Do you know your audience?
Wed, April 20, 2011 at 15:45 
I recently had a meeting with the Chief Operating Officer of a large international corporation and I was impressed by one of his statements.
Some years ago, he was responsible for setting up a new supply chain for his company, including contracts with a significant number of local suppliers and some tremendous construction investments. When all of the plans were complete, his company had to defend those plans at a conference in front of the local suppliers and politicians, all of whom had diverse interests. Only a few were in favor of the new “intruder”, and he knew that all the planning and thought preparation would be wasted if he did not succeed with this one speech.
He had a 20 minutes time limit, but spent 40 hours of pure working time over several weeks preparing. He used two hours of preparation for each minute of his speech. Even more striking is that he used most of this time to determine the self-interest of the most influential people in the audience so that he could connect to them more effectively.
Intuitively, he followed a three-step process:
- Have a clear goal. What do I want to achieve with my speech?
- Know your audience. What drives them? What facts and which emotions?
- Connect your goal to their rationale and their emotions. How do I use what I know to get what I want?
The COO won the audience and the deal.
Think of this when you prepare your next meeting. And follow this 3-step process, no matter whether the stakes are high or low.
If you don’t prepare, then you waste the time of your audience.
Reader Comments (1)
Excellent article and steps Volkmar. Although it may sound basic and common sense, this is really simple steps but most of the times overlooked.
Thanks for sharing it.
Velan