Audience Analysis
Audience Analysis Paper Gaby Stradley University of Phoenix Com 285 David Sarnowski June 30, 2009 Audience Analysis Paper Effective communication is essential in any business role. As a sales person, communication is even more important, because of the interaction the role requires and because the intent of many communications will be to persuade. The following paper will outline the characteristics of the audience that a salesperson must consider when presenting a quarterly sales information meeting to a group of stakeholders, including managers, salespeople, and customers.
We will talk about what communication channels are appropriate for this meeting and what are some considerations to keep in mind given the diversity of the audience in the meeting.
Finally we will talk about how a salesperson ensures that the message is effective to the group attending the meeting When conducting a presentation of quarterly sales information to more than one audience the salesperson may want to discuss different sections specifically pertaining to the corresponding audiences. Face to face presentations are common in sales and generally involve speaking to a large group of individuals.
An example of face to face presentation might include showing graphs, spreadsheets, power point presentation to a group of people from a company that has investments in the company. One of the most important considerations with this channel of communication is that it allows the salesperson conducting the presentation to adapt to the audiences needs. For example if the people from the company are stakeholders, the presentation would be different that if the information or products were being presented to managers, salespeople and customers.
The stakeholders would be better targeted with information on how the quarterly sales charts will help production in the company, especially in terms of financial consideration or gain. The lower lever employees attending the meeting would most likely be unimpressed with this kind of information and prefer to know how they would use or sell the product more effectively to create better production for the stakeholders in the company. This illustrates the main principle, which is that the information being used to persuade must appeal to the particular audience.
If this principle is followed, the sales person can persuade the audience simply by providing the appropriate details of the product, and does not need to imply hard sales techniques. By utilizing the face to face channel of communication also help build a relationship with the audience. If the sales person can build an effective relationship with the audience they have persuaded the audience toward them and the product.
When conducting a face to face oral presentation to an audience the speaker needs to keep in mind the diversity of the audience.
Always be aware of who your audience is and what their cultures are. For example, during some business presentations, words as distinct as yes and no may cause confusion because in some cultures where saying no is rude, a yes mean merely “I hear you”(Locker & Kienzler, 2008). When conducting a face to face quarterly sales information presentation clearly own your message by using “I” statements, instead of “most people or “you know” which can lead the audience to become defensive when they think the presenter is talking for them.
Ensure that the message is complete and specific by including all information the audience needs to know.
Ensure that the body language matches what you are saying. Face the audience, maintain eye contact, and pay attention to the tome and level of your voice. Always ask for feedback. Ask them what they heard you say and what meaning they attached to it. In this audience analysis paper we talked about what characteristics of the audience must a salesperson consider when doing a quarterly sales information meeting.
We talked about what communication channels are appropriate in this type of meeting, and talked about what is some consideration that a presenter needs to keep in mind given the culture of the audience attending the meeting. Finally we talked about how the presenter will ensure that their message is effective. Remember to always be prepared for meeting presentations. Effective presentations are always a great way of getting the message across to others. It maximizes misunderstanding and defensiveness.
References Locker,K. ,& Kienzler, D. (2008) Business and Administrative Communication (8th edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
