Researching and Adding Available Graphics for the Pitch
Following your story template motif and storyboard sketches as usual, search for the term "dartboard" at iStockphoto to find a result similar to the one shown in Figure 10-32.
FIGURE 10-32 Search result for "dartboard" at iStockphoto.
Reviewing the Act I slides for The Pitch
Next create and apply a custom layout for the Act I slides that leaves the headlines white so that they are hidden on the screen. On the Setting slide, include a chart tailored to your client’s numbers, as shown on the upper left in Figure 10-33, showing the numbers dropping as you describe your hidden headline "Your numbers have been off the mark," and add the dartboard to introduce your motif. On the Role slide (upper right), continue the line upward so that it hits the bull’s eye in the center of the dartboard as you verbally explain the hidden headline "You’re under pressure to improve your game." On the Point A slide (lower left), add the photo of the dart and rotate it to point upward, off-target from a red bull’s eye that you create using the PowerPoint drawing tools—here you’ll relate the hidden headline "Your messages are not reaching your target." Next, on the Point B slide (lower right), rotate the dart so that it hits the middle of the bull’s eye target as you explain your hidden headline "You’d like to hit the target more accurately and frequently."
FIGURE 10-33 The Setting, Role, Point A, and Point B slides of The Pitch.
If you can pull it off, bring a real dartboard to the sales call that uses darts with plastic safety tips, and hang it on a wall or place it on a chair. When you click to the Point A slide, throw a dart and miss the bull’s eye. When you advance to the Point B slide, place a dart in the bull’s eye by hand. Of course, using a prop is a good way to prompt a conversation—for example, during the Point A slide, you might ask, "Do you always hit a bull’s eye with your messaging?" and during the Point B slide, you might ask, "Would you like to find a way to hit the target more accurately?"
Reviewing the Call to Action and Key Point slides for the Pitch
When you create the Call to Action slide shown on the upper left in Figure 10-34, place the dartboard graphic at the center, and duplicate the dart twice so that you have three darts to rotate and position at the bull’s eye. Leave the headline hidden as you verbally relate the point, "Aim for three goals, and you’ll hit the marks you want." For the Key Point (Benefit) slides (upper right, lower left, and lower right).On the left half of the custom layout, include the dart and bull’s eye to sustain that visual element through the presentation at these most important slides. The dartboard and dart are also elements that fit naturally into a navigational bar through the corresponding Explanation and Detail slides. It will be a nice touch to leave your audience with the plastic darts and dartboard, which will serve as persistent physical reminders of your motif and memorable message.
FIGURE 10-34 The Call to Action and Key Point slides of The Pitch presentation.
You’ll continue to create your Act II slides as usual, and when you reach the Demonstration (Detail) slides, you’ll switch over to another application on your desktop.
With the story template as a foundation, the BBP process produces a crisp package that is easy for any salesperson to tailor and customize, using custom layouts and placeholders that do not require the salesperson to have any graphical skill in creating layouts. But perhaps most importantly, because the sales force is involved in the creative conception and development of this story, they will feel they own it and this will be something they really use.
Note
As mentioned at the start of this topic, the design constraints of the examples in this topic include a limited budget, stock photography, and graphics that can be created within PowerPoint. With a larger budget, hire a professional designer to create custom layouts and graphics especially for your presentation. Within your budget and time constraints, only your imagination and creativity will limit the possibilities.
Handling objections to BBP
As you begin the process of creating a BBP presentation, keep in mind that every decision you make along the way can mean the difference between whether or not you hit the mark with your audience. Your success depends on the words you choose for your story template, the illustrations you sketch on the storyboard, the aesthetics you create across the slides with the graphics you add, and finally the way you deliver the presentation and engage your audience.
If you try BBP and it doesn’t work or is otherwise not received well, the most common reasons are because the story template, storyboard, graphics, aesthetics, or delivery need more work. Sometimes the content of the story template is an intellectual mismatch with the audience, or the wording is too simplistic—or not simple enough. At times the storyboard graphics are an aesthetic mismatch, or the delivery style does not connect with the audience. If any of these might be an issue, discuss the situation with your team—and with your audience, if possible—to figure out what happened, and then return to the story template, the storyboard, the ground rules, and your audience research.
However, you might present a perfectly good BBP presentation and still find that the audience is resistant to your approach. For example, if you give your first BBP presentation to a group where there is a strong bullet-point culture, their immediate response might be "Where are the bullet points that we expect?" or "This is too simplistic—where’s the text?" If you expect you might get that reaction, prepare the audience in advance for what is about to come. Bring handouts of the notes pages, and pass them out while you verbally assure your audience that the detailed information is available here in printed format instead of on the slides. Assure them that you respect their time so much that you’ve done a great deal of advance work to identify only the most important information they need to know so that you don’t waste their time.
BBP is a huge shift in thinking and action, and it can represent a threat to existing political structures within organizations. Some of the examples in this topic demonstrate that there are deeply ingrained PowerPoint habits and cultures, and there can be a great deal of resistance to doing anything differently from what is normally done. Often the objections to BBP have nothing to do with the methodology or the content of a presentation, but instead are attempts to demonstrate an audience member’s power by publicly raising doubts about the presenter’s credibility. In other cases, using BBP well can make others feel uncomfortable that they don’t know something that you do, and as a result, they might try to undermine you.
Easing BBP through the Eye of the Needle of Your organization
It takes leadership to ensure that BBP works, especially when working with teams and within organizations. It’s not a matter of simply having an effective approach, because even the best approach in the world can be stifled by an entrenched bullet-point culture. If your organization’s culture cannot stray outside the narrow bounds of the conventional PowerPoint approach, it will take an organization-wide commitment from senior leadership that gives everyone permission and the resources to make a successful transition to a more effective approach. This has happened at the board of directors level of major organizations that have decided to move beyond a conventional approach that no longer works for them.
If you expect you might get these types of reactions, listen to the comments. If they are valid concerns, accept them and reply that you’ll take them into account while you prepare your next presentation. But if the comments are more about politics than the presentation, defend your BBP foundation and explain how and why BBP works effectively to increase the audience’s understanding of your material.If appropriate.When you are confident you have effectively prepared your presentation using BBP, you can be confident that you present a clear case for how and why your presentation works.
