Selling your ideas

Making
Presentations That
Stick

A guide by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Selling your idea

Created in partnership with Chip and Dan Heath,
authors of the bestselling book Made To Stick, this
template advises users on how to build and deliver
a memorable presentation of a new product,
service, or idea.

1. Intro

Choose one approach to grab the audience’s
attention right from the start: unexpected,
emotional, or simple.

➔

Unexpected
Highlight what’s new, unusual, or
surprising.

➔

Emotional
Give people a reason to care.

➔

Simple
Provide a simple unifying message for
what is to come

How many languages do
you need to know to
communicate with
the rest of the world?

Tip

In this example, we’re
leading off with
something unexpected.

While the audience is
trying to come up with a
number, we’ll surprise
them with the next slide.

Just one! Your own.

(With a little help from your smart phone)

Tip

Remember. If something
sounds like common
sense, people will ignore
it.

Highlight what is
unexpected about
your topic.

Fill in the Blank

Write a paragraph about the Georgia milestones yes or no

The Google Translate app
can repeat anything you

say in up to NINETY
LANGUAGESfrom
German and Japanese to
Czech and Zulu

Tip

Don’t wait till the end of
the presentation to give
the bottom line.

Reveal your product or
idea (in this case a
translation app) up front.

2. Examples

By the end of this section, your audience
should be able to visualize:

➔

What
What is the pain you cure with your
solution?

➔

Who
Show them a specific person who
would benefit from your solution.

Meet Alberto.

He recently moved from Spain to a
small town in Northern Ireland.

He loved soccer, but feared he had no
way to talk to a coach or teammates.

Tip

Tell the audience about
the problem through a
story, ideally a person.

Meet Marcos.

He recently opened a camera shop
near the Louvre in Paris.

Visitors to his store, mostly tourists,
speak many different languages
making anything beyond a simple
transaction a challenge.

Tip

If one example isn’t
sufficient to help people
understand the breadth
of your idea, pick a
couple of examples.

Story for illustration purposes only

A translation barrier
left Alberto feeling
lonely and hurt
Marco’s business.

Tip

Ideally, speak of people
in very different
situations, but where
each could benefit from
your solution.

Then, Marcos discovered
Google Translate

He has his visiting customers speak
their camera issues into the app.

He’s able to give them a friendly,
personalized experience by
understanding exactly what they need.

A simple gesture

Coaches Gary and Glen knew no
Spanish.

They used Google Translate to invite
Alberto to join in... “Do you want to
play?”... “Can you defend the left side?”

Tip

Show how your solution
helps the person in
the story reach his or
her goals.

From outsider to star

Alberto scored 30 goals in 21 games. He is now
being scouted by several professional clubs in
the Premier League. And he’s a favorite of the
other boys on the team.

See a short video on Alberto’s story

Tip

Stories become more
credible when they use
concrete details such as
the specific complex
moves Alberto learned
through Translate and
his 30 goals in 21 games
performance stats.

3. Examples

People need to understand how rare or
frequent your examples are.

Pick 1 or 2 statistics and make them as
concrete as possible. Stats are generally not
sticky, but here are a few tactics:

➔

Relate
Deliver data within the context of a
story you’ve already told

➔

Compare
Make big numbers digestible by putting
them in the context of something
familiar

It’s no surprise Marcos uses Google Translate
in his shop regularly.
There are 23
officiallyrecognized
languages in the EU.

Source: theguardian.com

Tip

Don’t let data stand
alone. Always relate it
back to a story you’ve
already told, in this case,
Marco’s shop.

More than 50 million Americans
travelled abroad in 2015

THAT’S MORE THAN THE
POPULATION OF
CALIFORNIA AND
TEXAS COMBINED

Tip

When a number is too
large or too small to
easily comprehend,
clarify it with a
comparison to
something familiar.

Source: travel.trade.gov

4. Closing

Build confidence around your product or idea
by including at least one of the these slides:

➔

Milestones
What has been accomplished and what
might be left to tackle?

➔

Testimonials
Who supports your idea (or doesn’t)?

➔What’s next?
How can the audience get involved or
find out more?

Milestones

2014

2015

October 2014

Translate web pages with
Chrome extension

August 2015

Translate conversations
through your Android
watch

October 2015

Translate text within an app

November 2015

Translate written text from
English or German to Arabic
with the click of a camera

What people are saying

Translate has
officially inspired
me to learn
French

Abby Author, NYC

With this app, I’m
confident to plan
a trip to rural
Vietnam

Wendy Writer, CA

Visual translation
feels like magic

Ronny Reader, NYC

Quotes for illustration purposes only

Know a 2nd language?
Make Google Translate even
better by joining
the community.

Tip

Inspire your audience to
act on the information
they just learned.

Depending on your idea,
this can be anything
from downloading
an app to joining
an organization.

Good luck!

We hope you’ll use these tips to go out and
deliver a memorable pitch for your product
or service!

For more (free) presentation tips relevant to
other types of messages, go to
heathbrothers.com/presentations

For more about making
your ideas stick with
others, check out our book!