IMPACTFUL COMMUNICATION TEMPLATE

RHYTHM IS KEY. TO SOUNDING INTERESTING & MAINTAINING FLOW.
--- THING ---
Such _____ type experiences.
Such a _____ type activity.

--- INTRO DEMO / PRESENTATION ---
I'm really excited to be here today. Let me tell you why ___________.
Today I want to talk to you about________.
Today we are going to cover _________.
We are going to start out today by looking at ______ then ___________.
Before we get started, a quick show of hands _____. I have to assume, some people just don't like raising their hands.


--- REPLACE EH/UHM ---
It's like this ______.
Let me break it down for you________.
Having said that ___________.
With that in mind let me __________.
How should I say _______.
You see _______.
You know ______.
I mean _______.
now _____.
so _____.
Look _____.
Listen ____.
Right?

--- INTRO IDEAS ---
There are 3 key messages we want to communicate. Firstly,_______. This is achieved by _______.

Let me give you some context __________.
Often, Have people ask me, "so tell me", what is a search driven experience all about __________?
So, How does ____.
So, What does ______.
So, Why does ______.

Why is this important you may be asking yourself.
Let's now talk abit about ______.
A second key pillar I'd like to talk about is ______.
With that in mind, let's look at _____.
Picture for a moment __________.
Cast your mind back for a mement to _____.
If I can just take you back to ______.
Let me break it down for you __________.
So, here is the deal _________.
We know there are a few ways RIGHT?

WELL, HERE IS THE PROBLEM WITH THAT THINKING __________.

Before I do that, just let me first ____.
Let me tell you how _____.
Let me tell you why ____.
It's like this _______.
Let me break it down for you _______.

Here's what I have been thinking? _______________.
Let me share for you my thoughts on this ____________.
Here's what I think. In my opinion ___________.
Let me break it down for you _____________.
There are a couple of points here. 1. ___________.

The key take aware here being _________.

---QUESTIONS ---

Let me rephrase the question _____________.

Would it be fair to say that ___________.

--- RESPONDING ---
So, [Repeat question] . Let me tell you how _____.
I agree that is a very important question.
Let me tell you how we have been thinking around that ___________.
I'll tell you what I bet _______.
Good question. Here's how I have been thinking around this.
Let me break it down for you.
There are several elements. Firstly, _________.
But, what I will say is this ______.
Let me park that off for now. _. And we'll touch on that later in the presentation.

I'll take you thru that in a moment. First, I'd like to ______.
Before I answer. What exactly are you looking to achieve?
Firstly. Can you explain why that is of importance to you?



--- BOUNCING OFF LISTENER(s) ---
Ok? Right?
Do you see what I mean?
How many of you are familiar with ____?
Is this making sense? Am I making sense?
Are you still with me?
Are we still on the same page?
Any questions on this? I know when i first saw this I was pretty confused ______.
Would I be right insaying that?

You know that feeling when ______?
You know the pain of having to ___?

Would that be useful to you?
Would that be of interest to you?

So, what we are actually doing here is. How cool is that? huh?
It gets even better. Watch this ______.

Any questions on that_____?
I see eyes glazing over____. Any questions so far _________?

Can you see the benefit of using this in your organisation?
How are you going about achieving this today?

--- ICE BREAKERS ---
If I can recall my slide notes correctly.
You are probably thinking __[JK].
Let me just hit pause for a second.
Let me juckly rewind/fast forward and show you _____.
That takes us to __.
That segweys nicely onto my next slide.
We went a little bit off script there _____.
I like to call them _______.

--- GIVING CONTEXT ---
Let me tell you how I got there ________.
First, let me take a moment to put it into context for you _______.
Well, Let me tell you why ____.

--- HIGHLIGHTING ----
What I can now do is ___________.
I can then start to __________ the benefit of thi is ____________.
The key take aways here being A) B).
I'll repeat this again as this is very important.
One of the key messages I want you to take home is this.
One of the things I want you to take away _____.
This is really important.
Let me just highlight this quickly.
Let me just turn the spotlights on X for a moment.
Its worth mentioning that ______.
What you will notice here is ____.
Let me draw your attention to _____.
So, what I am going to do now is ________.
I'm really excited about this next feature and I'll tell you why ______.
This is really cool. This is brilliant.
You may be familiar with ______. Now contrast that with what you are about to see ____.
I really want to land this.
I really want to fire this home.
There are a few points worth mentioning here.
There is a list here but I'm nt going to iterate thru it. I will though highlight a few key areas. Firstly, _____.



--- EXPLAIN REASONING ---
Here are the evaluation/success criteria I found important _______.Based on these, I concluded that option A would be the best approach ________.

I know last week I said X , but my position has changed to Y. There are several reasons. Let me tell you why _________________.


Let me tell you why. Firstly, _________.
There is an alternative view. Let me share it with you ______.
Here's how it is _______________.
I can walk us thru this in the following slides _______.

--- ANECDOTES ---
Let me give you an example. Now though this customer may appear much larger you are similar in that _______.
It reminds me of a customer we met _____.
We have seen this before, _________.
They were like "Hey, we can't.."
They will say "Look, Its like this..."
We said to ourselves "Wait a second..."
We often get the question from customers - [voice] "so, how come ____"
What we observe from our customer base is _______.
Let's say I am a user who _________.Now, I can _.
So, how does this differ from X you are probably asking. I can tell you why ______.


--- REQUESTING FEEDBACK ---
Does this make sense_______?
Would you agree_________?
From your perspective, how would you see this working in an ideal world_____?
Are there any criteria you would like me to build on_____?
What is your take on this?
I made the assumption that ______________. Is that a fair assumption_______?
If you had this capability. What would this mean for your organisation_______?
What else do you need to know in order to make a decision_______?
Are there any areas where you feel that we are not addressing ______.

---COMPLIMENT---

You have identified some key applications of this technology_______.

You bring up an important point __________.

You have hit the nail on the head. that's exactly right__________.

That sounds like a perfect use case __________.

--- EMPATHY ---

(Understand their concern and play that back to them)

I can understand why you made your decision. You had limited information at the time _____

I know that you must be thinking _______.

I see that you are doing your best, but how about I give you some inputs ____.

--- SUMMARY ---
So, what did we see there? We saw A) B).
So, What did we look at today. In the first section we looked at ______.
So, I spoke a little bit about _______. Then a little bit about _____.
What you saw today was.

So are there any areas where you believe we fail to meet your requirements?


Like a fun night out of tounge in cheek piss taking. Composed Smile.

How do I enjoy more?

http://www.ted.com/talks/srikumar_rao_plug_into_your_hard_wired_happiness.html

We have several MENATL MODELS that guide us.

One key model is the IF ...THEN model which asks what do I need to do in order to be happy?
IF I do this, THEN that will happen and I will be happy. I'm here, want there, these are required steps.
- This model is FLAWED - Think back 10 years to what you wanted in order to be bigger happy. Chances are you have it now! Are you completely unwaveringly happy. NO.

What happens is you change the IF. IF I have a good job (and great salary) (and bigger bonus) (and better projects).....

WE NEED TO ENJOY THE PROCESS & JOURNEY NOT THE OUTCOME.
"INVEST IN THE PROCESS NOT THE OUTCOME" which is outside our control.
Enjoy the 'PROCESS OF PROGRESSING'.

Life is filled with JOURNEYS - "Ask, is this journey taking me somewhere I want to be? If so, enjoy the journey"

"When it is over and you look in the mirror, can you safely say you gave 100% and you were the best you could be...if so you have suceeded"

"Think about a child learning to walk. Imagine what would happen if everytime the child fell they needed a counsellor because they gaveup!?"

Meeting Preparation Template

--- Presentation Flow ---
[P,S,E]
Problem - Create slides for each of the problems
-What is the customer trying to achieve?
-What are the project requirements?
-What challenges does the company have?

Solution - Create corresponding solutions that map your product capabilities to thos problem
-What product capabilities map to these challenges?
-Describe how they do.

Example - Tell a story about a customer that has addressed the same problem using your product.

Need to answer:
[P,S,A,M]
-Problem: What exactly was the problem they had?
-Solution: What was the solution? How applied?
-Advantage: What where the benefits form using this solution?
-Metrics: What quantifiable & qualitative metrics do we have around?

[PSE-PSAM]

What messages do I want to land?

What questions do I want answered?

Impactful Questioning Template

--- UNDERSTANDING A PROPOSAL ---
What leads you to believe that?

I'm not fully clear on ________. Can you help me understand your thinking here?

How does this relate to your other concerns?

How would your proposal affect?

Are you taking into account data that I have not yet considered?

If I understand you correctly, you are saying that?

--- COAXING AN IDEA ---
What are you trying to accomplish?

What types of problems are you encountering?

What do you see as the reasons for these problems?

What do you see as your options?

What solutions have you tried?

How are you planning to move forward?

What resources do you need?

Whose support do you need?

How will you do that?

How will that work?

How could you have anticipated problems sooner?

How do I deal with difficult demands?

Answer: Ensure the requester does their homework by giving you the full context.

Make sure the requester does as much work by giving you the full context.

So for example, if you get a late request to create a demo. Make sure the requester works hard to give you the context. Ask:

- A description of each of the data fields
- Typical uses cases for this information
- Which data fields are used for decision making
- Which data fields would be useful for navigating this data
- Which data fields should have a greater weighting
- Which data fields would AXA like to perform free-text queries over
- Typical use case scenarios for this data
- How AXA would like to see this data displayed
- What AXA will be looking to evaluate in a demo of this data


This will ensure that they work as much as you.
If that is not an option they may just decide to drop the request ;)

Want to Maintain Your Authority? Don't Make These Four Mistakes

http://blogs.bnet.com/mba/?p=1971&tag=nl.e713

1. Giving unclear or overly complex orders: Akerlof’s research found that giving simple orders was key to maintaining authority. The more complicated an order, the greater the chance that employees will interpret it to their advantage.

2. Hiring overqualified workers: “An overqualified worker tends to have the view that they know best,” says Akerlof. “A boss’ authority is in part based on the idea that they know best. So an overqualified worker can both be hard to manage and have an infectious attitude on the other workers, who will start to think, Maybe the manager doesn’t really know what’s best.”

3. Paying unfair wages: One of the surest ways of earning respect — or lack thereof — is through an employees’ pocketbook.

4. Going it alone: Making clear that orders (especially unpopular ones) come from headquarters can help a manager’s authority. “Rely upon rules from the central office, and the central office can help by creating rules that managers can appeal to,” says Akerlof.

How do I improve my communication for presentation, demos and meetings?

You need to find your unique style. Just as comedians have their unique style. Think Eddie murphy versus Robbin williams or Ricky Gervais versus Billy Connelly.
Imagine how wrong it would sound if we had Robbin Williams giving Eddie Murphy jokes and Ricky Gervais doing BIlly Connelly.
Its similar in presenting. I had assumed a sharp, quick, loud, comprehnsive approach was my fitting style. But playing back a recording of myself I realised I sounded very false and could not maintain the speed of flow which lead to big gaps. This gave the impression that I was forgetting what I needed to say. Which was actually the case as I was speaking too fast :)
Re-recording I opted for a more Calm, Confident, Assertive, Story telling style akin to how Obama communicates. It was a dramatic change! I suddenly sounded more interested and as a result more interesting.
I didn't try to hit every point I had prepared flawlessly. Instead I tried to engage with a story, happy to miss key facts and prepared lines.
I had found my new style.

In summary it is:
Calm (not slow) - don't rush through. Calmness shows composure and thoughtfulness.
Confident - no ehs or ums. Speak as if you are the expert on the subject.
Assertive - Speak as a matter of fact. Stand tall. Controlled gradual movements.
Story Telling - Start with Problem and Scene setting. Use Contrasts. Use Analogies. Use Examples.
!!! Rhythm- Keep sentences short and melodic with a repeating rhytm. Speak as if there is a ! at the end of each of these rhythms.

How do I stay consistently assertive?

http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=8441&tag=nl.e808

For example, if you have a tendency to clutch when talking with CEOs, you must decide to change your belief set so that you’re completely convinced that you are as valuable as the CEO to the CEO’s firm long-term success.

Or, suppose that you discover that you’re less assertive when you’ve overeaten or not had enough sleep. In that case, you need to make changes to your physiology in order to provide the foundation of health and energy that will allow you to remain assertive, no matter what.

How do I sell innovative ideas?

Anchor & Twist
So how do you sell your innovation without baffling your audience or losing your listeners in the minutiae of the plan? Fast Company’s Dan Heath has a plan of attack — use “anchor and twist.” How does it work?
The first thing you’ve got to do is anchor in what people already know. So let’s say I had to explain Netflix to somebody who’d never heard of it. Well, I could start by saying, Netflix is like Blockbuster. Now at least you’re in the right mental space–okay, I get it, it’s a movie rental business. But then I can add to it: Netflix is like Blockbuster–but it’s by mail. Or it’s Blockbuster with no late fees, or Blockbuster that actually has the movies you want in stock.

As another example, think about the first generation of cars–how are you going to explain a “car” to someone who’s never seen one. Well, they were called “horseless carriages.” “Carriage” is the anchor–people understood what that was.

Notice that an anchor alone isn’t enough. An anchor is about creating similarity…. But the whole point of innovation is that it’s something new, something different. So you’re anchoring to help people understand, but you also need a twist. A twist is what gets them excited.

What are the top 10 reasons sales pros fail?

REASON #1: They base their self-worth on what other people think. If you define your sense of worth based on how you assume your boss, co-workers, and customers see you, you’ll be deeply hurt by anything that smacks of criticism. Selling, and working inside a sales organization, begins to look like a series of horrible and (finally) intolerable rejections.
REASON #2: They assume that past failure defines the future. Some people find failure so unpleasant that they try to avoid it at all costs. As a result, they avoid any situations where failure is a risk. Because any meaningful sales effort entails risk, such people seldom, if ever, accomplish anything significant in a sales organization.
REASON #3. They believe in destiny, luck and fate. Some people believe that their status in life and potential as a human being is determined by luck, fate or divine intervention operating upon the circumstances of their lives…
These beliefs, however, constantly keep you focused on what you can’t change (e.g. fate) and not on what you can (e.g. your skill set.)
REASON #4: They lack the right attitude. The right attitude for a sales pro consists three qualities: 1) Empathy, so that you can understand customer needs. 2) Confidence, so that your can bring customers to the point of buying, and 3) Resilience, so that you can use rejection and temporary setbacks as spurs that constantly move you forward.
REASON #5: They don’t perceive the subtleties. When mediocre sales pros make sales calls, they are so busy “trying to sell” that they miss the nuances of the customer relationship. Top sales pros know that the most important element of a successful sales call is the value that the sales professional can bring to the customer, rather than whatever might eventually be sold.
REASON #6: They’d rather be doing something else. Failing sales pros often wish they had the nerve get out of sales and do something completely different. If a sales pro’s ideal occupation is to play baseball, be a musician, write a novel, or do anything else that not in Sales — they’ll eventually sabotage their sales career.
REASON #7: They don’t learn from their mistakes. Sales pros tend to avoid looking at their failures and would prefer to examine their successes - and then attempt to replicate them. However, until and unless you understand how, why and where your sales process is failing, it’s impossible to correct systemic problems in your sales approach.
REASON #8: They can’t follow simple instructions. Sales skills must be learned. Some people are naturally resistant to learning new ideas and new techniques, especially if they’ve already achieved a certain level of success. Many a sales pro has “topped off” at the lowest level because of a failure to understand that news skills are needed at each stage of a sales career.
REASON #9: They lack true honesty and candor. Sales is all about relationships and relationships are all about trust. People who lie and fudge the truth may become good at fraud or other criminal acts, but they’re at an extreme disadvantage when it comes to being successful at an honest sales job. Most customers can “sense” when a sales rep isn’t being real… and avoid buying.
REASON #10: They can, but won’t, do the work. This is true not just of selling, but of every other activity in the world. Sales pros who don’t makes their numbers either can’t or won’t do what it takes to make sale. When you can’t do the job, it’s usually because you don’t know what to do. When you won’t to the job, it’s because you simply lack the drive.