Neurosales Secrets For Creating Irresistible Sales Presentations
What is the #1 business tool that every successful leader and entrepreneur has worked hard to master and continue to work on that?
It is making presentations that inspire and motivate people to communicate ideas and make people buy from them!
Most startups are failed not because the idea wasn't great. Instead, it is because it wasn't communicated well to connect to the audience at the emotional level.
Good thing is, one can learn how to communicate ideas that inspire and motivate others. And as you can gain mastery in this, success follows!
In my own initial career, I struggled with presenting new ideas. All I focused on was the problem and solution part which only a few in the audience responded to. So I gave up on my ideas thinking my idea was wrong. Little did I realize that idea was not the issue at all and it was how I presented the idea that mattered the most?
But good for me, I stumbled upon neuroscience and psychology of decision making. As I understood more of this science, it has become clear to me that be it pitching new ideas or making impactful presentations is a science and there is a method one can learn and practice to get success.
Ever since then my presentation has improved multiple folds and I am able to help many others with this knowledge for their own sales presentations, and pitches to clients.
So if you feel you should be having more success in your sales pitch and presentations, then what you discover below can be a game changer.
End of this article, you will know the exact method that you can use to pitch your ideas to new buyers, skeptical audiences and hook them emotionally and guide them to make decisions that are win-win!
For this, first, let's start with understanding our brain and how it processes information and makes decisions.
Old brain vs new brain
The last few decades of research in neuroscience reveal that our brain has evolved over millennia.
It is divided into 3 primary areas as can be seen from the picture,
Now the 3 areas of the brain are responsible for 3 distinct roles.
The reptilian/croc brain is responsible for survival. It does this by responding to our existential needs such as food, and reproduction, and also by getting us out of any impending danger. ?
The reptilian brain has absolute control over our actions and this Croc brain acts by sensing fear or urges and response is quick in terms of fighting with it or flight from the situation.
The 2nd level which is the mammalian/limbic part of the brain is responsible for the emotional aspects. This is where all emotions reside.. love, hate, and all shades of human emotions.
This part of the brain helps us to be part of the community, and experience different emotions. Also, the mammalian brain has access to memory and most of the beliefs we form out of our feelings are stored in the memory.
These emotions can be invoked when the right use of words or images is used. Again the choice of words one uses makes the difference.
3rd and large part of the brain called the frontal lobe, the neocortex is responsible for the logical, thinking part. It is like the brain’s computer; it loves to process data, and it will do so all day long and be happy doing it.
Only in humans, this part of the brain is vastly developed compared to any other animal and this is the ultimate achievement of brain evolution.
Now the first 2 areas of survival and limbic can be said of the old brain and the neocortex is the new brain.
Why should you care about the Old Brain & New Brain?
No Emotions, No decision making
The beauty of the complex brain machine is, it is processing huge tons of information at any time and to process any info, the 3 areas act independently as well as work together.
To understand this, consider this situation,
When you are walking towards your house, surprised by someone shouting. You will act out of reflexivity with some fear/danger. Your reptilian brain is at work here as it gets triggered.
The next step is to make some meaning out of the situation by identifying what is happening, who is this person shouting? This is the limbic part that is concerned about if anyone is hurt or someone you know is involved or if some accident happened.
Finally, you process the situation in the neocortex the problem-solving brain. It might figure out as, It's okay some random person shouting, some small accident happened.
Important to notice is It is first about survival, 2nd about social relationships, and then finally about problem-solving!
Our new-cortex brain though is a most complex machine and top computer, it is not a decision-making part. Our decisions are influenced by what happens at the older brain level.
So if our goal of presentation requires clients to decide to meet us, see a demo, and buy from us, then first old brain needs to appeal.
Yes! Science shows that the Old Brain is the filter through which all decisions are approved. Decision-making is driven by first getting sure of survival and meeting emotional needs taken care of.
That is why many ideas are appealed and clients say, they really agree to it but delay in decision making. Because at an emotional level, they are not fully committed.
How to connect to the old brain (emotions!)
Whether presenting a new application, service, or complex solution you are offering, for buyers to fully grasp and see how it helps them in their life, requires a certain level of thinking, reasoning, and spending energy to evaluate different options.
The way the brain works is, the older brain first filters the information being shared and only when it is deemed safe and comes to the conclusion it helps in survival and also appeals to emotions, it passes the information to the neocortex for processing.
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This is where most sales decks fail because of the way they present ideas vs the way brains are programmed to perceive & process the information, there is a disconnect.
Instead of appealing to the lower brain, right from the start most sales decks, and presentations focus on their own complex ideas, solutions, and technical jargon for which the lower brain response is typically 3F I,e fight/flight/freeze.
The response of the reptilian brain is programmed like this,
Reptilian brain response is rapid. It is impulsive and in the first 30-60 seconds it decides to either fight or flight. This kind of brain response is needed because it helps our survival.
Back when your ancestors lived in jungles when tigers/snakes appeared suddenly out of nowhere the response needed was to jump quickly and run vs thinking and reasoning.
In today's world of buying, survival is not about saving a life. But it has changed to things like saving one's career, reputation, and money or avoiding any losses.
So the audience needs to immediately feel safe that what you are talking about isn't in any way a threat to his survival.
Further to this, if the buyer is challenged with some of his beliefs, or ideas that induce fear or tension the reptilian brain triggers a part of the brain called the Amygdala.
This is responsible for translating messages into emotions and sensations. It turns messages into physical sensations like faster heart rate, sweating, increased breathing, and increased anxiety.
The response can be fight/flight which makes a person want to escape from the presentation, or in this case, if he is still there, he is no more attentive or becomes defensive by raising quick objections or interrupting.
Another aspect of the reptilian brain is of conserving energy. If our brain senses anything that feels complex or complicated, then it needs to spend more energy to process this and unless 100% certain it is safe and worth doing so, our brain doesn't want to! It is happier a give a pass to that!
Hence, passing through an older Croc brain filter is the key aspect. The older brain gives control to the higher part of the brain, only if you are able to share,
The mid-brain/limbic part is all about the emotional needs that come predominantly out of the social environment the lives. So anything related to one's emotional needs such as achievements, and social proof that builds further trust and credibility helps to connect emotionally.
As the lower part I,e reptilian and limbic brain get connected, it now passes the way for the neocortex to receive the information and process. This is where your product, solution, benefits, and ROI all get processed and at a logical level, it evaluates in a calm way.
He will appreciate the ideas and will be able to make the decisions that you want them to make.
So, how does one put this into practice?
The good news is, there is a playbook that exists, that is well-tested and proven to work.
I use this regularly and every top presenter I have studied follows this way in some sort.
The reason this works is that it is designed based on knowing how the brain works and processes information to make buying decisions for new products, and solutions.
10-Step Playbook To Deliver Power Messaging Pitch
The success of any presentation is depended on how much attention you were able to gain.
Attention is the most scarce resource today.
Studies show that business executives' attention span is less than 11 seconds before they get distracted. And the future is not any better. Things might get worse!
How to keep buyers hooked if you are say making a 15-minute talk or 20-minute presentation?
You got to follow a structure to connect to clients' current state and build that future state where people can relate to how your solution addresses emotional and survival needs in the first few minutes.
Here is a 10-Step playbook that is tailored to deliver such a presentation.
Summary
Our brains are evolved over millennia and 3 distinct evolutionary parts are reptilian, mammalian, and cortex(logical).
When it comes to engaging a cold audience with your solutions, it is key to first address the lower brain by creating a safe environment, addressing the fear(risk perceived by buyers), and connecting emotion hooks. Then only bring the logic or problem-solving part.
The sequence is at beginning of the pitch, structure the deck to
When closing the pitch and wanting the audience to take action, do the reverse. I,e
That is it. Do like and leave a comment for me if you found the article useful and also share with others who might benefit from this.
Finally, here is something you don't want to miss. If you are meeting clients and presenting and feel you should be having more success, then here is my invite.
You can craft and deliver an irresistible sales pitch by applying neuro sales principles and start winning the deals and 3X success in the fastest time. To know how click here