The You-Me Principle

TWO LITTLE WORDS — “You” and “Me” — can make all the difference in whether your presentation or pitch is successful or not.
        That’s not ALL you need to know about how to give a compelling presentation or write a killer prospecting email. But understanding the You-Me Principle and how to apply it to any and all persuasive communications will help you:

• make a stronger connection with your audience or prospects
• get them involved in your pitch
• make it easier for them to carry your message to others
• separate you from your competition
• move your audience or prospects to action

We teach full-day classes in how to apply the You-Me Principle™, but the basics are really simple. It doesn’t replace whatever methodology or approach you use — it just makes your communications much more powerful.
 

Who's Who?
The first thing to understand is who we’re talking about when we say “You” or “Me”. Here’s a graphic to help explain it:

“You” is anyone you’re trying to persuade or influence. “You” can include both individuals and their companies. [“You” could also be your colleagues, your boss, your partner or spouse, even your kids.] “Me” is yourself, your company, and/or anything that represents your interests.
        In the graphic above, there is a line or continuum between “You” and “Me”. During the course of any persuasive communications, the focus shifts along that line between “You” and “Me”.

When we talk about our audience or prospects’ needs or interests, the focus slides over to the “You” side. When we talk about our company or our products and services, the focus shifts to the “Me” side. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL, you need to keep the focus as much as possible on the “You” side.

And that’s the basic premise of the You-Me Principle:
keep the focus on “You.”

That doesn’t mean you can’t talk about your company or your offerings. At some point, you’ll need to. But if you start off talking about “Me” — about your company, your offerings, your <fill in the blank> — you’re announcing, subconsciously, that the focus of your presentation or letter or conversation is about yourself, not about the needs, interests, or goals of the person or people you hope to influence.
        It doesn’t help to have something about “You” — about the ones you want to influence — later in your pitch (after you’ve talked about your company’s background or your latest products). Your audience won’t know something relevant is coming, so they’ll decide you’re like most other presenters or sales reps, and they’ll tune you out.
        You could, of course, announce “I’m going to talk about your interests eventually, but first, let’s talk about me!” That would be ill-advised, of course, but millions of presenters and sales executives do exactly that (without the words) every day.

 

Connecting the Dots
You’ve probably heard lots of advice to “think about your audience”. Presentations guru, Jerry Weissman, even talks about “the correct ‘You’” in a post on his blog. And you’ve probably also seen criticisms of pitches that are “all about ‘Me’”. [Sorry, no specific attributions on that.]
        What’s important is to put the two together — You and Me — and use them as a guide to refining your presentations and pitches. Here’s how to do it:

For a PRESENTATION: go through it and note whether each slide is about “You” or about “Me”. If you’re not sure, it’s probably about “Me”. Then look at the whole presentation and see how many “You”s are there, as well as where they appear. If the presentation isn’t mostly about “You”, particularly at the start, then you’re weakening the impact of your presentation. Go back through and make sure you’re talking about “You” from the start.

For SALES COMMUNICATIONS: go through your prospecting email or letter, or your call script, and note whether each item is about “You” or “Me”. Do that for the subject or opening line, do it for each paragraph. Then look at what you've got. If it’s mostly about “Me”, you’re limiting your chances. Go back through and find ways to turn the “Me”s to “You”s.

Looking at things in terms of “You” or “Me” works at both a macro level and a micro level, even down to word choices or type styles. The most important thing, however, is to talk about “You” from the start, not at slide 13 or paragraph five.
        That doesn’t mean you need to throw in a thousand “You”s — that would become obnoxious. Just make sure you’re talking about the needs, goals, interests, pains, etc. of your target audience from the start.
        They’ll know you have some personal reason for making the presentation or pitch, but if they think you understand their situation, they’ll be much more likely to buy into your ideas for how to improve that situation.

While the You-Me Principle may be a goofy-sounding name, its power is in its simplicity. You can look at everything in terms of “You” or “Me”, and you can use those words as a guide to help refine and energize your communications. Try it today. I promise you those two words will make a difference.