Three words to land your memorable message

It’s a busy, noisy world we live in today. Our messages are competing with many others. To survive and thrive, you need strong communication skills to land your important messages.

So, how do you get someone’s attention, grab it and keep it long enough to land your point? Be that a demand for action or a reaction?

Use this easy to remember model to create a memorable presentation or guide a conversation to the conclusion you want.

To land your message succinctly and with clarity, you need to plan your delivery, and you can use these three simple words as your guide – What, Who, and How.

What:

Start by asking yourself what you want to achieve. Have only one clear-cut and specific objective for success. I find it useful to ask myself questions. Here are a couple to start with, but I am sure you will think of your own:

• What do I want from the conversation?

• What point(s) do I want to raise?

Over the years I have come to realise that my biggest communication failures were when I was unclear on the outcome I wanted or, worse, had mixed objectives. This led to unclear and unsuccessful conversations.

Who:

Selecting the right person to achieve the outcome you have already identified is the next step.

Understanding your listener is the key to your success. Gather facts on them if you don’t already know them personally.  Try to put yourself in their mind and try to think like them. Ask yourself, what is the key thing that will get a favourable reaction?

I used to have a boss who had a very limited attention span. You had to land your messages in the first 30 seconds, or else he was off on another topic. This focused my mind. I would fail sometimes. When I did, I simply walked away to fight another day. There was no value in trying to push your point once he had lost focus. It would do more harm than good. It is all about knowing your audience.

How:

The “How” starts with the right approach. Is there a single thought or question that will best lead to your objective?

Only choose one approach. Any more will just cause confusion.

Think of a memorable conversation you have had recently. Why can you remember some conversations as if they happened 5 minutes ago, and others that may have been 5 minutes ago are instantly forgotten? This is because they invoked an image in your mind.

Always use a hook to get attention. That can be either a statement or a question. You will see the best communicators in the world always doing this. Your hook can be serious, dramatic, humorous, anecdotal, a personal experience or something visual.

Once you have your audience hooked, move on to expand on your subject. Explain, reinforce or prove your hook. If your hook was a question, make sure you answer it.

At this stage, your message will be lost unless you know your subject and present it concisely and forcefully. Using simple language for clarity must not be forgotten.

At the end, just ask for what you want. Too often this step is forgotten. Your close can be either asking for action or asking for a reaction.