Jim Collins, known for his books Built to Last and Good to Great, speaks at length in the April 2009 issue of Inc. magazine. He offers that there have been 5 evolutions in entrepreneurship over the past 30 years.
The fourth evolution, according to Collins, is that there's been a shift away from seeing entrepreneurship as creating a better mousetrap to viewing it as the development of a better process.
He says there are plenty of great mousetraps but not very many great processes--and that's where entrepreneurs should focus. The better process will enable others to build better mousetraps.
I see this idea--focusing on the process rather than the product--as extremely important in terms of speaking and presenting. Time after time business speakers, whether they're CEOs, engineers or sales and marketing professionals, speak about their mousetraps. They extol their features and benefits at length, hoping that they will increase their revenue that way.
But there is always another mousetrap builder out there who will counter your features and benefits, and if necessary, your price. So you are never ahead.
What if instead you focused on how what you offer helps your customers? Get into the mindset of the customer, know their day to day life, and tell a powerful story about their life using your product or service.
You will have them imagining the future with your product or service, not stuck in the current tense moment when they have to evaluate and decide.
Learn how to write and tell stories that get your audience seeing and feeling themselves after they've been your customer for awhile. Entrepreneurs, who are especially prone to be focused on themselves, will see an immediate and sizable jump in their revenue.
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