MAKE YOUR POINT!

How this book will help you

True story #1: A young man, the Director of Public Relations for a big firm, ran into the new CEO on an elevator. The CEO said “What’s new?” After six floors of “uh, uh, uh,” the CEO got off the elevator and walked away with an unfavorable first impression of the man.

True story #2: The Marketing VP of a consumer packaged-goods company started her presentation with a laundry list of fifteen new programs and then presented them to a completely disinterested audience who gave up concentrating after the first few ideas.

True story #3: A top engineer apologized for the technical detail of his presentation and then proceeded to show a bunch of PowerPoint slides incorporating 300 data points in each. Too bad for him that he didn’t realize that an audience can’t read an “eye chart” and listen to the presenter at the same time.

You talk with people all day long. But do you leave them wondering… What’s his point? What’s she trying to say? Why should I care? What am I supposed to do?

You’re always communicating…on the phone, in an elevator, in front of your boss, or in front of a throng of people. Every time you speak, you have the opportunity, no, the obligation, to speak clearly and concisely in order to make your point. How good are you at painting a logical and understandable picture that is orderly as well as interesting? When people listen to you, do they hear a leader?

People who can’t communicate in business don’t succeed. It’s as simple as that. If you can’t make your point, someone else will. But when you can communicate effectively, you project a much more favorable image, people listen to you, you’re more influential, you have less stress, you gain more respect, and ultimately, you’re more successful.

Social scientists tell us that people are more likely to comprehend and remember messages that are limited in number, repeated, reinforced and supported with interesting evidence. In this book, we will share with you a simple and unique model that we call THE DIAMOND. As you will discover, THE DIAMOND is a great tool that will help you develop and deliver your message to any audience of any length whether you’re in an auditorium, on a conference call, hosting a webcast or even leaving a voicemail. THE DIAMOND will sharpen your communication skills immediately.

Both in business and in our personal lives, simple, straightforward communication is greatly rewarded. People no longer have time to wade through convoluted, confusing, illogical information. Tell me what you want me to know, provide the substance behind your points, summarize it for me and let me know what you want me to do. It just makes sense.

Make Your Point! was written to help all those folks out there who are smart, honest and hard-working, but feel that they don’t present themselves or their ideas as well as they could because either they have a hard time building a logical argument or they don’t project confidence.

This is an uncomplicated book about uncomplicating your personal and business communications. It’s about organizing, honing and delivering your messages whether they’re given formally or informally. We had fun writing Make Your Point! We hope you enjoy reading it.