Communicate with Mastery

4Tailoring Your Communication to Your Goal

Though you should always consider your intent when you're crafting a communication, sometimes you can build on that exercise by using specific media, formatting, language, or information ordering to meet specific goals. The more measurable and specific your goal, the better you'll be able to customize your communication to meet the needs of your audience. Here are some of the most frequent use cases we encounter at Stanford and beyond.

Pitching

Any time we try to gain buy-in for an idea, even one as simple as where to meet a friend for lunch, we're pitching: proposing the merit of an idea for others’ support and collaboration. But in this chapter, we're going to focus on the type of pitching that challenges entrepreneurs every day: pitching your business venture or collaboration. From the thousands of pitches we have seen at the GSB and beyond, we've gathered our best tips for creating meaningful, memorable content and for tightening your message to engage your audience. We'll lead you through identifying the problem your idea is solving, the solution you're offering, the market you're targeting, and the business you're planning. Then I'll give you a step-by-step look at a pitching exercise I offer my students to refine their message for presentation.

Creating Your Pitch Content: Problem, Solution, Market, and Business

For as long as I've been teaching presentation skills—and I confess it's been quite a long time—I've encouraged ...