Think first! – The right steps for effective communications
Businesses today present ideas in many ways. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don’t. One of the easiest ways to make sure your ideas are presented well and well received is to organize your goals and thoughts BEFORE you attempt to create a presentation.
This outline will help you do it. It is designed to help organize and unify thinking about the ideas to be presented. The results of this process can also be delivered to an external producer or writer to ensure that the intended message is communicated in the most efficient and effective manner. By spending a little time early in the planning stages of a project to honestly answer these questions, the people preparing and presenting the idea will have a much better chance of achieving the goals set out in the presentation.
Many times, polling the audience before answering these questions will provide a better understanding of where the problems really lie and will also provide a yardstick by which to measure the success of the presentation — “If you didn’t measure it, you didn’t measure it.” did”. Do not do it!”
PERSPECTIVE (The MOST CRITICAL information)
1. What is the PRIMARY problem we are addressing?
It could be as simple as a new product launch, sales program, etc… Or as complex as an unmotivated audience where this attitude needs to be addressed BEFORE anything else happens. Answering this question would lead to…
2. What specifically do you want the audience to do with your idea after hearing about it?
Use action verbs like; DO, GO, SELL, INCREASE, HAVE, BELIEVE, THINK, ACT, etc. in a short and concise sentence.
3. What, if any, are the secondary problems?
4. What is the dimension of the problem?
This is usually the dollar cost of what will be addressed. This will give you the yardstick by which success will be measured. This also provides background for…
5. How much are we willing to spend to address the problem?
Again, a dollar figure that will drive the budget for the communications that will occur to address the issue.
DELIGHTED
6. What is being introduced?
This includes durable goods such as cameras, photocopiers, suitcases, fruit cocktails, etc., or ideas and concepts such as sales programs, incentives, or marketing strategies. It even includes ideas like businesses or activity groups, whose services are being sold to a potential customer or customer.
7. What relevant information is available about the idea?
This includes brochures, press releases, preliminary information sheets, images, tourist brochures, management directives, procedural outlines, marketing bulletins, sales guides, etc. This information is critical and must be made available to the production group immediately.
8. If you only had two minutes for the audience to understand the theme of this program, what would you emphasize in that short time? What is the most important? Be as specific as possible.
9. What additional relevant information should be given on the topic?
10. Are there any specific reliability or quality demonstrations that can or should be included?
11. What is the competitive environment for the topic of this program?
12. What are the strengths and weaknesses of these competing products or ideas? What do they have that we don’t? What do we have that they don’t?
13. Why should customers buy OUR product or idea instead of our competition?
14. Is there a historical perspective for this product or idea? What was the logical predecessor of this event in the company’s or industry’s past?
ATMOSPHERE
15. Where and how will the idea be presented? In what way?
16. What is the due date for this submission?
(This may be different from the performance date due to preliminary approvals, whether it is a live event, travel time, setup and rehearsals, etc.)
17. What is the size of the group that will receive the information?
18. If it is a meeting, is it a closed meeting, incentive or award meeting, required meeting, individual presentation, etc.
19. What is the specific personality of the audience?
Comment on things like education, occupation, motivation, likes and dislikes, happy to be here or not, self or external motivation, etc.
20. As mentioned in question 1, is there a need for motivation BEYOND the scope of the presentation… ie, is the audience already highly motivated or is lack of motivation part of the problem?
21. Will there be gifts, prizes, prizes, premiums or other related?
22. Are there additional uses for this presentation? that is, is it a Video that can be distributed through other channels? Does the presentation have any PR value, eg could it be used at a press conference? Is it worth continuing with this? If this isn’t a trade show presentation, could it be used like this? If this is a trade show presentation, could it be used in another way? Are there other connections like this that can be made and thus help pay off the cost of production over multiple uses?
23. Any additional comments or suggestions that will help this presentation do the best and most effective job possible.
You can see that answering these questions honestly and using the answers to guide the preparation and delivery of the communication will virtually guarantee success. You can also see that you have a yardstick by which to measure the success of the program, as I said from the beginning, “If you didn’t measure it, you didn’t do it!”