How to Find the Messaging Winners in a Sea of Details

0:00 You're listening to the Nonprofit Power Podcast. In today's episode, we share how to find the messaging winners in a sea of details. So stay tuned. If you wanna have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place. I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive Nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.

0:40 It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner and to have them. Bringing opportunities and resources to you. This podcast will help you do just that. Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast. Hey there folks. Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast. I'm your host, Kath Patrick. I'm so glad you're here for today's episode because this is such an important conversation to have. There's a mistake that every Nonprofit leader makes from time to time.

1:22 In fact, we all make this mistake not just in our work, but in multiple aspects of our lives. And if we can be attentive enough and fix it, we can absolutely transform our results and massively reduce our level of frustration. Here's what I'm talking about. It's the curse of the expert. We know way too much about every aspect of the work that we do and the impact it has, and we correctly recognize that all those details are important. They all contribute to the overall success of the work that we do. Unfortunately, that makes us really bad at paring that way down and zeroing in on the one or two details or messaging points that the decision maker we're talking to needs to know right now.

2:12 Not in the end, not when we're all done, but recognizing that this is a process. It's a journey. So wherever we are in the process of developing relationship with them and in taking them on the journey of discovery of why investing at full value in our work is a no brainer. Wherever we are in that process, there are going to be layers of understanding and levels of progress that that decision maker makes to finally get it. Sometimes that's a short journey, sometimes it's longer. But the most deadly mistake we can make in that process is to say, well, I'm gonna hurry it up. I'm gonna tell'em everything they need to know right now, and then we'll get there quicker.

2:57 And your experience has probably taught you that it doesn't work out that way. That what happens instead is you just lose'em. And there's a really simple reason for that. It's just too much. It's overload. They can't process it all. I had a bit of a revelation about this the other day when I was teaching a class as a guest instructor at a friend's Juujitsu Dojo. I'd been asked to teach a wrist lock technique. I didn't totally know what the experience level of all the students would be so I chose a technique that can be taught very simply. But of course it has many details of nuance that ultimately will determine how effective it is.

3:38 What I realized is there's this huge parallel between getting decision makers to get it about what we do and getting them to the place where they want to invest fully. And teaching martial arts students how to do something that's gonna produce the result they want. And what I know from years of teaching is that you, you can't teach all the details in one lesson, especially not in an introductory lesson. You really have to focus on the core elements that are key to making the whole thing work. The secret to success is to strip things down to the bare bones essential elements, teach those, and then observe, walk the room, observe the practicing pairs, discover what they're missing, what they're doing wrong.

4:25 And then out of that you identify what's the most fundamental, least nuanced thing that they're missing and give them that. And let'em work with that for a little bit. Don't correct three things, five things, 10 things. Even though you can probably see a hundred things that need to be added. But more than one or two things, their brain will overload and then they won't learn any of what you've taught them. It is the same thing with messaging with decision makers. We wanna tell them all the details'cause we know how important they all are. But when we do that, all we do is flood their brain with way too much information and they can't process any of it and they don't retain any of it.

5:13 So what do we do about this? How do you not only refrain from TMI, but how do you identify precisely what are the two or three things this decision maker needs to know right now, depending on where they are in their journey. Where do you, as their guide, need to take them next? We have to get really good at stripping stuff back to the essentials. The best way to think about this is to think about our messaging as a scaffold. It's got a very basic structure and then that structure supports all the other stuff we hang on it. We start with the very core of the scaffolding and identify the foundational pieces all the other details are built around.

6:01 What's at the core of what we do. So I look at this as a three-piece scaffolding. Number one, the problem you solve, and the cost of not solving the problem. Number two, the impact of your work in two contexts: how it changes people's lives, and the cost impact that has. And number three, what sets you apart? In what ways are you the best solution, the most effective solution to that problem and the best investment in the solution? For each of these three pieces of scaffolding you need to identify the most core elements and then build out from there.

6:43 Because even with what I just listed, you probably had 10 or 20 things come to your mind. Well wow, there's this and there's that, and there's that. I know. We gotta go to the core first and then we build out from there. Ultimately, a good test of whether you've got your core solid, is at that core will be a high level impact focused summary of your work that encompasses all three things. So it might be something like, we solve the 10 million, hundred million dollar problem of X. Our solution is the most effective, best because Z.

7:28 That's ultimately what we need the decision maker to get. We need them to get that core. But as we know, none of this is simple. So there's all this stuff, all the details about who we help and how we help them, and all the details of how our services work and why our particular approach is better than somebody else's approach, and why it yields better results and all those things. You have all that and all of that ultimately will be available to you in your messaging. But what we have to train ourselves to do is to go one layer at a time with decision makers so that we don't overload them. And we give them what they need right now in order to be able to move to the next level of understanding.

8:13 And it would be awesome if we could just say the core thing and have them go, oh, okay, I get it now. Wonderful. You solve this really expensive problem. When you solve it, it stays solved. Therefore, whatever investment we make in you is a brilliant investment because clearly it gets rid of that cost and it helps people and improves people's lives, and everybody goes away happy. It's a huge win-win. Where do we sign? That would be awesome if you could just give them that core set of messaging and they would immediately get it. But we know that doesn't happen cause there's all kinds of stuff in the way. And we've talked about all the things that are in the way on lots of different episodes.

8:53 But right here, all I wanna do with this particular episode is to help you focus in and realize that less is more. Less is more. With messaging, we want to have a lot of options available to us. But choosing which thing is the right thing right now is really just about what are they not getting and where are they in the process of ultimately getting to understanding? We know what they need to understand in order to invest at the full value. They need to get the cost of the problem. They need to get the impact of the work that we do on people's lives and on ultimately moving the needle on that cost.

9:36 And they need to get why we are the best solution for them to invest in. 'Cause they have choices most of the time. So we want to make sure that they're investing in us. That's what we want. So for each of those pieces we have our messaging scaffolding. And at the core we have the essence of what we need them to understand. And then around that are the details that will help them understand it. This is the challenge with things like white papers and even infographics, is that they're trying to address all the possible questions the decision maker might have all at once. The reality is that questions come to a decision maker as their understanding begins to grow.

10:22 If they're starting from absolute zero, they have only a vague understanding of the problem that you solve. They have no concept of the cost of that problem. They don't know anything about your work and therefore they don't know the significance of its impact in solving the problem and reducing the cost of the problem. They don't know any of that. So you could write out a 10 page paper that explains it all from A to Z. Leave nothing out so that they can't possibly miss one of the important details that they would need in order to understand it all. I don't know if you've tried that, but I can tell you what happens when you do that.

11:04 First of all, they don't read it. People's attention spans are terrible. They don't even read two pages. Nevermind long policy papers. They barely read infographics. But even with an infographic, you're giving them all the things you think they might need to know. Instead of giving them the one thing they need to know to move their understanding to the next level. And here's the other secret to that. This is best done in conversation. It is far less effective to do this in a one-way communication. Of whatever nature, whether it's on your website or in printed material or whatever, you've got. A two-way conversation allows you to feed them the next piece they need as they build their own scaffolding of understanding of what it is you do and why it matters, and why it's a good investment.

11:58 You've already got the whole scaffolding. It's fully built out. Your scaffolding's holding up an entire high rise. They may not even have a scaffolding to begin to understand what you do, why they should invest in you. So you have to help them build that. And we could get into many, many layers of how and what and examples and so on. But the most important thing to understand is that's what we're doing. We're helping them build that scaffolding in their own mind so that they develop a level of understanding that will lead them to make the smartest investment, which is investing in your work at its full value.

12:40 We are their guide. So here's how this works. You give them, you could even lead with that high level impact focused thing. Depending on the setting, obviously you would adjust, but you could say something like, we solve XYZ problem that is currently costing this city, this county, this state, whatever,$10 million a year, a hundred million dollars a year. We have an elegant solution that changes people's lives and solves the problem for good, so that cost goes away. And, our unique solution solves this problem more effectively than any other player out there. And then of course, they're going to have questions.

13:22 But you've gotten their attention. And now they're like, wait, what? First of all, what do you mean it costs$10 million or a hundred million dollars, or whatever the number is? Who said that? Where'd you get that from? That might be one of their questions. Wait a minute, why are you the best? What's different about you? Depending on the questions they ask, that tells you what next layer. Not 10 layers. What next one layer of information you need to give them. Wait, what do you mean it's a$10 million problem? Where did you get that from? Huge cautionary note here. This is not a question about your methodology. They don't really want to know super detailed information about how you arrived at your calculation.

14:04 They wanna know generally how'd you figure that out. So you give them a very high level, 30,000 foot version of the answer. Maybe you did your own research study, in which case you say, we did our own research study in partnership with a highly respected academic institution or whatever. And stop there. Or if you figured it out because you looked up the information about the percentage of the population in that county that has that problem. And then you figured out what the county is paying out in public benefits to individuals who don't yet have that problem resolved and so they need public support.

14:45 There could be other cost calculations that factor in. If it's something that's health related, there might be costs to insurers. There's all different ways that cost comes into play depending on the work that you do, and you're well aware of those. So you have a method for figuring out what the cost of the problem is. When they ask, what do you mean that's a$10 million problem? They're not asking you for all the details of how you figured it out. They're asking you, generally speaking, how the heck do you know that? Because it's probably a surprise to them and it's probably a bit of a shock. They're like, wait, that can't be right. What? So you wanna be able to come at them with the next layer, the next level, but not 10 layers deep.

15:27 If they wanna go 10 layers deep, they'll ask. They probably don't. Some will, some won't. If you get somebody who's super wonky, researchy and you say, we partnered with blah, blah, blah, fancy institution and did our own research. If they say, well, who was the PI on that? Then that's telling you, oh, these people really understand research. They know how research studies are constructed. They're asking a much deeper level question than the person who goes, oh, well. You know, Poo Bah Institution was involved. That's impressive. Uh, what'd you find? What did you learn? Wait for the question to help you know what layer, what level of detail they need next.

16:10 But less is always more. They will ask questions until they have gotten all the information they need or want. But if they ask one question and you give them 10 questions worth of answer, now they haven't taken in any of it. It just washed over them and they're like, whoa, that was a lot, aaah, I don't know what just happened. And they probably stop asking questions because it's not productive for them. So this is the essence of what we have to focus on. Do this in conversation. Have your scaffolding built out, but go from the inside out. Go from the most elemental, and then add detail from there as they need it in order to reach the next level of understanding.

16:57 Now in order to prepare some of your messaging around this, one of the easiest ways to do it is to just think about categories of decision maker that you deal with on a regular basis. Like elected officials, government agency officials, contracting partners, et cetera. Whoever is in your orbit that you deal with regularly, who are your money decision makers that you are asking to invest in your work. And they are not yet investing at the level you wish, either at the total dollar value or you have an arrangement with them that you're serving x number of people for y number of dollars. And they need to be paying twice what they're paying for that number of people to be served.

17:39 Something like that. They're investing, but they're under investing in one way or another. Or maybe they haven't invested at all yet. But you have a sense of what those different groups of decision makers tend to have as things in their way. First of all, what are they not getting about those three key elements, the problem you solve, and the cost of leaving the problem unsolved, the impact of your work, both in terms of how it changes lives and in terms of how it bends that cost. And why you are the very best solution, the very best investment for them when they decide they do wanna solve that problem, they do wanna invest in it. Why they should invest in you'cause you are the best. You need them to get all three pieces in order for them to invest at full value.

18:23 Using that as your framework, what about each of those three things do they tend not to get consistently? Every client I've worked with on this, there's always stuff that comes up across multiple categories of decision makers. And then there are the outliers that are specific to one group or another, or even to an individual. You can start with the stuff that's common. Like there may be a common misunderstanding of the problem. There may be a common way in which decision makers tend to oversimplify that problem that then in their mind, makes it easier and cheaper to solve. Super common. That's just one example. So you would then say, alright, these are the areas of not getting it that we encounter all the time.

19:05 We'll build our layers of messaging for that first. And then you go back. Alright, what's the essence of each of these three pieces that they've gotta get? Bottom line it. This should be one or two sentences. This problem is super expensive and as long as it goes unsolved, it's gonna continue to be super expensive. Here's this organization that has a solution that really works, that gets great results for the people that get served, but it also does a great job of reducing the outlay over time, and they're better at it than anybody else. Well, heck, if those three things are true, then investing in them is a no-brainer. How much do you need and where do we sign? That's where you want'em to wind up.

19:47 So you start there. If they were at that point, they're like, well, if A, B and C are true, then we are in, where do we sign? That's the core of your scaffolding. And then you ask yourself, well, what would they need to understand about that in order for them to realize that that thing is true? And build out from there. In the process, addressing the common areas of not getting it. When you do that, you have got the messaging scaffolding you need. And then the biggest thing you have to do, that is a matter of focus and repetition on your part, is training yourself to rein it in, to dole that out one bit at a time.

20:31 To give the high level first. Let them ask the questions and then feed them one layer of detail at a time as they ask for it until they get it. It will probably take multiple conversations for a lot of these decision makers. That's fine. You're trying to build a relationship here too. Nobody suggested ever that you're gonna walk in on a first meeting and say something so brilliant and perfect that they instantly go, oh my goodness, uh, let me give you all my money. Where do I sign? If that happens, yay. But it's very unusual. And so typically we are building relationship and we're feeding them information over time. As long as we are building their understanding as we're building the relationship, we are moving toward what we need.

21:18 So. This is a super simple concept and really hard to do. Every instinct you have is going to tell you to tell them more, to give them more detail'cause that will make them get it. And I get it. Of course you have vastly more knowledge of detail and nuance than the person who's just beginning to learn. And it would be easy to get impatient and feel like, but, but until you understand all of the 529 details, you won't really get it and have it right. But that would be totally missing the point. Our job as an advocate, as an engager, as a relationship builder with decision makers is as a guide.

22:02 We are their guide to smart decision making. And as long as we can think of it that way. W e are helping them quite honestly. Because without us, without our helping them understand, most of'em are likely to make bad investment decisions that will not make them happy in the long run. We are their guide to smart decision making. They just don't know it yet. So give this a try. I promise you that this three piece scaffolding will be hugely helpful. But the biggest thing is to really focus your attention on reining in your impulse to give all the detail from the start.

22:43 And focus instead on just, what's the next layer? What's the next layer? How can I guide them to understanding one detail at a time, that is responsive to what they're asking for, what they're telling you they're not getting. However they're saying it. They're always communicating what they're not getting, either in a form of a question or in the form of an ill-informed statement. So you always have feedback as long as you're in conversation. And as long as you're in conversation, you have another opportunity to guide them just a little bit further down the path. Thanks for listening and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.