How Many Messages Should I Give?

One.

That is not to say you can’t discuss lots of points but they should all support one message. I have started a number of businesses and when I launched them I nearly always found the idea of having one message insane. So, I made lots of points. The result was nearly always confusion.

I remember giving a presentation on my product to a group of senior managers and a former senior military intelligence officer entered the room half way through. After about five minutes he stopped me and said to me:

‘Andrew, can you please tell me what your product does?’

I replied: ‘Sure, it does this….. and this…. And that…..’

He went quiet, I resumed my presentation. At the end of the presentation he said to me:

‘I am sorry, I still do not know what your product does and until I can understand it we won’t be using it, go away and come back when you know what your product does’.