The 12-Step Speakers' Formula That Actually Works
Chapter 5 is where the book gets really practical. Dave VanHoose lays out a 12-step formula for building presentations that sell. Not a vague framework. An actual step-by-step sequence you can follow.
VanHoose calls it the Speakers’ Formula. He developed it over years of real presentations, starting from a back room at a Denny’s restaurant. That first time, he invited a bunch of prospects, 12 showed up, and he sold to 20% of them on the spot. Made about $2,000 in two hours. Doing that same selling one-on-one would have taken 12 hours. That experience sold him on one-to-many selling forever.
Within three years, his company made the Inc. 500 list as one of the fastest growing private companies in America. The formula he used back then evolved into these 12 steps.
Let’s go through each one.
1. Grab Attention
Most speakers get on stage and talk at people. That pushes them away. You want to pull them in instead.
How? A dramatic story. A set of provocative questions. A bold promise. Something that makes them lean forward and think “OK, I’m listening.” The first 60 seconds of your presentation decides if people stay with you or start checking their phones.
2. Build Rapport
People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Before you pitch anything, they need to buy you as a person first.
Best way to do this? Be transparent. Share a personal challenge you went through. An obstacle you overcame. Some doubt you had to conquer. This makes you human and relatable. Jumping straight into features and facts without rapport is a classic mistake. Nobody cares about your product until they care about you.
3. Gain Credibility
Rapport makes them like you. Credibility makes them believe you. These are different things.
Have you written a book? Been on TV or a podcast? Got credentials, awards, results? This is where you lay out why you deserve to be listened to on this topic. The same presentation delivered by someone with credibility and someone without it gets very different results.
If you don’t have credibility yet, start building it. Write something. Get published. Collect results from clients. It compounds over time.
4. Target Problems
Your audience already has pain. Disappointment, frustration, confusion, anxiety. For most people, it’s simmering in the background. Not urgent enough to act on.
Your job is to turn up the heat. Name their problems out loud. Make the pain feel acute and immediate. Most people don’t move toward a solution until the problem feels unbearable. You’re not creating pain. You’re making them aware of pain they already have.
5. Deliver the Solution
After you made the problem feel real, now you present your solution.
The book is very specific about positioning: step 5 is the sweet spot. Too early and you haven’t built enough groundwork. Too late and people get frustrated.
Here’s the critical warning: do not teach your solution. Just present it. Show that it exists and that it works. Too many presenters slip into professor mode, explaining every detail of how and why. This raises more doubts than it answers. People should leave excited about your solution. Not bogged down in implementation details.
Everything in the presentation should serve one purpose: getting the audience to act. Anything else gets cut.
6. Set Expectations
Tell people where you’re taking them. Nobody likes boarding a plane without knowing the destination.
VanHoose shares his own four rules he uses with audiences: we’re going to have fun, I’ll give 110%, this is interactive (the more you give, the more you get), and you’ll take action today.
This creates “yes energy.” You’re getting small agreements throughout. By the time you ask for the big yes (the purchase), they’ve already been saying yes for 30 minutes. It’s pre-framing how they’ll respond to the rest of your presentation.
7. Social Proof
When you present your offer, people will have objections. “I don’t have time.” “It won’t work for me.” “I’ve been burned before.” They are saying something negative in their head.
The antidote is targeted social proof. Not random testimonials. VanHoose recommends identifying 5 to 7 common objections your audience will have, then finding 5 to 7 matching testimonials. Each one erases one specific doubt. Strategic, not decorative.
8. Show Benefits
People don’t buy products. They don’t even buy benefits. They buy the benefits of the benefits.
Nobody buys fast-drying paint because it dries fast. They buy it because they get their afternoon back and don’t have to babysit a wet wall. Time and freedom. That’s what they’re really paying for.
Whatever you sell, go two levels deep. What does the feature do? Good. What does that do for their life? That’s what you put in your presentation.
9. Irresistible Offer
Think of offers on a scale from 1 to 10. A 1 is boring and basic. A 10 is so good people feel stupid saying no. Most offers land at a 3 or 4. Push it higher.
Build value by listing everything they get. Make each component feel substantial. A great presentation can completely fail if it leads to a mediocre offer. The offer is where the money is. Don’t skip this work.
10. No-Risk Guarantee
The number one reason people don’t buy isn’t your price. It’s that somebody else burned them before. They’re sitting in your audience remembering the last time they trusted someone and got hurt.
A clear, simple guarantee fixes this. VanHoose says he tested 7-day, 30-day, 6-month, and 12-month guarantees across 3,000+ presentations. The surprising result? The length barely matters. What matters is that you have one. Any guarantee beats no guarantee. Match the timeframe to how long it reasonably takes to judge the result, and you’re fine.
11. Give Deadline
People procrastinate. It’s human nature. Without urgency, they’ll walk out thinking “I’ll do it later” and never come back.
You need a clear deadline. Not vague. Specific.
VanHoose prefers fast-action bonuses over discounts. Lowering prices is what everyone does. Instead, offer something extra for the first 10 people, or a bonus that disappears at midnight. For webinars, put a countdown clock on the order page.
The whole point of group presentations is efficiency. If everyone walks out to “think about it,” you lost that efficiency.
12. Call to Action
Tell people exactly what to do. Right now. Not “think about it.” Not “visit our website sometime.”
“Stand up, walk to the back table, fill out this form.” Be that specific. Have forms ready. Have staff at the doors. For online presentations, make the click path seamless. One button, one page, done.
VanHoose says many presenters seem afraid to actually ask for the sale. Don’t be. You built the whole presentation for this moment. Be direct.
The Big Idea
This formula has been used in over 500 presentations across 43 industries in 109 countries. It’s not theory. It’s a tested sequence.
VanHoose puts it simply: “Success loves sequence.” You can rearrange these steps if you’re an experienced pro. But if you’re not, follow the formula as-is. The order matters. Each step builds on the one before it.
What I find most useful about this chapter is how specific it is. Most presentation advice is generic. This gives you an actual checklist. Build your next presentation with these 12 blocks in this order, and you’ll have something that works.
This is post 7 of 21 in my retelling of No B.S. Guide to Powerful Presentations by Dan Kennedy.
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