Captivating Presentations…without PowerPoint

By Tim Riesterer, Corporate Visions

In September, we hosted our annual Sales and Marketing Messaging Conference in Chicago under the theme of “Breaking the Status Quo.” While there were a lot of excellent presentations that challenged our approaches to sales and marketing messages, there was one presentation that stretched us personally and professionally and has really stuck in my mind.

Ben Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, delivered a keynote that could only be described as a mind-bending experience, not a presentation. I’ve never witnessed 400 senior business executives so emotionally engaged in a speech.

(When’s the last time you saw your colleagues singing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in German – at the top of their lungs with huge hand gestures and giant facial expressions. Yeah, that happened, and people loved it.)

Zander convinced people to pack the front rows prior to starting his speech. In most conferences, it helps to sit in the front row to be able to read all of the bullet points in the deadly dense onslaught of slides. But, in Zander’s case, he didn’t use any slides. Being in the front row meant you were going to be “leaning into possibilities,” unlike the back row people who “observe, criticize and look for a quick getaway.”

Zander used his piano as an important prop to demonstrate how “one-buttock playing” can transform a dull, boring piece of music into a story that sucks you in and takes you on a magical journey. His challenge: How can we be one-buttock players when we engage people we lead?

Zander drew simple images on flip charts. Yes, he used whiteboard techniques to make key points memorable, showing the contrast between “downward spiral” thinking and conversations vs. “radiant possibilities.” Now, every time I have a conversation with someone I can visualize either the downward spiral or radiant possibility whiteboards, and make a conscious decision to change the dialogue to be more productive.

Throughout the keynote, Zander was on a secondary mission to disrupt status quo thinking about classical music. Since only about 3 percent of the population is comprised of die-hard fans, he used not only stories, musical examples and group sing-alongs to make a point about leadership and interpersonal communications, he also managed to convert more than a few folks to reconsider their stance on the symphony. Bravo, Ben Zander.

Here’s a clip of Ben Zander from a recent TED presentation that is well worth watching and will leave you wanting more.

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Summary of the Visual Storytelling techniques used by Zander:

• Stories – he embedded personal stories to “enroll” the audience, punctuate key points and connect with people’s emotions.
• Dramas – he engaged the audience in sing-alongs, challenging the audience to repeat the song three times with more gusto to prove we hold back.
• Whiteboard – his two flipchart visuals created memorable take-aways, and he didn’t display a single PowerPoint slide, even though there were 400 people in the room for two hours.
• Props – in Zander’s case, a grand piano served as a prop for demonstrating how people can be more engaging in their presentation.

What I Learned from “Breaking the Status Quo Barrier”

By Rebecca Blouin, Davies Murphy Group

I spent last Wednesday and Thursday live blogging from Corporate Visions’ Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference, “Break the Status Quo Barrier” in Chicago. Perched on the ballroom balcony with my fellow blogger, high above the heads of the 400 attendees, we looked much like “The Muppet Show’s” Statler and Waldorf, gazing down with a critical eye and plenty to say (but considerably better groomed hair).  After 17 presentations, two bran muffins eaten hastily at the start of every morning, and dinner with a tarpon, these are the things that have stuck with me.

Never judge a conductor by his cover.

Though deep down I trusted the wisdom of Corporate Visions’ conference organizers, I couldn’t imagine how Ben Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, could possibly keep the attention of senior-level marketing and salespeople for two entire hours.  Does a conductor a good speaker make?

Yes.  That conductor made a phenomenal speaker.  I don’t exaggerate when I say that Ben was one of the best – if not the best – speakers I have ever seen.  And I can safely state that from the standing ovation, shining eyes, and line of people waiting to have their Ben Zander books autographed, the attendees agree.

Ben demonstrated to me that you don’t need a presentation, notes or even a stage to thoroughly engross an audience. Your message can be powerfully delivered with two white boards, a few pens, a piano (optional), and some thoughtful, gripping stories.  And a good dose of humor and fiery passion for what you do is also helpful.

Getting marketing and sales to work in sync is “wicked hard.”*

*Courtesy of Kevin Joyce, chief sales and marketing officer, Miranda Technologies

Nineteen of the best and brightest leaders in marketing and sales regaled us with case studies, stories, overviews and anecdotes about their struggles with unifying marketing and sales around a consistent set of effective messages and materials. One of their main messages?  It’s really hard work.  Their ultimate message?  With hard work, a partner and a plan, it’s entirely possible and will pay dividends in the end.

Self-deprecation can be charming in a presentation.

I can imagine that when you’ve reached the pinnacle of corporate success – be it a senior-most position or founding a profitable company – it might be difficult to resist the glow of success from leading you into pontification and self-congratulation. But to a person, the presenters laid bare their struggles and lessons learned and flew their geek flags proudly (Tim Riesterer in particular) to make their points and tell their stories to help others.  That style is not only in line with Corporate Visions’ it’s-all-about-you-not-me approach, but it’s also very effective.

And no one embodied this as much as Billy Beane.  With a bestselling book and award-winning movie based on your life, it would be easy to swagger like John Travolta in white polyester. But Billy humbly – and humorously – relayed the decisions he made to get where he is and praised the people who helped him get there.  His self-deprecation had even the non-baseball lovers eating out of the palm of his (I probably high-fived Brad Pitt with this) hand.

Breaking the status quo takes a lot of chutzpah.

Inevitably when you take the road less traveled by, there are going to be naysayers pointing out the recklessness of that decision. What impressed me most about these market leaders was how they boldly defined a path, put a stake in the ground and heard – but didn’t listen to – the people who told them they were headed the wrong way.  Several of the presentations included a story with the words “it was at this point we knew we were all-in.”

Billy Beane might have said it best with the quote he said served as a mantra for him and his team as they tried to redefine how to create a winning baseball team.

“The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards.” Alexander Jablokov

Though fun for a picture, putting your arm around a cardboard cutout Brad Pitt is not as good as the real thing.

Or so I imagine…

Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference: The Content Lives On!

The Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference, sponsored by Corporate Visions, may be finished, but the content lives on! It took place on Sept. 18-20 at the InterContinental Hotel, Chicago. Highlights included keynotes by Billy Beane and Ben Zander, dinner at the Shedd Aquarium, and sales and marketing insights from clients (Wells Fargo, CenturyLink, Dell, Miranda, Infor, Lawson Software and more) and analysts (Sirius Decisions, BeyondROI).

Click here for session summaries, slide decks, videos (to be posted throughout the next coming week), and photos!

Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference Speaker Interview: Infor

 

Bob Ainsbury
Vice President of Healthcare Strategy
Infor

 

Q. What is your role within your organization?

I am the vice president of strategy for the healthcare business unit at Infor, a three billion dollar company that is organized around 13 industries with healthcare being one of the top ones. In addition to overseeing the organization’s strategy, my team helped prepare the pre-sales consulting group to deliver expert information on the industry and our solutions to healthcare executives.  The expectations placed on this person in the field is that they will be the difference maker in a sales cycle when it comes to articulating the vision and value we can bring to bear on the prospects challenges.  That meant I had to give them the information, tools and skills to execute on that role.

Q. What were the biggest sales challenges that your company was facing?

Complexity, confidence and agility.

1)     Complexity – The healthcare business unit has made numerous acquisitions, and now that we are part of Infor, we have a broad range of relevant and interesting products. But, it also adds complexity making it difficult for the field to become experts on everything.  The other challenge is sorting through the potential for overlap, and understanding the product adjacencies that are common with multiple acquisitions.  Not only does this introduce complexity in the product mix, it also introduces complexity in the sales pursuit.

2)     Confidence – Confidence is everything. Every day, part of my job is to make sure that the sales organization is prepared and confident. This is particularly true in the healthcare market which is always changing and is in the national spotlight almost every day.  Very few markets have the public and private debate, legislative attention and uncertainty you find in healthcare.  Sales people are expected to provide a trusted advisor role, so we are always trying to overcome the question marks swirling around and confidently deliver a message that brings some clarity to the confusion.

3)     Agility – We are a mature and successful organization. In all honesty this is the strongest sales organization I have encountered in my career. They get it and I am always learning from them. However, because of the changing landscape I just described, what worked five years ago is not as successful today. We needed to change our approach, which is why we embarked on a new messaging development initiative with Corporate Visions. It was a very clear way to move in a very different direction, which got the attention of our salespeople. This gave them an approach to change the experience in front of customers, differentiate from increasing competition, and it has been a success.

Q. What are you going to be presenting at the conference?

It’s all about adoption of the new message.  You can make great changes to your story, but you have to make sure the field is using it.  You can think, ‘hey, this is really cool, everyone’s going to love it.’ But, just like we train our salespeople that customers won’t always understand your message right away…and make a decision right away… we had to accept that we had the responsibility of helping the field grasp and appreciate the potential positive impact of the new story. They need to own it and make it work for them.  So, we treated the message launch and adoption like it was a ‘sales cycle.’  We had to sell the field on the power of the story and the new skills. I plan to share examples of how we did that, giving the audience a chance to steal some ideas and learn from our experience.

One example I’ll share is what I call a “playground tactic.” The idea is that if you stand up to the biggest kid who is trying to bully you, not the smallest one, and take out the big kid first, you will be OK because everyone else will follow.  In this metaphor, the big kids are the salespeople who are the opinion leaders with the most influence and typically the most skeptical – they exist in every sales organization. Our strategy was to go to the big kids who can tend to be the mavericks in the bunch and win them over. And this helped everyone who tends to follow his or her lead.

Another approach is to behave differently. Sales people are often jaded when it comes to new messaging. So we knew we had to innovate in the sales enablement to get everyone’s attention and, more importantly, buy in.  In the presentation, I’ll talk about using video to launch the new message. Instead of sending out a PowerPoint or Word file, to bring the idea to life we developed several amusing and fun internal videos to demonstrate how to get the sales people’s attention. For example, we did the elevator pitch. Because part of this was how to pitch our strategy in the elevator, we filmed it in an elevator so the sales guys could see it being used. The goal here was to get the sales team excited and to make them more confident. We wanted them to be confident enough to be different, because using a white board and a napkin is not in the comfort zone for most of them. We wanted them to be confident that they can do it, deliver it and make more money.

Q. What are you looking forward to most at the Marketing and Sales Messaging conference? 

I really enjoy the work of Corporate Visions. I am looking forward to being with like-minded people who understand the lizard brain and don’t want to drone on.  I am really enjoying being an alumni and hanging out with these folks. I think the stuff Corporate Visions does is interesting and I think the people that find it interesting, I will find interesting.

——————————————————————————-

To contact Bob directly you can email him at bob@ainsbury.com. If you’d like to meet Bob and some of the other brilliant minds that have broken the status quo, aligned marketing and sales, and spearheaded lasting change in their organizations, please join us for our Marketing and Sales Messaging Conference, taking place in Chicago, IL, Sept. 18-20, 2012.  Register now!