Which one of us is clueless?

Make Your Presentations Understandable

Which one of us is clueless?

That’s probably a dangerous way to start my newsletter, but I’ll risk it. I know how my kids would answer that question! I walked into the kitchen today and my wife was on the phone with a friend talking about a new restaurant in town. The restaurant had inserted a flier in the newspaper and it was full of special deals for the grand opening.

Here’s where the clueless part comes in…

My wife and her friend were trying to figure out what kind of crablegs and wings this place had. You see, in the ad it said “AUCE Crablegs” and “AYCE Wings”. I guessed that the AUCE must mean Australian but I had no idea what the AYCE stood for.

We did catch on.

All of a sudden we all got it. It meant “All You Can Eat” and “All U Can Eat”! We all felt foolish for not figuring it out sooner. Shouldn’t it have been obvious?

Yes! It should have been obvious and it should not have required that much time to decode. I’m sure the restaurant assumed that we all know their code, but they were wrong. So wrong that they almost lost the entire value of the ad on one cute abbreviation.

We all do the same thing.

Every industry has its inside talk. Unfortunately, it slowly creeps into our regular talk. When it does, we risk having others completely miss out points. We know from studies of clients that they will seldom ask you to clarify a term they don’t understand. Instead, they will sit there quietly and nod their head in agreement until you leave. Then they will buy from someone they understand. What’s worse, we often present to a group of people, some of whom get it and some don’t. Which group should we play to?

K.I.S.S.

You remember the old adage, Keep It Simple Stupid. That’s more than an old saying, it’s sage advice. Here’s a test for you. Pull up the slides for your favorite sales presentation and look through it for ‘insider talk’. Is it possible for smart people to miss your point if they don’t thoroughly know your business? Would it make sense to clarify that point in your next presentation? Could you explain it on the slide?

Don’t weaken the impact of your offering by burying it in code. Spell it out and make sure everyone clearly understands the real value of your offering.

Wishing You Selling Success,

Steve Waterhouse

Does your group need presentations skills training? Our Power Presentations training could be just the solution. Contact me at mailto:steve@waterhousegroup.com?subject=presentations-blog or 1-800-57-LEARN (575-3276).