Category: Effective Communication

Four secrets to delivering successful presentations.

October 28, 2014
Filed under: Effective Presentations, The Power of Persuasion, Effective Communication — @ 10:59 am

If you’ve been to a Redpoint presentation before…you know what this is: texture.

This morning, when my business partner Vickie saw the 78-slide presentation I’m delivering at a conference tomorrow, she asked, “Um…HOW long are you speaking?”  At my response, she gaped, “FOUR HOURS?…you’re talking to the same group of people for FOUR HOURS?”

My response:  “No Vick, I’m entertaining them for four hours.  The fact that they’ll learn something along the way is just a bonus.”

The secret to engaging an audience of any size is not in the content…it’s in the delivery.  Sure, the content has to be relevant, accurate, and educational.  But the seductive charm comes from the bow you wrap around it.

I’m often asked how I can stand up in front of large audiences for two hours or two days and manage to deliver just the right amount of content and still hold people’s attention to the very last second.  Well kids, ssssshhhh.  Just between you and me… here are the four things I think through when crafting every single presentation…before I even start typing one word of content:

HOW MUCH TIME IS ALLOTTED?  Time parameters dictate the quantity and choice of content.  For example, if a 45-minute presentation includes a 5 minute video, an allowance of 10 minutes for audience interaction, and 5 minutes for everyone coming in and getting settled…that leaves only 25 minutes available for actual content.  If 15 of those minutes must cover technical information critical to the takeaway…that leaves only 10 minutes available for “original” content.  So, when you think you have 45 minutes to fill…in reality, you may only have 10 minutes.  Choose content wisely.

WHAT ARE THE GOALS?  Sounds elementary but most people don’t think through this crucial step.  The goals are not the same as content choices, but rather answer the question:  what do you want the end result of this presentation to be?  I recently presented a keynote session at the Vermont Travel Industry Conference (VTIC), and the goals of that session were:  1- Provide value to VTIC attendees by delivering useful educational content; 2- Infuse joy into a conference that (as instructed to me) needed it; 3- Make the VTIC look cool; 4- Create a positive impression for Redpoint.  The topic – The Magic of Surprise in Guest Service – was incidental.  The goals would have been the same if the topic had been crisis management, social media, or how to carve a turkey.  Deciding on your goals helps you make choices about HOW to present your topic (for the VTIC, I surprised the audience with beer, pretzels, and an eight-piece jazz band – watch that session here), and in what order the information needs to unfold.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE FOCUS?  It’s better to cover a few key topics deeply and slowly, than a dozen topics lightly and fast.  Choose your core messages and don’t stray.  You will hold your audience’s attention and make a lasting impact.  A great line I heard years ago that’s served me well is… overwriting is just a failure to make choices.

HOW CAN TEXTURE BE ADDED?  You will lose people to daydreaming, their mobile device, private troubles, a desire to be elsewhere, and even a need to go to the bathroom.  Texture – doing different things and breaking patterns – is the best way to combat that.  Texture is anything that snaps people out of their thoughts and back into what you’re saying.  There is no formula for texture…in fact, the unexpected element is what makes it so successful, and it has to be natural to the presenter.  Handing out prizes/gifts, stopping to talk to one particular audience member, showing an unexpected picture, singing a song, making everyone get up and switch seats, calling up a volunteer…ANYTHING to break the monotony of standing up there and talking at them.  Find a natural way to infuse texture into your presentations, and invoke it when you need it.

That’s it, friends.  Those are my big fancy presentation secrets.  And now they are yours too… go knock ‘em dead.

Tips for saying “thank you” like you mean it.

March 21, 2013
Filed under: Effective Communication — @ 9:50 am

It is often said that PR is a thankless job.  But yesterday while at work, I kept a running count of the number of times I was thanked for things throughout the day – in writing, by phone, and in person. The total?  A whopping 93 times… in a single work day, while just sitting at my desk.  That’s 10.33 times every hour – which means that basically, once every six minutes, I am being thanked for something.

Now…I am just NOT that awesome.  Moreover, I have no business interaction with the general public, there were only nine people in the Redpoint office yesterday, and I spent most of the day quietly alone, writing at my computer.  So why the outpouring of gratitude?

Because most of the thanks I received were completely inappropriate for the situation.  For example:

  • A letter from American Express thanked me as part of a notification that my account may have been the victim of fraud.
  • An email from someone shared the unwelcome news that, “Sorry, but we’re not sending you a check this week as we promised,” and was closed with a simple “Thanks,” at the end.
  • A woman who cut in front of me in a ladies room to use the hand dryer before I got to it looked at me and sheepishly said “thanks”…as if that somehow excused her behavior.

In fact, the number of times I was legitimately thanked for something yesterday was only 37. All the others were just automatic thanks given without deliberate thought…and therefore, sounded insincere.

The upshot of all this meaningless thanking is that the word “thanks” has lost its punch.  So when you REALLY want to express gratitude for something, “thank you” often doesn’t cut it.

There are ways to be polite and gracious without erroneously using the actual phrase “thanks.”  Here are a few simple tips:

  • If you have “Thanks” as part of your automatic email signature…take it out because it might not fit every message you send.  Adapt your closing to suit the message, be it “Cheers,” or “Best,” or “Kind Regards,” or “My Best,” or even “Enjoy your day,”…or whatever takes your fancy.
  • Embrace the difference between expressing thanks and expressing appreciation.  The person mentioned above who delivered that unwelcome message about the check could have said “Your patience is much appreciated.”  While it’s not a hard and fast rule, “thanking” someone is usually an appropriate response to something they’ve done or said (or not done or said) but essentially, it’s tied to THEM and their actions.  Appreciation is tied to YOU, and how you feel.  You can appreciate someone’s kindness in the same way you can appreciate the beauty of the sunset…but you’d never “thank” the sun for setting.
  • Change up your wording.  When you say “thanks” dozens of times each day, it even becomes white noise to YOU.  Try different phrasing:  I can’t thank you enough… thank you doesn’t do it justice… I am so grateful for… your kindness meant the world to me… I’m so appreciative that… and so on.

And here’s a final tip.  It’s not always what you say to express thanks, but how you deliver the message.  I recently ordered flowers from two different florists in the same week.  One thanked me in the automated email confirmation and payment receipt.  And the other sent this to my house:

Way to go Mischler’s of Buffalo.  You’ve given me a new communication puzzle:  what’s the appropriate way to thank someone for sending an awesome thank you note?

See also the related post:  Write better copy using patience and a thesaurus. 

Five tips to deliver bad news gracefully.

August 29, 2012
Filed under: Crisis Communications, Effective Communication — @ 9:39 am

Raising your prices?  Cutting services?  Not giving out staff bonuses this year?  Putting an employee on probation?

No one wants to deliver this kind of unwelcome news.  Quite frankly…it sucks, for both the recipient AND the messenger.  But sometimes it’s a necessary evil of doing business, and you’re the unfortunate soul who has to bear the burden.  Here are five tips to mitigate the drama:

1 – Let your own emotions run their course before you have to share the news with others.  You may not like or agree with the news you must deliver, but there is a reason why it must be done.  Find a way to come to terms with it in your own mind so you don’t bring your own negative emotional energy to the communication.  Your audience will take its cue from your approach, and if you’re defensive, nervous, weepy, or angry…it will only fuel their own negative response.

2 – Restrict your build-up and get to the point. By the time people get through six long paragraphs of posturing and pussyfooting, their BS-radar is on high alert and involuntary butterflies in their stomach are flooding their brain with negative emotion.  So, when you finally hit them with the unpleasant punchline in that last paragraph, their adverse reaction is intensified by the emotions you yourself have nurtured in them.  The same thing holds true for verbal delivery.  Often times, the anticipation is worse than the actual news.

3 – Consider the timing carefully.  Procrastinating often makes it worse (especially if there is a rumor mill in the mix), but rushing to break the news just because YOU want to put it behind you comes with great risk.   A knee-jerk communication is usually delivered with clouded judgment, high emotion, and a lack of due diligence.  Most importantly, think about when this news will best be received.  Bad news is never welcome, but you should consider factors like time of day, day of week, and your audience’s state of mind before you decide on the ideal timing.

4 – Avoid misdirection and trickery.  It’s tempting to load up bad news communication with a bunch of good news in the hopes of distracting your audience.  However, it will only damage their trust in you.  You may choose this path because it makes YOU feel better (“Look, see?  I’m not that bad…look at all the good things I’m still sharing!”) but to the news recipient, it just looks wishy-washy and weak.  And, in many cases, it can give the appearance of trivializing very serious news and not treating it with the respect it deserves.

5 – Remember that nothing is confidential.  Emails can be forwarded, and social media is designed to be the world’s fastest grapevine.  Whatever you do…whatever you say…before you “go there,” answer this question:  how would I feel if 50 million people knew about this tomorrow?  Nothing tames you into acting gracefully like the thought of being vilified by an outraged public.  United Airlines learned this lesson the hard way.  Watch video.

Above all, you must remember this:  no matter how you spin it or when you say it…your audience won’t like it.  That’s why it’s called “bad news.”  It would be completely irrational for you to tell your customers you’re raising prices and have them respond “Right, then…no worries, we don’t mind.”  So, be realistic with yourself.  If you expect to deliver bad news and have people walking away happy…this will not work out well for you.

And that brings us to the last point:  delivering bad news is not about YOU.  The recipient does not want to hear about how you were up all night belly-aching over having this conversation, or that you’re just so upset you can’t eat, or that it gives you no pleasure to do this.  Asking for their empathy at a time like this is most likely to result in their wanting to smack you.  Let them have their moment of sadness without trying to steal some sympathy for yourself.

A marketing secret: if you can’t beat ’em…play a different game.

March 27, 2012
Filed under: Trade Show Marketing, Marketing Strategies, This is Cool, Effective Communication — @ 8:57 am

Picture this:  you’ve spent a fortune on a gorgeous half-the-length-of-a-football-field booth at the largest trade show in your industry.  You haven’t exhibited at this show in years, and you want everyone to know you’re back…and cooler than ever.

But the booth to your left has celebrity chef Guy Fieri doing a cooking demonstration and book signing in their booth…and the booth to your right has Cat Cora doing the same in theirs…and two aisles down is a “Cooking Theater” with a veritable who’s who of celebrity chef demos…Curtis Stone, Paula Deen, Duff Goldman, Michael Symon, Ming Tsai, and a host of other star chefs performing all day long.  And sadly, you’ve got no celebrity chefs in your marketing arsenal.

How do you battle such overwhelming star power to make your booth stand out from the pack?  Simple:  do something TOTALLY different.

And when longtime client Robinson Home Products asked us to help them do that at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago earlier this month, what’s the first thing we thought of?  The Hot Sardines and their tea-kettle-playing-trumpeter (see earlier post).

While everyone else had their just-one-of-the-pack superstar chefs hawking their wares in a traditional and expected way, we had a 7-piece vintage dixieland band drawing crowds to the Robinson booth with hot jazz and gunbucket blues…but with a twist.  All of Robinson’s new product introductions were used as musical instruments:  graters, cutting boards, tongs, wooden spoons, spatulas, carving boards, cooling racks, pots, pans, mugs, bowls, collapsible funnels, and more.  If it had the ability to make a sound…it became a part of the performance.

Never in my life have I seen so many double takes, as passers-by stopped to see where the music was coming from, and then went… “wait…is that guy tap dancing on bamboo cutting boards?  And is she playing a cooling rack with a cheese grater?”  Watching the realization sink in was fun.  Watching all the camera phones, iPhones, and Tweets record it – and share it – was immensely satisfying.

And after three sets of music throughout the day in the booth, and one in the Cooking Theater to help spread the word show-wide, the deal was sealed:  Robinson was super-cool and stood WAY out from the crowd.  And all of us working the booth at the show finally understood the power of being able to say that coveted line… “Yeah, I’m ‘with’ the band.”  Instant coolness.

What’s the lesson here?  If you can’t meet your competitors on their turf, and you don’t want to spend the money to one-up them at their own game…don’t play it.  Be creative…and redefine the game.  Celebrity chefs have been a mainstay of the Housewares Show for more than a decade, but NOBODY expected a band.  And that made Robinson unforgettable.

Hats off to The Hot Sardines for embracing this unusual performance request and knocking it out of the park, and you can see them perform seven kitchen-tool-infused songs by clicking here (side note:  Some of These Days is my personal fave).  The level of product integration they incorporated into their music – without compromising the integrity of their addictive sound – was unreal.  They are a group of exceptionally talented musicians and Redpoint feels fortunate to have stumbled upon them at the Lincoln Square Winter’s Eve Festival on the corner of 63rd and Broadway last December.

And…hats off to Robinson as well.  Redpoint has brought some quirky ideas to clients before, but not all of them have the guts to take a marketing risk like this.  But we’ve been working with them since 2005, and in their words “it’s easy to put trust in Redpoint…you’ve never steered us in a wrong direction.”

Awwww.  Warms our little PR hearts, that does.

Take the “No I Challenge” to improve your writing in one week.

October 11, 2011
Filed under: Writing Tips, The Power of Persuasion, Effective Communication — @ 12:37 pm
An image of the letter "I" overlaid by a red circle and line through it, as a symbol of the No I Week Challenge to Improve Writing.

Harder than a triathalon…the “No I Week Challenge.”

Here’s why taking the No “I” Week Challenge will improve your writing in just one week.

When it comes to communication, we humans are a selfish bunch.  As writers, we strive to get our own point across…and yet, as readers, we always want to know:  what’s in it for me?

This opposition is one of the key things that make persuasive writing so difficult.  When writing, we sit down to pour out thoughts from our own perspective.  But when you get right down to it…in the world of persuasion, unless you’re the mafia, who really cares about your perspective?  Some recent examples that have crossed my desk:

In a cover letter applying for a job:  I am looking for an opportunity that will help me to grow. 

From a printer looking to sell his services:  I would like a few minutes of your time to introduce you to my company.

From an industry colleague asking for a favor:  I need this by 2pm or I can’t make my deadline.

As a reader, to all of those statements I say (affectionately)…who cares?  Have you seen the length of my to-do list lately?  Do you honestly expect me to grant your request just because YOU want it?  A more compelling reason is needed to break through my clutter and raise your request higher up in my triage pile.

To be more effective in your persuasive writing, try this:  stop using the word “I” (especially to open a sentence) as much as you can.  Using that word pretty much forces the communication to have a selfish perspective.   All sentences can be rewritten without it…they just need to be rephrased to adopt a different approach.  A growth opportunity like this is highly appealing.  With just a few minutes of time, you’ll learn how XYZ Company can save you money.  This is needed by 2pm or the deadline won’t be met.

Rephrasing sentences in this way takes the “you vs. me” perspective out of the equation, and infuses some third-party credibility into the content.  It’s also far less emotional, and certainly more objective.  And all that combines to make the content more effective.  This strategy alone won’t make your audience drop everything and do your bidding, but it definitely starts to stack the decks in your favor.

Ingrained habits are hard to break (especially selfish ones), so here’s a tip to help you jump start this approach to writing:  take the No “I” Week Challenge, which will improve your writing in just one week.  For one whole week, make a conscious effort to not use the word “I” at all.  Rephrase every single sentence to have a more objective point of view.  And don’t cheat by simply replacing “I” with “we” because that follows the letter of the law, but not the spirit.  Like so…

I am hoping you will help me as soon as possible.  NOT… We are hoping you can help us as soon as possible.  RATHER… These answers are needed as soon as possible.

Also don’t cheat by simply dropping the “I” and writing something like:  Wanted to check in with you on that project.  We all feel that “I” even though it’s not there.

We’ve done periodic “No I Week” challenge here in the office at Redpoint, and even we – who write for a living! – had a hard time achieving the goal.  You will get frustrated, you will feel like you’re sounding ridiculous, and there will be times when you stare at your computer screen forever just trying to reword something mundane like “I have a doctor’s appointment at 10 am tomorrow, so will be in a bit late.”  Stick with it.  By the end of the week, this extreme heightened awareness of the “I” perspective will temper your writing moving forward.  You will certainly have cause to use the word “I” in your writing, but you’ll be far more judicious in how you employ it.

Of this, you are assured by me.

For more quick writing tips, click here.

Bok choy and the whole shabang…three lessons in customer service.

May 23, 2011
Filed under: Customer Service, Observations From the Field, Effective Communication — @ 8:39 am

So…is this “A Lot” of bok choy?

Recently, when faced with a choice between Chicken with Mixed Vegetables and Chicken with Your Favorite Vegetables on the menu of a Chinese restaurant, my dad planned to go with his Favorite to ensure the presence of “a lot” of bok choy.  But just in case the Mixed version was already loaded with bok choy (why pay the extra five bucks unnecessarily?), he asked the waiter what the difference was between the two dishes.

I then spent the next few minutes giggling behind my menu as my dad and the waiter enjoyed a fantastically nonsensical “Who’s on First” dialogue about Mixed vs. Favorite, and just how much bok choy is “a lot.”  Apparently, there is NO difference between the dishes, as long as you order the Mixed version and just specify your vegetables.  How intriguing.  I’ll take the less expensive dish, please.

The very next week, my brother and sister-in-law went to a restaurant called Vero with a group of friends, where they ordered The Whole Shabang.  They had told me about this concept earlier, and as a marketer, I thought it was brilliant.  The restaurant serves “little plates” of Italian food, and when you order The Whole Shabang, you get one of every single item on the menu – meats, cheeses, olives, bruschette, pasta, fish, chicken…the works.  Priced at $500, it’s a neat idea, and a fabulous marketing hook.

They promote it right on the dinner menu in its own special promotional box, so that when you go with just a few people, you see it and think… “Cool!  I’m going to come back with a bunch of friends and do this.” …which is exactly what my bro and sis-in-law did.

Imagine my disappointment when I got the post-Shabang recap and it missed the mark.  There was resistance to giving the preferred time when making the reservation, not enough servers to accommodate the size of the group (12), drink delivery was exceptionally slow, they missed serving the entire cheese course (what’s this?…The Partial Shabang?), and a host of other small issues.  They thought the food itself was delicious, but when you commit to ordering every single item on the menu, you sort of expect to be treated better, not worse, than the “regular” patrons.

These two back-to-back restaurant issues brought three major customer service lessons to light:

1 – Marketing ploys not embraced by the staff cause confusion and disappointment among your guests.  Your staff members are the ones delivering on your promises every day on the front lines.  If they don’t get it, don’t like it, or don’t want to do it…you could have the coolest-sounding marketing tactic in the world and it won’t work.  Training on these points is essential to success.

2 – Anything that is operationally challenging to deliver puts your guest satisfaction at risk.  What was intended to inspire positive word of mouth is likely to have exactly the opposite effect.  Why take the risk?  Either don’t do it, or wait to promote it until you’ve got the kinks worked out.

3 – Consumers are very literal.  You write something down in black-and-white, and they expect exactly that.  YOU might know what you mean, but if you’re expecting any forgiveness when they discover it’s a loose interpretation…give up that dream.  Be very thoughtful in how you position things…on your menus, your websites, your brochures, and more.  Over-promising can come back to haunt you.

I’ll let the bok choy incident go…that “Who’s On First” dialogue is actually part of what makes a visit to a Chinese-American restaurant so affectionately memorable.  But I’m not willing to throw in the towel yet on The Whole Shabang.  Come on – ordering one of every item on the menu?  That’s as fun as the Instant Gourmet Kitchen that Redpoint created to market the Masters Collection from the Culinary Institute of America a few years ago (80 items, 5,000 bucks, 3 clicks on the website to purchase).

Stay tuned.  I may just visit Vero (with 9 of my closest friends) and test out The Whole Shabang myself, maybe give them a few pointers along the way.

Or, I could just send in My Coffee Guys to host a training session.  Lal and Abdul never let me down.  Now THAT’S customer service.

Stop using this phrase…ASAP!

February 24, 2011
Filed under: Writing Tips, The Power of Persuasion, Effective Communication — @ 10:01 am

Did you ever ask someone to do something “ASAP” and then not get what you want, when you wanted it?  Here’s why that happened:

The phrase ASAP lets people choose their own deadline.  It means “as soon as possible,” which – in their world – might be now, tomorrow, next Wednesday, or never.  Everyone has their own to-do list and method of prioritization, so the vague direction of ASAP puts the power in the recipient’s hands to judge the level of urgency.

And this is a no-no for getting people to do what we want.

YOU keep the power, or else your own to-do list will always be at the mercy of other people’s timelines.  This doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible in your deadline…but if you don’t give one as a starting point, how will the person know where it fits in their to-do list?

There was a time when ASAP implied “immediately,” but those days are over.  We’ve abused the phrase too much for it to have any real meaning (see how we’ve also done this with the phrase “thanks”).

So, if you want to greatly increase the chance that your deadline will be met, be clear in your request and state the specific day/time you would like to see results.

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