Which presents a paradox: if it's that important, why does most communication fail? If you look at two foundational places where you need to get communication right—Sales/Marketing messaging, and leadership communication—the level of effectiveness is strikingly low. Which makes the responses to the second question so baffling... "On the same scale, how well do you tell the story of that solution?" Seven out of ten times, the fuse didn't need to blow, because that electrical fault was temporary: The tree branch or the (now fried) squirrel falls off, and our client's solution knows the difference. Ideas First, and most important, is this: The human brain operates at the level of ideas. Ideas. Communication needs to be about big ideas. Guess what: The TripSaver pitch is three simple ideas. When the brain is presented with new information, it can be stored if the brain can find context for it. Let's go back to TripSaver II for an example of how that might work: If I make the point that 70% of faults on a power line are transient, you "get" that data intellectually (left brain); but if, as we did, I show the squirrel running on the line, you can now visualize the data.
Communication matters. When communication breaks down, marriages, parent-child relationships, and friendships can fall apart. And at an organization level, without effective communication, leaders can’t lead, products don’t sell, and cherished projects don’t get funded.
Which presents a paradox: if it’s that important, why does most communication fail? And fail it does…
If you look at two foundational places where you need to get communication right—Sales/Marketing messaging, and leadership communication—the level of effectiveness is strikingly low.
In our ongoing survey of sales organizations, we ask two questions:
- “On a scale of 1-10 (10 = stupendous) how good is the core solution you offer your marketplace?” Across several hundred companies, the average response is an 8.1—pretty high, but perfectly reasonable given how good these companies’ solutions generally are. Which makes the responses to the second question so baffling…
- “On the same scale, how well do you tell the story of that solution?” And guess what? The number plummets to a measly 3.9. When you think about how hard it has become to get face-time with key customers, delivering a 3.9/10 message is little short of heartbreaking.
It’s the same story with leadership communication. When we ask people how effective are the typical presentations they sit through, only around 25% are evaluated as good or better. A full 75% are mediocre or worse, with a pretty significant 25% being bad enough to be almost rage-inducing. We’ve all been in that meeting where a great idea died in the loving arms of 68 dense PowerPoint slides.
What’s going on?
So, what is the problem? It’s surprising for organizations to be so bad at something so important. What is going on here?
The answer is simple, profound, and utterly transformative: It’s all about the brain.
The human brain is wired is very particular ways regarding how it wants and needs to consume information. When you understand and align with how the brain consumes information, breakthrough effectiveness is possible. But when you violate how the brain works, failure is biologically guaranteed.
And here’s the kicker: Most communication thoroughly violates the way the brain works, which is why it fails.
Here’s an example
We have a client in the electrical industry that sells a technical solution to power utilities. The client’s historical approach was the fairly standard deck of 60 PowerPoint slides: dense, detailed, unclear structure, and entirely based on the rational appeal of fact, data, and specifications.
That message had a conversion rate of around 15%. And though not horrible, it was far short of what should have been possible, because this solution transforms grid reliability. When the power goes out at your home, it’s because something like a branch or a squirrel has fallen on the line and blown the fuse on the power pole. But guess what? Seven out of ten times, the fuse didn’t need to blow, because that electrical fault was temporary: The tree branch or the (now fried) squirrel falls off, and our client’s solution knows the difference. It can…
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