Manage-Wise

Presentations that solve problems

Selling a solution is often about diagnosing a problem for which you can then provide an answer. Many times you can do this by being an outside source of expertise that raises awareness to an opportunity. As Albert Einstein said, “Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.”

Not realising that most of the obvious problems have been solved: Most of the solutions I have sold are for problems my audience did not know they had. If you wait around for organisations to realise they have a problem and call you, you will be waiting a long time. There is far more opportunity to solve latent or future problems than ones that have already been clearly identified.

Prepare to “work your way in”

For individuals, talking about problems can be embarrassing. For organisations, admitting to problems that become public can mean trouble, if competitors talk about them to mutual customers. Michel Proulx, Vice-president of Product Development at Miranda Technologies, says, “You can’t call someone up and say, ‘What’s your problem?’ That never works. In fact, it turns people off.”

While there is a natural resistance to sharing information about problems, if you can convince your audience that you can really help them with their problems and can be trusted to keep confidences, the floodgates will open. There is a basic need and desire to talk about problems with someone who can really help. “The place to connect with someone is at their problem space. They will easily forget what you product is, but they will never forget what their problem is,” says Proulx.

First, define the context

Problem-solving begins with your audience’s context, or your audience’s situation as it relates to your area of expertise. Michel Proulx describes context in many ways: “Context is what your customers do on a day-to-day basis in the area you want the problem to solve. It could be the area they are having trouble with. It could be the thing they are trying to achieve. It could be an application they are looking for.”

Get them to talk

Before you present, you have to get people who represent your audience to talk to you about their situation. The more they talk, the more you will be. If you have an established relationship and a proven track record, getting people to share will be easy. If not, do your homework and prepare to sell yourself in this first step. Proulx recommends starting with a casual conversation where you ask questions. He says, “A great way to get them to talk about their problems is to describe similar problems you have helped solve in the past.”

If you cannot even have a phone conversation about this, try one of the following strategies that I have used:

• A back-and-forth e-mail exchange, where you ask questions
• A short visit at a trade show booth
• Using a secretary as intermediary, where questions are shuttled between you and the boss.

Look for a “problem” to solve

During your conversation about your audience’s situation, you should be looking for a problem to solve. But don’t limit yourself to just overt problems. As you hear about your audience’s situation, listen for opportunities to problem-solve in any area you can play a part in. Besides overt problems, consider:

• A way to accelerate growth
• A way to transition to a new technology or system
• Improvement in possibilities
• A way to improve efficiency
• A way to bring in more customers or new business
• A way to become more competitive
• A way to prevent a future problem your audience has not considered.

If you are just looking for “problems” in the narrow sense of the word, you will limit the solutions you can offer.

Make assumptions

Once you know about your audience’s situation you can start to combine it with knowledge of your capabilities and look for matches. Here is where you have to make assumptions. For example, while selling ad space, if I discover a company that has picked up a new, aggressive competitor I will make the assumption that they want to increase ad expenditures to fend off the new threat.

Assumptions can be powerful tools in the problem-solving process. When IBM first contacted Bill Gates, they did not share their secret plan to build a personal computer. But Gates made the assumption that IBM would not be calling a company with Microsoft’s capabilities unless they were seriously looking to be a player in the personal computer market. With that assumption in mind, Gates conducted himself accordingly in his first meeting with IBM with great success; Gary Kindall did not.

Prepare an initial presentation

It is always easier to react to a proposed solution than to construct one from scratch. An initial presentation provides a sounding board by offering a solution as a work in progress. Solutions always require customisation, and the best way to flesh out the details is to present one and see how your audience reacts.

A single solution seems obvious. If one obvious solution emerges, present it. Douglas B Leeds, president of the Tori Group, has a great approach to doing this. Leeds enthusiastically takes his audience step by tep through the same process of discovery that led him to the solution he is presenting. Says Leeds: “Sharing my thought process gives them ownership in what I have concluded. It is so much more powerful than just making a recommendation.”

Excerpt from ‘Presentations that Change Minds’ by Josh Gordon. Reproduced with permission © 2007, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited. Price: Rs 250. E-mail: vishwanath_mum@tatamcgraw-hill.com