Having had a whole bunch of business development conversations as of late and being in even more as a partner or guest – one thing which stands out for me is how long many folks take to get to a valuable outcome (if they ever get there). Much has been said about effective communication, but one thing which stands out to me is advice I received from a speaker trainer a long time ago:
Create Relevancy First.
Most of us tend to talk about what we care about first, before figuring out and addressing what the audience wants. Here’s a simple example: How many times have you seen someone start a presentation by talking about themselves and his or her achievements.
Guess what? At this point in the conversation, the audience likely won’t care.
What you want to do is to create relevancy first – you need to earn the right to talk about your stuff. Figure out what your audience wants to get out of the conversation, address this first and then back it up by all the things on your agenda.