B24 – Make Your Point Shine Bright Like a Diamond

To quote Cliff Schorer (great first name btw), our Director of Entrepreneurship in Residence here at Columbia Business School:

“It’s not a business until something gets sold.”

It’s probably one of the top skills I’ve seen needed for  entrepreneurs.  The fact is that you need to sell yourself and your company to recruit talent, money and customers.

Earlier this week, I sat through an hour of extremely short (3 minute long) company pitches from graduates of the Founder’s Institute. There was a huge difference between those founders who knew how to sell and those that didn’t.  Each presentation ended with an “ask” for the MBA’s in the audience.  It was pretty clear which founders would succeed in recruiting based heavily on their skill at pitching and presenting.

To talk about this issue of presenting succinctly, Dano and I discuss the 5 C’s for an impactful quick pitch and the topic for this week’s Cliff’s Notes: Make Your Point.

After the clip, you can read about these points and do a deep dive into the full book summary should you so choose.

Enjoy:

Cliff’s Notes on Make Your Point

1. 5 C’s of a Diamond Presentation: Clarity (make a clear point), Conciseness (do it simply), Color (make interesting), Conviction (be passionate about it), Control (yourself and your audience)
2. Preparation: you’re always on stage, expect to get put on the spot, be prepared
3. Simplicity always beats complexity
4. You are your personal brand
5. Pick a purpose: is your objective to inform or persuade, each requires a different approach
6. People react to us the same way we act towards them
7. In speaking use all three appeals: Ethos: strong moral fiber and good reputation; Pathos: use passion and conviction to inspire and engage audience; Logos: appeal to their sensibility with sound logic
8. Exposure is critical to recognition which is critical to your success

Full Summary

PREPARATION:

1. You’re always on stage. Expect to get put on the spot in any situation, so be prepared.
2. Simplicity always beats complexity.
3. You are your personal brand: your product (content of your message), packaging (your non-verbal cues), advertising (how you deliver it), promotion (how prepared you are on the spot) all define how sellable you are.
4. If you don’t tell your story, someone else will…and it won’t be the story you want told.
5. Know your audience. Cater to their perspective, knowledge, and interest level.
6. Stress the benefit to your audience.
7. Pick a purpose: is your objective to inform or persuade? Each requires a different approach.

 

 

CONTENT:

1. Map it out logically. A wandering mind is hard to follow in a presentation.
2. The Diamond – a device that can frame an argument or presentation powerfully and succinctly
   • Grab Attention
   • State the main topic
   • Give the 3 sub-topics
   • Speak to the 3 sub-topics fully
   • Summarize the 3 topics
   • Conclude
   • Call to Action

3. Attention
   • Get their attention with something interesting

4. Main Topic
   • Cleanly state your main topic, and why they should care. Leave no doubt why you’re commanding their attention.

5. Previews 1, 2, 3
   • Set up a powerful triplet that supports your main point
   • 3 is the magic number: 2 is too few to seem complete, any more is hard to remember easily
   • Literally say “number one, number two, number three”, otherwise the audience won’t track with you.

6. Develop the 3 sub-topics fully
   • Make it credible, interesting, and convincing
   • To make it stick: get creative and be bold
   • Support your assertions: use statistics, stories, and examples

7. Summarize the 3 topics
   • Remind the audience of the triplet
   • Highlight the takeaway evidence

8. Conclusion
   • This should give the one thing the audience remembers
   • Remind them why they should care.

9. Action
   • Give an appeal or an action step
   • Unless an action plan is stated, audience will assume no action
   • “If at the end of your presentation you don’t owe somebody something or somebody doesn’t owe you something, then what was the point of your presentation?”

10. If you can give a 15-second promo, you have a well-focused message.
11. Data doesn’t automatically equate to Information. Give meaning to the data! Meaningful information connects with your audience.

DELIVERY

1. Law of Reciprocity: people react to us the same way we act towards them

◦           Human emotions and behaviors are contagious

◦           Expect to receive whatever you give.

2. Perception is reality. You have under 3 minutes to convince people you are both friendly and capable.
3. Key yourself into an optimum energy level, about 70-80% energized.
4. Confidence sells. Not confident? “Act the way you want to feel and soon you will feel the way you want to act”
5. To master the spoken word, master the unspoken word.
6. People see what you mean more than they hear it.

In person, meaning is derived by…

• Visual Cues (55%)
• Sound of Voice (38%)
• Literal Words (7%)

On Phone, meaning is derived by

• Sound of Voice (82%)
• Literal Words (18%)

7. Keep good eye contact.
8. Gesticulate. Let your body do some talking.
9. White Noise Effect: No vocal modulation/inflection is literally tuned out by the brain
10. There is a gap between how loud you think you speak and how loud you actually speak. Figure out your appropriate volume.
11. Pace yourself. Timing is everything.

• The length of the pause is determined by the kind of punctuation you would see in written communication.
• Long pauses give the listener time to refocus before the next topic.

12. Talk as if you’re on a budget.

 

Reasons people use too many words:

1. Don’t know what they’re trying to say
2. They are undisciplined speakers
3. Tell it like it is. Avoid jargon, buzzwords kill language.
4. Remove qualifiers like “I think, maybe, probably”
5. Spice it up. Analogies, surprising statistics, and humor all add interest and memorability.
6. Tell stories.
7. Tell the story
8. Make point & bridge it to the listener
9. Use the Diamond technique for email and voicemail too.

• Voicemail: keep it clear and concise.
• Email: Consider 2 things
  • Content – who is the audience? who might this be forwarded to? what is my purpose
  • Tone – consider how it will be received.
• TIP: keep a list of things that bother you about emails you receive and avoid those things.

18. Powerpoint:
    • 90% of attention is on you the presenter, only 10% on your slides.
    • Have 2 decks
      • 1 presenters deck (with minimal information)
      • 1 handout deck (for review, with all the notes you actually talked about.

 

HANDLING Q&A

1. Prepare 10-20 questions you expect to hear after your presentation. Have answers ready.
2. Prepare 10-20 questions you hope to God you don’t hear. Also have answers ready.
3. No need to be defensive or rushed. Be calm and composed when providing responses.
4. Listen up!
   • Read the questioner’s body language.
   • Pay attention to their question
   • Ask for clarification; never answer an uncertain question
   • Understand the question behind the question; find the motive.

5. Repackage tricky questions
6. take a moment to gather your thoughts
7. re-contextualize their question (framing)
8. Headline your answers: give the conclusion first, then explain.
9. Never make anything up
10. Confrontational questions: Patience and composure on your part will outlast a quarrelsome questioner.
11. Respect the questioner(s).
12. End the Q&A session by recapping the key points from your presentation.

 

 

WRAPPING UP

1. Building a base of trust using Aristotle’s Rhetoric:
2. Ethos: have strong moral fiber, a good reputation, and reliability on your side
3. Pathos: use passion and conviction to inspire and engage the audience
4. Logos: appeal to their sensibility with sound logic, and you’ve got a winning presentation.
5. You need to make opportunities for yourself to practice communicating.
6. Exposure is critical to recognition, which is critical to your success. People in the back room stay there.
7. In summary…
8. Clarity – make your point.
9. Conciseness – do it simply.
10. Color – make it interesting.
11. Conviction – be passionate about it.
12. Control – control yourself = control the audience.