Tell me What it Means

In our haste to get the message out, we often forget to spell out what it means. This is pervasive in the design of a variety of communications. Go beyond benefit -- what will the other person's  outcome be? This is their take away in exchange for their attention and time. If you don't spell it out you may run into two problems:

1. Your call to action is not going to be strong enough to stimulate action -- a waste of resources
2. Your customers' expectations will be widely diverse from your intent -- and that may be bad

We forget for a variety of reasons -- it's in our heads, we're too close to the information, we're too lazy to go the extra step, we're copying someone else's tactic without seeing or knowing the strategy behind it. So we have a list of incompletes:

• the press release that announces a new product or service with a bunch of technical specifications in the company quote
• the direct mailer with the bold statement that something or other is vital, a "must have"
• the annual all employee meeting or company wide announcement that lists all the things the company has done in the year
• the speaker who presents a whole bunch of facts and data

Tell me what it means. How is your product or service going to improve my business? How does this list of accomplishments take us closer to our goal? How is the data relevant? Make the information come alive, use stories. Let's not bury the lead in the Q&A, let's put the answer right where it belongs, in the communication piece.

Do you have an example of a communication piece that connected with you? Chances are, it's because it told you what it means.

[Question Mark, Stuttgart Galleries, Bart's Flickr ]

Comments

[Robyn]

Valeria, you've done well to point out why our communication is not received well... folks don't understand exactly what you mean.

You offer excellent antidotes to solve the problem.

[Thomas Clifford]

Valeria,

I think Hitachi nailed it with their "True Stories" series.

http://www.hitachi.us/truestories

As a filmmaker, I'm impressed when a company can take a product or service and make it meaningful and relevant to me through the medium of film.

The Hitatchi stories are short, personal, emotional and delicious in style. Too slick? Perhaps. But they are simple stories that connect me with their product.

I'm hooked. I'm in.

Not tech talk. No specs. No data.

All story.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Robyn -- if we were disciplined enough to ask ourselves, we would come to see better results from our efforts. That's what we're after anyway.

@Tom -- Not everything needs to be unscripted to sound true. There is something to be said for presentation (not as in PowerPoint;-) Good stories work, that's all there is to it. Thank you for posting the link!

[Carolyn Ann]

So many presentations, so many sales pitches. I remember one, it was when "object oriented" was all the vogue: the sales guy (who happened to be a misplaced techie) went on and on about how their product was "object oriented". He was fine until I asked: What does that do for me?

Making a presentation meaningful isn't easy; I think that's why so many are do mundane. Besides, so many - too many - confuse the tool with the idea. (I once worked with someone who said, quite sincerely, that she couldn't manage a project because MS Project wasn't installed on her computer...)

Giving a good presentation takes practice, and training. It also takes a rehearsal where people are able to critique without fear. Which is harder to come by than you might suppose. (Here's an idea: Research the history of telephone numbers. And give a lively presentation on that! I did - it works. It's nothing to do with anything, it's mundane and it's great practice. :-) )

Besides the requisite training, all you need is enthusiasm and an ability (or someone to send you a signal) to know when to shut up. Easy. :-)

Carolyn Ann

[Carolyn Ann]

The "?..." ? [sic, sorta]

That's the verbal punctuation when I try to get around the fact that I was distracted reading when my Mrs was telling me something...

Sorry, I couldn't resist. :-) (It's too true, by the way...)
Carolyn Ann

[Robyn]

I so agree, Valeria, that if we come to a problem in understanding, our own questions help us find solutions.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@ Carolyn Ann -- for rehearsing and working on presentations I also recommend attending a toastmasters meeting. The group does a far job of critiquing the speaker and everyone is passionate about helping others improve public speaking.

@Robyn -- I spend too little time with your material. For those of you who have not visited Robyn's blog, she writes at BrainBasedBiz -- see sidebar under ideas and her name here. It's well worth your time.