#5: Don’t Take My Word For It

THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP MAKE YOUR CASE, short of giving away your offering for free, is to offer PROOF of how others have benefited from your offering.

I realize this is not earth-shattering news, but here’s a twist your competitors probably don’t know. Let them throw up their slides crammed with all manner of client or customer logos (it’s usually visual vomit anyway). Here’s what you are going for:

You want your prospect or audience to see themselves in your proof.

You want them to think “Yeah, that’s me” or “That’s the same problem” or “Wow, this could work for us.” That will get you much farther than merely throwing a lot of unrelated logos at them and expecting them to make the connection.

Cialdini talks about this in his Six Principles of Persuasion, but his label is “Consensus.” He says that, in cases of uncertainty (like whether or not to buy your product or service or idea), people look to the actions of others in helping them decide what response to make. They look for evidence of how others are thinking, feeling or acting. And their appraisals are amplified by the actions of many others and, especially, similar others.

So for this, item #5 in the series of 10 exercises to help you be more compelling and effective with your presentations, here are your tasks:

[1] Similar others — by industry or type
Which clients or customers are most like the one you’re now hoping to influence? If you don’t have any that are in the same industry, look to companies of similar size and/or who are facing similar challenges.

[2] Similar others — by function
Which people in your stable of clients or customers are most like the person or people in front of you now? This adds a personal element that can be invaluable in solidifying your case. Just make sure you are as close as possible to the job function or level, whether that’s decision makers, champions, or influencers?

[3] Keep it SIMPLE
Once you’ve figured out who and what to feature in your proof, make sure the lesson or result you want to share is simple, clear, and compelling. If you drone on about a particular case study, you’ll weaken your pitch. Likewise, if you put a long quote on a slide, you’ll make it much harder for your prospect or audience to latch on to the key idea.

People will always ask if they want to know more — and they will if your story makes it easy for them to see themself. Your prospect or audience will make a personal connection to your pitch that is much more powerful than just an ROI number.

<note>
To see the other parts of this series, find the heading EXERCISES in right column of The YouBlog. It’s between “Recent Posts” and “Categories”. You can do them in any order you like.