STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION

Have you ever had times when you wanted to talk to someone about something and things didn’t go as you planned?

Well, you’re not the only one.

We all have had those days when everything we say doesn’t seem to make sense to our audience and we end up not getting the reply we expected from them whether it is our spouse, friend, boss, or just a random person.

And we will continue to be turned down every single time we continue using the approach we are presently using because…

We are not Strategically communicating.

Strategic communication is simply the art of communicating with purpose while showcasing value in order to achieve a goal.

Now the purpose of strategic communication is to evoke specific responses from your target audience and no…

… strategic communication is not the same as manipulation because while manipulation allows you to get what you want from someone without the person gaining anything from you, strategic communication gives room for a mutually beneficial situation for both parties.

This is the only difference between you that doesn’t get what you want from your audience and the one that does; he knows what he wants and knows how to make his offer to his audience to prompt a positive response from them.

Now that we have understood what strategic communication is, we need to find out how to employ it in day-to-day interactions.

To that effect, here’s…

How To Strategically Communicate

IDENTIFY THE GOAL

If there’s no goal, there can’t be a need to communicate because if you don’t identify the goal of an interactive session, you will talk without purpose.

Before you think of meeting your target audience, you must have a clear and concise description of what you want to achieve from the communication.

Having done this, you can then…

UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE

Here, research is vital. You must find out as much as you can about your audience, your mutually shared values, and common goals so that you have a basis for communication.

You need to find out their values and how they align with yours if there will be any communication between you and your target audience.

You have your clear goal in mind and you know as much as you can about our audience, so we can finally start a conversation.

To do this, you have to…

COMMUNICATE THE VALUE

You have found out the value of your audience and a common ground for you to communicate from, now you have to communicate this value to them so that they don’t feel like you want to milk them.

You know what you want from them, yes but if you’re going to get what you want, you must give them something they want as well.

You must also offer something to the deal so that there will be a “mutually beneficial situation” as stated earlier.

Value shared. Now to seal the deal, you must…

EXPRESS THE NEED

You have shared what you want from them, and you have shown them what you have to offer. To get what you want, you must state why you’re the best person to give them what they want, or else, no one gets anything.

Or better still, you don’t get anything because they can always outsource to another person.

So while stating your need and communicating the need you’re bringing to the table, be sure to express the importance for both of you to agree on your terms.

Strategic communication is not complete if you don’t get the exact response you want from your audience and if you must get the response you wish for, you must follow these four steps correctly.

Don’t mess anyone up or you will mess everything up.

I’ll leave you with a modification of a popular saying on communication.

What you say is just as important as how you say it.

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