Resonate Archive - The Art of Communicating

Resonate stronger

When their brilliant idea loses to an inferior one that’s among the most frustrating experiences for any entrepreneur or leader.

Even more so when the others are playing it unfair by promising the blue from the skies and using all sorts of sneaky marketing and sales tricks.

But the solution is not to play by their rules and persuade even harder. It’s to change the rules and resonate stronger: understand your audience so well that you can craft messages that resonate so strongly that they become irresistible.

I imagine a world in which those of us who have an important story to tell, a story that has the potential to change the world, find the words to make that happen.

What’s your story?

Adapt or Attract

Two ways to resonate strongly with your audience.

Adapt your messaging to the audience.

Or.

Attract your audience with your messaging.

Which one do you choose? Why?

Smile!

Do it!

And while you’re at it think about a beautiful interaction you had.

Stay with that thought for a while! 
…

Good. How do you feel?

If you’re anything like me, you’ll feel better. More relaxed. Less stressed.

That’s what smiling does with us.

But the real magic happens when we do it in front of people.

Smiling is contagious. One person smiling makes other people smile as well. And it has the same effect on them. Smiling makes them feel better. More relaxed. Less stressed.

That’s why smiling is one of the best ways to start into a conversation.

Why don’t you try it on the next person that has a conversation with you?

Are you unavoidable or irresistible?

A lot of marketing advice these days focuses around becoming unavoidable. Being so present in the market that people can’t avoid you because your messages are present everywhere.

But, of course, being seen in a noisy world like ours is quite the challenge. Unsurprisingly, common marketing advice is that in order to be seen, you need to publish a lot. On as many channels as you can. So, in essence, to stay on top of the noise. If others publish a lot, you publish even more.

I think it’s much better to become irresistible instead. To make each of your messages so strong that people will be drawn to it regardless of their volume.

The most important shift that happens is that it’s not about the medium anymore but about people. While you can dominate a medium on sheer volume (though it’s unlikely because the next guy who is willing to turn up the volume even more, is right around the corner), the same is not true for people. Quite the opposite. Sooner or later people will just tune out if they feel overwhelmed by volume.

Instead of more, focus on intense! At least if it’s people you care about.

Louder?

The world of marketing gets louder. Essentially every day.

As every business and many employees turn into publishers, we not only get ever more, but ever louder messages.

One way to deal with this: Get louder as well. Publish more. Publish crazy stuff. Use bolder colors. Be even more provocative than the others. Or more fun.

Another way to deal with this: Focus on your audience and resonate stronger.

The difference is this: While communicating louder is concerned mainly with yourself and your desire to be heard, resonating stronger is concerned with the audience and their desire to be heard.

Rather than loudness, resonance requires consistency. Much more than this it requires a deep understanding of what matters to your audience. When you deliver both, people will listen even if you whisper.

Speaking to a crowd?

Many presenters approach presenting as the task of speaking to a group of people.

What would you do differently if, instead, you spoke to just one person?

A few things that my clients tell me changes for them when they try this:

Their tone becomes much more conversational and they use more natural language.
Their stories get a lot more personal.
They avoid bullshit because when you imagine looking someone into their eyes while saying something, talking bullshit becomes a lot harder compared to when you speak to “a target group”.
They detach from their slides because it feels awkward to have a conversation while either of the participants is staring at a screen.
They focus much better to what matters to the person they imagine and as a result, by letting go of trying to please everyone, they actually resonate with those who care on a much deeper level.

Do they care?

Often, they don’t. We have gone to great length to elaborate on any possible argument. We have shown all the facts. Proven all the cases. Yet, still they don’t care.

Because caring is emotional while our presentation was 100% rational. When you need to people to care, you need to make them care. Most of the time, that’s not by giving them the facts but by resonating with what matters to them on a deeper level.

So, what matters? Why would they care about the numbers going down? What does it mean? How does it affect what they showed up for? How does it change things for them? How will they feel about that change?

They might very well see your point, but to bring them to action, they also need to feel it.

What’s her job?

When doing a sales presentation to a group of people, it really helps to understand what each person’s role in the meeting is.

Who is the decision maker? Why did she bring this or that person? Often, it’s not what it seems at first sight. And sometimes, we might underestimate the importance of these roles.

For example, there might be a finance manager whose job is to take care that you don‘t overcharge. There might be a product manager whose job is to take care that you don’t bullshit. There might be a marketing manager whose job is to take care that what you propose fits the overall brand story.

But it might just as well be the other way around. That the product manager is really dying to use your innovative solution and hoping for you to convince her boss. Or it might be that the boss is eager to pull your proposal off but the sales director needs to be convinced because if she isn’t all-in her team won’t be motivated to make it a success.

When knowing exactly why everyone’s there you can much better resonate with what’s important to them.

Shouting is easy

Shouting is easy, getting people to listen is not. Yet, it’s all about being heard and not at all about talking louder. Or talking more. People listen when what you say resonates with them. And that means talking smarter, not harder.

Shouting louder seems like the easy thing to do. More posts, more ads, more promotions, a bigger show, shinier decorations. And it might work.

Or it might not.

What shouting does is provide you with a moment of attention. People look over. But they might just as well move on when they decide it’s not for them.

People will stop to listen when what you say resonates with them.

Instead of pushing hard to make them care about you, the smart thing to do is to care about them. To look at things from their perspective. To try hard to understand what matters to them. So that you can articulate what they feel but what they can’t put in words themselves. And when you do this, you won’t need to shout. They will listen – even when you whisper.

Worlds Best Presentation Contest 2010

Auf slideshare wurden am Wochenende die Gewinner des diesjährigen World’s Best Presentation Contest bekannt gegeben. In diesem Jahr kann man zwei Trends beobachten.

Das gestalterische Niveau zumindest der Top-Beiträge nimmt zu und ist mittlerweile auf einem hohen Level angekommen. Besonders auffällig ist, dass viele Präsentationen sich prägnanter Schriftarten und Farbschemata bedienen. Das alles dürfte nich zuletzt auch der Verdienst von zahlreichen hervorragenden Büchern und Blogs zu dem Thema sein, allen voran sicher Garr Reynolds und Nancy Duarte.

Zweitens haben die meisten Siegerbeiträge einen deutlich sensationalistischen Anstrich. Sie versuchen mehr zu beeindrucken als zu überzeugen. Das äußert sich bei den meisten Präsentationen in einer wahren Flut von Zahlen und Fakten, meist in astronomischen Größenordnungen. Also die Sorte an Fakten, bei denen man denkt: „Krass, so viel“, ohne sich dabei wirklich vorstellen zu können, was diese Zahlen tatsächlich bedeuten. Vielleicht sehen wir aber auch in diesem Bereich dank Büchern wie Nancy Duartes resonate im nächsten Jahr genau so große Fortschritte wie im gestalterischen Bereich.

Gewonnen hat übrigens diese Präsentation über das Rauchen:

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