IT may seem a strange admission for a scientist and engineer, but there are two groups of people I secretly admire outside my field - car salesmen and the producers of TV advertisements. A strange choice, you might think, but both groups convince us to purchase things that we did not know we needed. Somehow they get us to part with more money than we would rationally admit to. How come the rest of us seem unable to approach their brevity, focus and efficient communication?

In a world that is speeding up, it is increasingly important to communicate effectively to get the customers to comprehend and make the best decision possible. It is even more important to get organisations and groups to make the right strategic decisions in the shortest possible time. I often despair at the time wasted in discussion and debate predicated by poor briefings, presentations and the sheer inability to adapt to an audience. Sticking to the script and death by PowerPoint seems to be the dominant mode.

Watching technologists sell their products and ideas is like an evening at the Moscow State Open Air Strip Club on a January evening. The star comes on stage to perform the dance of the 99 rabbit skins, but by the time she gets to the last one, the audience is so cold that they do not care anymore. Car salesmen do not do this - they do not start with the concept of transport, the invention of the wheel, the detail of the internal combustion engine and traction control. They get the customer in the car and demonstrate the acceleration, road holding, hi-fi and other gizmos. If the customer asks, they show them the engine compartment.

Ask yourself: when did you last look under the hood, take the back off a TV, the top off a washing machine, before you decided to purchase it? Of course, you wouldn't. Who cares? They are just boxes that we purchase by the colour of the knobs. Design, look, feel, function, quality, service and value is what we crave.

To my mind, the technologists seem to be the worst offenders. The most cataclysmic examples that I have witnessed are a university professor delivering a lecture on multi-media using a black and white overhead projector, and an engineer using mathematical equations to describe a natural language computer interface. How could they get it so badly wrong? Why didn't they get to the last rabbit skin faster and just do a full frontal demo?

Looking at our education inside and outside the formal school, college and university system, we are all conditioned by years of A-Z serial progressions - understanding through logical step-by-step argument, experimentation, demonstration or by blind indoctrination. This does not sell cars, and it does not win over an audience who are busy and preoccupied.

We have the technology to produce low-cost graphics, animations and simulations, but the most common excuse is "I don't have the time to do it" or worse, "I cannot afford the investment in equipment or training time to become competent."

I always thought there was a large grain of wisdom in that old Chinese proverb:

I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.

It is so easy to let the customer play with the technology, let them ask their questions, let them decide the path of their understanding.