Ed Knows Sales

Author: Ed Jaffe

  • Checkov’s Gun and your sales presentation

    Checkov’s Gun and your sales presentation

    Checkov’s gun is a writing principle to eliminate unnecessary details in storytelling, and we can adapt it to make sales demos and presentations more impactful.

    Anton Chekhov is known as one of the greatest writers in history (though I’ll admit I read Uncle Vanya in high school and was not a fan); even if you’re not familiar with his writing, you’ve likely heard of the literary term “Checkov’s gun:”

    Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.

    This principle is critical in sales presentations. Audiences don’t have much patience for presentations that aren’t going anywhere, and unnecessary details can complicate a story. In this post, we’ll explore how details can make a story better (or worse) with a few examples from movies and TV, then we’ll talk about why this matters for sales presentations.

    The first rule of foreshadowing is we don’t talk about foreshadowing

    Details can be used to foreshadow, or give hints about upcoming plot points. They can also serve as red herrings, or bad clues that distract the audience (and/or the characters). Fight Club is a masterclass in both.

    Fight Club is known for a huge plot twist. Spoiler alert (25 years later): The protagonist, Jack/The Narrator (Edward Norton), is also Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Most viewers don’t see the twist coming, but there are subtle clues along the way that foreshadow the twist. For example, early in the movie, before The Narrator meets Tyler, an image of him shows up in a single frame. It’s subtle, but meaningful; after all, how could The Narrator know who Tyler is if they haven’t met?

    A still from 'Fight Club' showing a brief, early appearance of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) standing in the background of a support group meeting, an example of subtle foreshadowing, before he meets The Narrator.

    Fight Club also has red herrings, notably, the character Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). Marla and The Narrator have a hostile relationship for most of the movie, and about halfway through she starts sleeping with Tyler. The red herring is you see this relationship from the perspective of The Narrator, who is infuriated by it. The second act ends when Marla calls The Narrator “Tyler,” which not only reveals our twist, but it also reframes her hostility — of course she’s hostile because she doesn’t know whether she’s interacting with the Narrator personality or the Tyler personality.

    Fight Club‘s use of foreshadowing and red herrings add richness and depth to the plot. The details serve a purpose, and there’s a satisfying payoff at the end. This is an example of when Checkov’s gun isn’t the most important aspect of the story.

    Foreshadowing can be a great tool to use in a sales presentation. For example, you could float the solution at the beginning of the presentation without giving the entire thing away. After defining the problem (in a way that doesn’t insult the audience), you can share some of what your solution will be, but not all of it. Give them enough detail it’s clear you are going to solve the problem but not so much that the audience is overwhelmed. The key is to start with the end in mind, but not give it all away at the beginning.

    Chekov’s Gun taken too far

    Compare the masterful Fight Club with the awful Space Cowboys. If you haven’t seen it, the plot is basically: “Retired astronaut Clint Eastwood is old and grouchy (aka real life Clint Eastwood if he were a retired astronaut) has to fix something in space, and won’t go to space without his astronaut friends who are also old and slightly less grouchy.”

    Early in the movie, ace pilot Tommy Lee Jones simulates a shuttle landing where he intentionally stalls (slows the shuttle so it sinks). The scene appears to exist to show that he knows more than some fancy-pants simulator. But the real reason that scene exists, which the viewer can see coming a mile away, is so he can land the shuttle the same way at the end. In this example, Checkov’s gun goes from being a device to influence the plot to a device that drives the plot. And the movie is worse for it (which is saying something. Seriously that movie is garbage).

    This is the problem when Checkov’s gun goes too far — it makes the story contrived and predicable. And no one wants predictable. We remember “Luke, I am your father” (even if the actual line is “No, I am your father”) because we didn’t expect it. And we remember unexpected.

    As you’re preparing a sales presentation, ask yourself if your competitor could give the same presentation (more or less). If the answer is yes, you may want to add some details to make your solution stand out. Otherwise your prospect may find themselves asking “wait, was this company A or company B? Remind me what the difference is?”

    Don’t ignore Checkov’s gun either

    There’s a bit of a spectrum when it comes to following Checkov’s gun. One one side of it you have Space Cowboys, or a story that puts a contrived plot element for no other reason than “we need it to come back later.” On the other side of that spectrum is a story that has so many unnecessary details the audience gets lost (literally, that’s what happened on Lost), confused or frustrated.

    Take Game of Thrones, which had several head scratching plot points. One example is the White Walkers, these ice zombie creatures who were set up for 8 years to be an existential thread to Westeros. After all of the buildup, they were eliminated after a single CGI-laden battle when Arya Stark killed the Night King (the “leader”). After 8 years of buildup, it was a massive letdown. And the story wouldn’t have been substantially different had the White Walkers not been in the show at all.

    As you’re working on your sales presentation, incorporate curiosity. There’s a reason we all click on clickbait (“you’ll never believe how this one simple trick…”). But have you ever clicked on a clickbait-ey headline only to be let down by the information itself? That often leads to a reader not only abandoning the web page, but also being more skeptical of those headlines or that particular site in the future. Make sure the curiosity you generate leads to a payoff where your audience feels it was worth their time.

    We’re talking about sales presentations, not movies

    As we can see, there are three choices when it comes to unnecessary details: leave them out completely (the “full” Checkov’s gun), have way too many (ignoring Checkov’s gun entirely), or something in-between. When it comes to sales presentations, the default should be closer to the “full” Checkov’s gun than ignoring it. You can add details, but they need to be brief, interesting, and relevant.

    Most presentation intros ignore Checkov’s gun, and it makes them worse for it. They usually start with some stat that’s supposed to sound profound and interesting, but almost always falls flat.

    “77% of CTOs think security is their biggest problem this year.”

    “According to Gartner, the CMO will spend more on technology than the CIO by 2020.” (I don’t know if this came true or not).

    “In our survey of the 6 people in our break room, customer expectations are higher than ever.”

    Sometimes these stats are legitimately interesting. But as Northwestern professor Ed Malthouse used to always say when I was in grad school: “good data is actionable, and bad data is just interesting.”

    More often than not, I’ve found these stats to be the opposite of Checkov’s gun. Obstinately used to set the scene for the meeting, they never actually accomplish that goal. It’s a beginning with no end, where the numbers are presented and then left hanging, leaving the audience to question why they were there in the first place.

    Even worse, these stats are often so generic that every vendor uses the same one. In marketing, that Gartner stat about technology spend used to come up all the time, and literally EVERYONE shows Scott Brinker’s “Supergraphic” with the logos of every vendor in the space (11,038 in 2023). Rather than grabbing the audiences attention with some sort of hook, these intros leave audiences asking “which vendor did we just meet with? Didn’t the last one say the exact same thing?”

    What to do instead

    When you’re coming up with an intro to your next sales meeting or presentation, think about how to connect your intro to the rest of the demo. My old boss at IBM used to always talk about “landing the plane,” or bringing the point home. In your sales presentation, this is absolutely critical. As you’re reviewing your presentation, keep Checkov’s gun in mind. If you show a stat in the intro, it has to come back at the end. No exceptions. Because if it isn’t important enough to bring up at the end, it wasn’t important enough to bring up at the beginning.

    Another option is to tell a story or do something unexpected. This is almost always my approach I love intros that seemingly come out of left field, but there’s always a reason for them. I love when audiences ask “where is this guy going.” This approach only works if three things happen: 1) there’s a payoff, where the point becomes clear and meaningful; 2) I get to that payoff in less than 2 minutes; 3) I reference the intro at the end (making sure to incorporate the principle of Checkov’s gun).

    No matter which way you go, a good “gut check” when writing your intro is to ask if it’s interesting, and if it can come back at the end. If the answer is no to either of these questions, you may want to consider a different introduction.

    What do you think? Have you found a demo or presentation intro that’s particularly compelling? Let me know in the comments!

  • There’s Always Someone Cooler than You: What Ben Folds Can Teach Us About Sales Demos and Presentations

    There’s Always Someone Cooler than You: What Ben Folds Can Teach Us About Sales Demos and Presentations

    There’s Always Someone Cooler than You: What Ben Folds Can Teach Us About Sales Demos and Presentations explores unique sales and presentation strategies inspired by the music of Ben Folds.

    I’m a big fan of Ben Folds. I’ve listened to his work countless times, and know most of his songs by heart. I even asked the piano player from my wedding band to learn The Luckiest to play as the processional song.

    Folds is one of the greatest living pianists, especially in rock/pop music — both Billy Joel and Elton John, the former being literally known as “The Piano Man,” have told Folds he’s a better piano player. But besides his talent as a player, he’s an extraordinarily talented songwriter, and is a master of what I’ll call “snark rock.” Who else could write songs covering such wide topics: that time he threw a phone in a pool and Kesha was there (Phone in a Pool); that time his friend climbed a tree, dropped acid, and came back different (Not The Same); a moving tribute to Elliott Smith (Late); or telling his son “you’re so much like me, I’m sorry” (Still Fighting it)?

    In 2003 he put out an EP called Sunny 16, which opened with the song There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You. The song is about exactly that — no matter how good you are, there’s always someone better. In sales, that someone better is usually a competitor. So I’ve found this song to be particularly relevant when the topic of competitive differentiation comes up in a sales meeting, though somehow I doubt that was the intent of the song.

    Let’s dive into what Ben Folds can teach us about sales presentations through his unique music.

    What is cool?

    “There’s one thing you should know, what’s hip today might become passe.” – Tower of Power

    Technology sometimes feels like fashion; things move quickly, and it can be hard to know what will last and what will simply be a fad. Except for NFTs, which I think are the “pogs of technology” — a thing no one quite understood, yet many bought into, and now they are essentially worthless.

    Enterprise software isn’t *quite* as finicky as consumer tech, but there’s no shortage of technologies that seem cool without any sort of real practical value. For example, there’s no way people are going to have business meetings in VR/the metaverse – after all, how can you scroll social media on your second monitor if your monitor is a pair of glasses?

    It’s never been easier to try out a new technology, which is why most enterprises run into “shadow IT” (using unauthorized software at work, particularly applications that connect to the network). With things moving so quickly, your prospects are one cold call away from hearing about the next big thing. 

    Here’s the good news: cool isn’t always valuable, because value is in the eye of the beholder. After all, if cool were the only purchase criteria, we’d expect conversion rates to be a whole lot higher than an industry average of 15-25% (Reprise).

    Even worse, cool can sometimes hurt a demo or presentation. One of my personal pet peeves is when presenter shows something the audience doesn’t care about, yet they tout how it’s “game changing.” Even worse is when they make claims about it being a differentiator. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t (more on that later), but more importantly, a differentiator only matters if the audience cares.

    Let’s say you want to buy a sports car. You go to the dealership, and the salesperson shows you a little red Corvette (yes, I know that song’s not actually about a car). As they walk you around the car, they point out the dual-clutch automatic and talk about all the benefits, and why it’s differentiated compared to other sports cars. But if you want a manual transmission (because sports cars should only have manual transmissions, but I digress), then it doesn’t matter how great the automatic is. That feature is meaningless to you because you don’t want it.

    It’s the exact same in B2B. You could have the most advanced version of a feature. But if your competitor’s feature set is better aligned with your prospect, then they are already cooler than you.

    You can get outsold

    Not too long ago, I was having trouble with my bass guitar. My band, Fascinator, was a week away from recording our first EP (should be on Spotify soon!), so I brought it to the local Guitar Center as the tech could look at it that day. Without recounting the entire adventure, it ended up being a lot of trips, and ultimately ended with me buying a new Schecter bass.

    On a few occasions I brought my young kids, and the employees went out of their way to be kind to them. I remember one of the employees saying to me “I remember what it was like to be a kid at Guitar Center.” Compare that to the local store, where they just acted annoyed that my kids were there (I normally prefer local stores, just not that local store). Next time I need something I’ll go back to that Guitar Center, not because of a particular affinity to the brand, but because the people at that specific store were kind to my kids.

    While that’s a B2C example, B2B is also about humans. Humans who make irrational decisions. Humans who don’t always pick the “best” (on paper) or cheapest option, but the option they like. After all, we all make decisions emotionally and then justify them rationally. You could have the best product out there. But if someone else does a better job selling, the product starts to matter a whole lot less.

    I’ve won deals where I know the product was not as good as the competitors’. I’ve lost deals to products I know were worse than mine. I know I’m biased, having been a sales trainer for so many years, but this is why training and skill development matter so much in sales. If I have a choice between the best product and the best sales team, I’ll take the best sales team every time. 

    Connecting is more valuable than being cool

    I’ve seen a lot of sales decks whose authors were trying to be cool. Super fancy PowerPoint templates. Professionally designed graphics. Charts and graphs. But here’s the problem: those decks are often built by marketing teams who never present them to a customer. This isn’t to knock marketing teams — they absolutely add value to an organization — but creating the deck and presenting the deck are two very different skill sets. 

    Whenever I make a deck, I have only one rule. OK, fine, I have more than one rule, but this one’s the most important: the audience should never be able to figure out my presentation if they only have the slides. It should only make sense if I’m presenting it. After all, if I can give someone the slides and they know exactly what I’m going to say, then why present at all? At that point, my presentation can just be an email. 

    That’s why my decks are pretty much all memes (which I think is cool, but someone in their *very* late thirties saying “I think this is cool” doesn’t count a whole lot). This, of course, presents a risk: memes may not land with an audience, particularly international audiences. So I have a rule (and we’ve established there’s more than one): The audience doesn’t have to get the joke, but the point needs to be clear. You don’t have to know the source material for a random Arrested Development meme, but “I’ve made a huge mistake” is pretty self-explanatory. 

    I've made a huge mistake from Arrested Development is a meme I often use in sales presentations.

    I don’t just use memes — I also love using whiteboards, even if my handwriting is the same as that of a child with bad handwriting. People pay attention to whiteboards. It engages audiences, and they want to know where I’m going. Hell, James Cameron sold Aliens with a whiteboard. A whiteboard is also a cue that I know what I’m talking about, because I’m not simply reading slides.

    Being Different In Your Sales Approach Is Often Enough To Advance Your Deal

    We’ve established that competitive differentiation in sales doesn’t always come from what you sell, but how you sell. And this isn’t just for external/customer-facing sales, but for internal sales as well.

    When I was working in strategy at IBM, I led a project that required buy-in from every product manager, and the General Manager of the business unit was my primary stakeholder. I remember getting on a call with him to give an update and outline my next steps. After the pleasantries, I started talking about the project. He stopped me and asked where the slides were. I told him there were no slides, to which he immediately said “that’s amazing.” He looks at slides all day, and just by virtue of him not looking at slides my meeting went incredibly well. I of course sent a follow-up deck to his executive assistant following the meeting so he’d have the content. That day, maybe even that week, I was cooler than anyone else who presented to him.

    Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall

    Ben Folds singing. We can learn about sales strategies from Ben Folds' songs, especially "there's always someone cooler than you"

    Ben Folds’ songs provide unexpected and valuable sales lessons. As you saw in this post, we can think of There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You when handling the competition in sales.

    Let’s say you’re in a meeting, and your competition comes up. There are a few ways to deal with a discussion about competitors, but no matter how you handle it, I strongly believe that going after your competitors is a mistake. A big reason is you end up looking bad in the process. It often comes off as petty, or, as Ben Folds says (sings?) “make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall, but there’s always someone cooler than you.” I’ve worked in industries where some vendors were known for playing “dirty,” and going after their competitors in meetings. And sometimes it worked. But as their reputation became better known, it started to hurt them. I’ve even worked a few deals where prospects specifically cited that vendor’s reputation as the reason they weren’t looking at them.

    And don’t forget, things move quickly in tech. To quote the song again, “yeah, you’re the shit but you won’t be it for long, oh, there’s always someone cooler than you.” Any product team worth their salt takes feedback from sales, and if there’s a feature that’s costing your competitor deals, there’s a good chance they’ll prioritize it in their roadmap. After all, today’s differentiator is just tomorrow’s table stakes.

    In sales, especially tech sales, we’re always dealing with competitors. Sometimes your competition is another vendor, sometimes your competition is the status quo, and sometimes your competition is an unrelated project when finance won’t fund both. But no matter what, there will be competition whether you like it or not. All you can do is be confident in yourself and confident in what you’re selling. Don’t give your competitors free advertising; instead, focus on what makes you great. Or, as the song goes:

    “Smile, like you’ve got nothing to prove, no matter what might you might do, there’s always someone out there cooler than you.“

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    What do you think? How have competitors impacted your deals? Let me know in the comments!

  • Competitive Analysis: The most important thing Not In Your Sales Methodology

    Competitive Analysis: The most important thing Not In Your Sales Methodology

    Competitive analysis: the most important thing not in your sales methodology is part 1 of my content series discussion managing competitors in complex sales. Stay tuned for more posts covering this topic.

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    Competitive analysis in sales comes up almost every time I coach; one of the most common questions I get during sales coaching is “what do I do when a prospect asks about a competitor?” Everyone has an opinion on this. Some people believe they should go after competitors like Jabba the Hutt going after Han Solo — relentlessly until they’ve literally frozen their competitor out of the deal (maybe not hanging in on carbonite on the wall like a trophy). They may go as far as “shooting first” (like Han), going after competitors before a competitor goes after them. And the unprepared sometimes act like a nervous C-3PO, quickly becoming overwhelmed and stammering nervously until their more confident colleague comes to the rescue.

    (And what’s with all the Star Wars references? Well, my references are usually from Star Trek, so I figured it was time to include the other space nerds.)

    Believe it or not, I love hearing about competitors in a complex sale. Seriously. It’s 2024. The internet exists. Your client has access to G2. LinkedIn. Google. ChatGPT. Twitter/X (note: it’s entirely possible that, by the time this is posted, Twitter/X will have been run into the ground, so if this post isn’t updated by then please ignore the reference to the failed social network). They may just text people they know and ask what they use. No matter how they do it, your client is going to do research. You will have competitors in your deal (besides the status quo, which is a bigger point for another post).

    Here’s the thing: You can learn a whole lot about your deal by learning who the competitors are. Especially when it’s a complex sale. I’d argue that, the more complex your sale, the more important it is to consider including a competitive analysis in your sales methodology. Because running a competitive analysis isn’t just about the competitors, but rather, it’s about competitors in the context of your complex sale. Read on, young padawan (or maybe you’re a Jedi master. I don’t know your life) — here are a few things that you can learn about your SaaS deal by learning about your competitors:

    Question 1: Is this deal real?

    That’s what a sales manager will ask after the first meeting. Is this deal real? How real is the deal? Do you feel that the deal is real? Is there an executive at the wheel? And did they like your appeal? What, your sales manager isn’t Dr. Seuss?

    But seriously, deal confidence is usually determined by a sales methodology. Maybe BANT. Or MEDDICC. Or Challenger. Or SPIN. Or Sandler. Or an in-house methodology. And yet, most sales methodologies don’t consider competition at all. BANT: budget, authority need, time. MEDDICC: metrics, economic buyer, decision criteria, decision process, identify pain, champion. You get the idea. All of these sales methodologies basically identify: does this company have a reason to buy, and can the people in the room get done.

    All of these questions are important, but they look at the deal in a vacuum. Can they buy? Check. Do they have a reason? Check. Do they have money? Check. Do we think we can get it done this quarter? Check. Are we the right fit? Probably check. Is someone else a better fit? Well…crap.

    Also, there’s the matter of timing. Yes, methodologies look at time (it’s literally in the BANT acronym), but that time is always based on when they want to solve the problem. Not where the client is in their own process.

    Let’s say you’re the only vendor a prospect is looking at, and they don’t have a previous relationship with your company (e.g. they used your product in their last job). This might sound great, but there’s a downside. It’s an indication that they may not know what they’re looking for, or they’re still feeling out the market. They may be building their initial competitive set, which is fine, but that process is going to add at least a month to your cycle, if not more.

    Let’s say you get through the early stages of the deal with no other competitors. That also may sound great, but, in my experience, these are the scenarios with later stage entrants (especially in more complex organizations). Let’s say you and your champion put a plan together and everything looks great, so they take it to the economic buyer and/or legal/finance/procurement. I’ll bet you lunch that someone from one of those groups asks “who else did you talk to?” Because of course they will. It’s their job to reduce risk, and they’ll want to make sure your champion did their homework.

    I’ll talk about this scenario more in section 4, but this may not be as bad as it sounds. Sure it can add time, but if the process is more of a “let’s go through the motions of talking to competitors” then your deal is probably safe. But if they’re serious about looking at other vendors, your deal is in serious trouble.

    A few years back, I sold a deal that essentially had 2 cycles. The first was competing against more “niche” competitors, and we were selected as the vendor of choice. But then, after we went through the entire sales cycle, someone at the prospect’s organization called a Gartner analyst. And said analyst told the client to look at 3 more vendors. So we had to go through another sales cycle before winning the deal. I’m proud to say that we won, but the round 2 competitors were far more difficult to compete against.

    Question 2: Do the Competitors align with the requirements? And Does the prospect even know the requirements?

    When you’re qualifying your deal, one of the most important things to establish is a use case (which, again, most methodologies don’t explicitly call out, but let’s put that to the side). Not just a use case, but a primary use case. What’s the thing that’s really driving this. When your champion goes to the CFO, what is most likely going to persuade them?

    I’ve found the more complex a sale, the more complex the requirements, but I’ve rarely worked a deal where the requirements were perfectly defined at the outset. They tend to be more fluid, especially as prospects meet with vendors and learn about solutions.

    You know your competitors well enough to know where they tend to win, and where they tend to lose or churn. Let’s say the client tells you they’re looking at 3 vendors, but each one has a different primary use case. That may tell you that your client is unsure of the priorities, or hasn’t figured out the primary use case.

    It can also tell you if the client is prioritizing elements beyond the primary use case. Notably, are they looking at point solutions, suites, or both? In which case, you need to find out if they’re prioritizing functionality of the individual parts, or ease of the entire suite. If it’s the latter, you may have the best solution on the market, and that will be meaningless because the client isn’t really looking at how good the solutions is.

    Question 3: Do they understand what this technology is going to cost?

    As a buyer, there are few things as infuriating as “contact us for the price.” Seriously, buyers hate that. I get it, vendors do it so the competition doesn’t figure out what the price is. But come on, it’s not that hard to figure it out (see “it’s 2024” above).

    Even if you don’t know the exact pricing for your competition, you probably have a general idea. You know who is expensive, and who is not. If you’re an enterprise solution, and the other competitors in the deal typically support SMB or mid-market, that would raise a large red flag. You know in that situation you’re going to be the most expensive. Can you overcome that? Sure. But if your competitor is charging 50% what you are, finance or procurement may not care how much better your solution is.

    By looking at the competitors, you can also understand if the client is thinking about total cost of ownership (TCO). You may be the most expensive solution, however, if your competitor is going to have a longer deployment, require extensive services, or perhaps need custom integration work, you may be able to make a more compelling budget argument. This is particularly true if your sale is complex, as more complexity means more time and requirements, which usually means a higher TCO.

    Question 4: If there’s an RFP, Who Wrote It?

    A long standing debate in complex sales, particularly SaaS sales, is how to handle blind RFPs. To me there’s no debate. The answer is always “don’t respond.” But I know not everyone agrees.

    Years ago I was the SC on an opportunity with a CPG company. I remember reading the RFP, and it was quite clear it had been written by our biggest competitor. In particular, there were questions about a feature that was unique to the competitor that “demoed well” — it looked slick in a demo and had very little practical value, but prospects usually didn’t realize that until well after the deployment. My immediate reaction to the AE was “I don’t think we should bother with this,” but we ended up responding.

    We went to the meeting, and ended up being there for about 3 hours. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the meeting went. The prospect was engaged, asked great questions, and it seemed like maybe there was an opportunity here after all. Perhaps I was wrong?

    Nope. Not wrong. We found out the next day the prospect was going with a competitor. We never had a chance, but were just “procurement fodder” (a company procurement brings in to say they did “due diligence” even though the winner is already decided).

    Now I always try to find out who wrote the RFP. Because if it wasn’t you, it was probably your competitor. And if it was an RFP consultant, is it someone known for being truly objective, or someone who typically steers companies to the vendor they like? Both types of consultants exist (my friend Roy Wollen is an excellent example of the objective consultant and has published excellent content about his approach), and you need to know which one you’re working with.

    If you want to know your deal, know your competition

    Yoda sharing his thoughts on competitive analysis in a complex sale: Understand competitors you must

    Managing competition in a complex sale can be a bit like threading a needle, or like piloting an X-Wing through a random trench in order to shoot a torpedo at a very narrow weak spot. It takes skill and practice, and it also helps to have someone at your side giving you advice (sales engineer, competitive analysis team, a droid that beeps at you yet somehow you can understand it, whatever works).

    Try as we might to accurately forecast deals, it can be difficult, especially as the sale gets more complex. Or, in the words of Yoda, “Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.” But competitive analysis can give you incredible insight into your deal. You can learn where your prospect is in their process, how serious they are, what their budget is, and what they care about. The next time you’re in a sales meeting and competition comes up, don’t run from the topic. Embrace it, and you may be surprised what you learn.

    If you’re interested in managing the competition in your deal stay tuned — next week I’ll talk about how to handle the conversation about your competition. Subscribe today and you’ll be the first to know.

    What do you think? Do you like knowing who your competition is, or have you found it to hurt your deals? Let me know in the comments.

  • Simple Messaging Wins Deals: James Cameron And Alien$ (Yes, Alien$)

    Simple Messaging Wins Deals: James Cameron And Alien$ (Yes, Alien$)

    Simple Messaging Wins Deals: James Cameron and Alien$ shows how simplicity goes a long way toward winning deals.

    Aliens: An “Equal Sequel”

    It’s no secret that I’m a sci-fi fan, and one of my favorite franchises is Alien. I love everything about it (well, maybe not Alien3). The old-school yet futuristic design aesthetic, the computers that make weird beeping and whirring sounds for no apparent reason, and, of course, the absolutely terrifying Xenomorphs (aka the Aliens). 8 feet tall, acid for blood, experts at hiding, and the whole “bursting out of someone’s chest” thing – you’d be hard pressed to find a scarier creature.

    Pure nightmare fuel

    There are 3 people who arguably made the franchise what it is today: Ridley Scott, who directed the original Alien; Sigourney Weaver, who played Ellen Ripley (garnering an Oscar nomination, which is more-or-less unheard of in sci-fi and horror), and James Cameron, who wrote and directed the sequel (Aliens).

    Aliens came out in 1986, about 7 years after the first movie. It’s one of the first few sequels to be as good as, if not better than the original (it has a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, just a few points higher than the original’s 93%). And while James Cameron is a household name now (basically all pop culture in 1997 was connected to Titanic), he was still up-and-coming in the early 80s, finding success with The Terminator and Rambo: First Blood Part II.

    Looking back on it now, making Aliens was a no brainer — the first Alien made more than $100M with a budget of $11M. But it wasn’t quite so easy. Somehow 20th Century Fox considered that $100M a loss (I’m no accountant, but I don’t understand how making more than 800% your costs is considered a loss), and the sequel was only approved when Brandywine Productions (the producer of the original Alien film) sued to get a larger share of the Alien profits, and Fox agreed to finance the sequel as a way to settle the lawsuit.

    Cameron’s Simple But Effective Pitch

    The Alien sequel was originally called “Alien II,” but Cameron got studio executives, a difficult group to convince of anything, to go with a different name. And the way he did it was…wait for it…legendary. In his words:

    It just popped into my mind in the moment... I was sitting with the three producers, and we were in the office of the then-head of 20th Century Fox. And I said, ‘Guys, I got an idea for the title. And it goes like this.’ And I wrote, ‘Alien’ in large block letters. And I put an S on the end. I showed it to them. I said, ‘I want to call it Aliens, because we’re not dealing with one. Now we’re dealing with an army, and that’s the big distinction. And it’s very simple and very graphic.’ And I said, ‘But here’s what it’s going to translate to.’ And then I drew the two lines through it to make it a dollar sign. And that was my pitch. And apparently it worked! Because they went with the title. They never questioned it. (Cinemablend)

    What Can we Learn From James Cameron’s Aliens Pitch?

    As I read this story, there are two things that stand out to me. The first is the pure simplicity of the visuals. He didn’t have a bunch of slides talking about “leveraging the success of the first movie.” He didn’t have slides at all. He had a whiteboard, wrote one word, and then made a slight change to land his point. That’s it.

    So many sales presentations have complex visuals. Big words, logo slides, “our founder story,” put together by people who, frankly, never have to present it to a prospect or client. Those presentations often hurt presenters, because they distract and confuse the audience. Audiences read the points on the slides and don’t actually listen to the presenters, making it hard to actually hear the points being made. Worse, many of the points are irrelevant to the audience — audiences want to hear what’s in it for them a lot more than they want to hear about how many offices you have.

    That brings us to the second thing that Cameron did: he focused on the things studio executives care about. From their perspective, what matters more than anything else is the margin. How much do they have to invest to create the movie, and how much will they make when the movie is released. Those factors notoriously drive decisions more than creative decisions, which can create tension between a creative-focused director and a money-focused producer/studio. His pitch was simple: We’re now dealing with an army of Aliens, and this movie will make you more money.

    Simple > Complex

    The next time you’re working on a pitch, remember the story of Alien$. Sometimes a story and a whiteboard can be a whole lot more impactful than a fancy-pants (technical term) pitch deck. It puts the focus on the presenter, which is exactly where I want it. Can that be nerve-racking? Of course. But a simple conversation is always more impactful than hiding behind slides. Besides, if your slides are complex, that means your audience can probably figure out what you’re going to say before you actually say it. Which means that your presentation could probably have been an email.

    One more thing to consider — James Cameron is known for pioneering techniques to create some of the most visually stunning movies in our time: Terminator II: Judgment Day was the first movie to feature a partially computer-generated character (The T-1000, played by Robert Patrick); Avatar was a ‘s3-D masterpiece when 3-D movies were expected to be more of a thing than they actually were; Titanic included footage from his actual submarine (fun fact, he made Titanic not because he wanted to make a movie, but because he wanted to dive to the shipwreck). Yet, he sold one of his best movies with a whiteboard. If stories and whiteboards are good enough for an Oscar winning director, they’re certainly good enough for our sales meetings.

    The “Liquid Metal” T-1000

    Share Your Thoughts on Simple and Complex Pitches

    What do you think? Have whiteboards worked for you (or not)? Let me know in the comments!

  • Don’t Get Stuck In Quicksand During a Sales Presentation

    Don’t Get Stuck In Quicksand During a Sales Presentation

    I’m a 90s kid. Most of my references are to 90s things, I still play Mario on NES, I can play just about any famous 90 guitar riff, and I proudly rewatch of 90s TV (Seinfeld, X-Files, 3 different Star Trek series – 90s TV was truly excellent).

    Before we could stream everything, lots of TV time ended up being “let’s just watch whatever movie TNT or TBS is playing (it was the equivalent of “let’s just watch The Office because I can’t find anything else to stream”). And in 2000 (close enough to the 90s that we’re going to count it), a film came out that ended up being that “it’s always on cable” movie – I’m talking, of course, about the 2000 film The Replacements. 

    For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, it’s pretty great – much better than the 41% on Rotten Tomatoes would have you believe. The movie is about a group of ragtag replacement football players (“scabs”) who play for the Washington Sentinels (equally meaningless as “Washington Commanders,” but WAY better than the old racist name). It’s your classic “a bunch of misfits need to come together as a team” story – like the Mighty Ducks but with adults and football.

    The Replacements stars Gene Hackman and Keanu Reeves (fresh off of starring in The Matrix), plus a bunch of “that guy from that thing” type actors: Jon Favreau (pre-Avengers, so he was still the guy from Swingers who was also Monica’s boyfriend during season 3 of Friends), Orlando Jones (at the time, famous for being on Mad TV and also those 7-Up commercials), Jack Warden (the “grumpy old guy who isn’t Jack Lemmon or Walter Matthau” from a bunch of 90s movies, including the underrated Dirty Work), and David Denman (Roy from The Office). 

    The reason I’m talking about this movie is that, there’s a scene that’s always stuck with me. Coach McGinty (Hackman) is running a team meeting and asks the team what they’re afraid of. After a bunch of silly insect-related answers (spiders and bees, and let’s be real spiders are terrifying), QB Shane Falco (Reeves) gives a speech about being afraid of “Quicksand.”

    You’re playing, and you think everything is going fine, but then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. And you try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can’t move. Can’t breathe. Because you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.

    “Quicksand” is known in more technical communities as a “cascading failure.” Plane crashes aren’t often caused by one system failing, because there are redundancies. But when multiple systems fail, or when pilots take the wrong action to remedy a system, then a bunch of other stuff ends up going wrong – and the combination is what causes the crash. This ends up happening in demos quite often.

    (Did the MythBusters bust the myth of “Killer Quicksand” being a thing? Yes. Does that matter for this post? Not even a little bit.)

    Shane Falco’s Speech But “Demo Quicksand”

    You’re giving your demo, and you think everything is going fine, but then one thing goes wrong. It’s probably something small. Your demo environment times out. Your screen share stops working. You get an error that you weren’t expecting. But then, you start getting in your head about it. You start worrying about all of the other things that can go wrong. And something else minor does. So, you start getting uncomfortable. Maybe you start rambling a bit. You start using all of those filler words (like, um, now, you know, right!?, etc) that you managed to keep at bay. Then, maybe you make a comment to the audience about it to try to diffuse the tension (“we can see how easy this is, that is, if my demo decides to work” or “it usually works, it must be in a bad mood” or “it worked 5 minutes ago, I swear”), but that seems to make everything worse. When the demo is over, you wonder what went wrong.

    The good news is that, there are things that you can do when it comes to getting stuck in quicksand.

    1. Prevent getting stuck with checklists
    2. When you get stuck, breathe
    3. Play through the accidentals

    Checklists are your friend

    Doctor/Writer Atul Gawande published the excellent book The Checklist Manifesto about 10 years ago. If you haven’t read it, it’s about how to manage errors that happen in complex, technical environments, such as medicine and aviation. The point of the book is that, no matter how much of an expert you are, a well-designed checklist can significantly improve outcomes.

    From Atul Gawande’s site:

    Gawande begins by making a distinction between errors of ignorance (mistakes we make because we don’t know enough), and errors of ineptitude (mistakes we made because we don’t make proper use of what we know). Failure in the modern world, he writes, is really about the second of these errors, and he walks us through a series of examples from medicine showing how the routine tasks of surgeons have now become so incredibly complicated that mistakes of one kind or another are virtually inevitable: it’s just too easy for an otherwise competent doctor to miss a step, or forget to ask a key question or, in the stress and pressure of the moment, to fail to plan properly for every eventuality. Gawande then visits with pilots and the people who build skyscrapers and comes back with a solution. Experts need checklists–literally–written guides that walk them through the key steps in any complex procedure. In the last section of the book, Gawande shows how his research team has taken this idea, developed a safe surgery checklist, and applied it around the world, with staggering success.

    Demoing is a technical job – even for those who don’t consider themselves to be technical. There are lots of systems involved. Your computer. Your A/V equipment (camera, mic, etc). Your internet connection. The software you’re showing. The servers that said software is running on. The video conference/screen share service you’re using. The servers that said video conference/screen share service is on. The audience’s equipment. And each one of these is a potential failure point. And while you can’t control all of these things, many of them are in your control (to a point anyway).

    What sorts of things should be on your demo checklist: Make sure your equipment is working. Join the meeting 5 minutes early and test the screen share. Check your login to the demo environment. Reset all of your users (if that’s a thing you have to do). Have your backup demo on standby. You get the idea.

    You may be thinking “But Ed, I don’t have time to run through a checklist, my day is back-to-back every day!” And you’re right, but this is why a checklist is even more important. All of these tasks are things that are necessary for your demo, but most everyone relies on memory to do them. When we’re stressed, and we’re relying on memory – that’s when mistakes are made. We forget to reset that demo user. We realize that, while we normally use Zoom, the client uses GoToMeeting, so then there’s a bunch of installation and permissions that need to happen (making you late to the meeting, of course). Checklists can keep you on track, give you a quick reminder of all the things you have to do, and get those things done faster.

    Don’t fight Quicksand – Take a Breath

    I have a 2 and 4 year old, so there’s a lot of Daniel Tiger happening in my house. If you’re not familiar, Daniel Tiger is a spinoff of the classic Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that takes place in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Every episode follows the same formula(ish) – Daniel is a 4-year-old tiger (son of the original Daniel Striped Tiger from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) who has your typical little kid problems: his favorite red sweater is dirty and he has to wear the blue one (but learns he’s still the same Daniel); he doesn’t get to be line-leader and, instead, has to be lunch helper (but learns that lunch helper is a very important job); he has to go potty but there’s no potty on the neighborhood Trolley – you get the idea.

    In almost every episode (seriously, my 2 year old LOVES Daniel Tiger), Daniel gets irrationally upset about…whatever it is that he’s upset about (he’s 4, that’s what they do). To help, an adult validates his feelings: “I can see that you’re frustrated, and it’s OK to be frustrated, but we can’t go the park right now.” I strongly believe that we can all learn about positive social interactions by watching more Daniel Tiger.

    I’ll cover the idea of “talk to adults just like we talk to toddlers” in another post, but, for now, I’m bringing it up because of a simple song that Daniel sings.

    When you feel so mad that you start to roar, take a deep breath and count to four.

    As silly as it may sound, this is actually excellent advice, and is exactly what you should do when you get caught in quicksand.

    The reason that quicksand can be all-consuming is, just like Keanu told us, “you can’t breathe.” It’s the fight/flight/freeze response taking over. It’s the only thing you can focus on in that moment. And the more you try to fight it, the deeper you sink. So stop trying to fight it (just like any other form of anxiety – the more you fight it, the more it fights back). The best thing you can do in actual quicksand (as we learned from the MythBusters) is to lie back and gently pull yourself out of it. And while you may not be able to lie back during your demos (that would be weird on video), you can gently pull yourself out of it.

    When you feel yourself getting stuck, take a deep breath and count to four. Seriously. The audience won’t really think anything of it – that amount of time just feels like you’re pausing for effect. But what you’re actually doing is giving your “rational brain” a chance to catch up to your emotions. You can then think of a course of action to respond. Those few seconds can mean the difference between sinking deeper or getting out of it.

    Get out of Demo Quicksand by Playing Through the Accidentals

    Anyone who has seen me present can figure out pretty quickly that I’m a musician. My real (non-virtual) background consists of the jackets from some of my favorite records, and also my electric guitar and bass. Plus my band, Fascinator, just recorded our first EP – more on that soon!

    The phrase “play through the accidentals” means “pretend like you meant to do it.” Wrong note? You’re just taking some liberties with the part. Forget the words? Turn the mic toward the audience so they can sing. Audiences rarely notice mistakes if the musicians just act like it was intentional (and yes, most of the audiences I’ve played for were at bars and drunk, but that’s a separate issue for another time).

    Audiences notice when musicians try to awkwardly cover up mistakes. When the singer tries to pick up the part somewhere else, but it’s clear that they missed it. When the instrumentalist shakes their head when getting a note wrong, or has some other reaction to it. All of these things tell the audience that you made a mistake, and you know you made a mistake.

    Then, when you react to the mistake, something else happens – you now have a heightened awareness of said mistake. All of the sudden, you miss another note. And you notice it. Then you miss another. And another. And before you know it, you’re just trying to get through the part so you can run offstage and hide. Instead, by just playing through it, the mistake gets out of your head almost as quickly as it got there. It doesn’t affect you. Or the audience.

    When mistakes happen during your demos or presentations, it’s easy to make some sort of comment to the audience. But that’s a trap. Because once you make that comment, you get in your head about the mistake. You start making more comments, because you’re still in your head. For the Brene Brown fans out there, it’s a shame response. If I say something about this, you can’t say anything.

    Here’s the good news – you’re human. Mistakes happen. And it’s OK. As the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said, “It’s not whether you got knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.” So the next time you’re in front of an audience and something goes wrong (and you want to roar), just take a deep breath and count to four. Your demos will be all the better for it.

  • Stick to the (demo) script at your own risk

    Stick to the (demo) script at your own risk

    Stick to the (demo) script at your own risk, because it might just kill your meeting. This might sound counterintuitive, but demo scripts can often throw you off your game.

    Relationships Matter in Sales

    The Office, for all its humor, has some great sales tips. It turns out that, even though he’s a terrible manager, Michael Scott is a fantastic salesperson. Fans of the show will remember “The Client” from season 2, where Michael takes a prospect, a government employee named Christian (played by the great Tim Meadows) to Chili’s. Michael and Christian bond and share jokes (including singing that old Chili’s theme song), much to Jan’s chagrin. But at the end of the night it’s clear there’s a method to Michael’s madness, as the relationship he built leads to a sale. Because even on The Office, people buy from people they like.

    We also know that, in many ways, Michael can be a bit of a dumpster fire. This is on full display in “Money” from season 4, which is there one where Michael runs out of money (he famously “declares bankruptcy”). To make ends meet, he takes a job as a telemarketer. 

    This telemarketer job is a bit shady, as it’s to sell “Lipopedrine Diet Pills.” At the job Michael has a hard time not being a manager, and instead his job is to “smile and dial,” or make cold calls. During a sales meeting (ironically, Michael refers to it as “useless”), manager Nick Figaro (Alan Wasserman) gave him a simple formula to follow:

    1. Make the call
    2. Say the lines
    3. Make the sale!!!

    This goes about as well as expected. When Michael chats with a prospect (and not actively selling at that moment), Nick hangs up the phone, and brings Michael into his office to chew him out. Nick’s problem? Michael needs to “dial the number on the heat and stick to the script,” which Michael can’t do (yes, Vikram, who follows the script, outsells Michael every night, but that’s beside the point).

    Scripts Are For Telemarketers, Not for Demos

    When you’re demoing, you’re not doing a 30 second telemarketer pitch. But many salespeople try to follow this same formula which, while it may work for Vikram at the shady telemarketing outfit, won’t work in your demo. Because you’re not yourself.

    I’m a big believer that presenters should be themselves in front of audiences as it’s obvious when someone’s inauthentic. And, trying to be something else, or say something that doesn’t feel right, takes a lot of brainpower – brainpower that can be used to listen the audience or ask good questions.

    Instead of “sticking to a script,” write yourself a set list. Write out the key points you need to hit, and let the rest be a conversation.

    6 Tips for Better Sales Meetings

    Eliminate the word “click” from your demo.

    Instead of narrating with “I click here,” “I click there,” you want to drop benefit statements like “look how fast it is to do this, or look how easily you can do that.” Just taking out the word “click” can make a huge difference for getting to that point.

    Context, Feature, Benefit

    Start with context – tell the audience why you’re going to show something. Then show the thing. Then give the benefit of the thing.

    Start with a Story

    Storytelling engages all of your brain. When you start telling a story the audience is with you and it is your job throughout the demo, to keep the audience with you. How do you do that? Reference back to the story. You are creating the moment and bringing the audience into the moment with you. Read more about storytelling here.

    Set Next Steps

    If you don’t set next steps, how will anyone know what to do next?

    Save big claims for the end

    You need to earn the right to make a big claim. Build value continually and build trust. When you have so much build up, the end is where you can make the big claims because you have proven your product and yourself.

    Make the value clear

    In the parlance of Thinking Fast and Slow, you want “cognitive ease,” or things to make sense without thinking too hard. And the more a story is plausible, the easier it is to believe. Therefore, make it as easy as possible for them to see value by being clear about the benefits. Define the value visually and verbally in no uncertain terms. It should be very obvious from your visuals and your verbal communication what the value is. If there is any doubt, go back and dework the portion of the demo.

    What are your tips for better demos? Leave a comment!

  • 6 Simple Rules For Better Communication During Sales Presentations

    6 Simple Rules For Better Communication During Sales Presentations

    Avoiding certain words during a sales presentation is critical for success. For Inspiration, let’s turn to George Orwell.

    Remind me…Who’s George Orwell?

    Even if you don’t know the name off the top of your head, you know his work. A prolific writer, he’s most famous for the dystopian 1984, as well as the only slightly creepy Animal Farm.

    In April of 1946, which was in-between the publishing of those two books, Orwell published an essay called “Politics and the English Language.” And while he published this essay more than 75 years ago, it’s just as relevant today as it was back when he wrote it. 

    [*Note: Orwell, likely because it was the 1940s, only uses the pronoun “he.” I am leaving the quotes as Orwell wrote them, however, I recognize that this language is not inclusive.]

    In this essay, he does not pull any punches when discussing the sad state of writing – like the world’s meanest English teacher, he picks apart 5 different (independently written) paragraphs, and then offers the following analysis: 

    Each of these passages has faults of its own, but, quite apart from avoidable ugliness, two qualities are common to all of them. The first is staleness of imagery; the other is lack of precision. The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not. This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing. As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house. 

    “Tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house” is what really stood out to me. In just a few words, he provides a powerful visual that sums up the problem perfectly (if old-timey, because the 1940s). And, based on this essay, that’s the point – a powerful visual, even with language instead of a picture, has power. Power that is ignored by so many when talking about technology. 

    Writing “Tricks” You Should Avoid

    Let’s go through some of the “tricks” he calls out that people use to avoid writing good and stuff:

    Dying metaphors: “There is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves…’stand shoulder to shoulder with…play into the hands of…no axe to grind…many of these are used without knowledge of their meaning.”

    Think of the last few meetings you were in, and you can probably come up with a few phrases that were thrown around:

    • “This is like Netflix/Amazon/Uber…”: Tons of presenters compare what they’re doing with a well known technology. This can work, but it can end up being pretty limiting, especially if your competitors are doing the same thing. As an aside, back in my martech days, my friend Jay Henderson used to walk around trade shows asking people what “Tinder for Marketing” would be. No one had a good answer. I still don’t.
    • “A single pane of glass.” Do they still even make monitors out of glass? And what if I’m running multiple monitors?
    • “This isn’t my first rodeo.” I’ll bet the Venn diagram of people who say “this isn’t my first rodeo” and people who have actually who have actually been to a rodeo has very little overlap.

    It’s bad enough that people use these phrases to begin with, but it gets even more difficult when working with an international audience. For example, “move the goalposts” means something to an American football fan, but given that we’re the only country who calls that particular sport “football,” it probably won’t work internationally.

    Meaningless words to avoid During Your Sales Presentation

    Meaningless words. In certain kinds of writing…it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning…. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. 

    So many words in tech are meaningless:

    • Digital transformation: I know what salespeople are trying to communicate with this one, but if often falls flat, because we aren’t really taking “analog” things and making them digital. “So we’re going to transform your already digital thing (spreadsheets) into another digital thing (your software).” Spoiler alert – clients have literally no idea what you’re talking about with digital transformation, but consultants get paid a lot to throw that phrase around and sound all fancy-like. 
    • Streamline: You might be surprised to see this word here, but ask yourself this – when you say “streamline,” what are you really saying? I was once leading an in-person (remember those) training, and asked a table of 7 people what streamline means to them. I got 7 different answers. To some, it was about reducing steps, to others, it was about reducing time, and some people thought it was about eliminating friction with existing processes. These things are all similar, but aren’t exactly the same. 
    • Single source of truth: Another one that, on its face, sounds pretty good. Except every vendor promises this. Every. Vendor. ERP, CRM, business intelligence, marketing, HR, you name it. So if everyone recognizes that siloed data is a problem, but then they are all going to create a “single source of truth,” aren’t we then going to end up with 10 single sources of truth? And, at that point, aren’t those just silos? It gets a bit circular when you think about it. 
    • Leverage: This piece was born out of the simple fact that I hate the word “leverage” with the fire of 1,000 suns. Unless you are talking physics, finance, or high-level corporate strategy (not something tactical like a software purchase), it’s not leverage. Just say “use.” 

    Follow these 6 Simple Rules

    Finally, Orwell closes the piece with 6 rules of writing that we can all follow: 

    i. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

    ii. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

    iii. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

    iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

    v. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

    vi. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

    75 years later, each of these rules is just as relevant as when he wrote them. Shakespeare got it right with “brevity is the soul of wit” (am I breaking rule number 1 with that quote? Maybe, but we’re going with it). 

    When you’re in front of a customer, you have limited time to make your point. I’ve been in situations where I was supposed to have an hour to present, and, instead, got 5 minutes. And, prospects sometimes show up for a bit, but then get called to something else. It’s in your best interest as a presenter to communicate as plainly as possible. Because if you confuse the client, or just aren’t relevant, you may not get another shot. 

    What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

  • What if Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson and the rest of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department Spoke at your Sales Kickoff?

    What if Leslie Knope, Ron Swanson and the rest of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department Spoke at your Sales Kickoff?

    Disclaimer: The characters used in this post are the property of NBCUniversal. This post is for entertainment purposes, and we believe that this constitutes a “fair use” of the copyrighted materials as provided in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If your copyrighted material appears in this post and you disagree with our assessment that it constitutes “fair use,” contact us.

    Note: This was originally posted on the 2Win Global blog. 

    And now on with our show:

    The “Parks and Recreation” characters who will speak at our 2024 SKO

    (Click here to skip straight to the script)

    Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler): Deputy Director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department. An enthusiastic civil servant who is passionate about her hometown. Known for her love of waffles, strong friendships, and extreme dedication to her job. It’s strongly implied that she eventually is elected President of the United States, but the writers have never given a definitive answer.

    Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman): Director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department. A staunch libertarian who believes in self-reliance and minimal government and has a fondness for hunting, woodworking, and breakfast foods. Is possibly the richest man in Pawnee, but as he doesn’t believe in banks his wealth is in the form of gold bars that he stashed all over town (once said “I’m actually not sure how much money I have. But I do know how many pounds of money I have.”)

    Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe): Pawnee City Manager. Excessively positive, health-conscious, and overly enthusiastic. Frequently uses the word “literally” for emphasis.

    Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott): Indiana State Auditor. Initially comes to Pawnee to help solve the town’s budget crisis. Skeptical but well-meaning, he’s known for his love of calzones and creating the complex board game “Cones of Dunshire.” Was elected mayor of his hometown (Partridge, MN) and resigned in disgrace after two-months after his failed “Ice Town” winter sports complex bankrupted the town. 

    Donna Meagle (Retta): Office Manager of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department. Loves luxury and lives by her “Treat Yo’ Self” philosophy. Social media savvy and unapologetically confident.

    April Ludgate-Dwyer (Aubrey Plaza): Administrative Assistant at the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department. Known for her dry wit, sarcastic demeanor, and disinterest in most human activities, though she has a soft spot for animals and her husband Andy.

    Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt): Originally a shoeshiner in Pawnee’s City Hall, later becomes Leslie’s assistant and then hosts a children’s television show called The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show. Exuberant, childlike, and endearing in his enthusiasm and loyalty. Lead singer of the band Mouse Rat. Married to April Dwyer-Ludgate. 

    Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari): Parks Department employee with big dreams of wealth and fame. Co-creator of the “Treat Yo’ Self” philosophy, he has a knack for branding and entrepreneurial ventures, though they rarely pan out, often due to the involvement of the Saperstein family.

    Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones): Initially a nurse who becomes involved with the Parks Department after seeking to fill in a dangerous pit behind her house, she later works as the Public Relations Director for the Pawnee Health Department. As an “outsider” to the Parks Department, she often serves as the “straight man” for the other characters. Leslie considers Ann to be her best friend in the entire world. 

    Jerry/Garry/Larry/Terry/Barry Gergich (Jim O’Heir): Longtime city employee who is clumsy and mercilessly mocked (particularly by Tom and April) , but is surprisingly competent at his job and has one of the happiest and most fulfilling lives outside of work. Was once described by Ron Swanson as “both the schlemeil and schlimazel of the office.” (In Yiddish, the “schlemeil” is the person who spills his soup, and the “schlimazel” is the person he spills it on.)

    SKO Presentation Title: Waffles, Woodwork, and Winning Sales: A Pawnee Roundtable

    Leslie: Alright, everyone – thanks for coming to the wonderful Pawnee City Hall. We’re here to talk about something super incredibly important. No, it’s not parks, but parks are the best thing ever and we should all spend as much time as possible in Pawnee’s beautiful parks. And no, it’s not waffles, even though waffles are amazing and you should eat waffles in one of Pawnee’s beautiful parks. We are here to talk about sales. We spend a lot of time trying to show the public how important parks are to our community, and we’ve learned a thing or two. Now I’d like to pass it to my dear friend and mentor, Ron Swanson, to hear some of his wisdom. Ron?

    Ron: Leslie, do not refer to us as friends. We are work proximity associates. And talking about sales is a waste of time.

    Leslie: Don’t be silly, Ron. You’re great at sales. You sold that chair you made and it became the must have item in Pawnee!

    Ron: I didn’t sell anything. I made a quality product. Then I allowed someone to give me money. People appreciate quality craftsmanship at a reasonable price. Sales is for people who can’t actually make something of value.

    Leslie: Well not everyone knows how to make a chair, Ron. Sometimes they have to buy a chair, which means they need someone to sell it to them.

    Ron: Then they should learn how to make a chair.

    Leslie: Oh, Ron, you big grouch. Listen everyone – the first thing to know about sales is that it’s about confidence. And being prepared. You need to learn as much as you can about who you’re selling to. Then you can make a friendship binder before your meeting. That way, you and your customers can remember all of the fun things you did together.

    Ron: You’re presuming that I would want to be friends with them. I can assure you that I do not. Leslie, the less I know about people, the better. Sales, like government, should be as straightforward and unobtrusive as possible.

    Chris: [Running in place] Ron Swanson! Leslie Knope! This is a wonderful conversation. I literally love talking about sales. In my opinion, if you want to be good at sales, it’s all about energy. And excitement. People want to know how thrilled you are to talk to them.

    Ron: Chris, your approach is no different from a Golden Retriever’s. I don’t need someone to think I’m excited to talk to them. Quite the opposite. That’s why when people get too chummy with me, I like to call them by the wrong name to let them know I don’t really care about them.

    Chris: Ron you are literally the most interesting person I know. I love listening to your unique perspective. But I also disagree with your unique perspective. There’s nothing better than getting to know people. Isn’t that right, Ben Wyatt?

    Ben [Looks up from a stack of papers]: Um…hi. What’s happening here?

    Chris: We are talking to these people about sales. Why don’t you tell them about how you sold your complex but wonderful board game?

    Ben: [Looks uncomfortable] Well, I mean, I wasn’t setting out to make money from the Cones of Dunshire – I just wanted to make a board game. Besides, it was so complicated that I didn’t think anyone would want to buy it. So I guess I just got lucky?

    Ron: See everyone – even the bean counter figured out that you if make a quality product, people will want to buy it. No selling required.

    Donna shares her secret to influencing people during the 2024 SKO

    Leslie: Ben, I love you, but this is not at all helpful. Donna, you’re great at influencing people. What’s your secret?

    Donna: [Flips her hair] Oh there’s no secret, Leslie – I’m just fabulous.

    Leslie: That’s true, but there’s only one of you. What advice can you share?

    Donna: You’re right Leslie, there is only one of me.

    Leslie: [Sighs] Why are none of you helping me with this?

    April: Because it’s lame

    Ron: [Nods approvingly]

    April: Sales is just telling people what to do, and I don’t listen when someone tries to tell me what to do. Or what not to do. Or tells me anything really.

    Leslie: Sales isn’t telling people what to do! It’s about connecting with people and giving them what they want.

    April: What I want is to stop talking about this. You should cancel the rest of this meeting and just make animal sounds into the microphone.

    Andy: Come on, April  – give Leslie a break. Sales can be cool. Like that time I sold cassette tapes of Mouse Rat’s hit single “Bye Bye Lil’ Sebastian” outside the zoo. I sold like 37 copies!

    Ron: [With a tear in his eye] He was a damn fine horse.

    Leslie: That’s the spirit, Andy. Sales can be a way to show the world what you’re passionate about…wait, Andy did you say cassette tapes? Don’t you mean CDs?

    April: [Rolls her eyes] It’s vintage and ironic, Leslie.

    Leslie: Can we please get back to talking about sales so we can help these people? This isn’t Eagleton where they all wear monocles and sell silver spoons from their ivory towers. Here in Pawnee we are about helping real people. How about you, Tom, you always have great business ideas like rent-a-swag. What advice do you have for these fine people?

    Tom Haverford promotes his podcast at the 2024 SKO

    Tom: Thanks for asking Sell-sie Knope! Rent a swag rented the dopest shirts, the swankiest jackets, the slickest cardigans, the flashiest fedoras, the hottest ties, the snazziest canes and more to the teens of Pawnee. And it worked for two reasons: 1) Because I have the body of a teenager and 2) Tom Haverford’s signature customer service. I let customers know right away that Tom Haverford would take care of them. But then I had to sell the business when Dr. Saperstein stole all my customers.

    Leslie: OK, Tom. So you’re saying that people should take good care of their customers and stay ahead of the competition. That’s excellent advice.

    Tom: That’s right Leslie Knope-ortunities. And everyone don’t forget to subscribe to my podcast “Treat Yo’ Self” where Donna and I talk about all the ways you can live your best life. #TomTalks #HaverFaves #LikeAndSubscribe

    Leslie: That’s great, Tom. But remember, we’re here to talk about sales and not podcasts. Even if “Treat Yo’ Self” is an excellent podcast and everyone should listen to it – while sitting on a bench in one of Pawnee’s beautiful parks. So Ann Perkins, my best friend in the entire world, what advice can you share?

    Ann:  Well, Leslie, I’m not in sales, but while working for the health department I’m often “selling” Pawnee Residents on the idea of being healthy. Which is not always easy in this town since the Pawnee food pyramid is just Sweetums products.

    Ron: The government has no business telling me what I can eat. The only food pyramid I’m interested in is the pile of eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, chicken-fried steak and buttermilk pancakes in JJ’s Diner’s “Four Horse-Meals of the Egg-Pork-alypse.” I didn’t listen when the American Heart Association said not to eat it, and I’m not listening to the health department either.

    Jerry surprises everyone at the 2024 SKO

    Jerry: [Stands up] Can I add something here, Leslie?

    April: No you can’t, Terry. But don’t let me stop you from dazzling us all with your wisdom.

    Leslie: It’s ok April. Go ahead, Larry.

    Jerry: Well I just want to say that sales, like anything else, is about treating people with kindness…You know, my family always says, “A smile costs nothing, but it’s worth a lot.” So when you’re talking to a customer, just be sincere and listen. A little empathy can go a long way, and making people feel good is a great way to make a sale. And even if you don’t make the sale, you’ve made someone’s day a little better – and that’s a win in my book.

    Leslie: Wow, Garry, that was…surprisingly eloquent. I think that’s a great note to end on. Thank you all for sharing your insights. I think we learned that everyone can have their own unique approach to sales, and the most important thing is to be true to yourself and…

    Jerry: [Tries to sit back down and falls out of his chair].

    April: Classic Barry. Even when he says something good he manages to Jerry it.

  • What if Sterling Archer and Lana Kane from “Archer” Spoke at your Sales Kickoff?

    What if Sterling Archer and Lana Kane from “Archer” Spoke at your Sales Kickoff?

    Disclaimer: The characters used in this post are the property of Disney and FX. This post is for entertainment purposes, and we believe that this constitutes a “fair use” of the copyrighted materials as provided in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If your copyrighted material appears in this post and you disagree with our assessment that it constitutes “fair use,” contact us.

    Note: This was first posted on the 2Win Global blog. 

    The “Archer” characters who will speak at our 2024 SKO

    Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin): “The World’s Greatest Secret Agent,” highly is a highly competent but extremely unprofessional spy. He is self-absorbed, childish and often intoxicated, and loves turtlenecks (but only on missions) expensive suits (when not on missions), and referential humor. Archer has a complicated relationship with his mother and boss Mallory (played by the late, great Jessica Walter), but was primarily raised by his valet Woodhouse (whom he loves but also to whom he is incredibly cruel). He often finds himself in bad situations that were completely avoidable, but always finds a way out of them (usually by blowing something up) and almost never suffers the consequences of his bad choices. Gets shot literally all the time.

    Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler): Top field agent and sometimes love interest for Archer. She is brilliant and highly skilled, and an expert in firearms and hand-to-hand combat. She develops well crafted plans for missions, which are almost always ruined by Archer (who somehow gets out of the situation with a combination of chaos and luck). Lana is usually the voice of reason among her colleagues, and their incompetence only serves to highlight her abilities. Her no-nonsense personality usually means she plays the “straight man” to Archer, but with her sharp wit she always has a comeback for whatever he says.

    SKO Presentation Title: The World’s Greatest Spy Gives the World’s Greatest Sales Speech. Also, Lana’s Here.

    Lana: All right, listen up people. The mission is sales. So what you’re going to do is run recon on your customers, then use what you learn to deliver a targeted message.

    Archer: Calm down, Jordan Belfort. Sales is just telling people what to do, which, let’s be honest, I literally excel at.

    Lana: Archer, the last time you told someone what to do was when you told Cheryl to “be herself” on an undercover mission. It took her all of ten minutes to set an embassy on fire and then she almost got us all killed. Great leadership.

    Archer: Well, that’s why she isn’t here, Lana. But speaking of fire, let’s talk about setting your sales on fire.

    Lana: No one. Is setting anything. On fire.

    Archer: It’s a metaphor, Lana.

    Lana: [Sighs]. Look. Being good at sales is like being good at espionage. Pay attention to details and adapt to the situation. And you’ll especially need to adapt when your team “forgets” that they’re supposed to be working and somehow triggers an international incident.

    Archer. That was one time, Lana. Besides, it wasn’t my fault. I was distracted because the bartender didn’t know how to make a proper martini. I mean, come on. It’s mixing a drink, not disarming a bomb.

    Lana: Something else you’ve failed at least a dozen times. Let’s wrap this up. If you want to close more sales, just read the room, anticipate your customer’s next move, and know when to stop talking. Which is something Archer over here has never quite figured out.

    Archer: And what “Frodo Baggins before he left the Shire” hasn’t figured out is that sales is all about taking risks. Sometimes you have to venture out into the –

    Lana: Don’t say it.

    Archer: Danger Zone!!!!

    Lana: Just…end the presentation, Archer.

    Archer: Why don’t you end the presentation…wait, I totally had something for this.

    Lana: Borelando Bloom?

    Archer: Really, Lana? Borelando Bloom? What, was David Snoozelhoff already taken?

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  • What if the Gang from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” Spoke at your Sales Kickoff?

    What if the Gang from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” Spoke at your Sales Kickoff?

    Disclaimer: The characters used in this post are the property of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. This post is for entertainment purposes, and we believe that this constitutes a “fair use” of the copyrighted materials as provided in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If your copyrighted material appears in this post and you disagree with our assessment that it constitutes “fair use,” contact me.

    Note: This post originally appeared on the 2Win Global blog

    The “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” characters who will speak at our 2024 SKO

    Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton): Co-owner of Paddy’s Pub and Dee’s twin brother. Dennis is narcissitic and manipulative, and often employs elaborate schemes to get what he wants (sometimes they work, sometimes they fail). A self-proclaimed “Golden God,” Dennis lacks any sort of moral compass and will always put his own interests above all else, no matter how much damage he inevitably causes to others.

    Thanks for reading SalesEd ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

    Dee Reynolds (Kaitlin Olson): Co-owner of Paddy’s Pub and Dennis’ twin sister. Dee aspires to be famous actor or comedian, and is extremely confident even though she hasn’t ever found success. She often tries to be the “rational” member of the gang, but they consistently ignore or mock her (or steal her car only to crash it or blow it up).

    Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito): Dennis and Dee’s father, Frank is always involved in (or running) some sort of ethically dubious get-rich-quick scheme, even though they almost never pan out. Is wealthy, though it’s unclear where exactly that wealth came from. Frank lives in a run-down apartment with Charlie. Frank is often the most crass member of the gang, which is an achievement given everyone else’s behavior.

    Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day): Janitor and partial owner of Paddy’s Pub. Invested the most money to open the pub, yet got the smallest stake. Is mostly illiterate, but is also a self proclaimed expert in “bird law.” He is often relegated to menial “Charlie Work,” which is how the gang refers to the thankless and disgusting jobs no one else wants to do. Charlie is a talented musician, but rarely performs (besides producing an entire play based on his song “Day Man”).

    Ronald “Mac” McDonald (Rob McElhenney): Co-owner of Paddy’s Pub and childhood friend of Charlie. He thinks of himself as the bar’s “enforcer,” and is obsessed with karate but lacks any real skill. Is known for his misguided religious beliefs and tumultuous relationship with his parents.

    SKO presentation title: The Gang Gives a Presentation About Sales

    Mac: Hello everybody, we’re here today to show you a new approach to sales. And since I’m the brains of this operation, I’ll show you how it’s done. Sales is like karate. You’ve got to dominate. Be assertive. Get in their face. And have sweet moves [pantomimes karate].

    Dennis: Dude, what are you doing? That’s not how you sell things. And those aren’t even real karate moves – you’re just waving your arms around.

    Mac: Those are absolutely real karate moves!

    Dennis: I apologize for my associate’s behavior – you can just disregard him. Allow me to offer an approach grounded in the principles of psychology and human behavior: [takes out flipchart] the D.E.N.N.I.S. system for sales! It’s a surefire way to manipulate your prospect and take control of the deal.

    Dee: Alright Dennis, I’m just going to stop you right there. No one needs another sleezy system with your name on it.

    Dennis: Excuse me, Dee. The D.E.N.N.I.S. system is a proven method for human interaction.

    Dee: Proven? By who? A bunch of women who you were terrible to? No thanks.

    Frank enters the SKO presentation

    Frank [Casually strolls in]: If I could just interject here.

    Dennis: Frank? What are you doing here? We told you the presentation was tomorrow.

    Frank: Come on, Dennis, I knew you’d try to pull a stunt like that. That’s why I had Cricket follow you.

    Mac: Why would he agree to that? Did you pay him or something?

    Frank: Of course I didn’t pay him. Now listen, everyone. I’ve gotten all of us together today because I’ve got a warehouse full of primo…”goods”…that I need to unload. And while sales is normally “Charlie Work,” I could use a room of smart people like you to unload all of my trash. I mean goods. High quality goods.

    Dee: Frank, you can’t come in here and tell people their jobs are the same as “Charlie Work.”

    Audience member: [Raises hand] What’s “Charlie Work?”

    Frank: It’s the work that no one else wants to do. Like cleaning the toilets, or dealing with rats in the basement. You know, “Charlie Work.”

    Dennis: [Laughs uncomfortably] OK, I apologize for my other…associate…who obviously didn’t mean to just insult everyone in the room.

    Dee: Hold on. Frank are you trying to get these people to sell your garbage for you?

    Frank: Of course, I am, Deandra. Why do you think I got us a speaking slot at this company’s sales kickoff?

    Charlie enters the SKO presentation

    Charlie: Frank!

    Mac: Charlie!? What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be cleaning the bar.

    Charlie: I know you’re in the middle of a Scales Cookoff, bro, but I’ve got to settle some business with Frank right now.

    Dennis: Yes, Charlie, we are in the middle of…wait, did you just say “Scales Cookoff?”

    Charlie: Yeah, Dennis, it said “Scales Cookoff” on the door. I know you’re in the middle of a lizard cooking competition, but I need to talk to Frank.

    Dennis: There was a sign that said “Sales Kickoff.” Is that the sign you were talking about?

    Charlie: No…I was talking about…I didn’t say…What did you hear?

    Dennis: I heard you say you thought we were having a lizard cooking competition.

    Dee: We’re trying to talk to these people about sales, Charlie.

    Mac: Wait, Charlie, in this scenario did you think we were cooking a bunch of lizards, or that we were cooking for a bunch of lizards?

    Charlie: I didn’t say anything about lizards. You said something about lizards. And I can tell you a thing or two about sales. I just made 100 “Frank bucks” when I sold Frank that Range Rover out front.

    Charlie teaches the gang about sales by selling Dennis’ car outside of the SKO

    Dennis: Hold up. I parked my Range Rover out front. Dammit Charlie did you sell my Car to Frank?

    Charlie: Bro, the keys were in a bag that was just sitting there. Bird law says I get to keep them.

    Dennis: That was my bag! That’s my car! Frank, give me my keys

    Frank: No can do, Dennis. This is between me and Charlie. And, a deal’s a deal.

    Dennis: There’s no deal here, Frank. Charlie stole my keys, which you then bought with fake money. In what way is this possibly a deal?

    Frank: Frank bucks are real. They’re my new cybermoney.

    Mac: Do you mean cryptocurrency, Frank? People stopped talking about that like two years ago. Also, how does that even work?

    Frank: It’s simple. I print the Frank bucks, and you use ’em like money. Who needs banks when you have Frank?

    Mac: That’s not even remotely how that works.

    Frank: [Shrugs] All I know is the easiest way to make real money is to sell fake money.

    Charlie: Fake? You said I could spend Frank bucks anywhere that accepts them.

    Frank: And you can! As soon as people start using Frank bucks instead of real money. Wait and see Charlie, soon everyone will be using Frank bucks. [Looks at audience] And for anyone who wants to help me unload my…goods…you can earn up to a million Frank bucks.

    Dee: So you got us invited to speak at this company’s sales thing just so you could convince everyone in the room to sell your fake stuff in order to make fake money?

    The gang’s SKO speech falls apart

    Frank: [Shrugs] I already bought a car with fake money. I mean real money. Very real Frank bucks.

    Dennis: No you didn’t! You stole my car!

    Frank: Don’t you mean my car. [Looks at audience] So…is anyone here interested in a job? Just raise your hand if you are.

    [No one raises their hand]

    Frank: Well, I tried. [Shrugs and walks away]

    Dennis: I want my keys back, Frank. [Chases after Frank]

    Charlie: And I want to trade these Frank bucks for real money, Frank. [Also chases after Frank]

    Mac: Well that’s just great. All I wanted to do was show off my mad sales skills and then have these fine people come to the bar for happy hour. And now it’s totally ruined. [Storms off]

    Dee: Well I guess ol’ Sweet Dee is going to take it from here. Listen everyone – forget what these dummies told you. Let me tell you a thing or two I’ve learned about sales.

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