The Art Of The Presentation: Fill & Download for Free

I recently wrote about the art of the Ph.D. defense:Academic martial arts: Defending your Ph.D.The presentation helps committee members judge *the student* as a scientific communicator apart from the student's work.

You sell the pen by not selling the pen. That's how you sell the pen.I took a sales course about 10 years ago. I was in a room packed with at least 500 salespeople, all listening to the presenter discuss, in as specific detail as he could, the science of how to sell.This presenter suggested that he had sales down to a science.The problem is, sales isn’t a science, it’s an art.The presenter suggested that in order to sell, you had to follow a series of simple steps, and in the end, when you’re ready to close the sale, you ask the customer the question, “Do you prefer the red car or the black car?”Most of the salespeople in the room were taking feverish notes. I’m sure they went back to the car dealership (or wherever they worked) and followed, step by very careful step, all of the instructions provided.I knew, fundamentally, that most of the people in the room who followed the presenter’s drivel would never truly master the art of sales.So what is the right answer to the challenge, “Sell me the pen”?You sell the pen by not selling the pen.Literally, the last thing you do when trying to sell the pen is start by explaining how fantastic the pen is.So what is the first step to selling the pen?You first need to understand who your customer, as a person, is. What are their likes and dislikes? What fascinates them? How did they get to the position they are in?Then, you need to understand their needs, how often they use a pen, what kind of pens they use, whether they use a pen every day or occasionally.If you do like Belfort suggested in the movie and begin the conversation by “selling the pen,” then you’ve likely lost the sale.In a sales call, you need to spend more time listening than speaking. That’s why it’s so hard to master the art of sales … because most people like the sound of their own voices, and they feel compelled to sell the customer something. They feel compelled to begin the sale right away.What you’re selling when you sell the customer the pen is not the pen; it is yourself. And you sell yourself by making yourself likable.You ask questions, and you listen. You let the customer speak, and you listen some more.It’s a lot easier to be interested than interesting.Most people don’t get that.The ones who do, the people who understand that you don’t just “sell the pen,” but rather that you get to know your customer by being interested in who they are—their wants and desires—those are the ones who master the art of sales.

Both the assertions are questionable. China has a number of periods of warfare and multiple kingdoms. In the same way, India has had periods of unity under many empires.This is Han dynasty — one of the important dynasties and you can see how the area under pink is a small part of present day China.Same for the Qin dynasty who united China for the first time.Under Tang it became bigger, but still less than 50% of present day size.It is only in the Ming that the present day China’s borders started resembling more and the highest watermark was reached under the Qing a couple of centuries ago.This is India under the Mauryan empire — somewhat analogous to the Qin empire with a majority of present day India under one empire:India’s equivalent of the Han is the Kushan empire. The present day calendar and many other elements come from that era. They ruled only about 30% of the present territory but were very significant for cultural change.India’s equivalent of the Tang dynasty where the arts and sciences exploded was the Gupta empire.India’s equivalent of the Yuan dynasty is the Mughal empire — both built by outsiders. The empires came about because of infighting among the local kingdoms.India’s equivalent of the Ming dynasty is the Marathas — but unlike the former, the latter lasted a lot fewer time. It was a time of rebirth and a lot of present day identity comes from that time.India’s equivalent of the Qing dynasty is the British Raj. In both cases the outsiders took over and ruled. Both regimes ended in the 20th century. Both Qing and British Raj were the highest water marks when it comes to the land area.Inbetween these, we had a lot of important empires, just as the Song and Jin empires ruled various parts of China successfully, we had empires of the Cholas, Satvahanas, Rashtrakutas, Vijayanagara etc.In case of both countries, the present day borders came about in the modern era and came more due to the conquests of the outsiders.Finally, India didn’t always require one empire/system to succeed. Unlike China, the emperor had lesser control compared to the social systems and religions in place. As Confucius said, if a society has well defined protocols you don’t need to rely too much on laws.Thus, unlike China the time inbetween the empires was not consumed in civil wars and unrest.