A lovely Golden Rule: “Best goes earliest”
In other words: put your most important points right at the start of your comms. Here’s why…
When communicating, people usually build-up to their main point.
Which means their main point appears in the final section, the final bullet point, the bottom paragraph, the bottom half of each paragraph…
And the problem with this?
Our audiences’ concentration drops during our communication.
Which means that – when we put our main point at the end – our audience has already switched-off!
So, with any communication, always ask:
- What’s my #1 message?
- What’s the best way to phrase this message, so it has the biggest impact
- What’s the earliest time I can first mention it? For example, can I mention it in my title? My subtitle? My introduction? All three?!
And you should do this with all your communication channels. For example, if you were speaking to someone – and your #1 message was you could help them export into Belgium:
- You’d title your meeting “Meeting to agree the best way to export into Belgium” (you wouldn’t call it ‘Catch-up’)
- You’d call your proposal “Proposal: how I will help you export into Belgium” (you wouldn’t call it “Our proposal”)
- If you are doing a presentation about it, slide #1’s title would be “How we can help you export into Belgium” (it wouldn’t be “Our Credentials Presentation”)
- And when you started your meeting, your opening sentence would be “I’ve been looking forward to our meeting. We’ve agreed you want to export into Belgium. Well, I’ve found three new things that will help you. Please can I explain these to you?” (This is much better than “Thank you for your time… did you know we were founded in 1922?”)
So, we always aim to put our #1 points right at the start.
Just like I did above.
Which means that today’s…
… Action Point
For your most important communication today:
- Decide what your #1 message is
- Work out what’s the best way to phrase it, so it has the biggest impact
- Identify the earliest possible time you can first mention it