I was reviewing a PowerPoint presentation the other day in preparation for an important print sales meeting. The slide I was stuck on included eight bullets that ranged from “our technology is 100% responsive (mobile-friendly)” to “Integrated fulfillment.” I was trying to connect the overall topic of this meeting with each of the eight bullet points on the page. It wasn’t going well. I felt like I was reading a smorgasbord list that combined features of the software tools, aspects of the way the printer operated, and other miscellaneous unconnected features that didn’t obviously relate to this specific customer or meeting (e.g. something about color management).

I’m always skeptical of my first reaction to things because I know first reactions are rooted in built-in bias and pre-judgments that I’m not fully aware of. I spent a good amount of time looking at this slide. Then I did the shift that allows me to disregard my opinion—I thought of the primary decision maker who would be in that room reading/listening to this content. What would she think about the content on this slide?

The customer/prospect’s only job is to think of how this purchasing decision impacts me and my organization? What’s in it for me? My job in preparing the slides was to crawl inside the customer’s head and think about the sales pitch from their perspective. The first customer filter that hits is “relevancy” does this piece of information have any relevancy to me and the decision I’m about to make?