“Yesterday, Google News was showing 2,152 stories today about Apple’s recently unveiled iPhone. Any way you slice it, that is serious buzz about a product that isn’t even shipping yet. And since Blackfriars’ brief is to examine how companies communicate their own value and that of their products, those numbers are pretty interesting,” Blackfriars Communications’ Carl Howe writes for SeekingAlpha.
Howe writes, “One of the benefits of being at MacWorld this year was that it gave me the chance to dissect Steve Jobs’ presentation style in person (you can stream it yourself from Apple’s Web site). And while I was madly blogging on my cell phone while the keynote was going on, I did jot some notes about just how he sets up what is fondly referred to as his reality distortion field. My conclusion: there’s no magic here. He simply does all the things that a great communicator is supposed to, including many techniques that we teach.”
Howe explains that Jobs is so persuasive because he:
• Rehearses
• Is himself
• Uses visuals effectively
• Focuses on the problem he’s solving in detail
• Says everything three times
• Tells stories
• Isn’t afraid of the dramatic pause
• Uses comparisons to demonstrate features
Howe writes, “If anyone needs more convincing of how much of a difference presentation technique makes, just contrast Cingular CEO Stan Sigman’s presentation yesterday with Jobs’. Despite his professionally written content, his presentation just falls flat on too many words and not enough life. The audience started clapping at once point just to try to convince him to cut it short. Ouch.”
Howe writes, “Apple has built its reputation by sweating the details for its customers. Jobs does the same for his audiences. Few companies will effectively compete against Apple until they start doing the same. Until then, Jobs’ reality distortion field will be as powerful as ever.”
Full article, in which Howe discusses each of the bulleted points above, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Patrice” for the heads up.]
Related article:
How to pitch like Apple CEO Steve Jobs (RDF not inclu – April 07, 2006
I really enjoyed the presentation overall myself. Telling the story during the pregnant pause where the clicker did not work was quite enjoyable. Yes Steve does have some excellent presentation skills. Makes me wonder though about a couple of things.
1. Most people dread public speaking.
2. Toastmasters is a great organization to develop public speaking skills.
Not everyone is a great public speaker, but then again that is not a main requirement for many a CEO. I do think you can be an effective CEO without being a good public speaker, although it helps.
And that brings me to the CEO of singular. I agree when he took out the cards and “read the speech” it was certainly not as slick as Steve. You would not want it to be, it is his day, you don’t want to supplant him. I got the idea that the guy would be a card reader as soon as he got onto the stage, just his prescence. However, that being said, what he said prior to getting the cards out, although very short was very natural and I felt sincere and that is what impressed me the most about him.
Public speaking is a very big challenge, and there were quite a few people there. I think just getting on the stage is something to be appreciated.
Great presentation
Great content
‘nough said
It takes a lotta balls to get on stage with Steve Jobs-I applaud them all (the speakers, not the balls)
Cingular is not being swallowed by A,T,&T. It is basically the same, minus a lot of BellSouth management. It is more like SBC, who changed their name to A,T&T after they bought them because it is a better name. Clear as mud, right?
It’s rather simpler than the author says. Anyone remember this, “All it takes to be a success in television is the ability to fake sincerity.” So said Walter Cronkite, quoting satirist Fred Allen.
That’s what all the PR/presenters do, try to fake sincerity. That’s what all the politicians do, try and fake sincerity. They have to fake it because they can’t possibly understand everything that they are saying. A lot of what they say is repeating what they have been told. They read (a) speech written by someone else.
Steve Jobs is better because of two simple things. He understands what he is talking about, (he doesn’t need a script), he believes what he is saying, (otherwise he wouldn’t say it).
On the rare occasions that Steve demo’s something that he doesn’t rate he communicates it in his tone and body language, remember ROKR. In other words he doesn’t fake it.
This is not to say that Steve doesn’t also use good presentation skills but as he is intimately involved with the design of each product he knows it inside out, he understands. It is precisely because Steve is such a pedant and hence difficult to get on with that he presents so well. Why waste precious seconds saying, “come on in Jonathon, take a seat” or the like when that space in time can be filled with something important.
Knowledge is just a step on the path to understanding.
Yea, the Cingular CEO was quite painful to watch/listen to imo. It was almost like relief when jobs came back on. Steve is a true legend in every sense of the word imo.
Jobs and Apple “sweat the details” for the audience and its customers.
We are very, very grateful.
..and Microsoft can go to hell.
Whatever else he may be, Steve is genuine. It is his honesty and his genuine enthusiasm that make him so compelling. It is n’t something that can be copied, and no one can teach you how to really be yourself. Ballmer and their ilk put across contrived personas, and no one trusts them. People will always trust someone who is genuine over someone who is essentially lying to them. I read somewhere ‘If you can take a college class on it, then it ain’t innovation.’ and I am very much inclined to agree.
You are wise, oh Mithrandir.
Informed: “His demos of the orignal Mac, the PowerPC-based Macs, OS7, and OSX 10.4 all blew me away.”
Two out of four ain’t good. You’re not well “informed”, I guess.
The PowerPC-based Macs and “OS7” (a/k/a “System 7”) were done by Sculley, not Jobs. And I don’t remember Sculley actually doing too many of them. Most of the demos were done by members of the team and third-party developers (my old Boss was up there.)
I still have my shirt from WWDC ’91…
Gandalf: “Steve Jobs is better because of two simple things. He understands what he is talking about, (he doesn’t need a script), he believes what he is saying, (otherwise he wouldn’t say it).”
I won’t necessarily go with the “he understands what he is talking about” because there are times when he doesn’t. I still remember watching him demo Xcode 2.0’s “Fix” button. You could see he was following a script and didn’t know what he was doing. But he’s CEO–he’s not a developer–so you forgave him.
There’ve been a few times he’s been honest with his lack of technical understanding on stage. There’ve been a few times when he’s said, “I don’t know what that means, but I’m told it’s really great!” Usually when he’s dealing with Xserve RAID or Objective-C++ 2.0 or something like that.
As for the “he believes what he is saying”, I’m not sure I’ll go that far. But I will admit that he is good at convincing audiences of this.
Compare Jobs with Schiller. They both have the same energy in their delivery. They both use similar wording. But when Steve says, “This is really cool!” you believe him–at the very least, you believe that he believes it’s really cool. When Phil says, “This is really cool!” it sounds like a line.
• He understands the issues, having painstakingly worked out the compromises to deliver a practical and economical solution. Not all CEOs have that depth of understanding.
• He focuses on the issues, presenting the problem and then the solution in the simplest of ways while bypassing the unimportant. Like product development, it’s about focus, simplification and refinement.
• He rehearses the presentation, delivering it in a structured manner – including the sections that are misinformation. You get a buildup, a release, and an emotional response from the audience.
• He speaks simply, slowly and dramatically, much like the Reagan, making his points crystal clear.
If he were POTUS, we wouldn’t have had the FIASCO of Iraq, where a bunch of never-warred civilians ignored the best advice of their own military.
Less is More,
That’s what’s wrong with America.
In a military dictatorship you don’t get civilians messing up your wars.
No one below the rank of General or Admiral should be eligible to run for POTUS.
“They really should have a class on “Stevenotes” in business schools.”
They do, it’s called “Snake Oil Sales 101”. and “Manipulating the Minds of the Weak 101”
“Whatever else he may be, Steve is genuine.”
Whatever Steve is, or actually beleives, he has a way of convincing YOU that he is genuine about whatever thing he’s selling NOW. That’s the genius.
as an educator, i think all the tips given also apply for being an effective teacher. there’s nothing worse than standing before 200 students and seeing them start to doze off – as i did when the cingular guy started droning on and on! (also – keynote vs those boring ppt slides really helps keeping the students awake…
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