Beware the Corporate Ego

HAD AN INTRIGUING CONVERSATION with someone who totally gets it about the You-Me Principle. He buys into the idea of focusing on the needs and interests of his prospects, from the first moment to the last. He sees the power of the words “You” and “Me” to make his slide deck more relevant to his prospects.
        AND YET . . . he still thought that full product details should be presented — just because the people at his company developed them. As a way to honor those who had put in the work on the product. As if failing to mention all the effort or the results of those efforts would somehow diminsh their achievement (or words to that effect).

That stopped me short . . .

The people who are buying his — or your — products or services don’t really care what went into developing them. Prospects just want something to fix a problem or resolve a need or help them capitalize on an opportunity.

        Whatever you say or present to them should be focused on their needs or interests, and how to achieve their goals. In doing that, you will certainly mention details of your product or service, but it should always be in relation to their ultimate objective.
        Anything you add that isn't squarely focused on them, anything you include that might be tangential to their needs, weakens your pitch. If something isn't clearly relevant to your audience, they’ll stop listening to you while they try to figure out if it applies to them or not.
        And while they’re disconnected from your pitch, they may be deciding that you’re just like all those other presenters who trot out product or service details, and never really tell the audience what’s in it for them. In that moment, your position with them weakens or evaporates.

And speaking of relevance . . .

A LOT OF COMPANIES (and presenters from those companies) proclaim that they are “the industry leader” or “the biggest” or “the first” or some other accolade. Even if what is being trumpted really is true, these types of pronouncements have been so overused that they’re worse than meaningless — they suggest that the company praising itself is more focused on itself than its prospects, as if prospects should buy just because the seller is SO GREAT.
        But here’s the shocker . . . just because a company says it is great, doesn’t mean the prospect will be impressed.
        What is impressive: when a company or a presenter says, “Here’s how you can meet your objectives” and then goes on to detail exactly how the prospect can do so.

Meanwhile . . . if someone else says your company or your offerings are great, THAT is important to your prospects. But use those testimonials as supporting material, to help prove the value you’ve defined — don’t use grand pronouncements as a key part of why someone should buy from you.

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