Today I was thinking about how to sell your ideas effectively. A person can have the best idea in the World, but if that person can not convince enough people, it doesn’t matter.
One of the best presenters was Steve Jobs. What made him the best was he started with the BIG PICTURE rather than the details.
When the iPhone came out, he started with the following: “Apple reinvents the phone.” He could have started with: “We have developed the first smartphone by Apple that is easy to use, an iPod and a phone. The big pictures gets us drawn in and interested to here more. People crave meaning before details.
In every presentation Steve did, he was able to inform, educate and entertain us. He knew the problems he wanted to solve and the benefits of the solutions he provided. Most importantly he connected with his customer by explaining to them why they should care.
One of the other great things he did was bring numbers to life. When Apple launched the iPod, Steve Jobs could have focused on the 5GB hard drive, but he came out saying that you could store 1,000 songs in your pocket.
He also used great imagery. When the Macbook Air came out, he could have said that the Macbook Air was fast, easy to use, small and cover all the hardware specs, but Steve Jobs said this is the World’s thinnest laptop and showed an image of the laptop that was smaller than an envelope.
Steve Jobs sold dreams, not products. He believed that he was selling a solution that allowed everyone to be creative and explore. He just happened to be selling computers. He knew his customers didn’t care about his company, but they cared about themselves. That is why he focused on the big picture, informing, educating, entertaining, bringing numbers to life and great imagery.
