Look Into The Eyes, Not Around The Eyes…

Derren Brown is now a household name thanks to his talent for illusion, hypnotism and mind-reading.

Ultimately though, much of Derren’s effectiveness lies in his ability to surreptitiously manage other people’s thought processes.

He’s able to encourage them to make the associations he wants them to make – and they’re not even aware he’s doing it.

It’s all about steering people towards a conclusion you’ve pre-determined, and you can do it without a jazzy waistcoat or a glamorous assistant.

Often during a pitch situation, under the pressure of time, you can remove the logic flow from the pitch and short-hand the journey for your audience.

Its a mistake.

In telling the full story of how you got to “your answer” you can set the parameters for expectations, and keep your audience on track.

It may sound a little manipulative, it’s not, it just encourages everyone to focus on the same end-point.

While we’re on the subject of mind control, beware of the tendency for self-hypnosis.

These are the moments when your pitch team has spent so long convincing each other of the brilliance of the pitch that it’s possible to fall under the spell of a shared delusion.

Get someone outside the team to give your pitch the once over before you set off.

Now, try eating this onion as if it’s an apple…

Following Derren Brown...

Three-quarters of the way through, and it’s safe to say that 2009 has been a tough year for everyone.
Gloomy naysayers are already looking ahead and predicting an even worse 2010.
But I’m going to stick my neck on the line and disagree.
You see, despite all the cutbacks, currency issues and talk of recession, many companies haven’t just weathered the storm, they’ve come out the other side stronger than ever.
They’ve stared the recession in the face, stripped costs out of their business and managed to hit their revenue targets.
So what about next year?
Well I reckon that all this streamlining has taken cost-savings as far as they can go.
If companies want to achieve growth next year, (and let’s face it, whose shareholders don’t?) they’re going to have to drive revenue growth by creating sales growth.
That means marketing, advertising and events.
Those CFOs are going to have to start loosening the purse-strings again.
Remember that Kellogg’s emerged from the Great Depression as the market leader because they ramped up their marketing while everyone else cut back.
I predict good things for 2010.
Now, next week’s lottery numbers will be...