Sam Thatte

How to earn trust of your clients instantly!

Stickonomics Tip #4

Please comment below after you watch the presentation. I would like to hear from you so I know what problems you see with presentations that I can help solve in the future!

What follows is the transcript from the video. That is for Google and Bing. Not for you. Unless you are using Netscape Navigator. If you are, you probably don’t see the video. So go ahead and read!

Welcome to another issue of Stickonomics! My name is Sam Thatte. I work with small businesses on developing their presentation skills. You can find me at samthatte.com.

How to earn trust of your clients instantly!

Now, all of us know that there is good and bad in everything. That is just a law of life. No matter what you are talking about, there are positive elements and there are also negative elements in everything.

For example, take one of the most loved gadgets of today, the iPod. If you were to look at the positive aspects of an iPod, you would say it is the thinnest gadget available, the imessage app is available  for free, it can record High Def video, It has face time so you can video chat with other ipod and iphone  owners.

Now if you were to try and find its faults, you would come up with a list like, it only uses its proprietary connector, you cannot easily replace the battery, you cannot add extra storage space with an SD card and the most painful for some people,  you are stuck with iTunes for managing your music!

So what is the trick?

So how do you earn trust for your product quickly during your presentation? The trick, experts say is to confess to a fault that your product has before you talk about how wonderful your product is. For this to really work well, you have to first make sure that there is clear connection between the fault and the benefit. Show the audience, that because of this fault the benefit shines through even more!

Let’s say you own a coffee shop and your cafe area is really small and the tables are really close to each other. Talk about your coffee shop by pairing a fault and its benefit. “Our coffee shop is small compared to Starbucks, but it is really cozy. When you are hanging out with your friends, you will feel a closeness that you may have never felt before!

Now you have turned what could have been looked at as a dis-advantage into a major advantage! Remember this! Every Dark Cloud needs a Sliver Lining! When Ronald Reagan was up for re-election, there were a lot of people that felt like he was too old to run for a second term. Listen to his response about Walter Mondale when the debate moderator brought up the concern over his age.

So to summarize, first share a disadvantage to buying your product or service and then turn it around by telling them how your product or service works better in spite of the disadvantage! Our product is 25% more expensive than the competition but that cost is offset when you look at how low the operating costs are!

With the iPod example, you would say, Yes it does not allow you to add extra storage but with iCloud you have unlimited storage capacity in the cloud!

Leave me a comment please!