The 3-Part Flow for Presenting Your Value (As Used by the Best University Admissions Guides)
I’ve recently learned a lot about presenting your value from university admissions tours with my teenage twin boys.
In these tours, one of my goals has been to “decode” the structure and flow as the tour guides pitch the school.
What I’ve found is that the best tour guides — the ones who captivate a group all the way through and inspire people to linger afterwards to ask more questions and seek admissions angles — follow a predictable three-step flow.
How does this relate to what you and I do every day? Sure, you may not be guiding tours. You may not even be directly selling a product or service. But you and I are selling ourselves every day. We need to be able to present our value in a way that causes people to pay attention, understand what we offer, and want to know more. This flow not only helps university admissions guides get students interested in their university, it’s also a model for you and me as we present the value of ourselves, our products, or our organization.
Here’s what the flow looks like:
1. Assume the givens. It demonstrates a lot of confidence for a guide to say early in a tour something like, “You wouldn’t be on this tour if you didn’t already believe we have great curriculum, teaching, and facilities, so I’m not going to talk much about that unless you ask me.”
This approach also implies a mutual agreement about the institution’s quality, reliability, and credibility. Think about how you can apply this strategy in terms of the givens you want people to assume about the value you’re presenting.
2. Clarify the uniqueness (and anticipate #3.) The exceptional college tour guides will say something along the lines of, “What you’re wondering is how the university truly differs from others so that you can decide whether that fits with what you’re looking for.”
Stating this, and following it with two or three truly unique qualities, helps the listeners build a memorable narrative in their minds for what each school provides. Here’s how one of the school’s tour guides described their uniqueness: “At the end of the day, you should come here if you want your college experience to feel like summer camp.” Another said, “At the heart of our school is an ethos of ‘service,’ where all students will have opportunities to engage in community service.” Another stated it succinctly: “We are about invention and innovation for the world.”
Obviously, to do this, you have to figure out what you’re truly about and how that differs from others. THAT is an exercise worth doing. As you identify those unique qualities, remember that when it comes to communicating them, less is more. More than three differentiators will be difficult for people to remember and will be unlikely to stand out. As the saying goes, you can’t be everything to everyone.
3. Explain why you are involved. It’s during that explanation of uniqueness in step 2 that great college tour guides will build anticipation and readiness for a personal anecdote by saying something like, “And soon I’ll tell you why I go to this school.” The very best tour guides have nearly brought me to tears as they’ve shared their own meaningful stories during this third step in the flow.
This is the point where they shift from presenting mode to personal mode and share, in heartfelt terms, why they have chosen to attend and stay at this school. This personalizes and humanizes the choice matrix and endears the presenter to the audience.
In one case, the guide spoke vulnerably about her ADHD and how she didn’t think she could be successful at a university but THIS university helped her believe in her potential and gave her the support she needed. Tears rolled down my face as she spoke because I thought about the struggles my daughter has had with ADHD.
This speaks to a universal human truth: We relate to people emotionally.
Of course, layered on top of this three-part flow is the ability to communicate with confidence, warmth, and enthusiasm. That doesn’t mean you have to be the world’s greatest presenter to do this, though. Not a single one of these guides was a flawless communicator, by any stretch. But the best stood tall, smiled, and spoke clearly.
Consider how you might apply this flow to your next presentation, interview, or pitch, and watch your application rate go through the roof!
When can you give it a try?
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