Or a slide that says ‘Questions?’

Ending matters, and these two are not good endings.

It’s the closing minutes of a sixty-minute meeting, most of which has been taken up by slides flashing across the screen. What will help the audience create a mental model of what has just happened, to walk out with a clear idea of what this was all about, what it means to them, and the most critical points to ponder and take action on?

A thank you slide or a conclusive and positive resolution?

We can do better

I can’t tell you how many exceptional solutions and great ideas, even some of my own, have been defeated by mediocre incumbents over the years.

The reason? It's not your product. It's not your price. It's something far more fundamental.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most B2B sales decks completely miss why buyers stay frozen in place.

Let's address an increasingly challenging issue accentuated by the surge in online meetings: Most presentations are dull and overly long, and honestly, they are really quite awful at their job. They are uninspiring and fail to engage their audience effectively. As a result, very few people are excited by the prospect of sitting through another hour-long carousel of slides.

With the increasing frequency of meetings encroaching upon both our time and mental bandwidth, every casual conversation seems to morph into a scheduled online session ‘Hey, quick catch up on the weekend?

Have you ever watched a puppy discover the fine line between good habits and bad ones? That moment when everything they learn could go either way?

My labradoodle Rupert, now a seasoned six-year-old café veteran, has mastered both sides of this line. Today, he's eagerly sharing his "wisdom" with an impressionable pup at our regular breakfast spot, and I can see that pivotal moment approaching – the one where life lessons are about to be learned.

But this isn't just a story about my breakfast adventures with Rupert.

We've all been there. One presentation ends with the audience energised, aligned, and crystal clear on the message and the next steps. Another wraps up with furrowed brows, conflicting interpretations, and a room full of people who seem to have attended entirely different meetings. The difference often isn't the quality of the content or even the presenter's delivery – it's the precision of the message strategy. Understanding this difference is where a simple analogy becomes powerful: the difference between a target and a dartboard.

A lesson in brand strategy from a 45-year-old light aircraft

Ever flown in a small aircraft? Chances are it was a Cessna - the workhorse of aviation that's trained more pilots than any other manufacturer. In fact, they've built more Cessna 172s than Boeing 737s (and we've all flown in one of those).

33 years after my first flying lesson in a Cessna, I found myself back in the cockpit of one built in 1979. It is still airworthy, doing precisely what it was designed to do and still loved by those whisked into the air for their first flying lesson. But this isn't just a story about my history with aircraft.

Hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months of work have led to this moment, and it’s time. It's time to release your message and share it with the world.

And the fear kicks in: Will they get it? Will it make sense to someone who has not been on the journey? Will they buy into our thinking, into us? Will we get what we need back to have made this all worthwhile?

Sometimes, these stories are harmless and merely reflect the human tendency to simplify, while in others, they can be misleading or manipulative.

It can be an unconscious adaptation or an intentional strategy to avoid facing or revealing more complex or challenging realities.

I am referring to the stories of convenience.

The story of convenience often serves a particular agenda. By aligning with common beliefs or prevailing trends, it is easy for people to buy into and support that POV without requiring significant thought.

There are times when the orientation matters more than the content. But all too often, the easy path wins at the expense of the better outcome.

A story about the brand, product or service can be oriented in one of two ways:

Inward story - which I define as ‘all about you’

Outward story - which is what’s in this for the audience - ‘Why should they care?’