Story
Clarifying v. Convincing
We often work with organizations on their funding message by role playing visits, and we pull out common learnings like the one I’ll share here. Kerry and I were with the executive director of an organization working through different types of visits with prospects.
I was role playing as someone who had taken the meeting and with whom he’d already had an engaging conversation at 30,000′ about saving lives. Even though it was clear I was “all in” at the highest altitude, he moved through the conversation sounding like he was trying to convince me (and maybe himself) of the greatness of every program. As he spoke, it felt like he was reading off of a list of positive attributes – an endless and unorganized litany of things about the programs. I was lost.
At that point, when it was clear I was on his team, a more productive goal would have been to focus on clarifying how we get to the impact. He did not need to spend his time convincing me that the programs were great and wonderful.
Moving from convince to clarify was a transformational mental exercise. In a second run through, he was punchy, convincing, and clear. I saw the order in what they were doing, and, in receiving less information, I had fewer questions.
