The idea behind this principle is so deceptively simple that you’ll probably shrug it off as unimportant, but you’ll do that at your own peril. Since it doesn’t present itself as complex, involved, or sophisticated, you might think, “Yeah, yeah, of course,” and not stop to follow its recommendation; that would be a serious mistake.
The human brain is remarkably powerful, and you probably take for granted most of what this three-pound blob of protein and fat does. It gives you the capacity for rational thought, judgment, and language, along with the ability to appreciate art and music. It’s responsible for your personality, physical movements, and memory and provides you with the gifts of sight, sound, feelings, smell, and taste. All the while it’s controlling your heartbeat, breathing, digestion, body temperature, immune system, metabolism, and many other things without any input from you.
With all that our brains are charged with doing, it’s amazing that there’s any capacity left over to accomplish our everyday tasks. Many people go through their days overwhelmed, overstimulated, undernourished, and on too little sleep. Many take prescription meds that mess up their mental clarity and power of reasoning. Many others are stressed out from enormous financial pressures. In the last few years, 4.5 million U.S. homeowners have had their homes foreclosed on (Business Insider, July 2013). At least 22 percent of Americans report suffering from “extreme stress” (American Psychological Association: Stress In America: Our Health at Risk, 2011). Millions are disturbed by rocky family and romantic relationships, with a 40 to 50 percent national divorce rate (American Psychological Association).
Others, whose finances and relationships are just fine, are tormented by mental illness; 26.2 percent of Americans age 18 and older—one in four—have a diagnosable mental disorder in any specific year (National Institute of Mental Health, 2014). In addition, 18 million adult Americans are alcoholics or have alcohol problems (National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health, 2014).
In regard to the everyday distractions that rob our prospects’ attention, it has been estimated that we’re exposed to anywhere from 247 ads a day (Consumer Reports) to more than 3,000 (Newspaper Association of America).
Does all this have an effect on our brains? You better believe it! In 1965 consumers recalled 34 percent of the commercials they had seen. In 1990 that number had dropped to 8 percent, and by 2007 consumers could barely name two of the commercials they had seen on a specific day.
What does all this mean? Simply that you’re dealing with a less focused consumer than you might think. His or her capacity to understand, process, and respond to your presentation is less than ideal. Add to that the notion that your prospective buyer is likely to already have a less than neutral attitude about being sold anything by anyone and you can see what you’re up against. You’re dealing with prospects who literally do not have the full unencumbered capacity of their brains at their disposal.
This emphasizes the critical importance of message organization. Put more specifically, unless you make your presentation simple to understand, process, and respond to, your pitch is doomed to fail before you say the first word.
Did you ever think—even for just a few minutes—that your sales pitch could be too long, too complex, too detailed, or perhaps too disorganized? Did you ever consider the possibility that a percentage of your audience isn’t getting what you’re saying because of the way your presentation is structured?
Remember, you’re intimately familiar with your pitch because it’s yours. You created it, reworded it, thought about it, presented it, and maybe tweaked it multiple times to get it just right. Every time you present it to someone new, he or she is hearing it for the very first time, without the luxury of your depth of understanding. Also, to avoid embarrassment, many people won’t even tell you that they don’t know what you’re talking about. They’ll simply nod and mumble “mmm hmmm” while their heads are in a fog. In this mental state, what’s the likelihood that they’re going to buy? Obviously, they probably won’t.
Did you ever hear of “AIDPA?” It’s a classic acronym for a time-tested advertising formula that suggests a particular ordering of persuasive elements to ensure the maximum response. Since advertising is a salesperson in print or a salesperson broadcast to the masses, the same recipe can be applied to direct sales.
Following this basic five-step formula can help turn disordered presentations into ones that are well structured and logically presented. Let’s look at each of the elements of the formula, using an example of an audio course that helps people overcome their fear of public speaking. I’ll illustrate with a script how it would be used by a seminar leader who’s describing it to his audience.
Do only what is necessary to convey only what is essential.
Richard Powell
Get their attention. (State your product or service’s number one benefit.) “Ladies and gentlemen, how would you like to be able to speak in front of small, medium, or giant audiences with total self-confidence, total self-assuredness, total power and authority? I’m going to teach you a few tricks—right now—for overcoming the world’s number one fear: public speaking.”
Stimulate interest. (Expound the benefits.) “Listen: it doesn’t matter how many people you talk to. It doesn’t matter how nervous you get, how badly your hands shake and your knees knock, or how dry your mouth gets when you’re standing in front of an audience. [yes-set development] With my TalkPower! System, you can speak in front of the largest audiences with the confidence of today’s most successful motivational speakers. In just 90 minutes, this new audio program gives you tested and proven tricks for developing the unshakable self-confidence of today’s most powerful and confident public speakers. [benefit string] You simply play the audio and do the mental exercises and it safely rewires your brain for how you think about public speaking. [statements of ease and quickness] It actually deconstructs how you now think about it and replaces it with a brand-new pattern, a brand-new program that you can start using the very same day if you want.
“No joke. I’ve actually modeled powerful, multimillionaire public speakers like Roger Dawson, Zig Ziglar, Les Brown, Tony Robbins, and Jim Rohn. Then I went completely overkill to totally blow this thing out and blended their self-confidence patterns with the unshakable mental toughness of todays’ elite military warriors: U.S. Navy SEALs. I know this system works because I’ve taken people with zero public speaking experience, people who used to shake like a leaf in a hurricane any time they needed to give a presentation, and turned them into confident speakers almost overnight. The secret is how you communicate with your mind. It takes just 90 minutes to install this new programming in your brain. [Redefinition: It’s not learning; it’s effortless installation.] This is no joke. Thousands of people have done it successfully, and so can you.”
Build desire. (Demonstrate success by using VAKOG.) “Imagine lying down, putting on a pair of headphones, and pressing play on your MP3 player, iPod, cell phone, or other audio device. You close your eyes and begin hearing the soft sounds of a warm Pacific island beach: gentle lapping waves, seagulls and a soft breeze blowing through the tops of tall palms and across your skin, along with the smell of the salty ocean. Then a gentle voice begins speaking, first in your left ear, then in your right, then both in stereo. [engaging prospect via multiple sensory-specific suggestions] This voice is your coach, and he guides you to imagine certain situations. He suggests certain ways to think about the situations as you watch yourself perform carefully selected tasks from three feet behind—and slightly above—your physical self. You’re actually watching yourself go through your day, an impartial observer. After performing seven specific tasks, you sit down and have a one-on-one session with your coach. He is kind, warm, and completely supportive. His number one job is to make you a fearless public speaking tiger, totally confident and at ease, actually excited and looking forward to walking to the front of the room, seeing hundreds or even thousands of eyes on you, smiling, and speaking with power and conviction, enjoying every word, every moment, every positive reaction from your audience. Powerful, inspirational music plays; it sounds like an orchestra and choir of hundreds! Next your coach guides you through three mind-blowing experiences that will permanently and positively change how you see yourself though the eyes of others. These processes are so intense that many people report crying through every one of them. One woman said she had no tissues and used up half a roll of toilet paper.
“Next, imagine that your coach hands you a small locked wooden box and silver key and says, ‘The power is yours. When you’re ready, remove the lock, open the box, and unroll the scroll of paper inside and slowly read it out loud. When you complete reading it, the process is complete and the programming is installed.’”
Furnish proof. (Lay on the social proof thickly!) “I don’t want you to take my word about any of this—after all, it’s my program. [statement of reasonableness] So far, 3,762 people have bought and used this program, and 2,798 of them took the time to send us written testimonials. [credibility enhancer] If you turn to page 145 of your handout manuals, you’ll see 463 of their reviews. The other 2,335 of them are on my website shown at the top of the page. [length-implies-strength heuristic cue] Here’s one that’s particularly powerful from Bob Stanley of Philadelphia, who said [read review]. Here’s another from Scott Lawrence, a computer expert from Napa Valley who said [read review]. Here’s a great one from Jim Bowers, a plumber from Palm Springs who said [read review]. Here’s one from an EMT in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, who said [read review], and here’s an article from the Washington Times that interviewed me about public speaking and breaking through fear [show article], and here’s a magazine article that… .”
Ask for action. (And make it easy to act.) “So if you’re interested in trying this program, I have a special offer for everyone attending this seminar. I don’t want any money today—we make this very easy with two simple steps. Step 1: Check the “YES!” box on the back of your seminar rating sheet. Step 2: Write your name and delivery address in the big yellow box. [message organization—making it ridiculously easy to buy] That’s it! I’ll send the program to you COD. Put it to the test. See if it doesn’t completely blow out your old fear of public speaking. Feel how it completely reprograms your brain to take total charge of any stage, any audience, any speech or presentation you need to make. Listen to the incredible feedback you get from audience members who flock to you after your talk and congratulate you for a kick-ass presentation. [Future pacing causes them to imagine positive results after use.] Get a real taste of what it’s like to command a room and hold an audience spellbound at your every word. If it’s not everything I said it is, I’ll buy it back from you any time within one full year, no questions asked.”
As we discussed earlier, while you’re making your best presentation, you probably have only a small portion of your prospect’s attention.
While you’re explaining your product’s benefits, she’s wondering how you get your teeth so white.
While you’re describing how your customer service blows away the competition, he’s wondering if his kid is using drugs as his wife suspects.
While you’re running your test closes, he’s wondering if his girlfriend will survive the cancer she was just diagnosed with.
Remember, you’re selling them. You’re not writing them a check for $5 million, a situation in which they’d be hanging on your every word. Truth is, most prospects are not as interested as you think they are. That’s why you need to make the most of the attention they’re currently mustering. Your presentation should be crafted to give your prospects an attention boost.
So review your pitch. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Use simple words, simple sentences, simple concepts. Can you explain it better? If you needed to make a child understand, what would you do differently? Even the most intelligent and sophisticated consumers appreciate simplicity, and simplicity leads to clarity. Is your presentation well ordered, or are you just jumping around randomly in the hope that if you throw enough at them, something will stick and a sale will result?
Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work
hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.
But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there,
you can move mountains.
Steve Jobs
How about your contract? Don’t ever think that your contract isn’t a sales tool. It can kill all the hard work that you put into your presentation or ease the way to cementing the deal. Ignore this way of thinking about it at your own peril.
For example, my speaking agreement used to take up two sides of an 8½-inch by 14-inch sheet of solid ominous text. It was too much. I did a test and reduced the length by more than 50 percent, making it very easy to read and digest. The result? Dramatically more completed agreements were returned, and they were returned in days, not weeks. Obviously, the old contract took much more time to read, digest, and be approved by every possible committee because its terms were so much more involved.
When something looks easy, it’s less intimidating. That’s why smart advertisers limit the text width in their ads, brochures, sales letters, and other printed materials to no more than one alphabet and a half (39 characters) regardless of the point size. This allows the eye to more quickly scan each line and naturally helps increase reading speed. Narrower columns also look less ominous, easier, and cleaner and more inviting to read.
I don’t know the rules of grammar. If you’re trying to
persuade people to do something, or buy something,
it seems to me you should use their language,
the language they use every day,
the language in which they think.
David Ogilvy
Do you make it ridiculously easy to act? One of the best ways is to tell them exactly what to do in a step-by-step fashion. A clever ploy in advertising is to create discrete numbered steps for respondents to take:
Step 1: Fill out this form.
Step 2: Read the terms and conditions.
Step 3: Enter your payment information.
Step 4: Click the big green order button.
This tactic leads prospects by the hand and makes it virtually impossible for them to get lost in the ordering process. Even if the steps seem ridiculously obvious, the mere fact that you’re telling them what to do relieves them of the necessity to think for themselves and shout in frustration, “Okay, how do I buy this darned thing?”
Instead, the script should lead them by the hand: “Okay, I just e-mailed you the agreement. You don’t need to print it if you don’t want to because you can fill it out on your PC. All you need to do is type your name on the bottom of page 2 and e-mail it back to me. As soon as I get it, I’ll shoot you a confirmation e-mail and give you a shipping date. Did you get it? Great. Can you open the attachment? Great. You’ll see that everything is already filled in: your name and address, service dates, and pricing. So give it a look-see, and if everything looks great, how long before you can shoot it back to me today?”
One last thing. Do yourself a favor and get a copy of the classic book The Art of Plain Talk by Rudolf Flesch. Although it was written in 1946, in today’s world of information overload this book is more valuable than ever. It will help you craft sales presentations—all kinds of communications, for that matter—that people can actually understand. If you’re thinking, “Everybody understands all the parts of my presentations,” I assure you that if you simplified—streamlined—them in every way possible, you’d not only capture and hold far more of your prospects’ attention (because they’d follow you better) but also close more deals.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci