Let’s say you have a very important business meeting coming up. It is on Thursday and you are speaking to 30 prospective clients. How do you know if the messages you have picked and the way you are presenting them is effective?
Well, that is easy! Do not guess or take my word for it, test! Test in a real world environment. If you are speaking to 30 prospective clients on Thursday, find three colleagues who may be work in a different department and don’t know everything about what you do but have a similar mindset to your target audience. Ask them to pop by at lunchtime on Tuesday, buy them is sandwich if you need to, and give your presentation in front of them. Just do what you plan on doing Thursday to this small group of the 3 colleagues.
When you are done, ask them every message that they remember. Do not tell them your messages in advance.If they remember your messages after your speech, then you will know that it is great. You now have independent confirmation that the way you communicated that message worked.
However, if all they can tell you is that they think you came across as really professional and smooth, you know that it was a failure. If people are not able to throw back specific messages that they remember then you have failed to communicate with them. So as a speaker, make sure to test in advance.