This is a sneak preview -- you are seeing this page because you need to possibly
approve this content and get back to us. Have a great day!
An indisputable fact of life in every company, every industry, every vertical, every geography, is that salespeople sell features when they should be selling benefits instead. This mistake is also chronic in presentations because presenters too often focus on their own message to the exclusion of their audiences, causing them to think: "Why should I care?" or "It's all about you!"
Politicians fall into the same trap. A recent scientific study about persuasion in the political arena found that each side of the political spectrum tends to appeal only to the principles of their base and not to those of the opposition. Doing so not only fails to move any voters beyond those who are already committed, it also drives the wide wedge in our polarized country ever deeper.
The latter problem is the equivalent of a presenter from a startup company pitching for financing only from an existing investor, or a sales person selling only to existing customers. The sales person thus gives up the possibility of gaining a new client or, better still, capturing a competitor's customers.
One of my clients, a senior executive at a major telecom equipment company, learned that a potential client company he was pursuing decided to go with a competitor. He asked the client for one more chance to pitch. He began his presentation by complimenting the clients on their choice, listing the positive features of his competitor's product. Then he stopped and said, "But…" and proceeded to list how his own company's product features would better serve the client's requirements. That's a double down of the benefits.
He won the deal.
The authors of the scientific study described how politicians could double down their benefits in a recent New York Times article:
We presented liberals and conservatives with one of two messages in support of same-sex marriage. One message emphasized the need for equal rights for same-sex couples. This is the sort of fairness-based message that liberals typically advance for same-sex marriage. It is framed in terms of a value — equality — that research has shown resonates more strongly among liberals than conservatives. The other message was designed to appeal to values of patriotism and group loyalty, which have been shown to resonate more with conservatives… Liberals showed the same support for same-sex marriage regardless of which message they encountered. But conservatives supported same-sex marriage significantly more if they read the patriotism message rather than the fairness one.
This blog post by Jerry Weissman was first published on his site at Forbes. He has written five books on presentation skills. His most recent, Winning Strategies for Power Presentations, published by Pearson, is available now from Amazon.Microsoft and the Office logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.