I was invited to India early 2011 to speak and train a number of people across the sub continent. I was excited, I’d never been there before. I was somewhat nervous as I was unsure of my audience.
I’d not delivered to Indian audiences before and I wasn’t confident how they might react to my material and style of speaking and training. I doubted my material so the weeks leading up to the visit, I focussed on the material to make sure the messages, the lessons, the stories, the style was right.
And in the event, the material was well received.
But my next visit I need to prepare differently in ways that I kinda got away with this time. That is preparing for the country and the people – my audience. Next time I’m going to:
- Learn and use 15 words of Hindi during my talking
- Use the proper greetings to people, including the Namaste
- React properly to their famous head bobble
- Understand more of their culture and values
These will help me to provide an even more memorable training and message, I hope.
What about you? Do you, like me, focus just on the message and the material when you’re selling? When presenting to your customer, are you too focussed on the message than the people you’re addressing, are you too content focussed as I was? Or do you research your customer and market convincingly so you’re able to promote the message within their environment and focus on their values and culture. In other words to be more customer concentrated rather than content.
I’m looking forward to my next visit later this year.
Shukriya
