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President, Fidelity Brokerage Group

Persuasion Begins by Assessing Where the Audience Is

In order to present effectively, you have to persuade listeners to listen. To do this, you must learn where to begin. If the listener has one set of questions or objections, those are the ones you address, not those of someone else.

Pre-communication Research: Who is your audience?

It is always advisable to discover all you can about your audience before you address them. The more you know, the more accurately you can tailor your approach.

If you are talking with experts in a field, your level of sophistication will be greater than to a lay audience. If it consists of people already interested in the subject matter, you do not have to begin by convincing them that this is worth hearing, while other groups might require you to pique their interest. People who have paid to hear you can be handled differently than those whose jobs required them to give up free time to come.

You should not limit your advance preparation to estimating the knowledge base of your listeners. You should assess their mood and their physical state. Will they be tired at the end of the day? Will your talk be preceded by something entertaining or something dry. Is yours the last bit of work before they are free to go to "Happy hour" or a round of golf? The more you know, the more you can prepare and factor in your knowledge to make your presentation be all it can.

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