How to – Get Your Message Heard If you want to sell, persuade, inform, or motivate people, you will have to speak and they need to listen. Many professionals prefer to shoot from the hip and hope for the best. Why not give yourself a better chance to be heard? If you want to stand apart from the crowd and experience a higher rate of success, take some time to really be professional, and plan your message.

• Determine what is important to your audience? What do they want? What are they thinking? What is important to them and their situation? Through active listening and some good research you can answer those questions before you open your mouth and deliver a message that fits their framework.

• Communicate caring. You want to convey your concern for their welfare.

• Talk with energy and enthusiasm. If it doesn’t excite you, why would it excite them?

• Be concise. Choose phrases that are like sound bites – they are memorable and repeatable.

• Get their attention. Ask a question, tell a story, or relate and interesting, alarming or surprising statistic that immediately creates a bridge between what you want to say and what thy want to know.

• Practice phrasing, opening comments and strong concluding statements. You want to be able to focus on your energy and their attention, rather than searching for words.

If you want people to really get your message, make sure that it is heard. To compete with the data overload that everyone experiences, hone your communication skills for maximum impact.

Labels: Communication, message

  1:55 PM •