Whether you’re trying to market or sell a product, teach a class, get buy-in on a new idea or project, or build a relationship, effective communication is a foundational skill.
How can you be a more effective communicator?
Let’s start with defining what it means to communicate effectively. At the heart of effective communication is the experience of the other person or people in the conversation:
Does your audience understand what you’re trying to convey?
I often see advice such as “speak to people at a third-grade level” or “explain it like they’re five years old.”
But effective communication isn’t necessarily about simplifying your vocabulary.
Rather, the key to effective communication is to speak a language that your audience understands.
What it Means to Speak the Language of Your Audience
If you travel to a foreign country, you’ll find your daily navigation easier if you speak the native language of that country.
In the same way, it’s essential to consider the “language” of your audience when you are trying to teach, sell, or share an idea.
In this context, “language” doesn’t just refer to linguistic languages such as English, French, or Spanish. Rather, I’m talking about the language of your audience’s interests and experiences.
Learning these languages allows you to communicate in metaphors that help bridge understanding.
For example, if I have a client who is interested in finance and investing, I’ll use this as the source of metaphors when explaining a topic. For another client who is interested in biomechanics, I might explain the same topic using the language of the body.
3 Ways Speaking Your Audience’s Language Helps You Communicate More Effectively
Speaking the language of your client or audience helps in three ways:
(1) Establish Connection and Rapport
First, it helps establish connection and rapport. When an audience sees that you speak their language, they feel like you are part of their tribe. You understand them. You get them. You’re one of them. This helps you build trust more quickly. Their nervous system will relax and they will pay attention better.
(2) Cultivates Interest
Humans are often resistant to learning about new topics or taking in new information. This is natural — new information may contradict something we already believe we know “for sure.”
The best way to engage someone’s interest is to start with what they’re already interested in and familiar with. This way, new information comes in through a “side door.” Rather than perceiving what you’re offering as an attempt to replace their existing frameworks and beliefs, they perceive your information as an expansion of their current framework.
(3) Bridges Gaps in Understanding
It’s natural in the learning process that people will get stuck on certain concepts. These sticking points create understanding gaps. Metaphors are the best tool to bridge these gaps.
The word “metaphor” literally means “to cross over.” Metaphors provide a bridge that covers gaps in understanding. By explaining something in a language they already understand, you help them learn new concepts without falling into the abyss of the understanding gap.
What Languages Does Your Audience Speak?
Every topic or area of interest has its own “language.”
If you’ve ever stood on the sidelines of a conversation but had no idea what people were talking about, then you’ve experienced what it’s like to “not speak the language.”
That’s often the feeling your audience has when you’re speaking in a language they don’t understand.
If you want to communicate more effectively, identify the languages that your audience speaks and learn to speak in their language.
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