In business, you have numerous opportunities to deliver two or three key points about your product or service. Key messages are the statements you will repeat, in different ways, as you network. You may feel like a broken record, but restatements can make it easier for others to hear and really “get” what you are saying. Naturally, the words will flow in your own speech patterns and will be reframed and refined for the person or group listening to you. Word-for-word rote recitation can make you sound like you are not fully engaged with your audience, and that greatly reduces your believability. Even though your key messages are 100% true!

Best bet? Memorize your main points – your key messages, and use them as the guts of what you say, letting a variety of supporting messages, well, support the key points you wish to make. Really get to know your key messages. E-mail them to yourself. Recite them when you are alone in the car. Run through them before you pick up the phone to call that prospect or reporter. Do what works for you to remember them the best.

Credibility Check: Look inside yourself and double-check that every word of every key message matches all your personal values and forwards your personal and your business goals. Does this key message serve you and your business well? Does it resonate with what you truly believe? Will this statement increase your credibility?

Hint: if the key message is not totally true or is exaggerated or minimized or for any reason you are not comfortable with saying it, the key message will not increase credibility. Change it or throw it out.

Excerpt from 45 Days to Power PR by Laura L. Link, APR.