Prezent CEO Rajat Mishra doesn’t have the background one would necessarily expect as the founder and head of one of Silicon Valley’s leading communications startups.
For one, he had a stutter as a child growing up. Through that experience he realized that life can be hard — in particular if one does’t communicate well.
His educational and enterprise career journey introduced him to a world of intelligent and capable people whose career growth was stumped because they couldn’t effectively communicate their ideas.
This led him to quit his six-figure job as the senior vice president at Cisco to pursue his growing vision of democratizing business communications. He embarked on this journey alongside his wife, and they successfully obtained funding of up to 20 million to build Prezent.
Here are five multidisciplinary principles every founder can use to master the science of business communication.
1. AUDIENCE EMPATHY
To begin, communication materials should always place the audience at the center of the story.
Said Raja, “Let’s imagine the team is about to hear about a major company restructure for the first time. A common mistake in such an example would see the announcement focus too heavily on the motivations that pushed leadership to pull the trigger on the decision and how it will benefit the company in the long run.”
Or said in another way, individuals should distill and present information in a way that aligns with their audience’s needs and wants.
2. GET CREATIVE WITH THE STORY
Added the executive, “Every great movie has a terrific screenplay. Every classic song has amazing lyrics. Great communication is no different.”
“Announcements need to bring the story to life on an emotional level with a great script and adhere to a structured format. While all basic stories have a beginning, middle, and end, we also know that movies and novels often include teasers that keep the audience interested until the grand reveal.”
Analogies and metaphors can also help here to get audiences to connect on an emotional level.
3. CONTEXT IS KEY
Said Mishra, “Your communication materials need to think about context.”
He added, “Communication materials should also consider any external, time-sensitive factors that relate to the message being conveyed. For example, the way we talk about inflation in 2024 is very different to how it was presented in 2021 to account for the rise seen post-pandemic.”
4. LEVERAGE DEEP INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE
After comes industry insights. It’s important for impact, that communications account for specific industries and job functions.
“Speaking about a commercial drug launch to a pharmaceutical marketing executive is very different from convincing a team of machine learning engineers about the efficacy of different models. To be effective, communication materials need to account for the latest industry trends and the audience’s level of expertise, said Mishra.
“If a presentation goes over what would be very basic information to those in the industry or fails to understand the influence of major trends, then it’s unlikely to be effective.”
5. COMMIT TO CONTINUOUS LEARNING
Lastly, this isn’t a one-time action. Commit to this long-term.
Concluded Mishra, “Great business communication is hard because it’s multi-disciplinary and highly nuanced. However, investing time and resources here helps startups to improve on several fronts. With a clear understanding of the five fundamental principles of great business communication, even the smallest startups can unlock powerful results.”
