Say Less And Get More From A Sales Pitch | Salesman Podcast
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Show Notes
On this episode of the Salesman Podcast, Brant Pinvidic explains how to structure the first 3 minutes of your sales presentation so you can say less and get more from your sales pitch. Brant has over 20 years of experience in creating, and directing TV shows and movies. In this time Brant has developed some of the most advanced pitch and presentation techniques that he now teaches to people from all walks of life.
Featured on this episode:
Resources:
- Brantpinvidic.com
- Brant on LinkedIn
- Book: The 3-Minute Rule: Say Less to Get More from Any Pitch or Presentation
Transcript
Will Barron:
Hi, my name is Will, and welcome to today's episode of The Salesman Podcast. On today's show, we're looking at how you can say less and get more from your sales pitches. Today's guest is Brant Pinvidic and Brant has spent over 20 years in creating, directing TV shows and movies.
Will Barron:
In his time, Brant has spent, he has developed some of the most advanced pitch and presentation techniques. And now teaches this to people in all walks of life. His book, Three Minute Rule, Say Less and Get More From Any Sales Pitch Presentation. We'll link that in the show notes. It's available on Amazon and everywhere else. And with that, Brant, welcome to the show.
Brant Pinvidic:
Here I am. Here I am. That's a great intro. I should bring you with me on the road.
Will Barron:
I don't know about that. My intros are somewhat sloppy, but we try and do this as live as possible with the audience now. It's just a [inaudible 00:00:44].
Brant Pinvidic:
I like it.
Will Barron:
Right.
Brant Pinvidic:
Yeah.
Will Barron:
Good man. All right. Well, let's jump into it. Let me give you a bit of a scenario here. As we get into this idea, which is totally in line, you may be familiar with this, you may not be. Totally in line with what we do over at Salesman.org, which is our branding is making selling simple. So I think we're going to be on the same wavelength for a lot of this stuff, right?
You Only Have 7 Seconds To Grab Your Prospects Attention During a Sales Outreach · [01:03]
Will Barron:
But let's say Sam the salesperson, he has now earned the sales presentation. He's done his cold calls. He's done his call emails. He's in the room, so to speak. So the prospect is even just like a little bit interested in hearing what they've got to say, because they wouldn't share their time with them otherwise.
Will Barron:
With that said, Brant, how long does Sam have to really grab the attention of the person in the room that he's presenting to? Is this like two seconds? Seven seconds? Or have we got a little bit longer to really grab the attention of the prospect?
Brant Pinvidic:
Yeah, listen, I would say in a fun soundbite is to say you have 10 seconds to get the attention. But if someone's giving you an opportunity, getting their attention isn't important as getting them the information. If you're advertising it in your marketing and that kind of stuff, the cold calls, you have very little bit to get their attention. But that's a whole other world.
“The science says that people will say and come up with a yes or a no in their mind incredibly quickly, within 10 seconds of meeting you.” – Brant Pinvidic · [02:07]
Brant Pinvidic:
The world that I really deal with is that you have an opportunity to present your business product or service to somebody and you want them to say yes. That is the goal. And the truth is the science of it is that people will say and come up with a yes and no in their mind incredibly quickly. Within 10 seconds, they'll usually start with a yes or no.
Brant Pinvidic:
And then if they've said, “No, I don't think this is right for me.” Then your job is to try to overcome that, which is a very unpleasant place to be. So really the science behind what the three minute rule does for you, is it helps you to elongate that process so that they're not saying yes or no in their mind, until at least you get in the valuable information.
Brant Pinvidic:
And if you do it right, and if you do it perfectly, and you lead people with proper storytelling, you could extend that to three minutes. Where now they've got all the valuable information, so now they're starting to think, I like this. I want to do this. Or maybe it's not right for them, whichever. What you don't want to do is have people thinking like, nah, this isn't going to work. I don't like this person. I don't believe what he's saying, which is the most common. And then trying to win them over, which is the hard thing to do.
Brant Pinvidic:
And anybody listening now will know that someone's come to pitch or present or ask you to do anything, and just think about how you've got that yes or no in your mind right away. And they'll ramble on and it's like, yeah, no, it's still a no. And that is the core. And there's science behind, it's called approach motivation on why people are driven to engage with things.
Brant Pinvidic:
And it's a level of storytelling and leading your audience piece by piece that in Hollywood, we sort of perfected that. It's why you'll sit and watch an hour and a half or two hour movie, because the story is told in segments that lead you to the next segment. And in a sales process, it's the same thing. And that's, I think where people struggle the most.
Will Barron:
Yeah. I think people struggle in the fact that they will perhaps understand this idea of the hero's journey or these different archetypes of stories. Everyone's seen Lord of the Rings. We could break that down into this story archetype and these step by step processes.
Your Prospects Don’t want to Know About Your Company · [03:58]
Will Barron:
But then when they come to a presentation, the first thing they do is go, oh, well, our business is this size and we serve these customers. And you can see the people in the audience, essentially the prospects, just metaphorically slapping their hands on the forehead because they don't need to know any of that. They don't care about any of that stuff.
Brant Pinvidic:
No.
Will Barron:
So how do you-
Brant Pinvidic:
I'll give you a great example of that.
Will Barron:
Sure.
Brant Pinvidic:
Is it was an investment opportunity that came around. My partner thinks it's a great idea. He sent me their webinar and I already had my chequebook out. I was going to write a check. I mean, it's a simple business, a car washer thing. I'm in.
Brant Pinvidic:
But the people doing the webinar and the presentation got on board and they spent the first nine minutes telling me who they were. Let me do our introductions and he did his for a couple of minutes. And then he passed it to his partner. He did his. Telling me where they live, where they went to school, what they did, their family. And it's just like, you guys want to make a personal connection with me and make me feel like … And I haven't written it yet. I haven't gone in, all because of that.
Brant Pinvidic:
Because then for the next, and I sort of watched the next 15 or 18 minutes, but I was off doing other things and I wasn't really paying attention. And my brain was like, I kind of don't like these guys. Not even overtly. I just was kind of like, eh. I don't even know why am I interested in this? And I just phased out. And so I didn't jump on it.
Will Barron:
For sure. I feel like it's almost a sign of someone, and not in respect to this deal that you're talking about there because obviously I have no idea about them personally. But when I see salespeople do it before they come through our training, or before they listen to shows like this, episodes like this, it's almost a sign of being an amateur versus a pro.
How to Use Storytelling to Keep Your Prospect’s Attention · [05:46]
Will Barron:
Because you only have to do that five, six, seven times before then you start to see the room. And surely, most people have enough emotional intelligence to go, okay, this isn't working. I need a better strategy. So with that said, Brant, how do we story tell and keep attention? Is there a structure? Is there a framework? How do we go about doing this?
“What I teach in the book is called the WHAC Method. And it stands for what is it? H is how does it work? A is are you sure? And C is can you do it? And those are the four tenets of any proper story or any pitch or presentation.” – Brant Pinvidic · [05:53]
Brant Pinvidic:
So what I teach in the book really detailed, is called the WHAC Method. And it stands for what is it? H is how does it work? A is are you sure? And C is can you do it? And those are the four tenets of any proper story or any pitch or presentation.
Brant Pinvidic:
The very first thing is what is it? People want to talk, like you said, they want to talk about the size of the market. They want to talk about their background. They want to talk about their history. They want to talk about the problem that people are facing. And it's like, that is not where people want to be. Your mind naturally gravitates to what is this? And if you've ever had somebody droning on about something and you've said to yourself, “Could you just stop, stop, stop? Just tell me what this is? Tell me how this works?” And that's the structure.
Brant Pinvidic:
So it's what is it? Which is literally, what do you do? We are an electric vehicle company that makes controllers that make your electric vehicle company go faster, whatever it is. It's what is it? I got to know what we're doing.
Brant Pinvidic:
And then how does it work is literally what is the process? You're an app that connects social media influencers together to sell products. It's like, okay, well, how does it do that? Oh, it's based on this function. You have to have a million followers. What are the structures? How does it actually work?
Brant Pinvidic:
After that, after I, as the audience understand those two things, now I'm open to validating it. Now I'm open to seeing that it's real. And that's, are you sure? Does this make sense? Is there a market? Have you done this before? Do you have the patents? What is the, are you sure? How do you get your audience to believe that this is possible?
Brant Pinvidic:
And then, and only after I believe and buy into those three pieces, then I care about you. Who are you? Can you actually do it? When is it available? When will the technology be ready? Have you ever done this kind of thing? Do you have a full-time job? Will this be your part-time job? Any of the actual physical elements about you and your company.
Brant Pinvidic:
And the WHAC Method ironically is almost a percentage of value. Half the job is what is it? If I'm looking at this carwash investment and I don't really think car washes are a good investment, nothing else matters. If I like car washes, I think this is a good idea, I'm halfway there.
Brant Pinvidic:
And then it's like, okay, how does it work? Well, we are buying 13 different car washes. We're going to rebrand them, spruce them up, raise the prices. And here's how we're going to do it. You're like, okay, I actually like that process. Now I'm 80% of the way there. Okay.
Brant Pinvidic:
And if car washers are increasing and the market's good and it always flows cash flow, which is what they would do in their are you sure section. If they, at the very end of it go, the only problem is we've never run a car wash before. I wouldn't be like, oh, that's it. I'm done. I'm out. Oh, sorry. I can't do it. My brain goes, well, we can hire management. It's not that difficult. Depending on how much I liked it, I'd be like, oh, don't worry about it. You'll figure it out.
“The less you say, the simpler you make your presentation, the more desirable it will be, and the more drawn people are to you.” – Brant Pinvidic · [09:18]
Brant Pinvidic:
So that's literally, maybe 5% of it if all the other pieces sink. And that structure is very hard for people to grasp because they want to tell all of the information at once. They think the more they say, the more information they give, the better they're doing. And what I teach is it's the exact opposite. The less you say, the simpler you make your presentation, the more desirable it will be. And the more drawn people are to you. It's just, that's the way it is now.
The Things You Should Focus Most On At The Beginning of a Presentation · [09:31]
Will Barron:
Why? And this might be a mindset thing or a psychological thing. Why do you think people are drawn to throwing up the goal, aspirations, thoughts, opinions, the strategy, all this stuff? When it doesn't really matter at the beginning of a presentation, why? Because I want to do it as well. Why do we all want-
Brant Pinvidic:
Yes, of course.
Will Barron:
To do this?
Brant Pinvidic:
There's two main reasons. And this is one of those things that in my seminars, a lot of times I used to have this as a small piece. And now I actually will almost take a full day to go through this because it's so painful for people. Is that the two main reasons that you do this is you understand value better than anybody. You have perfect understanding is what I call it. Perfect understanding.
Brant Pinvidic:
And the other one is confidence. Okay? The two pieces of it are perfect understanding means you have lived with your idea at every level. Every nuance makes sense. It's like when you watch your favourite movie. You see every directorial turn, every breath by the actress. Every twist and turn and scene is absolutely perfect. Because it's your favourite movie, you've seen it 15 times. Now you're seeing all the elements.
Brant Pinvidic:
Someone who watches it the first time, watches it as a total movie, summarises why they like it. And it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and more nuanced as they go. So what happens is you genuinely believe the value of the retail reselling of your product later on to opening up the other market. You see that as clear as day, it is perfectly obvious to you.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so you have all of this value based in all of these things that nobody can understand yet, because you didn't understand it instantly. It took you time to get to the place where now you know it so well. Now that you know it so well, it all has value. But you have to go back to the beginning to be like, hey, I need to give you the foundation of understanding of the conceptual elements. Then I have to build you the process of building value in this business. Then you could start to see the other tentacles that join it and the future and all of the other things.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so for you, it's very hard to know what are the foundational pieces of value if you don't take a step back and put it in this WHAC format. That's really what you need to do is to get back to the basics. And even though it feels like, oh my God, this is so important, and I'm not saying it right away.
Brant Pinvidic:
It's like, I have to say, I promise you will get to say all the important things. But the first three minutes is not the place for all of those things. Your meeting could last an hour, but only with a person who's engaged and you got to bring them there.
“People ask me to train their salespeople to be more confident. I can't do that. You can't teach someone confidence. You can teach someone how to fake confidence. That's not what I do. True, actual confidence comes from the value you believe you are providing to others.” – Brant Pinvidic · [12:19]
Brant Pinvidic:
And then point two this is this confidence level, is that people ask me to train their sales forces to be more confident. I'm like, I can't do that. You can't teach someone confidence. You can teach someone how to fake confidence. That's not what I do. True, actual confidence comes from the value you believe you are providing to others. That's it.
Brant Pinvidic:
If you were having a wedding and I was going to cater your wedding, and I was trying to get the job as the caterer. And my chef that was going to show up and be at your wedding in person was Gordon Ramsey. How would I present that to you? Would I need tonnes of words? Or maybe I say four words. “I have Gordon Ramsey.” That's what confidence is. Because I got Gordon Ramsey to cook at your wedding. You use less words. I'm not explaining, well, he's a Michelin three star chef and he's been on … I don't do any of that.
Will Barron:
Sure.
“The more words you use, the less confident you appear.” – Brant Pinvidic · [13:13]
Brant Pinvidic:
So if you picture a graph, which is what I'll do in my things, the more words you use, the less confident you appear. Because if I needed to have my brother-in-law, who just got out of jail, who's never really cooked before, but has really pressured me to get him a job. And I wanted him to be the chef. How many words am I going to need to try to convince you and your bride that he should be to your chef? I would just [inaudible 00:13:32], right?
Brant Pinvidic:
And that's where people get the thing, is that you undermine your confidence, because you appear to be that you don't value the end product. And you don't believe in the value you're providing. And if you had an investment that was really going to make somebody 20% by the end of the year, and you really believed it, you wouldn't go sell them it.
Brant Pinvidic:
You tell them the very basics. It's this, this, and this. And this is what it is. And it's just like, that's how people who are really confident, that's how they speak. That's how they act. That's how they present because they don't need to sell.
The Reason Why Most Salespeople Focus on Features and Benefits Instead of Delivering Value During a Sales Presentation · [14:10]
Will Barron:
How much, Brant, do you think this initial, wanting to just throw up information at the beginning of any sales pitch, that you kind of align then with the individual knowing so much about the market, the space, the opportunity, the product, whatever is it they're selling?
Will Barron:
How much of that is actually that they, in your experience with the different trainings and that, that you do, how much of it is that they are truly just so entwined in that space and they know so much. And they forget that people aren't as clued up as them. Or how much of it is that versus how much of it is that they've actually diluted themselves? And they're just talking absolute nonsense and saying one thing, which digs a bit of a hole, which they've got to solve another thing. And you go further down a rabbit hole [inaudible 00:14:54].
Brant Pinvidic:
It's almost never that. Most people are not diluted about it. They really believe in their product, business, or service. That is most people do. But the problem is that they're so excited about it and they're so passionate and they want you to see it the way they do.
“Your goal of any presentation is to translate information from your knowledge to their understanding.” – Brant Pinvidic · [15:20]
Brant Pinvidic:
And I actually talk to people about, what do you think your goal is when you're making a sales presentation? Like it's to get them to write a check and buy it? It's like, okay, that's the ultimate finished product. But really your goal of any presentation is to translate information from your knowledge to their understanding. If you can take what you know and get it so they understand it, they will have to be interested because you are interested. That's why you're doing it. If they understood it the same way you did, you'd have won that.
Brant Pinvidic:
So the goal is that translation step from, I know it and I want you to understand it. And when you mix the passion and the excitement, and particularly with I deal with a lot of biotech and scientific stuff. Doctors and those scientists have a lot of trouble explaining to people, the simplicity of their immunotherapy cancer drug. And what the business of that is because they want to talk about the breakthroughs.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so they get so passionate that again, they're throwing up all this information, but to them it sounds totally normal and natural, like of course. And so most of it is that. Unfortunately what comes across in our world today, because we have been poisoned by the years of click baits and click funnels and over promising marketing and the elevator sales pitch, that our natural instinct is to distrust people.
Brant Pinvidic:
I'd say it to these guys all the time. If your new drug cured cancer, do you think everybody would believe it? If you said, “Oh my God, we just finished our trial. I have a new drug. It cures cancer.” Would you be like, oh my God, let me get my chequebook out and give you money. Or you'd be like, yeah, whatever.
Brant Pinvidic:
And I've had that with companies that have these huge grand claims. And it's like, you can't say it like that because no one will believe you. You used to be able to do that. If we could get in a time machine and go back to the 70s and 80s, you could make big claims. Would you like to lose weight and eat anything you want? And you're like, yes, I would. Okay, let me follow your thing.
Brant Pinvidic:
You could lean into somebody at an elevator pitch. You'd be like, excuse me, sir. I have an investment idea that could make you 10 times your money by the end of the year. Would that interest you? Oh, yes, it would. Tell me more. That doesn't exist. Somebody in the elevator leans in and says, “I have an investment idea that'll make you 10 times your money by the end of the year, are you interested?”
Brant Pinvidic:
You'd be like, get away from me. That's the last person you are going to give money to. What if he actually had an investment like that? You know what I mean? So by saying it that way, by presenting it that way, by overdoing it, he's ruined his chances. And I see that a lot.
Brant Pinvidic:
And sometimes for me it's to my benefit because a lot of times I'll participate in the process of growing a company and it's like, wait, you're turning people off. You're making people doubt your technology because of the way you say it. How about we restructure it? Then people will actually look at the data and believe you. So that's the most common thing I see, is they want to bombard people with information and they don't realise it subconsciously and sometimes overtly, lowers their value.
Will Barron:
Yeah. So my background's selling medical devices and at the time I was selling them all the camera systems, endoscopic camera systems I was selling in the operating rooms, were switching from 720P to 10ATP. What you're describing here is bringing this up, this really vivid memory in my mind.
Here’s How to Become More Influential During a Sales Presentation · [18:39]
Will Barron:
I went out with a more senior sales rep and he said one line. I was like, right, I'm stealing that and I'm using that every single time. And he was speaking to a surgeon who had glasses on, the surgeon was like mid 60s getting on a bit, but still crushing it and really important. One of the best colorectal surgeons in Europe. And he goes, “Yeah, it's the difference between having either dirty glasses or a crappy prescription. And having brand new glasses and having them clean.”
Will Barron:
And the surgeon was like, “Oh, I'll try that.” He came in. It was exactly what he said, but literally that was the difference. And then it was the conversation on the back end of, oh well, do you think this will help you make less mistakes? Do you think this is less likely, less litigation go on the back of this?
Will Barron:
And it was just that, just that one phrase got the ball rolling with this surgeon that had no interest in new technology. It's not like me, because I used to love talking about it all, and the connections and wiring it all up and going and selling and training everyone on it. I would talk for days about all the nonsense behind it.
Will Barron:
This studio we've got here for this podcast, I love talking about all this kind of stuff. But you try and go into that kind of conversation with a technology adverse surgeon who doesn't want it. Just wants to do colorectal surgery, not have any issues, wants to go home. And again, that metaphor absolutely changed it for me when I first picked it up.
Will Barron:
And as you were talking, Brant, that story kept kind of coming back to the forefront of my mind. So is that kind of what we're looking at here? Of how to narrow all the scope of our complex products down into, is it fair to say a soundbite? Is that a fair way of saying it?
Brant Pinvidic:
It's not a soundbite because soundbites make people uncomfortable. Because they know. Again, it's like, if you look like you're trying, if you look like you spent all this time to orchestrate your pitch, people are repulsed by that. We're very sensitive. We have an oversensitive, hypersensitive audience basically.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so what you want to do is when you're looking for the quote/unquote soundbite, I actually would go back and be like, what is the simplest way you can explain what it is? What's the simplest way so that people get it right away? So that their next question is like, okay, and how does it do this? What happens next?
Brant Pinvidic:
There's something called and then storytelling. And a friend of mine, the late great Stephen J. Cannell, wrote The A Team and all these. He coined that sort of style where it was like, this happens and then this happens, and then this happens. And there's no nuance to his stories. They're very straightforward.
Brant Pinvidic:
And if you've watched Law and Order, or CSI, or any of these procedural shows, it's like, it's the same show every single week. Why? Because that storytelling is so compelling. A little piece of this leads you to this, leads you to that, leads you to this. And it's like, movies are all the same way because that structure works.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so what's the very basic way you can explain what it is you do? Why it's valuable? Why someone might want it? And why you're the person to do it? And if you can lay that out clearly they go click, I got that. Now I got questions. Now I have things to talk about. Now I want to know more. Now the next phases of what you're doing have relevance.
Brant Pinvidic:
Now that your surgeon understands, it's like, oh, I'm going to get a clearer picture. That'll help me see the glasses. They get that. Now they can talk about the ability to perform surgeries faster. Now they can talk about the ability to make sure they don't make as many mistakes. Now they can talk about the ability of sharing pictures with medical students.
Brant Pinvidic:
All those things that may have been true, he would not even hear that until he understood exactly what was the technology, or the system, or what it was going to be there. And so when you simplify it, it changes everything. It's an exponential return. Every word that you delete gets you 10 points on the scale. I wish I had a better analogy, but that's literally what it's exponential return.
The Information Pyramid: The First Step to Saying Less and Simplifying Your Sales Presentation · [22:35]
Will Barron:
Because it's one thing to say all this. But there's copywriter making millions a year who go about doing some of this, and simplifying things, and making things more tangible so they sink in our brains. For someone like me, Brant, a knuckle dragging salesperson. Maybe they don't have a big marketing team behind them to help with some of this. They're going to have to do it on their own.
Will Barron:
They've got a complex product. They're selling it. And it takes multiple meetings to get the deal done. The deal sizes are large. How does a knuckle dragging sale person like me start to implement this? Do we get our pitch, put it in a Microsoft Word document and just start deleting lines until we get to something? Is there a structure and a process?
Brant Pinvidic:
No.
Will Barron:
To simplifying things?
Brant Pinvidic:
Yes. And in the book, I walk people through the exact process because that's really what the book is. It is a step by step guide. If you're going to start from scratch with the pitch, here's how you do it. And it's actually the opposite of what you're thinking.
Brant Pinvidic:
I go back to the total from square one. And I talk about what's called the information pyramid, which is the fewer words, a little bit of information, and you build more words, more information. And so I have people try to do my this meets that exercise, a great one. It's a great exercise. This meets that, which is, can you describe your business in 10 words, 15 words total? It's this meets that.
Brant Pinvidic:
It's kind of like you might say a movie is, Dirty Dancing is Footloose, but at a resort. You have a this meets that. I use an example if I'm pitching a TV show. Very complex, huge, massive TV show. And I might pitch it as it's The Amazing Race for the smartest people in the world.
Brant Pinvidic:
So now you've got 12 words. And even though anybody in the audience doesn't produce television or doesn't know that, I bet if you just took a second, you'd kind of be surprised how much information you now have in 15 words. You know it's Amazing Race. If you've seen that show, you know that there's people racing around solving problems, trying to get from one point to the other.
Brant Pinvidic:
For the smartest people in the world, it means, yeah, it'll be people in the amazing race, they're like goofy reality show contestants. So I guess if you had really smart people, you'd probably have bigger challenges and more complex things to go over. It's like, that's pretty well what the show is.
Brant Pinvidic:
We're going to take MIT graduates and people who work at Boeing and put them in the hardest, biggest challenges in the history of television to see if they can use all their smarts to cross. It's like, oh, I actually kind of knew a lot of that from 15 words.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so you start with that little bit, and then I'll give my client a little bit more words to work with. And then you start to realise which ones are important. In the book, I talk about the Twitter thing. What if you had to tweet out your business? What if your pitch was a tweet, one tweet, 145 characters? Not the big new one they have, but the original, what would you say? You'd be surprised. Like, okay, now I can only use so much.
The Bullet Point System For a Perfect Sales Presentation · [25:31]
Brant Pinvidic:
And then once you get a little bit of that fundamental understanding I go through what's called the bullet point system. Where you take basically a Sharpie and some Post-Its and you write out bullet points of everything of value. Write them on bullet points and you get them on a big wall. And now you can start to see, now I'll start to take those bullet points. One or two words.
Brant Pinvidic:
I'm a podcast. I teach sales, that kind of thing. And you start to realise like, okay, which one tells you what it is? Which one is talking about what I am? And you can actually start to see it take shape. And then the exercise that really helps is you realise that what you want to say, that doesn't fit. And you're like, oh, damn, I really want to say this. And that's how you know that you're adding things that shouldn't be there.
Will Barron:
Well obviously we recommend the book at the end of the show. We'll add it in the show notes.
Brant Pinvidic:
Yeah.
Will Barron:
So clearly, that's the next step if you're enjoying this episode so far. But-
Brant Pinvidic:
Exactly.
How to Transition From the Attention-Grab Into The Actual Presentation · [26:27]
Will Barron:
How do we end this three minute period? As in we give like the 140 character pitch. We add the bullet points. We fleshed it out a little bit. We can see the eyes of our prospects in the room brighten up, and we can see that the prop's getting ready to ask us some questions. That their brains, the gears are starting to turn. So we're onto something here.
Will Barron:
How do we then transition it into, whether it's a Q and A, whether it's a more formal presentation, whatever it is after that. Once we grab people's attention and their imagination and now says, “Well, how do we transition from this is me. This is the WHAC kind of method …” into then whatever comes afterwards?
Brant Pinvidic:
Yeah. And I've had many clients that their three minutes is a minute and 42 seconds because it's simple enough. Or the rest of the business is complicated enough that you're not going to condense it. So let's just get the main pieces and then we'll get into it later.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so the three minutes is kind of like the maximum to get all these points in. And so I'll do investor presentations with clients that are 20 minutes long, but the first two minutes, three minutes has all the core elements. And the transition from that into the next phase is called the information and the engagement phase. And that's the way we do. That's the way we make decisions as human beings. We conceptualise, we contextualise, and then we actualize. And we go through those three steps.
Brant Pinvidic:
Doesn't matter if the decision is, what shirt do I want to wear for dinner tonight? Or should I invade the Ukraine? Those are the same exact decision process. I conceptualise, I contextualise, and then I actualize.
Brant Pinvidic:
So when you're looking at your three minutes, you're basically going through the concept and the context, and then the next phase is the engagement. How do I do it? How do I actualize this? And that's where the longer conversations, and the more details, and getting into the minutia of the numbers, and the history of things.
Brant Pinvidic:
And so that three minutes is, here's the concept. Here's what this thing is and how it works. So now you understand that. Here's the context as it relates to you. Here's the reason why it's true. Here's the reason why it's interesting. Here's how I can validate it. Here's how I can tell you it's actually going to happen.
Brant Pinvidic:
Once you get the context set, now it becomes actualization. How do we deliver it? What's the implementation strategy? I have questions about your numbers, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That transition is metaphorically, now I'll take some questions. Now let's talk about what do you think? It's the pause.
Brant Pinvidic:
I train people to, like, you don't need to say anything after tha