A client of mine is a butcher who wants to increase the value that he gives his customers. In a recent coaching session, he waved a leaflet at me and wailed, "I put a lot of effort into that serving suggestion and nothing happened!"

The process that I went through with my client is applicable to all small businesses when they give their customers information - whether advertising hand bills, product data sheets or briefing newsletters.

Their major mistake is that facts and figures do not equal information in their readers eyes - and only by standing in their customer's shoes can they make the information effective and useful.

Use the five tests for effectiveness (applied to a serving suggestion)

1. Effective For the information to be effective, your reader must be able to use it with little effort. So the serving suggestion needs to mention only those materials that your customer has readily at hand.

2. Relevant You must be relevant in what you write - don't make your reader struggle to understand how it applies to them. And the proposed meal needs to be one that your customer wants to eat.

3. Timely Your delivery must be timely - neither too late nor too early to support the action you want them to take. The leaflet needs to lay out the preparation sequence, cooking times and other hints so the customer can easily follow the actions you suggest.

4. Accurate You need to pick the right level of accuracy - the wrong amount of detail destroys usefulness. Where some customers might not know how to do some preparation tasks, offer them a break down in greater detail allowing them to pick the level that suits them.

5. Assumptions You must state your assumptions - unless you write for mind readers. It is annoying to list your ingredients in ounzes if your customer only has gram scales available (or vice versa). Equally, cooking heats, oven settings and equivalent thermal values all need to be provided.

Review how you communicate

Having alligned what my client wants to say to what their customers want to read, I then improve my clients' communication efforts in four very simple ways:

1. We review the content to minimise noise, distortion and clutter - I assert that 'Less is More' so the reader can focus on what is important.

2. I chop out duplication and padding - after all 'why say it in 8 words when 5 will do'?

3. I look for mis-interpretations - especially where my client might appear to promise more than we can deliver.

4. For important facts, I suggest that we include a reference or an enquiry route - then if customers wish to, they can check our information and ask questions easily.

In summary

I feel that the person who receives the information sets its value - not its provider. That is the lesson that my client the butcher had to learn. However he quickly got the idea and sumarised his lesson:

o How well do you communicate?

o Do your customers act on the information you give them?

o What can you do to better meet your readers needs?

o Why not get a friendly colleague or coach to review that information before you give it out?

Now he finds that when he puts out for his 'best offers' each week, accompanied by a serving suggestion, his customers queue up to take his ideas and to cook excellent meals for their families. He profits and they love it.