by Dan Roam
When our audience list is complete, it should include as many categories of attendees as we can nail down (roles, organizational level, industry, expertise, the CEO, the janitor, etc.), as well as all the names we know (James the manager, Molly from HR, Pradesh from the client, etc.). Looking over the list, we should feel that we have a reasonable sense of whom we’ll likely be talking to.86
Our completed audience dramatis personae includes names, categories, industries—anyone we can think of whom we’re going R heigse ">
Then Come the Pictures . . .
Our written list complete, we unleash our hummingbird—yes, we’re going to draw a portrait of the key members of our audience. This is important: The act of picturing someone’s face forces us to think about that person in far more vivid detail than simply writing his or her name. If we really want to know what it will mean to have the CEO in the room, for example, we really do need to create a picture of her. At a minimum, we need to conjure up her face in our mind’s eye; better still, we should sketch a quick portrait of her on a sheet of paper.87
Taking a minute to create a portrait of our attendees (even if only in our mind’s eye) forces us to think about them as fully realized people, not just names on a page.
Yes, that is hard. Yes, that takes time. And yes, that is the point: If this meeting really matters, then the time is worth it—if for nothing other than to prepare ourselves for how we will react when we see the most important people in the audience.
But what if we don’t know any of the people personally—how on earth are we going to draw everyone? Simple: We don’t. We profile. We pick a few faces (known, expected, hoped-for, dreaded) and draw only those. They become our surrogate targets. If we can mentally see a handful of potential audience members well enough to draw them—even if only as stereotypes—then the exercise will prepare us well for when we meet the real audience.88
The public speaker’s oldest trick in the book: We don’t talk to a hundred people; we talk to three. And thanks to the vivid dramatis personae we’ve created, we’ve “seen” them before.
The Vivid LENS
Once we’ve identified whom we’re likely to meet, we then take a careful look at them through the Vivid LENS. The Vivid LENS is a conceptual looking glass composed of four separate lenses, each of which tells us something important about whom we will be presenting to.
The Vivid LENS is our conceptual looking glass. It helps us understand our audience in four critical ways.
The four lenses reflect four distinct attributes of any audience. Each of the four helps us anticipat R>ffectively targeted presentation in advance. The four lenses are:
L for leadership level
E for expertise level
N for numeracy level
S for sympathy level
The four lenses: leadership, expertise, numeracy, sympathy.
Each of the four lenses maps to a unique sliding scale of opposites: Leader opposes doer; expert opposes newbie; numeric opposes emotional; and sympathetic opposes antagonistic. These four sliding scales work because they offer a quick yet comprehensive checklist89 of key audience hot buttons.
By looking at our audience according to these four criteria, we build a deep understanding of who we are really show-and-telling to and what they are really willing to look-and-listen to. Let’s quickly look at each of the four and the types of vivid pictures most effective for each.
L = LEADER OR DOER
Lens 1 indicates whether our audience target is someone who primarily leads or does. The leader is responsible for setting the vision, the doer the one responsible for making it happen. The leader wants to see a picture of where we’re going—so we’d better show them a portrait or a map. The doer wants to see the picture of how we’re going to get there, so we’d better show them a timeline or a flowchart.
E = EXPERT OR NEWBIE
Lens 2 shows us whether our audience target is an expert or a newbie. An expert already knows more than we do about our idea (or thinks he does), so his tolerance for simplicity will be limited. A newbie, on the other hand, knows next to nothing about our topic, so he won’t tolerate initial complexity. When introducing our idea to an expert, it’s better to err on the s RS is >90 When we introduce our idea to anyone else, initial simplicity always rules the day.
N = NUMERIC OR EMOTIONAL
The third lens helps us determine whether our audience is moved more by numbers or by emotions. The more numeric among us—the “quants,” analysts, and accountants—always like to start with the cold, hard numbers. Yet relying on those very same numbers to introduce our idea is the fastest way possible to ensure that the more emotional audiences—those motivated by intuition, feeling, and empathy—check out quickly, and with a grudge. When introducing our idea to a numeric audience, we start with a chart. When introducing our idea to an emotional audience, we start with a portrait.
S = SYMPATHETIC OR ANTAGONISTIC
The final lens helps us prepare for love or war. If we face an audience already on our side, we’re lucky: Barring any major screwup on our part, we can introduce our idea freely without fear of immediate rejection. But if we know that our audience is predisposed against us, we have our work cut out for us. While there are hundreds of approaches for dealing with a hostile audience,91 the one that works best in a vivid presentation is simple: We just make sure our first picture includes them.
There is no faster way to disarm a hostile audience than to vividly show we understand their perspective.
There is no faster way to disarm a potentially difficult audience than to show we are aware of their concerns—and the best way to show that is to create the picture that vividly illustrates those concerns. We don’t have to pander or change our own idea; just by vividly showing an audience that we’ve taken their concerns into account up front, we’ve done enough to buy their attention for a while. And if our idea really is good and really is vivid, that should be enough to get them on our side.
USING THE VIVID LENS
Whenever we’re about to step back into the world of blah-blah-blah, it pays to first scan the crowd with the Vivid LENS. The more we know about the people we’re likely to run into, the more likely we’ll be seen and heard.
Whenever we step back into the world of blah-blah-blah, we should first make a quick scan with the Vivid L Rv>
Back to the Blah-Blahmeter
Let’s wrap up this Vivid FOREST tour where we began so many chapters ago: with five famous people trying to convey five different ideas with five varying levels of success. This time, as we review the words of Obama, Petraeus, Sully, Coke, and Madoff, we’ll use the Vivid LENS to see how well they did or did not target their audience.
Back to the Blah-Blahmeter one more time.
SULLY KNOCKS IT OFF THE SCALE
We’ll start with Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who successfully landed stricken US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River, saving all aboard. Remember his only communication with his passengers?
This is the captain. Brace for impact.
How effective was Sully’s targeting of that idea? Let’s set the Vivid LENS and take a look.
How about 100 percent? “This is the captain”: Sully was the leader, and everyone else was going to do exactly what he said; there was no doubt about that. Sully also knew he was sharing his idea with a group of emotionally wrought newbies92 who wanted nothing more than to believe in him. “Brace for impact”: simple, direct, vivid—it’s hard to imagine a clearer delivery of a clear idea.
MADOFF IN THE EXTREME
At the extreme end of the Blah-Blahmeter is Bernie Madoff, Wall Street tycoon and financial charlatan. Remember the quote from his firm’s business prospectus?
Typically, a position will consist of the ownership of 30–35 S&P 100 stocks, most correlated to that index, the sale of out-of-the-money calls on the index and the purchase of out-of-the-money puts on the index . . .
Bernie scored a perfect blah cubed: an intention
ally misleading expression of a rotten idea meant to divert his audience from the truth. (The truth being that he was running a pyramid scheme.)
Madoff set his targeting lens differently. Since his clients tended to be leaders in their own fields, he used intricate-sounding technical language to appeal to their sense of confidence. Most of his investors were relative newbie R Std the="Chapas to hard-core investing, so the actual lack of meaning in his language was lost on them—and although many Madoff clients believed themselves to be great numbers people, their emotional attachment to his miraculous winning streak blinded them to reality. Lastly, most of Madoff’s biggest investors considered themselves personal friends of Bernie. They were sympathetic to him to a fault—making his treachery even more shocking.
Reprehensible as his intention was, his delivery was perfect—an unbeatable illustration of the dangers of perfectly targeted blah-blah-blah.
VITAMINWATER FOOLS US ALL
On a similar note, but less shocking, because—as Coca-Cola’s lawyers themselves said—“no reasonable consumer could have been misled,” is the VitaminWater blah-blah.
Specially formulated with nutrients that enable the body to exert physical power by contributing to structural integrity of the musculoskeletal system, and by supporting optimal generation and utilization from food.
On the Blah-Blahmeter, VitaminWater scored at blah squared: an intentionally foggy description of a nonexistent idea intended to obfuscate the truth. Why do marketers do this kind of thing? Because although it’s only blah-blah, it’s really well-targeted blah-blah.
Customers of VitaminWater could be leaders or doers; the important thing is that they want to believe they’re taking care of themselves. The bottle’s marketing language appeals to the health expert who is really a newbie, the by-the-numbers nutritionist subconsciously seeking sugary comfort. Good marketing does just that: It takes a potentially antagonistic audience and makes them sympathetic. Score 100 percent on the Vivid LENS for Coca-Cola.
PETRAEUS AND THE WAR OF PERCEPTION
General Petraeus knows that when he goes to war, he has two battles to fight: one against the enemy and one for perception. He knows that to win both, his messages to the American people need to be just as targeted as his instructions to his troops.
We sought to . . . build an oil spot that would encompass the six central districts of [Afghanistan] and then to just keep pushing that out, ultimately to connect it over with the oil spot that is being developed around Kandahar City.
Petraeus has a tricky audience every time he speaks to Congress and the press: leaders and doers, experts and newbies, number types and emotionals, sympathizers and hostiles. The genius of this description of his strategy is how vivid it is. Although he didn’t physically draw a picture, his use of the “oil spot” metaphor makes the idea recognizable and gives his plans clear form.
Petraeus does a masterful job of complex message targeting. His clarity appeals to leaders and doers, experts and newbies alike. His calm delivery of a metaphorical yet rational image assures the numbers people while keeping emotions at bay, and by remaining vivid, he effectively straddles the line between those who support him and those who would oppose him.
OBAMA AND THE HARDEST SALE EVER
We’ll end our look at vividly targeted ideas—indeed, our entire tour through the Vivid FOREST—with a final look at the most challenging political sales job ever: President Obama and the reform of American health care. Whether good or bad, the right thing to do or the worst, if there was ever an idea that needed to be vivid, this was it.
It wasn’t.
We defined it fairly clearly in terms of what we thought would work best. What I said was that it shouldn’t be something that’s simply a taxpayer-subsidized system that wasn’t accountable but rather had to be self-sustaining through premiums and that we had to compete with private insurers.
On rereading, that’s not that complicated an idea. But it didn’t catch on. The first problem is that the idea isn’t vivid: “Health care reform” had no form, hadn’t been boiled down to its essentials, wasn’t recognizable, didn’t (in the end) evolve with full participation, and didn’t span cultural differences.
The second problem was that health care reform wasn’t targeted. The same messages were delivered to everyone. Remember: A message aimed at no one is a message no one sees. Given all the battling constituencies, maybe there was no way to target effectively—but that’s no way to make a sale.
The lesson: With a complex idea, talking is never enough; it pays to make every message vivid.
In the End . . .
In the end, great ideas are great for two reasons: They make sense to the broadest range of people yet matter most to the smallest number, namely me. Vivid Ideas aren’t just inspired, well thought through, cleverly worded, and brilliantly illustrated. Vivid Ideas matter because they combine all of those things in the service of targeting me—with a difference that I can see.
PART 4
Conclusion
CHAPTER 13
" face="Feltpen Com">Bye-Bye, Blah-Blah-Blah
e made it. We’re out of the forest. We found form, offered only the essentials, recognized metaphors, evolved our thinking, spanned differences, and targeted our ideas. Wow, fox and hummingbird: That was one impressive performance. You guys deserve a round of applause.
Thanks, you two. That was impressive.
I think we’re done with you for now—go ahead and take a break. But don’t go too far: We’ll need you later . . . oh, never mind.
Shhhh! We better let them rest for now: We’re going to need them again before long . . .
Bad News, Good News
For the rest of us, here’s the bad news: Now we’ve got to return to the land of blah-blah-blah. That’s where everyone else is, so that’s where we’re going to have to make our ideas work.
But here’s the good news: Blah-blah-blah isn’t going to look the way we remember. Instead of a place where we can’t hear anyone else and they can’t hear us, in this new land people are going to find our ideas so vivid that they will put down everything else to look and listen. Even better, now that we have our Blah-Blahmeter, Vivid Grammar, and a map of the forest, everyone else’s ideas are going to be a lot clearer to us as well.
Time to pack up our tools . . .
With our new tools and understanding, going back to blah-blah-blah won’t be all that traumatic. On the contrary—knowing what we now know, we are going to make waves, kick butt, and change the world.
. . . and head back to blah-blah-blah. (Only it won’t be the same blah as before.)
Tactics and Strategies: Eight Rapid-Fire Ways to Put Vivid Thinking to Work
As we close out our journey away from blah-blah-blah and begin our return, let’s conclude with eight simple ways to make vivid real: four tactical tips for applying our new tools immediately and four long-term strategies for revitalizing Z
THE TOP FOUR TACTICAL TIPS FOR BECOMING MORE VIVID RIGHT NOW
We’ll start with the tactics. Here they are: four things we can do right now to become more vivid.
Tactical Tip No. 1: Use the Vivid Checklist
When boiled down to their essence, all the tools in this book serve as a Vivid Idea checklist. Whether we’re listening to someone else’s idea or sharing our own, running through the checklist helps us make sure that we’re seeing the idea clearly, “getting” it, and vividly thinking about what it means.
At a high level, the short vivid checklist looks like this.93
The Vivid Checklist (Short Version)
Use the Blah-Blahmeter
If the idea has no blah-blah-blahNo changes needed.
If the idea is boring (1 blah)Unclutter and sharpen.
If the idea is foggy or befuddling (2 blahs)Discover and develop the idea’s essence.
If the idea is misleading (3 blahs)Debunk and dispel.