Michael Maslansky

Using The Language of Trust in a World of Skeptics
In today’s skeptical environment, it is not enough to have a good story to tell, you need to be able to tell a good story. How can you communicate effectively in an environment where consumers have more control, technology has more impact and the media is everywhere, all the time? How do you manage your reputation? Create internal alignment? Sell products in a crowded space? Address critics, regulators, and the media? From the CEO to the communications department to the customer service representative, it is more important than ever to find the right language and to learn the new lessons of communicating in a Post-Trust Era.

Michael Maslansky has done more than a decade’s worth of research into what it takes to communicate with a skeptical public. His insightful analysis helps you to understand why many communicators fail. And his usable principles for credible communication will help you make every communication more effective.

He’ll share insights into new words and new techniques for your organization, whether in times of crisis, in advertising and public relations campaigns, or with investors. Unlike the prognosticators, the pundits, and the talking heads, Maslansky doesn’t just preach, he practices. He’s advised dozens of Fortune 500 CEOs, association and foundation executives and scores of others on the new rules of communications. In an entertaining, highly relevant and engaging interactive presentation, Maslansky explains with real-world examples why you need to:

• Forget fact sheets and statistics
• Tell, don’t sell
• Focus on your audience’s right brain
• Keep your friends close and your critics closer.

And most importantly, he’ll show you why finding the right language is more important than ever.  

BRIDGING YOUR PERCEPTION GAP
A Live Research ExperienceWant to show your attendees what their customers really think? Want to make your event truly interactive?

In this extremely powerful presentation, Michael conducts a live, Instant Response dial session, with 25 research participants, which provides a unique and dynamic view into the minds of your most important target audiences. The goal is to provide address important issues or challenges for your attendees and help them understand and overcome communication challenges between them and their customers, voters or the general public.

Michael has run these highly customized sessions at industry events (to highlight the public’s reactions to important political and legislative issues), sales conferences (to train financial advisors on how to better attract and keep clients) and management training conferences (to show a company the challenges it faces in shifting public opinion). In every case, the audience has delivered exceptional reviews.

During this session, Michael moderates a live focus group and tests messages tailored to the event. Using hand-held dials, participants will react in real-time with their second-by-second reactions projected on large screens for conference attendees to follow.  The audience is then able to ask questions of the research participants.

Because these sessions allow your attendees to get new insights directly from their target audience, it has the ability to change minds and behaviors in the way few other presentations do.

The Language of Energy
The energy industry is filled with countless myths and misperceptions.  Utilities are monopolies that can do what they want.  Renewables are free.  EMF causes cancer.  These are just a few of the perceptions that customers have today.

These perceptions are frustrating to industry but cannot be ignored, because they create intractable obstacles to effectively communicating with ratepayers.  But the answer is not to fight misperception with facts and figures…and in today’s environment, doing the right thing is simply not enough.  
In this keynote, Michael helps you understand how the public thinks, why it matters and how to build more effective approaches to communications.  

His keynote is built around real world examples of how energy companies have succeeded or failed based on their ability to effectively communicate with customers, communities, and regulators.  Relying on deep industry knowledge and a wealth of proprietary research he provides audiences with a tailored set of communication principals they can directly apply to the work they do every day.  

In an entertaining, highly relevant and engaging interactive presentation, Maslansky explains: 
• What it takes to rebuild trust in this new environment.
• Why four principles of communication can make every message more credible and help you turn skeptics into supporters.
• Why facts and figures don’t matter, and how to create a more effective narrative for your company.
• How to more effectively communicate about rate cases, renewables, new generation and transmission and other important issues.  

Whether you are trying to manage your reputation, improve customer satisfaction, deal with critics and the media, or shift public opinion on important issues, this keynote will help you better understand your audience and give you tools to communicate more effectively. 

The Language of Healthcare
Few industries face as much change as the healthcare industry.   Regardless of the fate of ObamaCare, the world is changing.  Healthcare is continuing to go retail and members and patients are expecting more and more from insurers and from pharma and medical device companies.    

And yet today’s healthcare consumer is already extremely skeptical – they don’t trust big companies, they don’t trust the FDA and, increasingly, they demonstrate their lack of faith in physicians by coming to them with a WebMD print-out and a request for a prescription.  

In this environment, effective communication can be source of great opportunity and a place of great peril.  And it is more important than ever to get the language right to communicate with members, patients, physicians and other stakeholders. 

In this keynote, Michael presents real world examples of how health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and other players in the health care industry have failed or succeeded based on the language they use.  Relying on deep communication expertise and a wealth of proprietary research he provides audiences with a tailored set of communication principals they can directly apply to the work they do every day.

In an entertaining, highly relevant and engaging interactive presentation, Maslansky explains: 
• What it takes to rebuild trust in this new environment. 
Why four principles of communication can make every message more credible and help you turn skeptics into supporters.  
• Why facts and figures don’t matter, and how to create a more effective narrative for your company.
• How to more effectively communicate about Medicare, prescription drugs, health care exchanges and the risks and benefits of a medication.   

Whether you are trying to manage your reputation, improve customer satisfaction, deal with critics and the media, or shift public opinion on important issues, this keynote will help you better understand your audience and give you tools to communicate more effectively. 

Message Workshops and Training: Putting it into Practice
To be truly successful in changing the way you communicate, it is essential to go from learning to doing.  

As a companion to a keynote presentation, Michael will develop and facilitate workshops or training sessions customized to your audience.  These sessions build on the principles and lessons communicated in the Michael’s keynotes to create hands-on exercises that ensure that every attendee leaves the conference or meeting with new skills they can apply immediately.  
Sessions can include small team break-outs, persona development, role playing, stakeholder mapping and other exercises.  While each workshop or training session is customized to the specific topic, some examples of previous topics include:  

• “Message Strategies for Key Business Challenges”  (Executive Meetings and Leadership Conferences)
• “Communicating Change in Your Organization” (Executive Meetings and Leadership Conferences)
• “Building Your Personal Value Proposition” (Financial Advisor and Sales Meetings)
• “Anticipating and Overcoming Objections” (Financial Advisors and salespeople)
• “Elevator pitching” (Executive meetings and Sales Training)