My wife calls me at home and says, “Russ, I’m lost! Must be solar flares or something because neither of my gps devices are working. I need you to give me directions so I can get home.” Before I can give her any directions, what is my first question for her?

“Where are you?” That’s right! It would be silly for me to offer any directions to her until I know her exact location. While I’m sure this seems perfectly logical to you, we don’t always take this logical step when we are preparing a message for an audience.

In my previous post we reviewed the three questions used to define your goal for speaking. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you know the importance of setting goals. But while we may be good about setting our goal (destination) for the audience, we’re not always so good at defining our starting point.

Three questions to define your starting point

The three questions below should be used to understand where your audience is today. Once you know where they are today and where you want to take them, you’re ready to create your message. Your presentation acts as the bridge to move your audience from Point A to Point B.

1. WHO are these people?

Are you speaking to a group of accountants? angry homeowners? salespeople? engineers? executives? 5th graders? sports fans? This first question helps you identify with the group you’ll be presenting to. As specifically as you can, answer the question, “Who are these people?” Document as much as you can about your audience. If you realize you don’t know much at all about the audience, then contact someone to learn more. This information will help you build the right message for the right audience.

2. How much do they KNOW about your topic?

Some people in your audience know very little about your subject when they arrive. In fact, the only reason for attending your presentation might be to learn more about your subject. They’re expecting you to provide an education. In other cases, the audience might know quite a bit about your subject already. In this case, you know that you can leave some of the details out of the presentation because they don’t need an in-depth lecture on the subject.

What should I do?

If you need them to know and understand the subject and they currently know very little today, then you will need to include enough data, examples, and illustrations to help them understand. If they don’t need to know much more than what they already know, then there is no need to bore them with slide after slide of data. They will feel like you are talking down to them or that you’re wasting everyone’s time. Instead, just focus on the next steps and why they should care about taking the next step.

3. How much do they CARE about it?

As an example, if you were speaking out against a large retailer who wants to build a shopping center directly across from your neighborhood.  While speaking to your neighbors and fellow homeowners, who already care quite a bit about stopping the retailer, you don’t need to focus on generating a strong feeling. You just need to focus on informing and educating them on the plan to channel those strong feelings.

What should I do?

If they don’t really care about your subject today, but you need them to care quite a bit, then you need to focus on generating the right emotions in your audience. You could remind them how a certain action will negatively affect them all. This could make them angry or frustrated causing them to want to change. Stories are a powerful way to generate feelings in your audience. You see this technique used quite often by people who ask for donations to a worthy cause. “I’d like to introduce you to Sarah. Sarah is 5 years old and goes to bed hungry every night because her family can’t afford enough food…”

Give ’em what they came for

I tell my students if they want to be one of the greatest speakers to ever live they only have to do one thing consistently… give the audience what they came for! The best way to make sure that happens is to define your starting point and define your desired endpoint. Then, build your message to bridge the gap.

How do you define the starting point for your audiences?

Still trying to give ’em what they came for… plus a little extra.

Thanks for being here. See you next week,
Russ

p.s. Don’t forget to have a little fun too. As my co-founder and business partner Kevin Karschnik says, “What you bring to the stage is contagious!” So make sure what you bring to the stage is worth catching!

p.p.s. If you like what you’re reading, please share with others. Connect with me on Twitter and Facebook where I share inspiration and insights from other communication leaders.