A client recently described a customer situation where he lost an order due to a perceived difference in control software 
functionality. The comment of his that made me stop was, "I told them that our software was better at this task and easier at that task than the competitor - but they still bought from the other guy."
The key word is 'told'. What if he had 'shown' them using GoTo Meeting how easy and intuitive his software really is?
Check out this cool video from Dan Roam, author of an amazing book, "The Back of the Napkin". This is the best resource I have seen to explain how to 'show' not just 'tell' and make your points memorable, understandable, and powerful.
SXSW 2010: Dan Roam on Visual Thinking from Teehan+Lax on Vimeo.
The reason I love this book so much is that of all of the books over the years I have read this is one of the few I actually took action on and adopted the ideas into my presentations.
Recently I was asked to discuss strategy for a startup venture and the expectation of everyone in the conference room was that I would come loaded with PowerPoint slides and put them all to sleep. I walked in, explained my approach to strategy, market positioning, and marketing tactics and drew a picture of what the key points were and how they interacted.
Three and a half energetic hours later I not only earned the job and their trust, but I shifted their entire approach to going to market.
The President's comment was, "I knew of everything you talked about but never saw quite how it all came together in a way that would work for our company until now, thank you."
Topics: Marketing
