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To grab your audience, make your pitch personal
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In the Broadway musical "My Fair Lady," Professor Higgins has driven his prodigy Eliza Doolittle to exhaustion teaching her how to speak proper English. The professor shows little acknowledgement of her hard work, even when her pronunciation improves markedly.
Later in the play, Eliza is again frustrated when her would-be sweetheart Freddy talks about his affection for her in romantic phrases -- but keeps his clumsy distance and doesn't kiss her.
"Words! Words!" Eliza explodes. "I am so sick of words! I get words all day through. First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?"
Then she admonishes him: "Don't talk of stars burning above; if you're in love, show me! Tell me no dreams filled with desire. If you're on fire, show me!"
Everyone in sales is familiar with the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion. I think there should be a fifth P -- personal, as in make it personal.
To really hit close to home, help people understand how they will be affected, by showing what a product or service will mean to them. Take the pitch right to their level, so that it seems the product is made for them. Because in reality, it is.
A personalized approach is even more important today, with so much of our communication being carried out on an impersonal level. People order online and do their banking at ATMs. Infomercials clog the airwaves, followed by automated phone ordering. Even grocery and home-improvement stores have self-checkout lanes, making it possible to shop without speaking to anyone. We've lost a lot of that human touch.
Ever notice how the most effective commercials on television have a spokesperson who could be your next-door neighbor? Someone you could trust, someone who would be completely straight and up-front.
During World War II, the government began offering soldiers life insurance with a $10,000 benefit if they were killed in combat -- a sum equivalent to $130,000 in today's money. In one unit, a young lieutenant delivered a polished presentation on the details of the plan. No one signed up. Then an older sergeant quietly asked the lieutenant if he could talk to the troops.
"Men," the sergeant said, "if you get this life insurance and you get killed, the government is going to send your family $10,000. If you don't get this insurance and you get killed, the government isn't going to send your family anything. So who do you think they're going to send up to the front lines -- the ones who'll cost $10,000 when they're killed, or the ones who won't cost anything?"
All the soldiers immediately signed up.
Mackay's Moral: If you want to really grab your audience, use a personal touch.
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