Repeat After Me....

Have you ever noticed that what you say isn’t always what people hear?  How do you clearly convey your message so that the person on the receiving end actually gets it? Just as we all have different personality styles we also have different preferences for taking in and digesting information. 

My business partner and I speak on the phone or Skype every day. Every once in a while he’ll tell me about a letter he’s received or will read a proposal to me and ask for a comment. It’s a complete and utter waste of his time and mine, because I don’t digest information simply by hearing it. Either I need to take notes while he speaks or read it for myself before I can properly understand it.  I’m a visual kinaesthetic learner.

A friend of mine was doing a marketing course and had to do a sample proposal as part of his coursework.  He carefully read through the criteria and then set to work creating the most fabulous proposal imaginable.  It was sure to get him an “A+”. Quite by chance, he was talking to a colleague who was doing the same course and discovered he’d missed one crucial point that completely changed the direction of the proposal. All the work he’d put in was for nothing. He had to scrap his first proposal and redo everything, all because he’d not properly understood the written instructions. He needed to hear things before he understood them. He is an auditory learner.

You’ve just spent ten minutes on the phone with your mother explaining how to open an email attachment. You’ve been incredibly patient (you think) but she still doesn’t get it.  

You later find out that your mother thought you were anything but patient. ‘Bossy’ and ‘overbearing’ were the words she chose when complaining about you to your sister. So that’s the thanks you get for it! You were only trying to help! You should have realised your mother likes to have a set of written instructions which she can follow step-by-step. If you simply tell her what to do, she’ll get confused and annoyed.  She’s a visual learner.

Knowing how people learn, how they gather information is helpful when dealing with your clients, because you can deliver your message in ways that will be easily digestible.

Kinaesthetic learners like hands-on stuff. Take them on a tour of your plant, let them handle your product, give them samples, encourage them to take notes.

Visual learners prefer their information in writing or in other visual formats. Delivering information in a video format works for them, especially if you have included charts, graphs and sub-titles.  If you need to convey important information to them, don’t do it by phone. Put it in writing.

Auditory learners pick up their information by listening. They prefer spoken presentations and are happy talking all day on the phone.  Put the basics in writing and flesh it out with spoken details.  When delivering a proposal to them, you’re more likely to get a good reception if you read the proposal to them and verbally expand on it as you go.

It’s not always obvious which learning style a person has so either you ask them how they prefer to get their information or you cover your bets and provide information to them verbally and in writing.  When writing to a client, don’t assume that they will understand your flowery language and elegant turn of phrase. Often the words get in the way of the message.  Keep it simple and use words in common usage.  If you need them to perform a task, write it in step-by-step format, once again keeping it simple.

It’s not condescending to dumb things down, in fact it’s smart. Keep in mind that not everyone has the same learning style, so address your message to the lowest common denominator. If that means writing so that a ten year old would get it, then so be it! You’re ensuring that everyone understands what you’re on about and you don’t have to go back and forth explaining and clarifying everything.