Dog and Pony shows originally referred to the small circuses that traveled the country. Now the term is commonly used for that all out, big deal, sales presentation.

Sales people are not completely to blame for this much hated ritual of the buying process. Customers are programmed to ask sales people to come in and “make a pitch”. Countless hours are spent designing, practicing and presenting huge decks loaded with features and benefits. Even with all of this communication customers often make decisions they later regret. Or maybe worse, they make no decision at all. There is a better way.

Presentation Circus
I received a call from a sales team targeting a national account. The team had already made several presentations to the client’s marketing group and they had been asked to make yet another.

After previous presentations the client’s team would say “We are impressed with what you do. There are probably ways for us to use your services.” Unfortunately, after those meetings nothing happened. The sales team was frustrated because they seemed to be stuck.

When an act is a flop the Ringmaster of the circus shifts the audience’s attention to another act in order to keep them entertained. The presentations were failing. I could see it was time to put on my Ringmaster hat.

Send in the Clowns
The clowns in a circus keep the show moving along. Clowns will often grab a member of the audience and pull them into the act. It’s unexpected, it builds tension. It means that the audience is now part of the show, not just observers.

Back in our little circus, instead of scrambling to assemble another deck of slides, I called the customer to ask if they would be willing to try something else. I asked if they would participate in a brainstorming session to identify real issues. When recruiting someone from the crowd sometimes the clowns have to pull them from their seats. Our “audience” needed a little coaxing too.

Finally, they agreed to participate.  We set up a new meeting, led by a Six Sigma trained member of our team. Rather than present our endless capabilities, our presentation was an interactive session designed to uncover and rank opportunities to improve the customer’s business. There was one issue everyone on the team agreed needed to be improved.

In the Ring
Clowns pull audience members into the spotlight and prompt them to copy simple clownish motions and then they enlist them for more complicated maneuvers. Our presentation format was the same. First a few easy motions. Our clown asked the audience to write down any ideas that pop into their heads to address the issue. My team participated right alongside the customer. Using sticky notes and a process called an Action Workout. The combined team came up with 56 ideas.

Then the more complicated maneuvers started. The presentation included a process to screen 56 ideas down to four possible action plans, and finally, to two.  The outcome of this cooperative diagnosis was mutual agreement on an action plan that was already “sold” through activity of brainstorming and filtering.

Ta Da!
Traditional product presentations, however polished, are doomed if there is no clearly recognized business issue that can engage your customer.  This interactive presentation process led to a natural request to try a pilot program. No high pressure sales tactics from my team and no postponements by the customer.

There was a dog and pony show involved in the end. However, it was a presentation to the customer’s executive team about the success of the pilot. And, it was a presentation with the customer not for the customer.

If your sales presentations are turning into a circus, before you do the same old presentation routine, it might pay to act like a clown.