Shaping and directing the narrative

Early in my career, I was attending an annual sales meeting for Metaphor Computer Systems, at the Silverado resort in Northern California. There was a senior manager, Jay McGrath, leading the discussion. He was addressing a group of system engineers, and I was one of them. I was approximately 2 years into my consulting career. I had just completed my MBA and I thought that I knew it all, forward and backward. Jay ended a section of the discussion with the statement, "Telling is not selling." I was perplexed by this statement. I assumed that most of the people that we were talking with were smart, informed, reasonable people and all we had to do was tell them of the benefits and value of our proposition and they could make the best decision possible.

All of that is true, but it certainly leaves much unsaid or undone in the process of arriving at the destination you desire.

When you are presenting to executives, you need to show...