Presentation Secrets: Do What you Never Thought Possible With Your Presentations

CAN YOU SELL WITHOUT LYING?

A friend of mine wrote in her secret blog recently: “The CEO of our company told me that I have to learn to lie if I want to do business. Apparently I don't.” Can you do business without lying? 100 years ago the answer was more obvious than now. Now people strive for authenticity. “We are tired of living in a bubble of fake bullsh*t,” as game designer Jesse Schell put it. Even in sales! The problem with truth-telling is, of course, that it hurts, either the one who tells, or the one who listens, or both. Sometimes the truth isn't nice. But if we've learned something from 100 years of marketing it's that there are many ways to tell the truth.

Another friend of mine once recommended a three-hour long black-and-white Polish film from the 60s based on a 19th century Polish book. It was shot by a supposedly famous Polish film director Wojciech Jerzy Has. Ever heard of him? Neither had I. “Watch it, it's a cool movie,” said my friend in a calm and unemotional voice. This was his presentation of the film. How do you estimate my chances of watching the film? You're right; they were close to zero. But then he told me the story of the film.

When I interview people I ask obvious and dumb questions to get at the dark side of a situation. You need the dark side for your story. No story can work without the dark side. So if you omitted the dark side in your brain ...