Everyone wants positive outcomes. Whether it’s your professional career or personal life, you can experience more positive results by being more strategic and improving your communication skills. The following approach is tried and true; it’s a staple of our executive coaching and our advanced sales skills program. The most effective leaders and salespeople do this subconsciously, and if you practice this, you can too.
A straightforward and strategic technique to have people listen to you, really listen, and be energized by your words is by practicing “Value Talk.” Value talk is simply combining words that create value snippets. Value snippets can be written or verbal. I keep a journal of these from some great and capable people, across many industries and professions that provide valuable insights. We have discovered that the most effective use is to be concise and keep it simple. You aim to take any business objective in any conversation and determine your intention with that objective. If you do your research before a meeting or interview, it is best to prepare at least three.
“Value Talk”
State the intention first and the objective next to create a quick start Value Proposition.
Intentions + Objective = Value Talk
“Intentions”
For our purposes, the two types of business intentions are positive and negative.
Positive Intentions.
- Improve, Increase, Boost, Hike, Grow, Magnify, Accelerate, Accumulate, Elevate, etc.
Negative Intentions.
- Abate, Decrease, Lower, Exclude, Eliminate, Mitigate, Lessen, Subside, etc.
“Objectives”
- Time, Resources, Sales, Gross to Net, Revenue, Expenses, Response Time, Quality, Quantity, People Performance, Net-New Customers, Productivity, ROI, Risk, etc.
“Examples of Value Talk” (Intentions + Objective)
Elevate Response Time
Increase Return on Investment
Boost People Performance
Mentor Employee Growth
Accumulate Net-New Customers
Abate Patient Risk
Accelerate Decision Making
Create Opportunities
Improve Partnering
Magnify Company Image
Develop Alternative Resources
A bit of psychology is involved here as it connects and answers, “You can solve their problem,” and it can be the differentiator that gets you the job, promotion, or sale.