Anatomy of a Message

Before you craft any message to anyone, you have to ask yourself three important questions:
So What?
Who Cares?
What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM – my personal favorite)

A message has three parts: A bottom line of no more than 12 to 14 words; proof; and “make me care.”

The bottom line is straightforward. It's the reason why you've called the meeting - and what you hope to achieve from the meeting.

The proof is the data – it's why this request you're making is essential, supported with facts.

The “Make Me Care” could be considered the warm, fuzzy part of a message. This element is critically important if your audience is not informed to the degree you might be in the technical aspects of the product or technology.

What you bring to the message is so important. While the information I'll be providing you with here has to do with giving a presentation to a group of people, it's relevant also to one-on-one conversations as well.

This may come as a surprise to you but the vast majority of what people remember a week after hearing a presentation is how that presenter seemed, looked, sounded, eye contact, gestures. In fact, a whopping 55 percent of what an audience remembers is the non verbal.

Your voice and how you use it is 38 percent of what people remember. Vocal projection, vocal quality, variations of volume and pitch of your voice, pacing of your voice. Do you use signal phrases (for example, “This is important” or “If you remember nothing else, remember this”) to pull in the attention of the audience? Do you pause to let the audience absorb the information and thereby bracketing off key messages?

Amazingly, only 7 percent of what your audience walks away with is the content of your message... That's why you have to work to focus your audience on the words you feel are important – and not the other way around.

I've seen it happen so often, presenters leaving it up to the audience to decide what’s important and what is not. That's the kiss of death. Pointing out what's important is the presenter’s responsibility. You have to know that before going in. This way you can guarantee your message will get through the noise.
Go forth and conquer.

Get more exciting communication tips in Your Self-Sabotage Survival Guide by Karen Berg. Read more here: tinyurl.com/y786t4ax