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Setting Your Frame From The Start
How do we begin a presentation? If you were sitting down right now to talk to somebody, how would you start your presentation?
How do we begin a presentation? If you were sitting down right now to talk to somebody, how would you start your presentation?
What is the frame that you set? Is it a frame of cooperation? Is it a frame of ‘I’m right’? Is it a frame of ‘you need me’? Is it a frame of ‘you’re going to do this’? Or is it a frame of ‘I’m going to help figure out what you need and give it to you’?
Take a moment to identify the frames you begin with. . . whether with a new prospect, with a potential love interest, with a new employee or employer. . . What are the frames you start with. . . not the frames you think you should be starting with, but the actual frames you start with.
The following are two frames which my students came up with.
“I’m here to help you get what you want.”
And, “I want to find out what you need.’
Let me give you some insight into these two frames.
When you say, ‘I’m here to help you get what you want’, you are inserting yourself into the picture. You are the ‘I’. Getting what they want includes you. When you say, ‘I want to find out what you need’, you are finding out information, not performing an action and you are not in the frame.
You also must insert yourself into the buyer’s mind such that you are an intricate part of the answer.
Setting your frame as ‘I’m going to help you get what you want’ is an excellent way to take action right out of the gate.
Now maybe what they want is not to do business with you because you’re not a good fit. Fine, I’ll help you not do business with me. I’ll help say goodbye and part friends. Nice. No problem. I appreciate you not wasting my time.
But if you don’t insert yourself right into the frame to begin with, then you end up running the risk of having a bigger issue. And that bigger issue is that you’re not seen as a person that they are going to take action with.
We’re dealing with subtleties here but the subtleties count in a huge way. Remember, the person who sets the frame is going to win. You have to really consider what the frame is that you’re attempting to set, and that it is in your mind when you enter into the situation that you’re entering into.
If you’re out of the frame, your prospect will see you as out of the frame too and they’ll thank you for your information and leave.
There’s nothing manipulative in my opinion about inserting yourself into the frame. After all, they came to see you, or you came to see them and they let you in. What would be manipulative is if you tried to give them something they don’t need or they don’t want and that I have a real problem with it.
As the saying goes, ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression.’ I’d go even further and say, ‘You never get a second chance to powerfully, persuasively, positively set that first frame with yourself as the solution to your prospect’s needs and wants.’
Have this as your intention as you begin.