In business, there is always people you need to meet with, presentations to make, sales pitches you need prepare, closings you need to consummate and ideas you need to show. In short, there are always other people you need to impress, sway, or convince. This may sound like this is only for owners, salespeople, managers etc. but its not. It is also for employees, teachers, firemen, cashiers, military etc. Basically, anyone who needs to communicate something. As we all know, it is not always the way you say it or present it, it is how it is received by the other party.

When we prepare for a meeting of any kind, we start with what we will say and how we will say it. This can be in verbal conversation or in presentation form. We have all the points we want to make, and we plan it down to the last word.

What we don’t usually do is practice reverse imagery. What I mean is to switch hats with the person you are going to meet with. Put yourself in that person’s shoes and then listen to what you plan to say through their eyes. When we do this, it often changes what we plan to say. See there are thing s that may be important to you that just may not be important to the other person. Try to get inside their head before you get to the meeting or the call and visualize what their need is. If you can determine what their need is, it will better prepare you to present yourself in the best possible way.

I have a friend who owns a hotel management company, and he was asked at the last minute to make a presentation for a large account. His competitor put eight people on a private jet and prepared a full one-hour presentation. My friend didn’t do that. He didn’t take a team and didn’t do a fancy presentation. He determined by imagining in reverse what the owner was looking for and it wasn’t someone slick and fancy. He was looking for someone he could trust. To hear my friend tell the story, “It was just me and Tahoe.” He went alone and instead of doing all the talking, he listened. He heard their problems and then he showed them how he could solve them. He got the job over the other group all because he chose to put himself in the owner’s shoes before the meeting and focus on what was important to him.

If we practiced reverse imagery in other areas of our life we would be impressed on how much easier life, jobs, marriage, parenting etc. would become. KT