What is your message? What do you have to share that will make a difference in people's lives? What is your main objective, the key thing you hope to accomplish? You've got to understand the big picture. Then, with the big picture in mind, you have to get more specific. Do you have a clear vision of how your product, service, or idea will help your audience? You've got to know your product inside and out, its pros and cons and how it stacks up against the competition. Use the following list, distilled from the work of great persuaders, to give some direction to your process of preparing and refining your message:

• What do I want to accomplish?

• If I had to boil my message down to three main points, what would they be?

• How can I demonstrate my expertise?

• How can I increase my trustworthiness with this audience?

• What are the emotional reasons that will prompt my audience to respond?

• What are the logical reasons that will prompt my audience to respond?

• What is my "call to action"?

• What are some alternatives to my initial proposal?

• Does my plan have any potential pitfalls?

• What are the top five doubts or objections I will encounter? How will I respond?

• What information should I gather about my audience? My competition?