in our minds, one that plays endlessly and annoyingly despite our best efforts to try to get rid of it. In fact, the more we fight it, the deeper it gets entrenched. I’ve found a simple way to solve the problem: substitution.

You can’t fight the loop going through your head, because paying it attention just feeds it. So, what I do is choose a different tune and play that in my head for a minute or two. You can’t play two tunes at once, so the new tune pushes out the old bothersome one. Many times, one substitution is all you need, and the new tune quickly fades out – but the old one is gone.

Of course, you run the danger of having the new tune take root and become just as irritating, so if it persists more than a minute or two, just pick a different tune and try again. The trick is not to let the new one stick in your mind for very long.

So what does this have to do with getting in the right frame of mind for a presentation? If you get nervous before a presentation, it’s hard to get that feeling out of your mind, and telling yourself that you’re confident only makes you more anxious.

But just like your brain can only play one tune at a time, you can only feel one emotion at a time. So the same trick applies: substitute a powerful or confident emotion for the anxious one. This is a little harder, but still easily within your power to do. Get your mind into the right emotional state by recalling a time when you felt strong and confident, or when you were excited to deliver good news to someone. Excitement is especially powerful because the physical feeling is almost identical to what you feel when you’re nervous.

Actors know it as the “offstage beat”, according to Nick Morgan in his book, Power Cues. They evoke the necessary emotion for the scene before going on stage, so when the time comes, they are not “acting” – the emotion they show is genuine. They’re not thinking about the audience’s reactions, or that they may be nervous, because they only have room for one emotion at a time.

Just like the song in your head, if you can’t turn it off, at least you can change the station!

Expression

It’s All Geek to Me

By Jack Malcolm / 5.9.2014 / 1 Comment

Hey, smart guy. Yeah, you in the front of the room who are trying to sell me on your product. Cut out the Geek speak!

I get that your product contains extremely advanced technology. I also get that you know more about the technology than anyone in the room.

But I don’t care.

I don’t care because I can’t understand half of what you’ve said; you’re not speaking my language. I don’t speak Geek; I speak the language of “So What?”

I’m not stupid, and I probably could understand if I wanted to make the effort, but you haven’t told me why I should care. You haven’t told me what problem you’re going to solve for me, or how you’re going to make my life better. In fact, you still haven’t shown me that you know enough about me and my company to be able to tell me.

I don’t care because I can’t quite wrap my mind around those multisyllabic generalities you’re throwing out. What’s it like? How does it relate to something I already know? Make it concrete so I can see what you mean.

And those acronyms you’re throwing around? I have no clue what they mean but I’m definitely not going to embarrass myself by admitting it to you. It’s easier just to tune you out.

I get the fact that you’re passionate about your technology, and I applaud that. But if you love your product so much, do it a favor and tell the world about it in plain English. We don’t all speak Geek

Presentations

You Paid for that Microphone!

By Jack Malcolm / 5.8.2014 / No Comment

One of the turning points in US political history took place in Nashua NH in 1980, at a debate in the Republican presidential primary. Ronald Reagan had entered the primaries as the favorite, but he had been upset in Iowa and Puerto Rico by George H.W. Bush, who seemed to have the “big Mo”. The local newspaper, the Nashua Telegraph, had invited the two to debate, but a question came up whether that would violate campaign finance laws.

To avoid the problem, the Reagan campaign paid for the debate, and then invited the other four candidates. This created a controversy when Bush threatened to pull out of the debate, and when Reagan began to explain his position, the editor, John Breen, began arguing with him. When Reagan insisted on continuing, Breen called for the microphone to be turned off.

To this day, it’s still a beautiful thing to watch, as Reagan got extremely angry and snapped, “I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Breen!” He then turned and glared at Breen as the crowd jumped to its feet and cheered. Even his opponents clapped, in effect publicly bowing to his leadership.

That was a leadership moment for Reagan that day, as the crowd, and the nation, responded to the physical display of dominance and strength. But just as important was the fact that his strength was seen as justified, which would not have been the case if he had not paid for the microphone. That simple fact gave Reagan the moral high ground, and he was able to take advantage of it.

I’m not advocating that you act the same way in a high stakes sales presentation, but you should have the same attitude going in. If you are nervous about speaking, or intimidated by the rank of the audience, keep in mind that you paid for that microphone.

You paid for it by doing all the hard and difficult work in the sales process that led up to that moment. You paid for it by researching your client’s needs, putting together the ideal solution and by thoroughly preparing for that presentation. You paid for that microphone.

Knowing that, how could you ever be intimidated?