Emotional Cues That Work Magic On Customers: Fill & Download for Free

AI powered conversational engagement.How can you use AI for website engagament (most of these capabilities are in existence right now, not telling you Sci-fi stories):Qualify prospectsBots can qualify leads that fall into the ideal customer profile so that teams can spend time with only the most promising website visitors. This improves quality of leads and allows for more attention to be given to those who deserve it.Collect leadsBots can collect prospect data during off-hours, busy hours and thus multiply your inflow of leads and lead data.Tier 1 interactionsBasic support and marketing activities can be completely automated. Say you’re running a sale and you want to direct people’s attention to it, convert them, or help your website visitors sort out simple tech snags, your bot can handle any number of such conversations at a time.Train agentsMachine learning can help with reply suggestions for agents from previous chats.Insights on emotional, linguistic cuesIt may also be possible to identify which connotations bring about positive reactions and sentiments from prospects/customers. Such psychological insights could work magic on conversions.Check out the links below for such AI platforms, AI integrated products:Zia | The conversational AI for sales | Zoho CRMZoho SalesIQSundown.aiVirtual Customer Assistant - Answer Bot | ZendeskLeadBot – DriftOperator Bot | Intercom

A pitch deck is about you.With a pitch deck you’re looking for your audience to opt-in on an idea, like a start-up or a marketing campaign. You’ll have to convince them of its potential, by telling your story and showing evidence that the idea is worth pursuing.A sales deck is about your prospect, not about you.Sales decks are meant to convince a prospect that they need your product/service to reach their goals. The focal point here is your prospect, not you. Don’t throw a bunch of facts and figures showing how well you’re doing at them. They don’t care.Here’s a set of guidelines you can follow to craft a sales deck that will make your prospect’s jaws drop to the floor.#1. Don’t pitchDitch the pitch. It’s an outdated word describing what sales people used to do: randomly launching facts and figures to see what sticks.Think of baseball. People who are pitched at either swing to bat it away or duck to avoid it. Neither of those are going to help you close the deal.Prospects don’t care about your amazing name, your happy customers or your big pile of awards. They care about themselves and they care about what you can do for them.To find out what you can do for your prospect, you first have to get to know them inside-out.Do your homework. Ask questions, listen and learn.These will be the key ingredients for cooking up your story. The Grand Story of how you and your prospect find each other, fall madly in love and live happily ever after.#2. Tell a storyInstead of pitching, tell a story.Stories stick with people in a way facts & figures just don’t.That’s science. It’s how we’re wired.Research shows our brains are not hard-wired to understand logic or retain facts for very long. Our brains are wired to understand and retain stories. A story is a journey that moves the listener, and when the listener goes on that journey they feel different. The result is persuasion and sometimes action.- Jennifer Aaker — Stanford’s Graduate School of BusinessStories are the most powerful way to activate a human brain and thus the best way to engage an audience.#3. Start with WHYPeople don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do itPowerful words spoken by Simon Sinek, in the third-most watched TED Talk of all time.This is the Golden Circle.It’s what Apple, Martin Luther King and the Wright brothers (the flying ones) have in common. It’s the secret to leading and inspiring by and through communication.We talk a lot about what we do. Then we work our way down to the how and ultimately, if we get there, the why.Thing is that whats don’t really do much for us. Whats - facts - only speak to the language processing parts in the brain — the part where we decode words into meaning. That’s it. Nothing else happens. Our brain just doesn’t care.Whys on the other hand are quite the attention whores. Like stories, they trigger the part of the brain that sparks emotions.There’s more. Research has found that brains of story tellers and listeners can synchronise as the story unfolds.This means you can actually induce thoughts, ideas and emotions into someone’s mind, just by telling a story.#4. Use the Fairy-Tale structureYou don’t have to be a natural at storytelling to tell a good story.One company that totally nailed the sales narrative is Zuora. Their sales deck has been hailed as the greatest sales deck of all time.Step 1 - Start with a bangKick off by creating a huge sense of urgency for your audience.Name a big shift in the world. A change that comes with high stakes for your prospect and makes them question the position of their business within it.This shift has to be as undeniable as the evil Empire building the Death Star as a weapon of mass destruction in Star Wars. Luke Skywalker had no choice but to take action.Your sales deck needs to make it clear that shit is about to go down and that it is time for your hero-prospect to kick some serious ass.Step 2 - Make it clear there’ll be Winners & LosersAll prospects suffer from loss aversion — they’ll rather prevent losing by sticking to the status-quo than trying to win by going for change.Show your prospect that the big change is a huge opportunity to win big or lose bad.You’re painting a black and white picture herego with the change and be a winner => bright future aheadignore the change and be a loser => dark future aheadStep 3 - Tease the Land of Milk and HoneyBy now you probably feel tempted to throw all your aces on the table and tell them all about how great your product is.Dial it back for a minute. You don’t want to jump the gun here.The momentum is all yours but tread lightly.If you go all-in too quickly, your prospect will lose interest and tune out.Hold up a vision of the happily-ever-after future that you can help them achieve.This Promised Land should be desirable, yet difficult to reach. That’s where you come in. It’s your raison d’être, your why to help your prospect get to dream.This dream world is not your product. It’s how life will be like thanks to your product. Your technology as a magical enabler of the good life.Step 4 - Show off Features as SuperpowersNow it’s time to show your colours as the prospect’s sidekick.You’re the prospect’s Obi-Wan Kenobi - you’ll be giving him the superpowers to overcome the obstacles that lay between him and the Promised Land.These superpowers come in the form of a game-changer, some kind of magical tool that sets the chosen one - your prospect - apart from the rest.Step 5 - Show you can make the story come trueBy now the narrative is pretty clear: if they go with you, you’ll take them to the Land of Milk and Honey.People are not afraid of spending money. What they are afraid of is being cheated.Unearth those feelings by showing you can deliver.The last part of your deck should be about evidence that showcases your ability to take your prospect to the stars.The best way to do this is by showing you did it before. A success story about how you helped similar prospects to reach the Land of Milk and Honey.I’m talking about customer testimonials. If you’re still short on those, demo’s are the second-best powerful way to prove yourself.Step 6 - Paint the pictureSlides are the last thing you should think about.If you can’t tell a story that sticks without slides, your story sucks.Think of your slides as visual cues that help your prospect imagine the Land of Milk and Honey. Your deck should be what makes your story sing.Some key rules:Consistency is key - Make sure your slides feel part of the same story. Use the same kind of imagery, fonts and wording across all your slides.Think topic transitions - Consistency is key but you don’t want every slide to look exactly the same. Add subtle variations as you move on to a new topic. These will work as visual cues on your audience’s attention.Less is more - Only put words that carry a powerful meaning. Your rule: if a word doesn’t say anything by itself, it shouldn’t be on your slide.Have photos do the talking - Pictures say more than words. Use photos that speak to the story you’re telling, without being too complex. They should enhance meaning and be voilà.Go easy on animation and effects - Resist the urge to use animations. They’ll take away the attention from your narrative. If you must, go for subtle and functional.I wrote a more complete guide on crafting sales decks here.

The natural question at this point is: where does one go next– after the mechanics of suiting are understood and the spirit of dressing well is globally known?Taking a cue from Rose Callahan’s book “I am Dandy”, when we come into our element in terms of dressing well, it is then that we can scale the wall of freedom and unique self-expression…forgetting about boundaries and instead shifting towards the sphere of intuitive dressing. Yes, ” First learn the rules, and then break them” could not be more freely applied at this point of progression.But as we tap into our creativity in the way that we dress, we notice that there are two types of creativity:* creativity for the sake of creativity, or* creativity that expresses an inner emotion.Creativity for the sake of creativity can become a sad affair when dressing becomes more of a dog-and-pony show, rather than an act of sincere expression.On the other hand, creativity that expresses inner emotion is more complex, since it is a practice cannot be taught (or copied from an instagram photo), but rather it is assimilated through exposure and experience…and put plainly: in terms of creativity that expresses inner emotion: we all know it when we see it.In this text, we look at seven standards for good suiting, that once known, can lend confidence to the gentleman (or woman) who is driven to a place where quality meets emotion, and who wants to freely explore breaking sartorial rules with ease.SEVEN THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A SUIT1. Correct SizeThe number one infraction in regard to poor suiting. We estimate that 80 percent or more of all men purchase suits that are too large. In short, don’t be afraid to let a suit conform to your body. Notice these examples:2. No Collar Gap please !Nothing says ” cheap suit ” more quickly than a glaring collar gap. Compare the two examples below, and it will be easy to see who has the correct collar fit, and who does not.The second photo shows a nice collar fit, sans the collar gap. Also note (!) that the second photo shows the correct amount of shirt collar fabric (around 1/2” or 12.7 mm) behind the neck, while the first photo exposes the entire shirt collar in back.3. Clean Shoulder LineAnd, very few things say “handmade suit” more than a lovely and natural shoulder line. Compare the first photo with a clean shoulder line to the following photo with a poor shoulder line.A clean shoulder line. Chittleborough & Morgan, Savile Row.A sloppy shoulder line.4. Correct Tension at the Coat ButtonThe tension that is created on the fabric at the suit coat button, should show a small area of fabric tugging (first photo). Beware of the “dreaded X” on the coat front when the coat is buttoned, which indicates an improper cut and a poor fit (second photo).Tom Ford Suit (© The Rake) shows a nice slight tug at the coat button.A good example of the dreaded “X” that occurs at the coat button area of a poor fitting suit.5. Clean BackEven some well-known tailors have neglected to cut the back of their suits to conform well to the body. Compare the work of these two jackets:The back of this jacket is clean : ie correctly cut and tailored (@Journal of Style).Although this jacket is made by a well known Savile Row tailor, the back of the coat doesn’t make the cut.6. LengthsCoat / Shirt Sleeve Length — The jacket should finish at the wrist bone, with around 1/2 inch (12.7mm) of shirt sleeve extending past the jacket sleeve. A good tailor will measure all the way to the thumb tips on each arm, since individual arm lengths can vary.Shirt sleeve extends about 1/2” from the coat sleeve, jacket just covers the seat of the pants.Total Jacket Length – The length of the suit coat should just cover the seat of the pants. As a signature practice, some tailors are known to sew the length of the coat slightly shorter or slightly longer (Huntsman and Sons), and sometimes coat length may vary based on customer preference.Trouser Leg Length – The length of the trousers may be just long enough to form a slight “break” at the shoe, or can be cut fractionally shorter to avoid the break at the shoe, and thus create a slight lengthening effect on the legs. Avoid pant legs that are so long that they bunch or are so short that they expose the socks.7. Details (buttons, pockets, lapels, notch position)A few items to consider that affect the overall visual form of the suit:* buttons: number, quality and positioning.* pockets: type and height.* lapels: positioning of the lapel notch, amount of chest that shows, angle of lapel line.In this photo, Lorenzo Cifonelli himself models a bespoke jacket for “The Rake” with practically no chest area exposed. The lapel notch is placed high with a long vertical lapel line, which stretches the overall silhouette. A very sharp garment.The saying “First learn the rules and then break them” is a continuous theme at PG. And we notice the zealots who hold fast to every rule, providing self-portraits along the way to show their good marks (and may be indignant towards those who do not pay heed to the rules either out of ignorance or out of rebellion and a wink).These gentleman feel good about being a clothes snob, and I have to admit that being a clothes snob is a lot of fun and brings a lot of self-pleasure. Yet, if we get lost too far into the strict academia of how to dress, we build a type of fortress around ourselves (albeit beautiful) that has the potential to blind us from the view outside the confines of our own walls. But, breaking through these walls and dressing not only for ourselves, but also for others shows us an entirely new sartorial dimension.And, there is magic in the moment when we become aware that these gestures that we make through the objects that we wear, indeed, send meaningful messages from ourselves to others.I had the permission from the author to copy/paste this answear.Her name is Sonya and she is an editor atParisian GentlemanJust have a look and you will get to know everything you need to know about men's elegance.