The YouBlog

Warning: Obfuscation Ahead

IT IS SOOOO EASY TO COMPLICATE THINGS. How? Just talk like you write.

"Huh?!" (I hear you say.)

It's true. We tend to make our writing much more complex and dense than it needs to be (and, for most people, a lot wordier than it needs to be), and that too easily spills over into how we talk, particularly when we're trying to persuade or influence others.
        It may seem more professional and advanced to use a lot of long words. You certainly see this in most press releases and marketing pieces, and waaaay too many presentations and sales pitches — phrases like "maximizing your mission-critical applications while simultaneously achieving dramatic reductions in resource-intensive operational flows."
        In reality, writing or talking like that is one of the worst things you can do to keep people engaged in your ideas or message. Here's why:

1) People may not even understand what you're talking about.

2) They may stop listening or reading while they try to decide what something like "mission-critical" really means.

3) Even if they understand both the context and the words, it's likely to sound or feel phony, since only "Me"-focused sales people and marketers talk that way.

You want to know how insidious — Ooh, tripped myself right there! "Insidious" is actually the perfect word for that idea, but will everybody understand it? Not necessarily. Better to go with a different approach, like "...how easy it is to fall into this trap".
        This doesn't mean you have to dumb-down your message. It's just that the simpler it is to follow your ideas, the faster the receiver can process it and the more likely (and grateful) they are to stick with you.
        Back to what prompted today's post: "internationally-active" versus "globe hopping". These came up in a project we're working on. Sure, there are subtle differences between the two phrases, but in the context in which we would use them, they weren't that different.  Meanwhile, it's eight syllables versus three.
        Do you know what happens when you spin out a phrase that requires eight syllables? The receiver's mind just stops, waiting for you to finish the phrase. Yes, it's only two words, but compared to the speed at which our brains work, it takes half a lifetime just to get through those two words.
        And it's harder to say things like that, whether it's you the speaker or them, the readers (who say these words in their heads as they're reading). Try those two phrases right now and see for yourself.
        So keep your words short — and few in number, if you can help it — and your ideas will be much more concise.
        (Time to take my own advice . . . bye!)

Related posts:
  · Busted
  · exercise #2 in Don't Get in the Way of Your Message
  · Stillness in a Hectic Life
  · Why Be Concise?

Forget "Electrifying" - Think "Effective"

OH, THE PRESSURE . . . I was reading something by a well-known speech coach the other day. There were a lot of good, if familiar, bits of advice. And then he went on a thread that brought everything to a screeching halt. He exhorted his readers to "Be electrifying."
        Yikes! How do we do that?
        Most presenters struggle with how to keep their audience interested. And now presenters should electrify their audience? What a leap.
        Actually, it's a leap you shouldn't bother with. Trying to be electrifying is like trying to be funny or trying to be happy — you can't force it. Being happy, being funny, and being electrifying are by-products of other things, like shared experiences or flashes of inspiration or unexpected ideas.
        Audiences can be electrified by a speaker, but the sensation they feel is not because the speaker has willed himself to be electrifying. Rather, audiences get charged up by the ideas or moments they experience while in the presence of a speaker who is fully engaged with them. It's the insights or discoveries that the audience makes that fire them up and getting them thinking "Yes!" or "Aha!"
        And it's their flashes of energy that lift the event to "electrifying" status. Sure, a speaker has to be reasonably energized to get them engaged, but it's his or her ideas that matter most, not how big they smile or how boldly they stride across the stage.
        Give your audience something to care about — something to get excited about — and you'll get all the energy back that you can handle.

Zigging When Everyone Zags

REMEMBER THESE ADS? (click through to see the YouTube video, if you're getting this via a feed) Hal Riney's campaign for Gallo's Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers was a huge hit and catapulted the brand to #1 in its category.
        The reason I bring this up (beyond giving you a quick laugh) is that there's a terrific object lesson about NOT doing what everyone else is doing.
        Hal Riney was brilliant. He understood how — well, I don't know if he understood how to break through the clutter. Do any of us know that, as if there's a scientific formula? No. But what Riney did quite successfully was to challenge the status quo and work to find a different way to reach and affect his audience.
        And his story, in this video excerpt, of how the Bartles & Jaymes campaign came to life is a message for all of us.
        It was the mid-80s and wine coolers were suddenly all the rage. According to Riney, 50 or so companies were climbing on the "Wine Cooler Bandwagon". Conventional wisdom held that the ads should feature music and lifestyle images of the young people to whom the product was targeted.
        But Riney felt that if all the other advertisers were taking that approach, how could Gallo's offering stand out and become the #1 product? His approach was to do the opposite of what people expected. So instead of bright, bouncy shots of twenty-somethings cavorting on a beach with a wine cooler in their hands, he put two geezers on a porch and let them ramble on in homespun fashion about their lives and their wine cooler.
        It was a big success and indeed helped Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers become the #1 wine cooler (which was Gallo's objective).

What does this mean for you?
Don't just go through the motions. If an opportunity arises that really matters, don't just trot out the same presentation you've used before — and don't limit yourself to what everyone else is doing (or has always done). Think about other ways you might get your message across, then have the conviction (or guts?) to use one of those approaches.
        Maybe that means you won't use PowerPoint. Or you'll wheel in some big prop. Or you'll change the venue. Or you'll hand out kazoos and have everyone hum the punch line.
        Riney broke out of the rut of convention, and so can you. It just takes being open to new ideas.
        Meanwhile, as Frank and Ed said, "Thank you for your support." I appreciate your continuing interest in The YouBlog. :-)

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall . . .

THERE WAS ONLY ONE LINE from a new piece in the New York Times that directly spoke to us business-types, but it was a doozy. Even the title of the article — "Names That Match Forge a Bond on the Internet" — is seductively sneaky. Why? Because we care about ourselves, and anything that is like ourself has to be good.
        Here's the killer line: "... human beings are unconsciously drawn to people and things that remind us of ourselves."
        If you've read Robert Cialdini's book "Influence", you'll recognize this as one of his six Principles of Persuasion. The principle in question is Consensus, and the hook is that, when faced with uncertainty about a decision, we look to the actions of others — particularly similar others — for guides about how to act.
        So what does this mean for you?
        Well, the more you can help people see themselves in the visions you paint or the stories you tell, the more likely they are to buy into what you're proposing. That's why testimonials and case studies can be so powerful, particularly if the person or situation is close to the ones you're currently trying to influence.
        And that's why using phrases like "... similar to your situation ..." or "... just like you're facing ..." are so important. You help them see that this will work for them, too.
        As an added benefit, when you're talking about someone else's situation and results, you're NOT talking about features of your product or service. You're letting the most critical element — what they'll achieve — shine through. And that's the most persuasive approach of all.

What If There Were No Speeches?

I HAVE TREMENDOUS RESPECT for people who get up in front of others to share ideas. I have tremendous respect for the people who help them get up there, and for organizations like Toastmasters, and bloggers like Garr Reynolds (whose post on The art of the teleprompter sparked my thoughts today).
        My greatest respect, however (and it should be yours, too), is for the people listening to others speak. They're giving the gift of their time, in exchange for the hope of finding something that will influence their lives. Notice I didn't say "hearing something", but rather "finding something." There's a significant difference. Hearing is a passive act. Taking what you've heard and connecting that with what you already know is active.
        And isn't that what every speaker really wants to do? Change minds, change behaviors, even change the course of history (since we're in the throes of a political campaign here in the U.S.). Some feel they need bold language, stirring rhetoric, and sound bites they hope will endure forever.
        But it isn't about sound bites, not if you really want to move people to action. Of the last nine U.S. presidents, there are only two sound bites that have stuck with me: John Kennedy's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country." and Bill Clinton's mantra in 1992 "It’s the economy, stupid." Kennedy's was certainly scripted, but it's memorable because it made a personal connection with the audience (which can't be said for the other seven passages cited in that Wikipedia link). Clinton's, on the other hand, grew out of a sign posted on his campaign headquarter's wall. It works because it's so conversational — and because it boiled the whole campaign down to four very human words.
        And it's that human connection that makes all the difference. This applies whether you're a presidential candidate, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or someone who is trying to rally support for a cause in your community.
        "Fair enough", you're probably thinking, "but why the provocative title and goofy lyrics above?"
        Because most "speeches" are dull exercises in turgid text. They're not conversations, they're boatloads of logic and grand language. Do they inform? Maybe. Do they motivate? Rarely. Do they bore? Frequently.
        Which takes me back to Garr's post today. Garr's writing and insights are excellent — that's not what set me off. It was looking at the unfortunate piece on John McCain AND (for me) the less-than-inspiring clip of Barack Obama (at least the first two minutes, which was as far as I got). While Obama is clearly far more at ease with the teleprompter than is McCain, they're both still reading.

WHAT IF either of them had instead stepped out from behind the podium, looked straight at the people in front of them, and said "Here are the three things I'd like to discuss with you today." And then they had a conversation. No scripts, no memorization, just really human interaction, where ideas get exchanged, we get to see the person underneath all the (former?) rhetoric, and we make a personal — individual — connection with that person. My God, you really could change the world.
        I am a realist, however, so I don't expect to see that in the U.S. political arena. But you can, and should, take any and every opportunity to throw the script away and just have an open, engaging conversation with your audience — whether you've got three people or three thousand. It's that connection that matters, not flowery language. If we can move people's hearts, we can move their heads.

[Note]
Doing away with "speeches" doesn't negate the value of Toastmasters or speech coaches. On the contrary, seizing opportunities to share ideas is fantastic — just make sure it's conversational and fresh and human, not stiff or formal. And everyone needs an editor and an extra, discerning eye.

What Story Are You Telling?

ONE FILM, THREE DIFFERENT STORIES. That was our experience today when the family & I went to see the new IMAX film, The Alps. According to the film’s notes, this is “a true-life story of extraordinary courage. It's the intensely personal journey of a man who has every reason not to climb the deadly Eiger North Face, yet climb it he must.”
        And it is a stunning film, on so many dimensions. What fascinated me afterward (besides recalling all the exceptional film work and touching story) was how differently we experienced the film. It takes place in Switzerland and my wife, who is Swiss, was enraptured by images of home. My kids were caught up in the story and images of the climbers facing this massive, dangerous challenge. As for me, I was gripped by the personal drama of this man who left his wife and 11-year old daughter at the base of the mountain as he faced the climb that had killed his father 40 years before.
        Same imagery, same narration, same editing and soundtrack and all — and three very different reactions. What each of us saw, however, was relevant to our personal viewpoints, expectations, and ideals.

Guess what . . .
The same thing happens every time you present, or make a sales pitch, or deliver an internal briefing. What you think you’re conveying may be very different from what your individual audience members or prospects may be receiving.
        How do you keep from getting wildly divergent reactions? Get their feedback. Don’t just barge through your presentation or pitch or ideas; instead, stop periodically and ask them how whatever vision you’re creating fits in with their needs or goals.
        (You were creating a vision, weren’t you? You weren’t just rattling off Features & Benefits or drilling through a lot of numbers or bullets or both, right? Right??)
        Another way to make sure they’re on the same proverbial page with you is to keep your core idea reeeeeeeally concise. Here’s a post on that.

Meanwhile, if you have a chance, don’t miss this film. Here is where The Alps is playing, as of March '08.

How NOT to Write a Value Proposition

IT’S “READER BEWARE” OUT THERE ON THE WILD WILD WEB, particularly when it comes to advice on crafting a strong Value Proposition. I’m sure whoever wrote the Wikipedia entry on “Customer Value Proposition” meant well — but their advice is waaaaay off base. Yikes! If you follow their prescription, you could make it harder for someone to choose you, not easier. And you’ll certainly be a LOT less memorable with their formula.
        Don’t believe me? Check this out:

“A value-proposition should contain at least five elements:
1. current situation (including problems, causes, and effects)
2. target situation
3. when to reach the target situation
4. cost of reaching the target situation
5. the benefits of both the targeting and the achievement phases"

At least five elements?! Do you think your prospects or audience or readers are even going to remember one with all that stuff dumped on them? Not a chance.
        And all those detail points sound like parts of a proposal or a B-school treatise, not a concise description of what the buyer can achieve.
        Ultimately, a Value Proposition comes down to why your audience or prospects or readers should care about what you have to offer — and this Wikipedia entry (which is the first thing that shows up when someone Googles “value proposition”) doesn’t get anywhere near that concept.
        The “value” in Value Proposition needs to be what THEY (prospects, audience, readers) see as valuable, not what you want to achieve. So any statement that focuses on your agenda, or your products or services, is NOT a value proposition, no matter how loudly you proclaim it to be so — nor how resolutely a Wikipedia entry describes it. It’s not your value proposition, it’s theirs.

For more on this topic, check out “How Good Is Your Value Proposition?”

It’s Rough, But It Works

IT WASN’T A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE, but I got a wonderful glimpse of the future this weekend, courtesy of my friend, Laura Fitton (in the picture at left), and the folks at Startup Weekend2 here in Boulder. The picture above is a screen grab from a session they ran, where Laura hosted various entrepreneurs-to-be making pitches to Guy Kawasaki (above, at right) and others.
        The intriguing thing was that the startup experts weren’t in Boulder, they were patched in via simple video feeds. And people could send comments or questions that were displayed below the video images. You can see these episodes here.
        There’s a great object lesson for all business communications in what you see in these clips. These aren’t polished, professionally-produced efforts — but they are immediate and authentic and very compelling. That’s what Laura was going for, and she nailed it.
        Authentic trumps Polished any day. This is true whether you’re working on a presentation for a large crowd or trying to make a pitch to your boss for more help. Getting to the point of what really matters is far more important, and more compelling, than having a perfectly choreographed speech.
        Keep your eye on Laura’s Mediacasters site. It’ll be fun to see what she comes up with.

Are You Predictable?

WOULDN’T YOU AGREE: “Predictable” = “Boring”? And to extend this: “Predictable” = “Invisible”. We certainly know it when we see it, and we tend to tune out quickly when encounter things that are predictable-boring-irrelevant-et al.
        Case in point: When you get a telemarketing call, how often do you listen to the whole message? And if you do listen to the whole thing, are you ever surprised? Probably not.
        Same thing happens with the majority of presentations, B2B cold calls, prospecting emails, PR releases, and so on. Most are so formulaic as to be invisible. And if you are following a formula, you’re definitely weakening your chances.
        Imagine this: A vendor comes to meet with you and they open up a laptop. What’s going to happen next? They’re probably going to open up a presentation. And then do. So what’s coming next? Right — a Title slide? And next? Yep, an Agenda slide. And at this point, you probably want to run out screaming, “Noooooo!” (because you know how deadly boring this is likely to be).
        Same thing happens with prospecting calls, voice mails, and emails, except that the receiver now has a delete key to quickly lessen their pain.

So . . .
Why do people persist in being Predictable? Because it’s easier. Because they’ve never tried a different approach. Or because someone above them has insisted that “This is the way we do it here.”
        The problem is that your rationale is irrelevant to those you want to influence.
        To break out of the trench of Predictability, you need to think about what really matters to the people you want to influence, then think about how to most effectively show them that you have an answer for their needs.
        Chances are you don’t need PowerPoint to do this. You can probably create an incredibly potent picture just with words. Same goes for cold calls and emails.
        And if you really do need slideware, you certainly don’t need a title slide. Instead, start off with an image that captures what you really want to express, and you’ll definitely break out of the mold of “Predictable”.

For another view on this same idea, check out Seth Godin’s latest post: “Why bother having a resume?” He makes a really good case for not following the norm.

Related posts:
  · Typecasting
  · Are You Easy to Ignore?

Puncturing Persuasion

SETH GODIN TAKES ON CIALDINI and all scientific marketers in a thought-provoking post: “How do I persuade you?” He effectively questions whether there’s anything a marketer or sales executive can do to consistently influence others. And without directly calling out Robert Cialdini and his six Principles of Persuasion, Seth makes a case for not relying on any one set of tactics for all your customers, clients, or prospects.
        Okay.
        Now what?

The punchline is that we need to listen to those we hope to influence, and then adapt our approach accordingly. We can still use Cialdini’s six principles, but only as appropriate to a given situation (and never all six at once).
        I realize this is a lot easier in 1:1 or small group situations. Ask questions and follow the path their answers reveal. This does takes extra effort, and you have to be comfortable with sharing control, but it’s tremendously more effective than how most people communicate (which is just to talk all about “Me”)
        And the effort is even more complex when you’re trying to reach masses, which is why so many marketers fall back on tricks or “sure-fire” tactics. (I still shudder at the money my old company spent trying to decide which had a better response rate, blue ink or green ink.)
        But even this starts at the same place: ask what matters and listen to what they say. Don’t try to validate your biases or expectations, be open to what’s in their heads and in their hearts. Then respond appropriately.
        And if you think this won’t work in marketing to the masses, maybe you shouldn’t be marketing to the masses . . .