Understanding Your Audience

Understanding Your Audience

When you respond to people, there are some important principles that you must adhere to, the first of which is how to understand your audience.

If you are talking to a CEO of a company, then the subjects that will be of pivotal importance are likely to be different from those of the average employee.

The key concerns of the Buying Manager will not be the same as those of the Marketing Manager. A lack of awareness around this point will lead you to convey the wrong messages, which will possibly lose you the sale or job. Before you begin any conversation, you must find out who your audience is and what they can do.

You should be aware of the differences so that you adjust not only to the content of your discussion but also the language and tone you use. For example, as you listen to the speaker you will certainly notice that he (or she) uses certain types of words and gives clues away as to his (her) communication style. Generally speaking, advertising executives will use a great number of adjectives and images, while scientists will use more phrases based on facts and figures. Anyway, you should try to mirror this and use the same style of language they do. In presenting to a group, you should include this concept in your presentation.

For example, there is no point using images of a profit graph to a Finance Director who is only concerned with facts and figures of the true profit and loss report.

Each person will have a different level of capabilities and authority. In this case there is no point in asking them to do or agree to something that will be outside at their purview. To understand this situation is also therefore a key part of your preparation as you must ensure that you are in fact speaking to the right person. You must identify the key decision maker who has the potential to say “yes” to whatever your desired outcome is.

All these points are vital in developing the right pitch because the audience will be the deciding factor. A busy executive may only have a couple of minutes available as opposed to the full half an hour, and therefore it is essential that you communicate your point in the time provided.

A lady trying to understand her audience. Photo by Elena

Structuring your communication

You must be flexible in your method of communication and prepare for each accordingly. You should always do your research before you meet someone.

If you are dealing with those who are time-pressed, it is important that you put the key points of the message at the beginning of the conversation so that you are guaranteed to get these points across. However, with those who are more generous with their time, it is possible to build up to the key message with some background. However, if you did not know who you were talking to and were not aware of their time constraints, they you would not be able to structure your conversation to its optimum performance level.