Analogies can be fruitful
I’ve written before about how useful analogies can be to make your presentation memorable, but if you want to build a powerful presentation, analogies are useful for much more than decoration—they can serve as its very foundation, and make your presentation much stronger as a result.
In fact, while stories are getting all the press nowadays, analogies are really doing most of the work. They’re far more common and more effective in getting your points across. Most stories are actually vehicles for conveying an analogy.
Analogies are inevitable. They influence what we perceive and what we remember. They are useful mental shortcuts that we take when we encounter new and unfamiliar situations that require a judgment or decision. Instead of starting from scratch when we encounter an unfamiliar situation that requires a judgment or decision, prescription we search our experience for similar situations. Analogies help us understand, organize and make sense of incoming information.
In fact, analogy is the foundation of learning from experience. People with more experience have a richer store of analogies to draw from, which is what enables them to rapid right decisions without having to agonize over every detail.
We always see more—and less—in a situation than is there. Our minds see more because we look for patterns and then fill in the gaps with what’s not there. We also see less because we filter out information we consider irrelevant. Analogies
Once we choose an analogy, it leads us to focus on certain aspects of the situation and ignore others. Actually, we often don’t consciously choose analogies—sometimes they choose us, implanting themselves stealthily without our knowledge. Research indicates that “resistance is futile”: implanted analogies can affect our memories so that we may remember things in the presentation that were not actually there.[1]
Business is full of examples of how a powerful analogy can make the difference in important decisions. In 1997, Intel was opposed to developing a low-end chip for PCs because they thought it would cheapen the brand. But in a training seminar, Harvard professor Clayton Christensen explained how established steel companies ignored low-end products like rebar, providing an opening for minimills. By establishing themselves on the low end, they were then able to move up the value chain and seize the high end. That analogy turned Andy Grove’s thinking around, and it began promoting its Celeron processor.[2]
Analogies carry special weight in business presentations because the senior decision makers you want to influence cut their teeth on them—the case study method used in business schools is nothing but analogical thinking on a large scale. As they gain experience in their careers, they are stuffing their minds with analogies that they draw on when they make judgments about new situations.
If you can find the right analogy that resonates with them, you can short-cut a tremendous amount of detail and context and have the inside track on a favorable decision.
I will write much more about analogies in future posts, but for now here is a list of all the benefits that analogies can provide for persuasive communicators:
- Focus attention on certain aspects over others—influence belief
- Transfer emotion—improve motivation
- Make things easier to understand—improve understanding; make things more concise
- Make the message more vivid—improve memory
- Make the message more interesting—improve attention
- Lower resistance to your message
- Lower perceived risk by making new things seem more familiar
[1] Resistance is futile: The Unwitting insertion of analogical references in memory. Perrott, Gentner, Bodenhausen (2005).
[2] How Strategists Really Think: Tapping the Power of Analogy, Gavetti and Rivkin, (2005).
The recommendations in this post will challenge your cherished instincts as a salesperson and presenter, so if you’re uncomfortable with doubt, don’t read any further.
Our instincts—and our compensation plans—pressure us to make the most persuasive and confident arguments that we can devise, get from Point A to B as surely and efficiently as possible, and shorten that sales cycle. We focus on the key decision maker in the room, marshal all the facts on our side, and prepare carefully to crush any objections from any potential blockers.
We want to make the sale, we want to be right, and we want to “win”. Books that teach presentation skills (including my own) emphasize this.
But the problem with this “Always Be Closing” approach is that even if your proposal is absolutely perfect in every way for the client, there is a high probability that it may lead to an unsustainable agreement, one that will be implemented improperly or incompletely. That can lead to a lot of value being left on the table for the client, customer dissatisfaction, and big demands on your time down the road.
In my own sales experience, I can admit to deals I sold because I won over the decision maker, but then had to contend with lower level people who were less than enthusiastic in their efforts to support the training, if not downright hostile in some cases. And I’m not alone: In his book, Why Decisions Fail
The process of decision making is often more important than the content of the contending arguments. Processes that widen the search for alternative early in the process, take into account political factors, and think realistically about implementation challenges are much more likely to succeed. In short, they will be sustainable. Paying attention to the process is especially important when you’re dealing with complex projects that carry important results for the client and have a wide span of impact within the organization.
What makes for a sustainable agreement?
People will buy into an agreement for two broad reasons: either it aligns with their self-interest or it is perceived as fair.
Integrative proposals. Any time a company makes an investment decision it is allocating resources, and causing more work or risk for various parties within the organization, so objectively there are winners and losers. But with a little imagination, it’s sometimes possible to make the pie a bit larger and give more to all concerned.
Sense of fairness. People are realistic and are team players, so they will get behind agreements that hurt their individual interests—as long as they perceive that the process to reach that agreement was fair. It’s called procedural fairness: did the process allow them to voice their disagreement and be heard, or did they feel like they were railroaded into it? Was there serious attention paid to diverse points of view? Were all reasonable alternatives given a fair hearing?
How do you adapt your presentation preparation, content and style to achieve it?
During the preparation phase:
Spend time truly understanding all points of view; reach out to potential blockers as well as your allies and champions. Strategically, you run the risk of tipping them off and giving them time to organize opposition, but here’s what you get in return:
- You make people feel included in the decision, which increases the chance for shared ownership.
- You give people time to grow used to the idea.
- You might actually learn something that will help you improve your proposal. As Nutt says, at this stage “Doubt can be a powerful force pushing you to think more clearly about what is needed.”
During the presentation:
Show both sides. Intelligent audiences are more swayed by two-sided arguments that demonstrate that you’ve thought about more than just your own interests. Acknowledge different concerns and interests.
Be prepared to show your thinking. I often warn people away from providing too much context, because it takes a lot of time. But sometimes you have to show the background, context and how you arrived at your ideas, especially when you have a lot of analyticals in the audience. (Or at least be prepared with backup material in case you sense it’s necessary.)
Make it more interactive. People need to feel that they’ve been heard to perceive the process as fair, so encourage questions from the audience. Ask a lot of questions—in fact, if you sense that someone is holding back, you can call on them by name. Of course, this means that you have to pay close attention to audience response. By showing that you’re not afraid of dissenting points of view, you’re setting an example of open-mindedness, and they may return the favor.
During Q&A:
If you haven’t already done so in an interactive presentation, build plenty of time into the agenda for discussion so that everyone who wants to comment can feel that they’ve had a fair shake.
Don’t be afraid of getting disagreement. In fact, you should be more afraid if no one disagrees, because it may mean that they’re just biding their time to sabotage you later. If there is going to be opposition, it’s best to get it out in the open.
Be prepared to “negotiate”. Ideally, you would like to be able to integrate opposing viewpoints into a perfect solution for everyone, but this is not always realistic. If you think ahead, you can have some minor modifications or concessions in your proposal in your back pocket that you can trade for agreement.
One of the great things about reading books about psychology is that you learn the scientific reasons for your past screw-ups. Adam Grant’s new book, Give and Take
Having been a commercial banker before making the switch to sales training in the early 1990s, I was acutely aware that the participants in the classes I facilitated had far more experience in high-tech complex sales than I did. I tried to compensate by downplaying my lack of experience and stressing other credentials.
I very quickly found out, however, that most people saw right through my little charade, although there were two different reactions: some thought it made me look defensive while others perceived me to be arrogant.
But I also discovered that as long as I was competent in the topic I was teaching, they did not care how much experience I had. Going further, I saw that being completely open about my weaknesses would actually make me more credible in the audience’s view.
Grant calls it the pratfall effect, citing a study in which an audience viewed a tape in which a candidate for a spot on a Quiz Bowl team spilled coffee on his suit. Those candidates who came in with a high score on their qualifying exam were viewed more favorably after the clumsy incident, while those with a low score were viewed less favorably.
The point is that expressing vulnerability to an audience can make them like you more, if they have already seen other signals of your competence. If they don’t see you as competent to begin with, vulnerability or imperfection will give them another reason to like you less. But if they see you as competent, imperfection humanizes you and makes you seem like a regular person.
Although Grant does not say it, it appears to me that it’s another manifestation of confirmation bias at work. The vulnerability that you show, perhaps by admitting to a weakness, works in the direction to further confirm whatever impression they have already formed.
The interesting paradox is that being self-deprecating can pump up your persuasive power, but you have to earn the right to be self-deprecating. Otherwise, it can come across as false modesty, which is perceived as another form of arrogance. It reminds me of a wonderful quote by Golda Meir:
“Don’t be so humble. You’re not that great.”
In my own situation, the audience had already received signals of my competence: the first was the fact that their company had hired ours to conduct sales training, and the second was that usually their boss or another respected authority figure would introduce me.
There’s another dynamic at work. If you’re making a strategic sales presentation, you are likely presenting to high-ranking individuals who control the purse strings that will determine your fate. In the subtle dynamic of interpersonal relationships, they see themselves as high-status individuals compared to you. Trying to come across as too perfect may challenge their status, while a little humility on your side can put them at ease and makes them more favorably disposed to listen.
If you do reveal a weakness, it should be about something over which you have no control. In my own case, I could not go back and change my past, so it was OK to be candid about it. On the other hand, if you apologize up front because you did not have time to fully prepare for the presentation, your listeners will probably punish you for it. It will sound like an excuse and will prime them to look for additional flaws.
I’ve been thinking about ways to improve the teaching of effective PowerPoint skills, and the thought finally occurred to me that a well-designed slide is put together just like a well-designed presentation. It has one main point, sufficient evidence to back it up, and illustrations (albeit not necessarily visual) to make the evidence clear, compelling and memorable.
Main point: The critical first step in any effective presentation is to decide exactly what your main point is before you begin anything else. You can’t express yourself clearly until you’ve thought clearly, and that begins with knowing exactly the point you’re trying to make.
That means that your main point has to be expressed as a statement, not a title. If you’re starting from scratch, it should not be too difficult, because your main points come directly from your draft of the presentation itself. If you’re working from an existing presentation, chances are that most of the slides have titles; go through each slide and ask, “What about it?” For example, instead of “Staffing Requirements”, you might say: “Two additional staff needed to meet schedule.”
Once you’ve decided on your main point, there’s no reason to hide it or take your time in getting to it. Audiences are impatient and limited in their attention and memory, so you need to ensure they get your message right away. There are many noted precedents for this. Bruce Gabrielle, in Speaking PowerPoint
There’s one additional benefit: when all your slides begin with the main point, you can view them in the slide sorter view and tell at a glance whether your entire presentation flows properly.
Evidence or elaboration: In a full presentation, your slide headlines will spell out the logical structure of your argument or story. On a single slide, this is where you provide the detail that supports your main point. When the audience grasps your main point, they will either agree with it or not. If you’re not sure they will agree with your main point, supply evidence to back it up. If the main point is noncontroversial, elaborate by answering the audience’s obvious question: “so what”?
When you do, it’s important to follow the Need to Know principle: Try not to exceed the minimum they need to know to understand or accept the main point. Because most slides are designed as visual aids to a presentation, there’s no rule that says you have to put every word on the slide. In fact, it’s best to use as few words as possible and produce the full text out of your mouth. Often, too much verbiage makes it harder for people to follow what you’re saying, because they can’t read and listen at the same time.
Let me also remind you that there’s no rule that says you have to use bullet points in your text, even though every text box in PowerPoint begins with bullets by default. If you can think of a different way to say it or display it, the variety will be refreshing.
Illustration: This side is used for pictures or charts which illustrate your evidence. Sometimes “just the facts” is not enough. You may need to clarify those facts with a picture, flow chart or graph. You may need to add impact; for example, it’s one thing to say that risk factors have increased, quite another to show a photo of an accident. Finally, illustrations make it easier for people to remember what you say (especially when they may decide on whether to agree to your proposal some time after your presentation). About 50% of our brain’s capacity is devoted to the visual sense, so doesn’t it make sense to devote half of your slide to it? The capacity to show visuals—vividly and larger than life—is the best part about PowerPoint; why not take advantage of it?
Because the visual sense is so powerful, resist the temptation to add irrelevant visuals. If it does not clarify, add impact, or make memorable, leave it out.
In summary, a good slide, like a good presentation, should a) tell them what you mean, b) back it up, and c) make it stick.
