So what is your point?

There is still a lot more to say on the subject of your audience, and I’ll certainly get back to it at a later date. For now I want to talk about the phrase specific ideas. This is the nitty-gritty, the real meat of what you want your audience to retain. I use those two words very carefully, because when you want to communicate you are sure to have a whole lot of stuff you want to say. But your audience doesn’t usually want to hear ‘a whole lot of stuff.’ They want to hear only what you have to say that is of interest to them.

You can already see there is a natural tension between speaker and audience. You want to tell them a lot. They may want to hear a lot, but (get ready for the hit to your ego) not just from you. Your message is only one of many they hear in their personal and professional lives. Which is why it is so crucial for you to be sure of your message to them. Most people can only retain two or three items in memory at a time – a muddled message doesn’t make the cut.

When I prepare business executives for major speeches, sooner or later I almost always have to ask “So what is your point?” People naturally try to explain their thinking, articulate the steps they went through, including the dead ends, to reach a conclusion. This is fine for your psychiatrist, but not in public. You have reached a conclusion: say it.

When I ask “So what is your point?” I am sometimes confronted with an exec who says “well it’s obvious, isn’t it?” No, it isn’t. What is obvious to you will not be obvious to most of your audience. You need to clearly articulate the conclusions you want your audience to draw.

Often, the executive cannot articulate what he means to say. This usually is a result of “something has to be done” thinking. By this I mean we often realise there is a problem that needs a solution. But standing in front of a group – whether 2 or 2000 people – saying “we have a problem, let’s do something” won’t rally many. And it won’t be the start of something. If you want people to do something, tell them what it is.