Give your audience only what they need to know
When I have worked with people, they tell them too much. That’s the big thing.
They get stuck in the weeds.
The first thing you want to know is who’s in front of me, what do they care about? And how do they like to receive information. And then you tailor your message to their style and less is more.
And here’s why. If they want åmore information, they’ll ask for it. So, give them what they need to know
not everything you know. And I am going to repeat that because it’s so important.
Give them what they need to know, not everything you know. And when you are crisp, they actually retain more. Keep it simple, keep it short.
It’s hard to go in cold and not know someone, but let’s say you do. Then you want to engage them
in a short conversation, ask them some questions. What are you tackling with? What’s important right now? Start with what’s important to them. And I have a whole process that I put people through in how to structure and organize your talk and your message. I call it listener-centered communication.
And what most people do, the big mistake. One of the big mistakes is they’re speaker-entered
not listener-centered. So they start with what’s important to them: “Good morning, today I want to talk to you about my idea”…. They don’t care about your idea! They care about their own self-interest. So lead with what’s important to them. So if you’re talking to a manager and you want to get an extra person on board to help you out, don’t start with I’m overworked and I need somebody to help me.
Start with “I have a way we can be more productive in this department.”. That’s a hook, a grabber. And so when you lead with that, now you have the listener’s attentionbecause what do managers care about? They care about productivity.
Now that you have that person’s attention you can lead them down the path of how you came to that,
what the problem is and how you have a solution. And you can do it in a really short period of time.
I’ve had people use this process and create a whole presentation and deliver it in six minutes.
And it is powerful. so I would say less is more! … but you have to be able to speak the person’s language. So know yourself, know your audience, know your message.
