Jack Malcolm

In Part 1 of this series, we saw how analogies can play a central role in persuasive business presentations. We’ll develop that thought further in this article by considering how analogies can make it easier for your audience to accept the change you are trying to sell.

In view of the constant change and relentless innovation of today’s economy, one would think that getting people to accept new ideas is easy, but in fact anyone trying to convince someone else to accept a new idea faces three tough obstacles to gaining acceptance. First, the more different something is, the harder it is to understand. Second, our minds prefer the comfort of the familiar and assign greater weight to risk in the risk/reward calculation. Finally, we don’t like being told what to do.

Any one of these obstacles can be poison for your presentation, but the antidote to all three is an apt analogy.

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The recommendations in this post will challenge your cherished instincts as a salesperson and presenter, so if you’re uncomfortable with doubt, don’t read any further.

Our instincts—and our compensation plans—pressure us to make the most persuasive and confident arguments that we can devise, get from Point A to B as surely and efficiently as possible, and shorten that sales cycle. We focus on the key decision maker in the room, marshal all the facts on our side, and prepare carefully to crush any objections from any potential blockers.

We want to make the sale, we want to be right, and we want to “win”. Books that teach presentation skills (including my own) emphasize this.

But the problem with this “Always Be closing” approach is that even if your proposal is absolutely perfect in every way for the client, there is a high probability that it may lead to an unsustainable agreement, one that will be implemented improperly or incompletely. That can lead...

If you want to learn how to write prospecting emails that work, one of the easiest ways is to pay attention to those that are sent to you. In some cases, one will pique your interest, and you can analyze it to see what worked.

In the huge majority of cases, however, the best way to learn from them is to figure out what not to do. An email I received this morning is a case in point.

Ironically, it’s from a company that purports to improve my marketing and help my company “GET NOTICED!”

“My company (deleted) specializes in getting attention for our clients. Clients like, Google, ESPN, Intel, Intuit, Discovery Channel, etc., but our services and solutions work for any size company.”

There are four things right off the top of my head that I can find wrong with this message:

One of the great things about reading books about psychology is that you learn the scientific reasons for your past screw-ups. Adam Grant’s new book, Give and Take, summarized a lesson that I learned through trial and error many years ago.

Having been a commercial banker before making the switch to sales training in the early 1990s, I was acutely aware that the participants in the classes I facilitated had far more experience in high-tech complex sales than I did. I tried to compensate by downplaying my lack of experience and stressing other credentials.

I very quickly found out, however, that most people saw right through my little...