Analogies: Your Best Friend

by Narmeen Iqbal & Robyn Hatcher

According to Dictionary.com, an analogy is: “a form of reasoning in which one thing is inferred to be similar to another thing in a certain respect, on the basis of the known similarity between the things in other respects”.

They are also your best friend when giving presentations and communicating with people. Analogies help listeners grasp concepts and ideas more easily. They help listeners mentally visualize the connection between one form of reasoning by interpreting it through another form of reasoning.

An excellent example of the use of analogy by a Marketing Professor at Indian Institute of Management (IIM). I compares marketing concepts to meeting a gorgeous girl at a party.  Like many effective analogies, this analogy uses a touch of humor. 

Be Pitch Perfect

In New York City, business professionals can go to a different networking event every night of the week. We’re all there to “pitch” ourselves, our products and/or our services. It’s a terrific way to meet prospective clients, leads and contacts. But how many of us take the time to hone our pitching skills? 

My son is a baseball pitcher. He played baseball for the Ivy League and last summer got drafted by the MLB by the Cincinnati Reds. In addition to his team coaches, he sees a pitching coach regularly to improve his conditioning, develop his muscles, and more importantly, to develop his muscle memory. His pitching coach makes him go through the motions of his delivery over and over again.  Once my son masters a particular motion for a particular pitch, he adds a new pitch to his repertoire.

“Sales Pitch”, “Elevator Pitch” “30-second Pitch” It’s no coincidence that the word “pitch” is used to describe selling yourself or your product. Sales pitching like baseball pitching, is a talent not to be underestimated.

For those of you who know baseball, you know that there are many pitches to choose from. The pitch you choose to use in a game depends a lot on the batter you’re facing. Most pitchers learn to throw a fastball first. It’s the easiest to learn, the most effective and the foundation for all other pitches. If you’ve got a terrific fast ball, you can probably end up striking out a good percentage of the batters you face.

Most of us learn the equivalent of the fast ball when we learn to pitch ourselves or our products. It’s direct, quick and usually “gets over the plate”. But like good baseball players, our listeners have gotten used to the “fastball” pitch and it often loses some of its effectiveness. That’s why it’s important to learn to read your (client/listener) and add new pitches to your pitching repertoire. Here is a brief description of three different pitches and how and when you might use them.

FASTBALL – In baseball it is the most common pitch used. It relies on its speed and sometimes its movement to fool the batter into swinging and missing.

·         A Fastball sales pitch is your typical straightforward pitch. It’s great to use at job interviews and sales meetings.

·         It tells your listener - who you are, what you do, why you’re great/unique at what you do and asks them to take action.

·         Like baseball’s fastball pitch, it’s very serviceable and everyone should have one under their belt.

CHANGE UP – in baseball this is slower than the fastball and therefore unexpected. The batter thinks it’s a fastball and swings either too early, or too late.

·         A Changeup sales pitch is a pitch that might take a little more time. The change up is a great choice if you sense your listener is leery of being railroaded. 

·         To create a Changeup:  instead of jumping into a typical, “Hi my name is….” structure, begin with an attention getting technique like a question or interesting fact. This has the effect of slowing down the pace of the pitch. And it’s a great way to engage your listener and encourage them to take a swing.

CURVE BALL (a form of Breaking Ball) – The curveball or breaking ball in baseball is a pitch that changes direction on its way to the batter. Instead of going straight like the fast ball, it curves up or down or side to side.

·         A lot of times in presenting ourselves we may start with a fastball or a change up and suddenly our listener gives us a visual or verbal cue that they are not engaged. Throw them a curve.

·         Change your vocal tone, pitch or volume use humor, tell a story or give an example. Or better yet, start asking about them, their business or their needs. This unexpected turn will bring the listener’s attention back and may just help you close the sale.

The pitcher in professional baseball is arguably the most important player in the game. Similarly, skilled sales pitching is one of the most important parts of your business. Like a dedicated baseball pitcher, it’s important to learn new pitches and to practice the delivery of all your pitches.  

I just coached someone for 1 session and she ended up winning FIRST PLACE in an elevator pitch contest. Let me know if I can help you.

10 Strategies to Boost Sales

by Julie Steelman

Adapted from her new book, "The Effortless Yes"

Dear Readers: Whether we're technically in "Sales" or not, we're always selling. Sometimes it's just selling an idea to a friend which has very low stakes and sometimes it's selling our product or service and the stakes are a bit higher. So for this post, I asked a friend of mine,  a real sales expert, to share some tips about boosting our sales results. Enjoy - Robyn

Want to know the real reason small businesses fail? It's because entrepreneurs--particularly women--are allergic to selling. They hate selling, fear selling, or find it distasteful or disingenuous. As a result, their revenues stay flat or decline over time.

But there's an easy and effective way to cure "selling allergy." There's a way to make selling both enjoyable and profitable. Here are 10 strategies to get you started:

Afraid to Sing Your Own Praises?

Do you hesitate when it's time to talk about your strengths or the benefits of your product or service? Just last week I was sitting at a table of professional coaches and therapists and when a discussion started about this topic, people still voiced the fear that telling someone your strengths was like bragging and it felt uncomfortable. This is a common issue for people,whether it's about answering questions at a job interview or pitching your product or services - people often equate promoting themselves with boasting. THIS HAS GOT TO STOP! There is a difference and hopefully I can make it clear in this blog post.

I find one of the most important ways to overcome "fear of singing your praises" or “fear of pitching”  is to shift your focus. Most of us focus on what a potential client or interviewer can do for us and less on what we can do for them. Focusing on what they can do for us makes us nervous and self conscious and taps into the “Are we good enough?” mindset. We get hung up on “Are we saying, doing the right thing to make the sale?” "Are we saying or doing the right thing to make them like me?"  Are we overselling ourselves, underselling ourselves? Instead, we should ask, “Are we saying, doing the right thing to show how excited we are about helping them.” And yes, as a job prospect, your focus should be on helping them (the company).  People do like to hire people that they like. However, they also want to hire people who will help their bottom line.

Ask yourself what I ask my clients; what value do you provide? I don’t mean what experience or education you've had or what product or service you offer or how your product or service makes people’s lives better. Most of us have learned to answer those questions. What I like to find out is why you want to be the one to provide that particular product or service. Why, faced with two people with similar resumes, should I hire you and not the other candidate? Answering the “why you” question gets you in touch with the passion behind why you do what you do and that is something nobody can judge or dispute.

Talking about how passionate you are about your strengths and skills, is not unlike the common communication strategy of using “I” language in difficult conversations. When you use “I” language, you tell people how you personally feel which makes it difficult for the person you are talking to to be offended or become defensive. Similarly, when you tell a potential client or employer how passionately you feel about your business or your skills, it’s difficult for that potential client or employer to criticize, judge or feel pressured.

There is a huge difference between talking to someone because you want to SELL something or WANT something from them and talking to someone because you are passionate about HELPING them. It’s why we have an easier time promoting our friends - we aren’t focused on getting the sale or the job but on sharing information we believe in.

There are other strategies for improving our ability to confidently sing our own praises:

• Asking for feedback from current clients or friends who believe in what you do;
• Working with a coach to develop confident body language and vocal and verbal messaging;
• Videotaping yourself practicing various pitches or interview questions till you feel comfortable.

 But I feel the most important strategy is shifting your focus off of what you want to get from people and on to what you want to give.