Anyone who has been witness to a political argument will recognize the mental contortions and logical leaps the participants will put themselves through to justify their initial position. Each starts with their end in mind and the debate is merely flogging a dead horse, more entertaining than useful for the witnessing crowd. Minds are rarely changed.
What is the perception your customer has of your business, your solutions, your position in the marketplace?* What end will they justify throughout your presentation?
If it’s positive, then your job is simply to reinforce. If you don’t stray too far on your walk through the woods, the customer will see the path for themselves, even through incomplete messages and proof-points. They’ll fill in the gaps to justify their perception.
If it’s negative, then heaven help you. You have to change perception and overcome every spike of doubt that enters your audience’s mind. No amazing features or functions will overcome that bias. They’ll fill in the gaps to justify their perception.
So you have to set the perception first. You have to tell a better story than they’ve told themselves, a better story than the competition has told them. Your audience has to be onboard with your premise before you begin to show the clicks, screens and apps which will solve their problem.
How? Here are some positioning approaches:
- Start talking about your current customers. Find the stories.
- Empathy and listening to the customer’s problem can be the difference-maker. Genuine problem solving might be best when the customer’s choice is between you and doing nothing.
- Show the long term versus the short term, expanding
- Don’t start with “well, you probably think we’re…” as that will simply remind, reinforce, and solidify their perception
- “Nobody ever got fired for choosing Big Blue…” if you’ve got the reputation, flaunt it
- Grab onto the tail of the comet / Elevator is at the ground floor / Be a superstar
- Platform, platform, platform. The technology world is always changing. Your platform is the basis for the next big thing.
Good luck; you have minds to change.