20/08/14
Get To The Point!
State your point and support it
Sitting outside a coffee shop that’s a popular business meeting place, I overheard one man say to another, “Where was I going with this?” After further eavesdropping, I cobbled together this scenario for the two business attired gents. One man was delivering a sales pitch and the other man was receiving the sales pitch. The salesman had gone on and on about his product or service for so long that he couldn’t remember the point he was trying to make. Since he’d been shoveling it on, I imagined he ran a pooper-scooper service.
If he’d asked me, I’d have given him some suggestions for getting to the point.
1. Think about what you want to say, what your main point is and what your goal is before you enter into a conversation that’s not just casual banter. Take a few minutes before a call or meeting to determine the outcome you’d like from your encounter.
2. Establish your main point and how you will support it before you ever open your mouth. In the case of the coffee shop sales guy, he might set as a goal a next appointment to demonstrate his pooper-scooper service. For this meeting, he wants the listener, Bob, to know that life could be a breeze (or Febreze) if Bob didn’t have to pick up his St. Bernard and Great Dane’s meadow muffins. Then sales guy could support his “life is a breeze” point with examples, demonstrations, illustrations, data, case studies, testimonials, video clips, photos, etc. He could keep coming back to his point of view to reinforce it.
3. Pause before you begin your pitch. Take a breath and focus. Know where you’re going.
4. The benefits of being solid when it comes to stating your main point are that your listener knows right away what you’re talking about. Also, in case a tornado or phone call interrupts you, your listener has heard your main message. If you get lost, you can keep coming back to your main point. You can wrap up the conversation with your main point. You’ll appear organized. You’re listener will appreciate your not wasting his time with your main point quest.
When you say to a client, customer or prospect, “Where was I going with this?” you have asked the listener to do your job. Give your main point and then support it.
If your preambles are a-rambling, stop. Pause. Take a breath. Focus. You know, that reminds me of a time when…Where was I going with this? Oh! I know. Get to the point.
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