In addition to writing and influencing decision-making, I spend a lot of my time giving speeches and presentations. I can recall more than one occasion where I knew I’d lost my audience while presenting, but I always had a hard time figuring out why. This past weekend, I read a book by Bill McGowan entitled Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time. Although this is a great sales and marketing book, I think that everyone in the business world can benefit from reading it.

Bill McGowan is a media guru, an Emmy Award-winning correspondent, and a communications coach to some of the biggest names in business and entertainment (e.g., Eli Manning, Kelly Clarkson, Jack Welch, Thomas Keller, and Kenneth Cole). The premise of his book is that the best way to convey your message and get the results that you want is to practice pitch perfect communication. McGowan notes, “Results are determined not just by our actions, but by our words as well. Saying the right thing in the right way can be the difference between sealing the deal or losing the account, advancing your career or suffering a demotion. During these moments, it's important to be pitch perfect. This means using precisely the right tone to convey the right message to the right person at the right time.”

McGowan’s book contains a number of interesting data points. For example, although the human brain can process 400 words a minute, people only speak at a rate of about 125 words per minute. Due to this discrepancy, the mind will wander if it is not challenged. Furthermore, the attention span of humans has atrophied due to practices like Tweeting, pinging, and snapchatting. It used to be that a person could pay attention for 12 minutes, but five minutes is a more realistic span in today’s communication-rampant world. Only about 20% of what is said has a lasting impact, so communication has to be effective to make any kind of an impact. In his book, McGowan highlights seven key principles for persuasive communications: