When it comes to public speaking, presentations and sales there are four words that you’ll find in every book, blog or workshop. Four words that can be applied to every speaking situation, four words that are so obvious that you’d wonder why anyone would bother even mentioning them…
The four words? – “It’s not about you”
Yes, your product is the biggest, fastest and sexiest product ever invented.
Yes, your ideas are so advanced that you had to travel into the future to steal the technology to make them happen.
And yes, the Herculean trials that you undertook to create and deliver your product are worthy of a Dickensian novel or a Scorsese film BUT…
…it’s not about you.
It’s about me.
And all the other me’s that are sitting the audience listening to you. I don’t care about your pain, I don’t care about your struggles, I don’t even care about your product, all I care about is me.
How are your words or products going to benefit me?
Which of my problems will they solve?
Which of my desires or dreams will they fulfill?
In short: How are you going to change my life?
It absolutely is NOT about you…it’s about your audience and what you’re offering them. Most presenters have the wrong perspective, looking through their lens instead of the audience’s.
It’s not about what you can sell, it’s what value they will get out of it. I wrote a similar post about this at my blog, http://bit.ly/gzxOk7.
Great post Dermot.
Regards,
Jon
Dermot:
An excellent post. I said something similar in a March 18, 2010 post on my Joyful Public Speaking blog.
Richard
Richard: And you certainly did a lot of research, I think that since we’re all saying the same thing (more or less) then it must true….