Week 3 · Measured Influence · Day 15 of 28 · Monday · Lesson · 12 min

How to make a point clearly: PREP and the rule of three

Day 15 · Say Less, Land More

Nobody has complained that a point was too clear. Day 15 covers Point, Reason, Example, Point; three points instead of seven; and why a concrete example sticks where a claim slides off.

The point. Nobody has ever complained that a point was made too clearly in too few words. People remember three things far more easily than seven, and a concrete example sticks where an abstract claim slides off.

Topics: clarity · structure

Learn the skill

Three, not seven

Nobody has ever complained that a point was made too clearly in too few words. Yet most of us pad: we warm up, we add disclaimers, we go round in circles. The fix is structure, and the most durable structure is the rule of three. Three points, three reasons, three examples. Three is easy to remember. Seven is not.

Picture it · 6 examples

Example Seven reasons, three reasons
You give the exec team seven reasons to delay the launch. They ask you to send a summary. Your colleague gives three. The CFO repeats all three in the next meeting as if they were his. Three travelled. Seven died in the room.
Selling “Why you?”
“Three reasons.” You give them, one sentence each. The buyer writes down three words. She cannot remember what was in the competitor’s forty-slide deck.
In the office The one-on-one
You warm up for ninety seconds: “So I’ve been thinking, and there’s some context…” Your manager glances at the clock. Next week: “I want to move stand-up to 9:30. Three reasons.” She says yes before the third.
Drinks & dinners Asked about your industry at dinner
“Three things are changing.” You name them. An hour later you hear someone at the other end of the table repeating all three to a stranger. You gave them something they could carry.
On a call The voicemail
“Two things. The quote’s approved, and I need the dates by Friday.” Fourteen seconds. The last voicemail you left was a minute long and got no reply.
Hard conversation The bad news
“Three things you need to know. The launch moves to May. Nobody’s job changes. I’ll answer questions now.” The team hears all three. Padding would have buried the one that mattered to them.

PREP

For a single point, PREP works almost everywhere: Point, Reason, Example, Point. Say the thing. Say why. Give one concrete example. Say the thing again. It takes 30 seconds and sounds like you have thought about it, because you have.

Picture it · 5 examples

Example “What should we change?”
Asked across the table, you answer: “Stop the Friday report. Nobody reads it. Last week’s went to forty people and had two opens. Stop the report.” Under thirty seconds. The chair says “Done.” The person before you took four minutes and got “let’s discuss offline”.
Selling “Why switch now?”
“Switch before June. Your renewal lands then. A client your size switched in February and saved the renewal fee entirely. Before June.” Point, reason, example, point. The buyer checks the renewal date.
In the office The email
Four lines. “We should drop the Tuesday meeting. Nothing in it needs a decision. Last Tuesday ran fifty minutes and produced zero actions. Drop it.” The director replies “Agreed” in six minutes.
Drinks & dinners Asked about the keynote at drinks
“It was too long. He had one idea. The bit about the pricing experiment was the idea, and it took three minutes of the fifty. One idea, three minutes.” Four people nod. One says “Exactly.”
On a call Put on the spot on the call
“Yes, we should bid. The margin works. The last one at this size came in at twenty-two per cent. We should bid.” The partner says “Good. Draft it.” The call is over in a minute.

Concrete beats abstract

Researchers who studied why some ideas stick found the stickiest are simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and told as stories. “Concrete” is the one most people skip. “We need to improve engagement” slides off. “Half our customers haven’t opened an email since March” sticks.

Picture it · 6 examples

Example “Half the customers”
“We need to improve engagement” slides past the board. “Half our customers haven’t opened an email since March” sits down at the table. One number. Nobody has to be told why it matters.
Selling “It saves time”
…is forgotten before you finish the sentence. “It gets your team out the door at five on a Friday” is repeated to the buyer’s boss that afternoon, word for word.
In the office “The team is stretched”
…gets a sympathetic nod. “Priya hasn’t taken a lunch break since the launch” gets a contractor approved by Wednesday.
Hard conversation Feedback
“You need to be more engaged” starts an argument about what engaged means. “In the last three client meetings you were on your laptop while the client was talking” starts a change.
On a call The investor update
“Growth is strong” earns a polite “great”. “We added 212 customers in March, more than all of last quarter” earns a follow-up call.
Drinks & dinners At the table
“The market’s tough” is agreed with and forgotten. “Three shops on our street closed in a month” is the line people remember you said.

Check you’ve got it

PREP stands for…

Plan, Rehearse, Execute, Pause
Point, Reason, Example, Point
Problem, Risk, Effect, Plan

Answer

Point, Reason, Example, Point. Say the thing, say why, give one concrete example, say the thing again. Thirty seconds.

Which of these is concrete?

“Engagement needs work.”
“Half our customers haven’t opened an email since March.”
“Our comms could be better.”

Answer

“Half our customers haven’t opened an email since March.”. A number, a name, a moment. Abstractions slide off; researchers found concrete ideas stick better.

Cheat sheet · PREP

Point

The thing you think, in one sentence.

Picture it · 4 examples

Example One sentence
The chair asks what should change. “We should stop the Friday report.” That is the point, said first. Everything else is support, and the chair asks for it, which is the right way round. The last person started with the history of the report.
Selling Recommendation
“Which plan?” “Go with the annual plan.” You say it first, not after the comparison. The buyer says “Okay, why?” and now the comparison has somewhere to go. Said after the comparison, the recommendation would have sounded like a sales pitch.
In the office Update
“We’re on track.” Then why. Not a tour of the week that ends in “so, on track”. The director hears the point in the first three words and spends the rest of your two minutes listening instead of waiting.
Drinks & dinners Opinion
Asked at dinner about the new office. “It’s too far from anything.” Point first. The reasons follow for the two people who want them. The person who answered before you took a minute to arrive at the same view, and nobody heard it.

Reason

Why. One reason.

Picture it · 2 examples

Example One reason
“Why stop it?” “Because nobody reads it.” You stop at one. The chair nods. A second reason would have weakened the first, and the third would have started a discussion about the second.
On a call On the call
“Why switch before June?” “Because your renewal lands in June.” Enough. The buyer does not need three reasons. He needs the one that is about him, and he writes it down.

Example

Something concrete: a number, a name, a moment.

Picture it · 4 examples

Example A number
“Last week’s report went to forty people and had two opens.” The chair, who had been about to defend the report, closes her mouth. A number is a fact. “Low engagement” is an opinion, and opinions get argued with.
Selling A name
“Aisha’s firm switched in February. They’re your size.” The buyer asks which Aisha. You tell her. A specific case sticks where a general claim slides, and this one is checkable, which is why she believes it.
In the office A moment
“On Tuesday the client asked a question and three of us looked at our laptops.” The room can picture it, because half of them were in the room. The point about attention lands without you having to make it.
Drinks & dinners At dinner
“Our rent went up forty per cent in March.” The table can see it. “Costs are rising” they could not. An hour later someone repeats your line to a late arrival, with the number.

Point again

Shorter. Then stop.

Picture it · 2 examples

Example Shorter
“Stop the report.” Three words, after the reason and the example. Then you stop. The silence is where they agree, and the chair says “Done” into it.
Selling Close
“Before June.” Two words at the end. The repeat is what the buyer walks out with, and in the lift afterwards you hear him say it to his colleague.

Three, not seven

If you have seven, pick three.

Picture it · 4 examples

Example The exec summary
Seven points on the slide. You cut it to three the night before. Three are discussed, all three are remembered, and the CFO repeats one of them in the next meeting as if it were his. The seven would have been skimmed.
In the office The agenda
Three items on the agenda. The meeting ends twenty minutes early. Last month’s meeting had seven items, and the last four were rushed, resented, and moved to the next meeting anyway.
Drinks & dinners The toast
Three things about the person. Ninety seconds. Four people later quote one of the three back to her. Nobody quotes anything from the ten-minute toast that came before yours.
Selling The pitch deck
Three reasons to buy on one slide. The buyer photographs that slide. Nobody photographs a list of nine.

Drill it out loud · about 10 min

Open Say it clearly, choose Make a point, and build an answer to “What should we change about…” for something real. (4 min on the timer)
Picture it · 3 examples
- Example Build the answer
  “What should we change about our onboarding?” Point: cut it to one day. Reason: nobody remembers day two. Example: the last three hires asked the same question in week three, and day two had answered it. Point: one day.
- In the office At your desk, the real question
  Say it clearly, Make a point. “What should we change about the Tuesday meeting?” Point: make it an email. Reason: nothing in it needs a decision. Example: last Tuesday ran fifty minutes and produced zero actions. Point: an email. Four boxes, one statement.
- Selling The sales version
  “What should we change about the demo?” Point: cut it to ten minutes. Reason: buyers decide in the first five. Example: the last three deals were won before the second screen. Point: ten minutes. You build it in the tool and read it back, and it sounds decided.
Say it in Speak in under 45 seconds.
Picture it · 3 examples
- Example Forty-five seconds
  First take: the timer ran out while you were still explaining the history of onboarding. Second take: forty-one seconds. The history was for you, not for them.
- In the office Speak, at your desk
  The Tuesday meeting answer, into Speak, pressure mode. First take, fifty-two seconds, because you explained who set the meeting up. Second take, thirty-eight. The explanation was never part of PREP.
- In the car In the car
  You say the demo answer in the car park. Forty seconds, first take, because the car has no history to explain things to. You listen back and it sounds like a decision. Then you go in.
Record it once on your phone and listen back. Cut anything that isn’t part of PREP. Then say it again.
Picture it · 3 examples
- Example Cut what isn’t PREP
  You strike “so basically”, “I guess”, and a whole sentence about who designed the old version. What is left sounds like a decision.
- In the office The recording at lunch
  Phone recording in the meeting room. On playback: one “just to give some context”, a sentence about the vendor, and “I think”. You cut all three and say it again. Thirty-six seconds, and nothing missing.
- At home Played to a friend
  You play the second take to a friend on the couch. She says “that’s it?” “That’s it.” She says she wishes her manager answered questions like that. You keep the take.

Lock it in

Tick what’s true.

My answer had one point, one reason, one example.
Picture it · 3 examples
- Example One, one, one
  Point, reason, example. You count them on the recording. Three. Last week there would have been nine.
- In the office In the planning meeting
  Asked what should change, you give a point, a reason, an example, and the point again. Four sentences. The chair says “Agreed, next.” The colleague who answered the next question gave five reasons, and the meeting lost ten minutes to the weakest.
- Selling On the sales call
  “Why now?” Point, one reason, one example, point. The buyer says “That makes sense.” You had a second reason ready and it stayed in your notes, where it belonged.
I said it in under 45 seconds.
Picture it · 3 examples
- Example Under 45 seconds
  Forty-one seconds on the recording. It felt like you left things out. You play it back looking for the gap. Nothing is missing. The things you left out were for you.
- On a call On the call
  The client asks for your recommendation. You give it in under forty seconds and stop. He says “Great, send that through.” The last call, the same recommendation took four minutes and he said “let me think about it”.
- Drinks & dinners At dinner
  Asked what you make of the new boss, you answer in about thirty seconds, point first, and stop. The table moves on, satisfied. Last month the same question got a monologue and your partner kicked you under the table.
The example was concrete: a number, a name, a moment.
Picture it · 3 examples
- Example The example was concrete
  “The last three hires asked the same question.” Not “people get confused”. You can hear the difference now.
- In the office In the director’s office
  “Half the team hasn’t taken a lunch break since the launch.” Not “the team is stretched”. The director approves a contractor by Wednesday. The abstract version had been in your emails for a month.
- Selling In the pitch
  “Your competitor closed the quarter in three days.” Not “our customers save time”. The buyer asks which competitor. That is what concrete does: it invites a question you can answer.

Take it into your day

Answer one question today in PREP form, out loud, and then stop.

Common questions

The objections people raise, and the short answer.

But the detail matters

It matters to the two people who ask for it. Give the three, then: “I have the detail if you want it.” The ones who care will ask. The others would have stopped listening at point four anyway.

About: Three, not seven

It sounds formulaic

Nobody hears the formula. They hear someone who knows what they think. The structure is invisible from the outside, the way the steel in a building is.

About: PREP

But the big picture is the point

The big picture is heard through the concrete thing. Give them the number and they build the picture themselves. Give them the picture and they sit there waiting for a number.

About: Concrete beats abstract

I have several good reasons

Pick the one they would care about most. Keep the rest for the question that follows, if it comes.

About: Reason

Repeating myself feels silly

It feels like repetition to you because you said it ten seconds ago. To them it is the first time they have heard it clearly.

About: Point again

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