A Sales quip I first heard over 30 years ago came from the President of my employer, a man of great experience and knowledge – therefore wisdom: “a presentation without a demonstration is just a conversation.” He emphasized doing demonstrations to show our products outperforming the competition. Statics show that demonstrations translate into higher conversion, adoption, and closing ratios. A demonstration is where mental ownership of an idea takes seed.
When I coach, I perform the skill to be learned. A player seeing the visual
of the skill or task carries more weight than only hearing it explained. I do admit, it was quite the sight last fall when the 61+ year old coach flipped head over heels backwards demonstrating a ‘baseball turn’ to high school defensive backs. Ironically enough, as I am compiling the content for this blog I had a dentist visit. It was determined during the exam that I need a crown replaced. After the dentist explained to me the reasoning behind the need, the dental hygienist took me aside and showed me the x-rays, demonstrating the need.
The art of communication is most effective when participants are engaged. Involving a potential customer, or what can be considered an adopter, with a physical experience greatly increases the likelihood of a sale. Consider a car test drive versus the salesperson standing beside the car on the showroom floor and talking about handling and acceleration. Or the adjustable bed within our budget but roped-off and inaccessible so we can’t lie down on it. My personal favorite is tasting the wine after hearing about its complex flavor palette.
One of the key elements of trade shows is the ability to meet with customers face to face and provide live demonstrations of the products. Prior to purchasing something new, customers want to see it in action and in some cases feel the product in their hands. Put the product in the customers’ hands and let them see how it will help solve their problem, increase productivity, increase safety, or just get the job done. At one point in my career, I sold a static dissipative hand lotion for electronic production which always required a trial period. The users needed to determine if they liked the overall feel and smell of the lotion. A challenge in my current job is we do a lot of virtual demos which don’t fully engage the customer. We need to improve our ‘field trial’ capabilities to allow users to experience the value firsthand.
Think about it, we present our beliefs over and over – as a parent, coach, team leader, colleague, mentor, etc. If we don’t demonstrate those beliefs with our actions, they are simply words. We need to walk our talk. Studies have shown that it is what parents do, not what they say, which matters most to children. Children learn first by watching and observing what is being demonstrated to them. It is how the brain works. Most people are visual learners. We learn intuitively from observation. Verbal lessons require more mental work to sort through and sink in, especially when the lesson conflicts with behavior.
If someone utters, “do as I say, not as I do,” they are a hypocrite. It must always be “do as I do,” regardless of what has been said. Show me what you can do, don’t tell me. It is actions above mere words. Anyone can talk a good game. “Information alone is not instruction” is a quote by David Merrill, an education researcher specializing in instructional design. He advocates that learning is promoted when learners observe a demonstration of the skills. Too much instruction consists primarily of presentation without demonstration. The demonstration principle is best implemented by ‘Tell–Show’ learning events where appropriate information is accompanied by appropriate examples. A great example of this is Trial Lawyers. They can’t convince a jury just by telling them what they need to hear. Jurors need to be shown and invited into the client’s world.
St. Paul did more than present his thoughts by writing letters, he traveled
to his churches, he met the people where they were. Most importantly, he demonstrated his love for Jesus by how he lived his life. We have an entire book of the Bible titled “Acts” because it details the actions of the primary Apostles in doing works of God through the power of the Holy Spirit to build faith believers and establish the early church.
I mentioned in prior blogs that St Francis has been inaccurately cited as the source for the phrase, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” While Francis never made that statement, it does reflect something of a Franciscan quality. His actual words were far more nuanced: “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
Jesus demonstrated His love for us. The only God of a major religion that demonstrated His love. If we have truly received God’s grace through our faith, if we have been changed by His love, we want to love Him back and to love others as He loves us and them. We are saved by grace through faith working itself out in acts of love and works of mercy.
“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord; We will work with each other, we will work side by side; And we’ll guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride; Yeah, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
