Think Before You Talk

A couple weeks ago, a very smart client informed me that she had an opportunity to be interviewed on a local TV station.  “Help me out here,” she asked.  “What should I say?”

“You are very wise to ask that question,” I replied.  “Often when I see a businessperson interviewed, I know that he or she did not do any preparation.  That means the business didn’t maximize the opportunity.”

I have rarely seen people prepared for interviews.  The most they do is show up.  Rather than maximize the opportunity to communicate their message through the interview, they plan to stop by, answer some questions, and get done with the ordeal.  As I watch them I think, If they’d looked at the interview as an opportunity instead of an ordeal, they would have treated it much differently. 

Think about it.  You are more comfortable with a known situation than an unknown one, aren‘t you?  You view the unknown with less confidence.  That is why you may not view an interview as an opportunity; it is unknown, and you may not feel much confidence about its results.  The way to feel confident is to gain familiarity through preparation. 

How many times have you left an interview either with a reporter or an anchor on TV or radio, remembered an important point that you forgot to say, and thought, I wish I’d said that!  I suspect many businesspeople who are interviewed mentally kick themselves because they didn’t say something very important.  What you do to be certain you cover your most important point?

Think before you talk.

Follow these three steps in your thinking.  First, set objectives.  What is the reason  you are giving the interview or talking to a reporter?  What do you want to communicate?  Choose your most important point, the one you worry about forgetting.  Write it down.  Make it concise so it becomes a good quote or sound bite.  Review it several times.  Keep it with you if possible.  Burn it into your brain.  Establish it as your focal point.

Second, practice giving your interview.  Create the questions you expect to be asked.  Share these with the interviewer as well as the person who helps you practice.  Discover where you get tripped up and wander away from your focal point.  Correct yourself.  Find interesting words and phrases that will catch attention and intrigue the recipients of your message.

Third, realize that your interview time goes by quickly.  Prior to the interview a couple minutes may seem like an eternity to fill.  When you are in the process of giving the interview, however, the time flies.  Repeat your important point, intriguing words, and answers to questions over and over to yourself.  Make their response automatic. 

My client prepared.  When she was in the interview, that preparation saved her.  She presented her most important point in the intriguing way she had planned.  She proudly showed me a video of the interview and added, “I remembered to use that intriguing statement we discussed to pique their interest.” 

Remember you get out of your interview what you put into it.  Just winging it and talking off the cuff to the reporter or anchor will yield a great deal less than taking the time to think through your message, practice it, and be prepared to deliver it quickly.   

This week's marketing trivia challenge is What did you do to prepare for an interview?  E-mail me your answer.

How Not to Give an Interview

As I was pouring my morning coffee the other day, I caught part of an interview in the morning news. “Did I just hear what I think I heard?” I wondered.

Curious, I grabbed the remote and played the segment back.

“Why do you do this event?” the news anchor asked.

“To put our product out there. It’s a great advertising tool for us as builders.”

“What?!!” I thought. “That is the most uncustomer-focused reply that I have ever heard.”

The gentleman who was being interviewed was representing the area homebuilders in promoting their Parade of Homes. I’m certain that he did not volunteer to do this interview. Likely, he drew the short straw. Or, everyone else refused to do it, either because they were too busy or they had done it before. His unemotional tone of voice and unenthusiastic demeanor instantly proclaimed that he was only doing the interview because he had no choice.

I suspect that he won’t do it again, either. After all, he now can join the ranks of those who have done the interview before and avoid it next time.

His interview points to a very common problem with publicity: Who will give the interviews? When events get established, savvy promoters include on-air interviews in the media mix. They think that the best people to give these interviews ought to be the professionals who are involved in presenting the event. Logically, that works. That logic does not consider, however, that the skills needed to construct a home are not the same skills needed to give a good interview. In fact, these skills may have no intersection whatsoever, which this guy proved.

That does not make him bad; it makes him a bad choice to do the interview.

Whoever is being interviewed first and foremost needs to be excited about the event. He or she should be bursting with enthusiasm. Excitement and enthusiasm are catching and pique interest in viewers or listeners. This is much more important than being in a profession associated with the event.

Secondarily, the person should understand why the customer would benefit from attending the event. What’s in it for the customer to go? What will he or she learn? How will attending help the customer solve a problem?

Thirdly, the person being interviewed ought to come prepared with answers to questions. The questions should previously have been submitted to the interviewer, making that person’s job easier. These questions are a shared platform from which to conduct the interview. They highlight what is important to communicate in the interview. They require thought about how customers benefit from attending the event. Preparing the answers to these questions in advance and bringing that preparation along to the interview makes the interview effective, smooth, and easy for all concerned.

There’s an adage that 90% of life is showing up. That is not true for an interview. For an interview, 90% is preparation prior to showing up. That will enable the person being interviewed to conduct the interview from the customer’s point of view, not from the business’s point of view.

How do you conduct your interviews?