Civiello Communications Group Blog

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Stories that Sell

In his new, best selling book, "Tell to Win," Hollywood dealmaker Peter Guber says "if you can't tell it, you can't sell it." You have to be able to give examples, tell stories to prove your point, get the job or sell your service. Stories are attention getters. Think about the speakers you've heard. When they say, "okay, let me tell you a little story," you listen up, right? The key here is "little." If that speaker goes on too long you tune out. Here's the formula for the short story that works everytime: Situation, Problem, Solution. With the situation you conjure a picture. With the problem you describe the conflict or status quo. In the solution you describe what you do that makes life better..Aim at a 30 second telling. I'm tellin' you, it works.

Conferences that Keep your Attention

Everyone battles with keeping an audience's attention. Fortune magazine had to capture and keep techies attention! Here's 3 ways they succeeded at FORTUNE BRAINSTORM TECH in Aspen:

1) Great line up of speakers - Big names in the tech business and beyond and they were interviewed in different groupings in different parts of the room. 

2) Reinforcing takeaways - They immediately captured a speaker's best thoughts, best quotes on a monitor beside the stage.

3) Working WITH the audience - They encouraged you to tweet...about what you were hearing onstage..everyone in the audience read your tweets in a crawl on monitors placed throughout the audience. 
 

Prepare to be Surprised

I just heard an NPR reporter ask an author what suprised her in her research on shoplifters. The author umm-ed and ahh-ed for too long and the delay risked the listener wondering if there was anything truly new. As a long time reporter for NBC, asking what surprised didn't surprise me. It's standard...a way of prompting an expert to edit their volumes of information and give the rest of us a reason to make room on our cerebral hard drives! I understand how the author or any expert could have trouble quickly identifying one thing out of reams of data but as a communication coach, I urge all of my clients to think in advance what surprised them before any interview or business presentation. If you don't, you rob yourself of the opportunity to make sure people remember your message.

Pictures and Problems

President Obama just ripped into congressional Republicans for failing to resolve the debt crisis. He provided specific examples to persuade..effectively conjured up images of business honchos getting tax breaks on corporate jets ..  but in doing so, Obama showed the risks in painting a vivid picture. CNBC immediately featured critics demanding to see just how much tax breaks on corporate jets contribute to the problem..probably a rounding error .. So focusing on the example as the whole problem made the president's whole argument less credible.

Sticks n' Stones n' Bachmann

When Chris Wallace asked Michele Bachmann if she is a flake, my first reaction was to feel a little sorry for her. She looked hurt. But I don't want to feel sorry for someone who wants to be President. It wasn't a tough question, it was a nasty label that she could easily have written off as left wingers who "dismiss my views when millions agree or I wouldn't be sitting here." You might say hindsight is 20/20 but Bachmann had to be forewarned about the criticism. Indeed Wallace's question was quite long..plenty of time to lighten up..maybe retrieve the old saying "sticks and stones can hurt my bones but words can never hurt me." But then maybe she feared she'd get that wrong.

 

Weiner's Worst
Anthony Weiner's worst line in my book was not his lame attempts to dodge questions, but in the midst of it all, pointing out all the Twitter traffic he'd sparked! Humor is a way to lighten up a conversation but it works only after you've been responsive.

This week there was the conviction of Raj Rajaratman, the hedge fund honcho. But jurors also found his lawyer guilty..of monotone...In an interview with the WSJ, one juror, a teacher, said the lead lawyer came across as "tired," "monotone" and "repetitive." There is a saying that if you aren't enthusiastic, no one else will be. Monotone is of the most common problems in speech today. Tape your voice and imagine a cardiogram graph..does it bounce? If not practice asking rhetorical questions, pause, provide examples..all ways to break the monotony and win in the court of public opinion.

Fear of being too good!

Everyone has heard that people fear public speaking worse than death. Usually the fear stems from a fear of being judged and falling short..not interesting or not smart enough. I recently heard a new fear, and from some of the smartest people in the world, doctors. I was working with a group of physician speakers, experts selected not only for their clinical excellence but because they were interested in communicating about new drugs. As always, I urged them to share stories, examples. One doctor objected. He said story telling doesn't work in medicine. Why? because, he said, stories could set up false expectations. In other words, while numbers and studies unequivacally supported a reason to be optimistic about a new drug, this doctor feared that a story about how it worked for a patient would be too powerful. A story would speak louder than studies! I suggested that he have a story about a patient for whom the drug worked and one where it didn't. He bought that and they all became convinced of the power of story telling. 

Questions could be the Answer to your Presentation Problems

Anne had a big personality but her presentations were flat. If you charted them like a cadiogram, you'd wonder if she had a pulse. I was working with her to prepare for her first town hall in a huge new job. She'd been at the company for a while, but this was a larger and largely new audiencce. We discussed the many questions they might have and developed her message. Midstream, Anne sighed, "I'm always so much better in Q&A." Like many, she looks and sounds more relaxed / less monotone and programmed when answering questions. I suggested she use the Q&A format to deliver her presentation. Bingo! Asking questions employees might ask and in the folksy way they might ask them, immediately connected her content to the audience and improved her monotone problem. Asking a question forces you to change your inflection / vocal tone. Using a Q&A format also can take an  audience by surprise. It made Anne look like a stronger leader..ready to take anything head on. Questions could be the answer for you too.