Resistance helps you sell faster. How many presentations have you seen where they only describe the upside of the product or solution? No mention of complex implementation, high costs, scarce resources, tricky integration? Yet in every room, every person listening to your pitch or watching your video is thinking about all the reasons (that matter to them individually) why they cannot do what you are proposing. Some of them have hidden political agendas, some of them just don't want to be there. By ignoring these sentiments you are slowing down the adoption of your ideas.
So you can let the audience have their dissenting thoughts and not address them - or you can take the opportunity to to handle their objections upfront, get a discussion going which helps them feel that you understand what it is to walk in their shoes. By aligning and dispelling their resistance you make a better connection - in fact just like in sailing - you can leverage that resistance to go faster.
So stop working on that powerpoint for a moment and take a piece of paper and write down all of the reasons why someone may be resistant to your presentation - everything from 'I'm hungry', to 'this is too complex'. Now create a slide that addresses these objections. If you think the audience will all be hungry, bring some food.
Related articles
- Contrast creates connections and helps you sell faster (reimaginestrategy.com)
- Adding drama to your presentation helps you sell faster (reimaginestrategy.com)