Big League Pitches - Part 2 WIIFY
Written on 3:36 PM by Mark Osborne
This is the 2nd Installment in a series on making BIG LEAGUE PITCHES, powerful, persuasive presentations, it is loosely based on Jerry Weissman's book "Presenting to Win" from which I put together a 10 Step Checklist for Presentations. I am explaining these 10 steps through the phases of a sales Model - KNOW YOUR PRODUCT, KNOW YOUR MARKET, PRESENT OPPORTINITIES, CLOSE SALES. Part 1 is available here.
In Part 1 we talked about KNOWING YOUR PRODUCT and looking at all the information you have to present to determine what ACTIONABLE Point you want to convey, and to distill out the most important clusters of information for getting your audience to this conclusion.
Now we will talk about KNOWING YOUR MARKET. Who are you presenting to, and more importantly, WHY DO THEY CARE? Jerry talks about building in WIIFYs - that's "What's In It For You" where YOU = The Audience. If you understand what the reward for the audience is, you're able to motivate them to stay focused on you and your presentation and persuade them to your conclusion. With each of the clusters of information you have selected as the main points of your presentation you should apply the following tests.
SIX “WHATS IN IT FOR YOU” (WIIFY) TRIGGERS
1. This is important to you because… (presenter fills in blank)
2. What does this mean to you? (presenter explains)
3. Why am I telling you this? (presenter explains)
4. Who cares? (This is why YOU should care)
5. So what? (Here’s the implications of these facts)
6. And…? (Here’s What’s in it For YOU)
DO NOT Assume the audience can put it together for themselves. They probably can, but that's work, and if they work they aren't focused on YOU, and they can't put it together as fast as you're talking. EXPLAIN in SIMPLE TERMS the Benefit to the audience as you present facts. "This software is very user friendly..." the WIIFY seems pretty obvious, but why not take it one step further. "You will find this software easy to use, eliminating frustration with the interface." In sales we talk about Features vs. Benefits, and this is the same concept, explain how the features translate into benefits for the audience.
Step3 is Testing your clusters with WIIFYs - combined with the first 2 steps: Determining your Point B and Distilling your information you have successfully solved MOST of the problems with MOST presentations...you have a clear point, you have clear audience benefit, it's not too detailed, and you can end in an appropriate amount of time. PHEW!
This is all done before you really even begin putting together your presentation. In fact the primary key to success with presentaitons is PLANNING, doing your work in advance...this checklist will help you to do that.
Next we'll talk about PRESENTING OPPORTUNITIES and the meat of your presentation, the Opening, the Body, and the Closing. Leave comments on some examples of advertising (clearly meant to be a persuasive presentation) that made the mistake of presenting FEATURES and not building in a WIIFY to make it a benefit...in radio I can't help but think of the example of the HD radio commercials that spent lots of time talking about different things HD radios could do, but they left it to the audience to translate that into a real benefit, and as such, HD radios have gone NOWHERE. What examples can you think of?
In Part 1 we talked about KNOWING YOUR PRODUCT and looking at all the information you have to present to determine what ACTIONABLE Point you want to convey, and to distill out the most important clusters of information for getting your audience to this conclusion.
Now we will talk about KNOWING YOUR MARKET. Who are you presenting to, and more importantly, WHY DO THEY CARE? Jerry talks about building in WIIFYs - that's "What's In It For You" where YOU = The Audience. If you understand what the reward for the audience is, you're able to motivate them to stay focused on you and your presentation and persuade them to your conclusion. With each of the clusters of information you have selected as the main points of your presentation you should apply the following tests.SIX “WHATS IN IT FOR YOU” (WIIFY) TRIGGERS
1. This is important to you because… (presenter fills in blank)
2. What does this mean to you? (presenter explains)
3. Why am I telling you this? (presenter explains)
4. Who cares? (This is why YOU should care)
5. So what? (Here’s the implications of these facts)
6. And…? (Here’s What’s in it For YOU)
DO NOT Assume the audience can put it together for themselves. They probably can, but that's work, and if they work they aren't focused on YOU, and they can't put it together as fast as you're talking. EXPLAIN in SIMPLE TERMS the Benefit to the audience as you present facts. "This software is very user friendly..." the WIIFY seems pretty obvious, but why not take it one step further. "You will find this software easy to use, eliminating frustration with the interface." In sales we talk about Features vs. Benefits, and this is the same concept, explain how the features translate into benefits for the audience.
Step3 is Testing your clusters with WIIFYs - combined with the first 2 steps: Determining your Point B and Distilling your information you have successfully solved MOST of the problems with MOST presentations...you have a clear point, you have clear audience benefit, it's not too detailed, and you can end in an appropriate amount of time. PHEW!
This is all done before you really even begin putting together your presentation. In fact the primary key to success with presentaitons is PLANNING, doing your work in advance...this checklist will help you to do that.
Next we'll talk about PRESENTING OPPORTUNITIES and the meat of your presentation, the Opening, the Body, and the Closing. Leave comments on some examples of advertising (clearly meant to be a persuasive presentation) that made the mistake of presenting FEATURES and not building in a WIIFY to make it a benefit...in radio I can't help but think of the example of the HD radio commercials that spent lots of time talking about different things HD radios could do, but they left it to the audience to translate that into a real benefit, and as such, HD radios have gone NOWHERE. What examples can you think of?
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