Reframing Your Message: The Secret to Influence and More Sales

Why does creating the right frame in a presentation control how the information is perceived by your audience?

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re presenting to 4–7 people in a competitive bid against your main rival?

You might be presenting your security software solution and explaining why it’s better than your competitor’s.

You might be a salesperson who sells houses, competing against another agent to win the listing.

In presenting… how you say something, what you say, and your word choice determine your status and how your message is perceived by your audience. Credibility and character are shaped by how you present.

Here’s a simple example: imagine there’s an article stating that your software is the category leader because it has been tested by hackers and proven superior. Now, suppose this article appears in a local newspaper.

Now imagine the same article appears in The Financial Review or The Wall Street Journal.

How do you perceive the information now? How is the presenter perceived? Different, I bet.

This observation was made by Erving Goffman, a sociologist who described this form of interpretation as framing.

Notice how your eyes and senses are directed by the picture of a mountain—guided by the frame, not the whole image—yet I haven’t said anything.

This is why knowing how to present information in a way that enhances your credibility and status in the room is so important. The key is directing the thoughts and emotions of your audience toward what you want them to focus on.

Your ability to present—to close a deal or sell an idea—will define your success in sales and in life.

When you do this well, your closing ratios skyrocket, you get less pushback on price, and you control what the client thinks about.

You get called in by clients because your reputation precedes you.

This is a deliberate process—understanding that presenting is both a science and an art.

Verbal competence is a superpower. Competence is influence.

If you want to learn the key skill sets needed to present your product, service, or idea effectively, DM “PRESENT”, and I’ll send you the link.