How to communicate so customers listen.
Noise. eMails. Twitter. Insta. FaceBook. TV. Radio. Spotify. I forgot Zoom, Teams, Work emails. This article is all about how you communicate helping people listen.
In todays world, we receive too much noise. Keeping up with what’s going on every day can be exhausting. With a fear of missing out, we’re reluctant to let go of content.
The easier the message, the easier we process
Our brains are trying to process and based on our propensity to stay alive and thrive. It’s a basic human need. Will that message keep us alive and thriving? The easier the message, the easier we process.
If the message doesn’t keep us alive or thriving, we’re wasting calories.
We consume calories processing messages. The more complex the message, the more calories we consume. Our brains ensure we conserve calories and we’ll start daydreaming if the message isn’t keeping us thriving and surviving,
Fact.
[BTW, this concept looks back to our ancestors’ fight for survival, in a way we’ll never truly realise]
How do we communicate so people keep listening?
It’s simple. Consider a recent conversation you had:
- Was the conversation balanced or did the other person simply transmit?
- Did the conversation provide you with ‘value’?
- Was it easy to process or did you find the conversation hard to follow?
The final point, “was it easy to process?” is crucial whether we continue listening. If the message was easy to process and valuable to us, we mentally log the source as ‘trusted’. If we feel a message is hard to understand, we’re unlikely we’ll return.
How 7% non-verbal communication makes clarifying your message, even harder
We have Professor Albert Mehrabian to thank for suggesting 93% of communication is reliant on tone and body language alone formulating the 7-38-55% communication rule. For the record Mehrabian suggested behaviour was: 7% verbal + 38% vocal + 55% facial communication. As the digital era changes the 7-38-55% ratio, our non-verbal behaviour accounts for +70% of how we communicate.
As we are reliant on non-verbal communication, what is the best way to create a message which will be clearly received and appreciated?
Communicating in a non-verbal method requires a different skill. The challenge for effective communication is making it simple, understandable and memorable. Just like a brand message.
A brand story can be your elevator pitch. Your sales presentation. Your marketing message. Your business proposal.
This is why your brand message needs to be delivered in a way that is easy to understand and helps your customer to stay alive and thrive.
As a brand storytelling guide, I’ve learned how to communicate effectively by creating your brand story. A brand story clearly communicates what you do and how you help the people you’re communicating with. Storytelling has become a clearer way how to communicate helping people listen
A brand story can be your elevator pitch. It can be your sales presentation. A brand story might be your business proposal. It should definitely be your marketing message.
Simplifying your brand story improves how you communicate, making those around you quick to get what you do and how you help others. You’ll stand out and be valued.
In it’s most basic form, here’s how we do it:
- Start with the challenge
- Imagine the aspiration
- Plan the solution how we achieve
Let’s keep this simple.
Don’t let irrelevant complex messages consume too many calories. Make sure you are the one giving value:
Be the person we value…
As a reminder:
“This is the challenge
This is my aspiration
Plan the solution”
Having been trained how to communicate effectively, I’ll clarify your brand story so that customers listen making it easier for them to understand what you do.
If you have a product or service which your customers are struggling to understand, get in touch.
To avoid people struggling to understand what you do, be the person we enjoy communicating with and be valued and let’s create your brand story.
Thank you for reading, hope this has been valuable and hasn’t consumed too many calories 🙂
James Pogson is a trained storytelling guide, qualified in effective communication with years of marketing experience.
