Timothy Riesterer's Blog, page 26

The Salesperson is Either Dying or Never Been More Important. Who Do You Believe?

Much has been made of the salesperson going the way of the pager, the payphone and the Palm Pilot. In recent years, three prominent analyst firms have added fuel to that discussion with findings that support the purported “death of the salesperson:”

“57 percent of the buyer’s journey is complete before a customer’s first contact with a supplier.” (Corporate Executive Board).
“Customers rate salespeople as the least influential interaction in the buying process.” (Gartner)
“93 percent say that they prefer buying online rather than from a salesperson.” (Forrester)

But a sharply contrasting view surfaced at the SiriusDecisions Summit, where analysts explored the veracity (or lack thereof) of these claim along with several others.

So how much credence should you give to the idea that salespeople are being “disintermediated by digital?”

According to SiriusDecisions, not very much.

In a study of more than 1,000 respondents, they found that buyers actually interact with sales reps most during the early stage “education” phase of the buying cycle – regardless of the complexity of the sale. In fact, the study found that the more complex the selling scenario, the more early stage sales interactions tend to take place. What’s more, Sirius found that as deals reach higher expenditure levels, human-to-human interactions become even more frequent.

The relatively high degree of early-stage interaction suggests buyers may not be as far along as they think in the wake of the digital conversation. As a result, this is a stage of the deal where salespeople can and should make a mark.

Interestingly, in some of Corporate Visions’ own market research, 700 business-to-business marketers and salespeople ranked the opportunity creation conversation as having the highest impact on sales quota. However, the research found that they feel the least prepared by their companies to win the early stage dialogue. But why? Is it because companies are believing the analyst rhetoric and not focusing on this area?

To make sure reps thrive where it matters most, equip them with tools that help them defeat the status quo and cast your solutions as uniquely qualified to help them realize their goals:

Enable reps with a “why change” story – With so many deals ending in no decision-Sales Benchmark Index puts the figure around 60 percent-it’s becoming clear that many buyers haven’t actually committed to leaving the status quo when they engage a sales rep. Your demand generation campaign has clearly incited a question or concern, but the prospect clearly hasn’t “flipped the switch” in favor of change, yet. In fact, in their first sales interaction, your reps need to be ready and able to dislodge the status quo, helping prospects and customers embrace the idea of pursuing something different before jumping into the competitive value proposition.
Introduce “unconsidered needs” first in your sales dialogues – Identifying your buyer’s unconsidered needs-the challenges or issues they aren’t yet aware of-is an early stage sales interaction that can form the foundation of a compelling “why change” story. Some refer to these as insights – counterintuitive concepts that challenge the status quo.  Here’s a simple recipe for building these nuggets of insight.


Introducing a surprising piece of data that unearths a potentially unconsidered, under-valued or unknown need;
Wrapping that data in a disruptive point of view or perspective that causes the prospect to re-evaluate their commitment to the status quo;
Launching the discussion with a provocative question that forces your prospect to “try on” this insight, specifically comparing their current state to the troubling perspective you just laid out.

By being prepared to inject this message into your conversation right away, you position yourself to create a buying vision, while adding an element of uniqueness and urgency to help you topple the status quo and distinguish your message.

While the war of competing data and research findings between the analysts amps up, the question you must ask yourself is what should you be doing about making sure your demand generation programs and sales enablement content are doing what they need to do to drive the growth you are seeking.

Corporate Visions Announces New Private Equity Partner

Sentinel Capital Partners Will Help Accelerate Growth Plans, Including Expanding Solutions and Global Presence for Marketing and Sales Messaging, Content and Skills Leader

LARKSPUR, Calif. – June 1, 2015 – Corporate Visions, Inc., the leading marketing and sales messaging, content and skills training company, today announced that it has been acquired by Sentinel Capital Partners, one of the nation’s leading lower middle market private equity firms. The investment will provide Corporate Visions with the next infusion of capital it needs to continue its rapid industry growth and expansion plans. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Over the last five years, Corporate Visions has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 43 percent a year, through both organic growth and four strategic acquisitions. The new partnership with Sentinel is designed to further boost the company’s aggressive expansion and product development plans, according to Joe Terry, CEO for Corporate Visions.

“It has been a great run, and we are grateful for the support we’ve received over the last five years and the success we’ve shared with our previous partner,” Terry said. “Now, we are looking to move from success to significance by adding products and services that improve the entire range of our clients’ customer conversations – whether they take place online or in the field – as well as expanding our market and global presence.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Corporate Visions,” said Paul Murphy, a partner at Sentinel. “It fits perfectly into our business services portfolio. Corporate Visions is a true market leader providing innovative solutions based on decision-making science that improves B2B marketing and selling conversation effectiveness. The company’s value proposition is not easily replicated by competitors.”

Looking for Improved Sales Effectiveness? Got Marketing?

What do sales leaders believe are the keys to great sales performance in 2015? It turns out that the two areas they say are most vital to sales effectiveness share a common foundation: Great alignment with marketing.

A recent survey from CSO Insights found that among 11 areas of effectiveness, sales leaders rank two priorities above the rest:

Improve lead generation effectiveness (47.9 percent)
Improve ability to show strategic benefit/value (34.7 percent)

To the first point: Sales doesn’t get more qualified leads without provocative, insight-rich campaigns that get prospects to raise their hands and take action. And, secondly salespeople can’t hope to articulate and demonstrate value without the benefit of great positioning or differentiated solution stories, both of which marketing plays a major role in shaping.

So, the top priorities identified by sales managers in the survey are less a sales problem and more a sales and marketing alignment problem. That’s why staying effective in the priorities mentioned above requires a cooperative effort between those who build the story and those who tell it.

Here are a few ways you can make it happen:

Develop a great “why change” story – Establish a distinct point of view founded on a powerful “why change” story – one that creates opportunity and forces prospects to reassess their status quo situation. You can do this most effectively by identifying and introducing your prospects “unconsidered needs” – the issues, challenges and trends they don’t yet know about. This gives you a strong base for creating a buying vision that gives prospects a compelling reason to change, and creates enough urgency to convince them to do it now.


Create truly differentiated positioning – Once you’ve defeated the status quo, the onus is on you to create separation between you and the competition with a great “why you” conversation. A powerful way to do that is by taking the unconsidered needs you identified in the “why change” conversation and connecting them to your unexpected or unknown strengths. By doing so, you’ll tell a story that clearly distinguishes your solution and naturally points to you as the undisputed choice to resolve their problems.


Equip your reps with tools that make an impact right away – You’re telling provocative and powerful stories in the field. Why should the tools your reps use to tell those stories be any different? Your sales enablement tools and skills training should be just as remarkable as the stories your salespeople tell. That means they should be visually engaging, insight-rich, and aligned to messaging of your demand generation activities, so you can sustain the momentum initiated by your campaign. The best sales enablement tools will instill confidence, enable reps to create opportunity on the first call, and give them a specific, visually powerful choreography to guide prospects from the status quo to the “new safe” of your solution.

Corporate Visions Unveils Deal Stage-Specific Reinforcement Content to Drive Skills Training Adoption and Retention for Enhanced Sales Effectiveness

New Virtual Coach Offering Provides Salespeople With Just-in-Time Access to Situationally-Relevant Skills Training Reinforcement and Expert Coaching Inside CRM Opportunity Screens

LARKSPUR, Calif. – May 4, 2015 – Corporate Visions, Inc., the leading marketing and sales messaging, tools and training company, today announced the launch of Virtual Coach, a platform that provides deal stage-specific reinforcement training and skills content. With Virtual Coach, salespeople can access short, powerful and situationally-relevant audio, video and interactive coaching inside of their customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Training events alone aren’t enough to drive full adoption, usage and retention of new sales skills. Salespeople often struggle to remember and apply what they‘ve learned to the wide variety of selling situations they face. Making the problem worse, managers often lack the time and tools needed to reinforce training through ongoing coaching.

Virtual Coach overcomes these challenges by providing salespeople with just-in-time, bite-sized pieces of training reinforcement. Salespeople can access situation-specific content in their company’s CRM platform or sales portal. Virtual Coach presents the information in context and aligns it with each selling or buying stage. As a result, salespeople gain mastery of critical customer conversations throughout the buying cycle.

“Salespeople leave training sessions with the motivation to apply what they’ve learned, but without continuous reinforcement, it’s easy for them to forget new skills or fail to adopt them,” said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions. “We’re supplementing training events with virtual skills reinforcement and coaching so salespeople can be prompted to use techniques that are relevant to their exact stage in the selling cycle. Not only will this improve the application and proficiency of new selling techniques, but it will also ultimately lead to greater sales effectiveness and more closed deals.”

Corporate Visions’ Virtual Coach offering is powered by MobilePaks’ Guided Selling technology, which intelligently predicts content and enablement support for sellers at each point of the sales process, and includes tools for guiding content development in the way sellers learn, retain and use information.

To learn more about Virtual Coach, please visit: http://cvi.to/1bzGoN6.

Tim Riesterer of Corporate Visions to Share Marketing and Sales Expertise at Premier Industry Conferences in Q2

Sessions Will Focus on Helping Attendees Leverage the Strategies and Skills Needed to Have Conversations That Win

LARKSPUR, Calif. – April 27, 2015 – Corporate Visions, Inc., the leading marketing and sales messaging, tools and training company, today announced that Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer, will speak at four key industry conferences in May and June: the SAMA Annual Conference, the SiriusDecisions Summit, the ATD International Conference & Expo and the Association of Professional Sales Conference.

Based on Riesterer’s upcoming third book, “The Three Value Conversations,” which is due out by McGraw-Hill in July 2015, his session at the SAMA Annual Conference will discuss the three essential conversations salespeople must master to control every step of the buying cycle and win more deals. His session at the SiriusDecisions Summit will teach attendees how to create and deliver the most effective insights that create a sense of urgency and convince prospects to make a change. At the ATD International Conference & Expo, Riesterer will co-present with MobilePaks CEO Chanin Ballance on the science of sales enablement and creating a compelling story that engages prospects and communicates true value.

In addition, Riesterer will present two sessions and a keynote at the Association of Professional Sales Conference. His sessions will explain how to defeat a prospect’s status quo and how to leverage visual storytelling in presentations, while his keynote will focus on how to develop the messages, deploy the tools and deliver the skills needed to win more deals.

Further details on Riesterer’s speaking engagements are as follows:

SAMA Annual Conference

Location: Sheraton San Diego Marina & Towers, San Diego
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 5, 2015, from 2:30-4 p.m. PT
Session Title: “Conversations That Win – Three Critical Conversations Your Sales Team Must Master”
Registration Link: http://cvi.to/1FkdHQ7

SiriusDecisions Summit

Location: Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Nashville, Tennessee
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 12, 2015, from 2:45-3:45 p.m. ET
Session Title: “The Power of Visionary Insights”
Registration Link: http://cvi.to/1z19mk2

ATD International Conference & Expo

Location: Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 19, 2015, from 10-11:15 a.m. ET
Session Title: “The Science of Sales Enablement: Creating and Delivering Sales Content That Wins”
Registration Link: http://cvi.to/1OkG7zm

Association of Professional Sales Conference

Location: Hilton Kensington Hotel, London
Dates/Times: Wednesday, June 10, 2015, from 12:20-1:00 p.m. and 4:45-5:45 p.m. GMT; Thursday, June 11, 2015, from 9-9:40 a.m. GMT
Session Titles: “Defeating ‘No Decision’ – Your Biggest Competitive Threat” and “Improving Your Presentations With Visual Storytelling”
Keynote Title: “Conversations That Win”
Registration Link: http://cvi.to/1I4yojT

“The alignment of marketing and sales teams is a critical factor to winning more business, however, within most companies, these groups still operate in silos,” said Riesterer. “These sessions will discuss how marketers and salespeople can close the conversion gap by understanding the science behind sales enablement, creating insights that defeat the status quo, using visual storytelling, and implementing the three value conversations to create, confirm and capture deal value. When marketing and sales teams work toward the same goals using aligned content creation and message delivery strategies, they can have the most effective customer conversations that lead to more, high-value deals.”

The “Good Guy Discount” – and What it Tells us About Negotiating

Last year, This American Life broadcast a segment (http://cvi.to/1Cc9F6i) in which one of the program’s reporters went to several stores, making purchases and asking for a so-called “good guy discount.”

The idea is to establish a fast rapport between yourself and the salesperson, based on the supposition that you’re both “good guys,” and that good guys do good guy things, like provide discounts to affable strangers.

Most attempts turned out unfavorably. There’s a decent chance that many of us, if we were to try the tactic, might have a similar fate. Then again, maybe not. After all, how can you know unless you try? The problem is, our built-in fear of rejection could intervene and prevent us from ever doing so.

The same is true in sales negotiations, when tension and pricing pressure often rise rapidly. In this context, fear of being rejected can turn costly if it forces you to set lower price targets to appease prospects.

The good news is that we don’t have to accept fear of rejection as our lot in life. The article also profiles a New York Daily News reporter who grew up watching his mother and father successfully negotiate discounts, time and again. What he discovered by watching them was that whatever fears he had about rejection were basically unfounded, and far less dire than his instincts led him to believe.

Once a salesperson has the same epiphany, it can free you to employ some of these negotiation techniques to help you thrive as the tension rises:

Set high targets. Overcoming the fear of rejection helps you change your attitude about setting high targets and expanding your prospect’s “range of reason.” One way to set high targets is to anchor your solutions with specific, compelling insights or data that reinforce your value. Remember, you only get one chance to anchor a high target, so it’s best to drop a powerful anchor early, when you have the most control over your buyer’s perception of value.


Share information skillfully. When your customer asks your price, your natural reaction may be to give them a ballpark figure. But this could backfire by shifting the conversation only to price, potentially setting you up for a bake-off with your competition that erodes your value (assuming you win the business at all). Instead of directly addressing your prospect’s price request, try refocusing the conversation on process. Acknowledge the importance of price and then get their approval to delay the price question until later, when you’ll have a better picture of the solution needed to solve their business problems.


Clarify your value. When you present prospects with a long list of reasons to buy from you, they don’t get more excited. This actually slows down the decision-making process, enhances buyer skepticism and feeds into their status quo bias. In settings where consumers know the message source has a persuasion motive, the optimal number of positive claims is three. In sales negotiations, try summarizing your value in your three most compelling claims or data points.

Corporate Visions Sales Messaging Survey Uncovers Less Than Half of Companies Do Not Expect Their Salespeople to Demonstrate Proficiency in Message Delivery

Respondents Recognize the Critical Impact Sales Conversations Have on Differentiation and Closed Deals, Yet Do Not Implement Formal Strategies to Ensure Salespeople Master Their Messaging

LARKSPUR, Calif. – April 14, 2015 – Corporate Visions, Inc., the leading marketing and sales messaging, tools and training company, today announced the results of a sales messaging survey that polled more than 500 business-to-business (B2B) marketers and salespeople from around the globe. The results revealed 85 percent of companies agree their sales teams’ ability to articulate value messages is one of the most critical factors in closing deals, yet only about 41 percent of companies ask their salespeople to perform stand-and-deliver or role-play practice of their messages. In fact, an alarming 34 percent of respondents indicate no one is responsible for coaching and certifying that salespeople are proficient in delivering their company’s value messages at all.

In the first question, respondents were asked to rate to what extent they agree with the following statement – “Our sales team’s ability to articulate our message is one of the most critical factors to closing deals.” Results indicated the following:

Strongly agree (53.8 percent)
Agree (31.6 percent)
Somewhat agree (12.5 percent)
Disagree (1.7 percent)
Strongly disagree (0.4 percent)

Respondents were then asked if they expect salespeople to practice delivering company value messages in role-play or stand-and-deliver settings, with the following results:

Every time (12.3 percent)
Most of the time (28.8 percent)
Sometimes (44.1 percent)
Usually not (12.2 percent)
Never (2.6 percent)

Then, respondents were asked to identify who or what department is responsible for ensuring that messages are practiced and coached. The results, which allowed respondents to select more than one option, included:

Their managers are responsible (49 percent)
The training organization is responsible (36.3 percent)
No one inspects messaging proficiency (34 percent)

“There’s a tragic irony occurring where everyone believes that salespeople with their lips moving is a company’s most powerful weapon for communicating value, but reasonable practice and inspection of competency is not a requirement,” said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions. “Even leaving it to sales managers, like most companies seem to do, is essentially a hit-or-miss proposition, given the pressure for pipeline and deal forecasts as well as the distributed nature of sales teams.”

In the final question, respondents were asked how often they require salespeople to submit videos of themselves delivering the messages for coaching and feedback:

Never (33.1 percent)
Usually not (36.6 percent)
Sometimes (21.3 percent)
Most of the time (6 percent)
All the time (3 percent)

Riesterer added: “The last question of the survey reveals a missed opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves in the market by being more purposeful in sales messaging practice, coaching and certification. Salespeople learn best by doing – and that means practicing in front of an audience to obtain feedback and receive coaching advice in environments that most closely resemble where sales conversations actually take place.”

For more information and an analysis of the survey findings, please view this infographic.

Peter Lynch and the “Napkin Test”

In the investment world, Peter Lynch is renowned for turning a once-obscure $18 million mutual fund into a $14 billion juggernaut in just 13 years. Under Lynch’s watch, the Magellan Fund—now one of the best-known mutual funds in the world—averaged a whopping 29 percent annual return.

Not too shabby.

But the gaudy growth of the Magellan Fund only tells part of the Peter Lynch story. Since resigning as fund manager in 1990, he’s gained a reputation for demystifying the stock market for individual investors, and for encouraging everyday investors to leverage “local” market knowledge, which he believes can actually make them better investors than professional fund managers.

Lynch popularized that idea in a now-famous investment mantra: “Invest in what you know.”

That same deference to simplicity underpins two other things Lynch is known to have said:

“Never buy anything that you can’t illustrate on the back of a napkin.”*
“Never invest in any idea you can’t illustrate with a crayon.”**

That’s also sage advice for sellers in the B2B world trying to show their prospects a pathway to making a buying decision.

“Show” is the operative word here. We all know change can seem daunting and complex, and complexity breeds indecision, which can further entrench the status quo. Applying Lynch’s “napkin rule” to your sales conversations—in the form of simple, concrete, hand-drawn visuals—can counter this complexity and dispel prospect fear about doing something different. Visuals can make change seem like a more doable journey.

It’s hard to believe that deals involving several decision makers, multiple solutions and sometimes millions of dollars can be furthered thanks to simple visual storytelling techniques. But, as Lynch suggests, people are more inclined to buy what they know and understand. With concrete visuals, you can distill for prospects the journey they’re going to take from their status quo to the “new safe” with your solution. And by telling that story visually, you can better accentuate the contrast between the pain of their current situation and the value of doing something different with you. Simply put, visual storytelling techniques can compel your prospects rethink their assumptions about the status quo and change.

Just as Peter Lynch sought to elucidate the stock market for individual investors, it’s your job to clarify the change management process for your prospects and customers. Simple, hand-drawn visuals that adhere to the “three C’s”—providing context, contrast and a concrete narrative—can help you do just that.

* http://cvi.to/1EEiYgH

** http://cvi.to/1DTycDF

What’s the Story?

To defeat the status quo, think like a storyteller, not just a salesperson

At the most conservative estimate, we humans have been telling stories for thousands of years. We’ve drawn them on cave walls. We’ve passed them down orally through the generations. We’ve told them with the printed word, in books, magazines and newspapers. We listen to them over the airwaves. We watch them on laptop monitors and plasma displays.

The media may have changed dramatically, but the basic truth remains the same: We are wired for stories, and stories still matter to us today. So why not sell to that deep-seated narrative urge?

Melissa Madian, VP of sales enablement at Vision Critical, was recently the subject of an engaging interview** on Selling Power, where she discussed the importance of bringing a storyteller’s mentality to the sales arena. We highly recommend checking the interview out (and not just because “Conversations That Win the Complex Sale” makes a cameo!).

So what, according to Madian, is the best thing about telling stories? Well, most importantly, people remember them.

“You may not necessarily remember a product feature that you see, or what exactly was in the demo that got shown to you, but you’ll always remember the story that a vendor tells you,” she said.

Intuitively, we seem to understand this, even if we have a hard time doing it. But why are stories so powerful? What actually makes them memorable?

It shouldn’t be surprising that an activity as ancient as storytelling appeals to the oldest part of our brain—often aptly referred to as the “old brain.” The “old brain” is the simple, decision-making mechanism that craves contrast, makes fast, non-analytical decisions, and responds to emotions and visual stimuli. Ultimately, that’s the part of the brain your messaging needs to speak to if you hope to move your prospect away from their status quo.

As Madian points out, a story isn’t really a story without a conflict or point of tension that needs to be resolved. You can enhance the power of your story by personalizing it and using “you phrasing” to transfer ownership and place your prospect in the middle of that tension. Then you can show the potential risks and uncertainties in their current situation and help them find a way to overcoming these challenges by doing something different.

You can also better represent the journey from conflict to resolution by showing clear visual contrast between the pain your prospects feel in their current situation and the value they’ll receive from yours.

When asked why some reps struggle with storytelling, Madian said the laser focus on hitting quota and thinking like a salesperson can prevent reps from considering “how the buyer is experiencing the process with us.”

When it comes to convincing prospects to change, salespeople should speak less in the terms of sales and more in the terms of change management. That will help you tell a story that unhinges the status quo and sets your conversations apart.

For a more in-depth discussion of these storytelling techniques and more, pre-order your copy of “The Three Value Conversations,” due out Summer 2015.

 

Source* http://cvi.to/1EvWmnC

 

Source** http://cvi.to/1Bn8O6O

Creating Uncertainty: What do Road Signs and Selling Have in Common?

Simple, concrete visuals have been used in roadside signage for a long time. But, what happens when you tweak them just a bit by adding more “drama” to the visual? Can you actually increase the influence of these signs on human attitudes and behaviors?

Yes, you can. Turns out the best driver is a slightly threatened one, according to a recent article in The Atlantic*. And altering road signs to make driving seem a bit more perilous heightens the sense of driver awareness and urgency, making them more attentive behind the wheel.

There’s actually something marketers and salespeople can learn from this too. Simple, concrete visuals are powerful. But, just using visuals in your selling messages will not necessarily create the urgency and reaction you are looking for. Ideally, your visuals will increase the perception of risk about the current situation to cause your audience to engage with the concepts you are presenting.

Road Rage-ish

Which brings us back to the road signs. The Atlantic article specifically dealt with a study from the Journal of Consumer Research, which found that more “dynamic” images were better at grabbing drivers’ attention and, by extension, raising their level of vigilance about their surroundings. In this case, a more dynamic image is a falling boulder instead of an inert one, or a sprinting stick figure instead of a strolling one.

In the article, co-author Luca Cian said the following: “From evolutionary psychology we know that humans have developed systems to maximize the chances of detecting potential predators and other dangers.” She added: “Perception of movement within a traffic sign prepares the driver for actual movement.”

The key takeaway is that the more uncertainty you can create, the more influence you have in terms of changing peoples’ behavior. And as the traffic signs demonstrate, if you can create that uncertainty visually, through powerful, concrete images, you stand to enhance your persuasiveness even more.

The same is true for your customer conversations. To tell a compelling “why change” story, you need to be great at creating unexpected urgency around your prospects’ status quo. But the concrete visual component is especially key. That’s because the emotional part of the brain (or the “old brain,” which Cian alluded to in the article) doesn’t have the capacity for language. Instead, the “old brain” relies on images to create contrast and simplify information, and it shuns abstraction and complexity.

We’ve talked in the past about the power of whiteboard style visuals, and how an assembled visual story can maximize the Picture Superiority Effect [http://cvi.to/1vCOs8O]. But to be truly persuasive, any old whiteboard image won’t do. When developing a compelling visual story, there are a few things to keep in mind if you want to dislodge the status quo:

Are you providing context? To visually present your prospect’s status quo as unsafe, your visual needs to highlight the shortcomings and deficiencies in the prospect’s current situation. In other words, you need to vividly show how such problems make their current situation unsustainable and in need of a change. Your images should depict emerging issues and industry trends that have the potential to create significant risk if your prospect doesn’t find a pathway to change. By creating a high level of uncertainty and urgency around a prospect’s current situation, you make them more open to persuasion.


Are you creating contrast? If you fail to establish clear contrast between your solution and your prospect’s status quo, your deal has a good chance of ending in a “no decision.” To avoid that outcome, you should look employ a “to and from” approach to your visuals that powerfully demonstrates where your prospect is now, and where they could be if they agree to a change management project led by you. That clear, side-by-side contrast places your prospect’s status quo situation up against a proposed alternative, allowing them to visually discern the difference in value.


Are you keeping it concrete? Remember, the simple, decision-making part of the brain craves simplicity. As a result, complex, abstract visuals will confuse this part of the brain, undermining your ability to convince someone to change. Instead, use numbers, stick figures, shapes and arrows to translate potentially complex ideas into more digestible concepts. That, in turn, helps guide your prospects toward the decision-making process.

The implications are clear as far as what visual storytelling techniques based on decision-making science can do for your ability to defeat your prospect’s status quo. Whether it’s a government agency trying to create better driving habits, or you trying to move a prospect on a pathway to change, simple concrete that speak to the “old brain” can persuade people to do something different.

 

Source: * http://cvi.to/1vTR02y